Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.

There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.

Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople

Time for 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of November 2025.

www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...

Motherfucking wind farms…

Waarom is klimaatbeleid zo verdomd moeilijk? Niet omdat we geen oplossingen hebben. We beschikken over technologie, kennis en kapitaal. Maar acht hardnekkige obstakels blokkeren de weg. En daaronder ligt een kracht die ze allemaal versterkt: blindheid. 🧵

We All Want The Same Thing.

original version of the Unity posters spotted recently.

1. This is something I've been saying for 25 years, but it's hard to get many people to listen. What counts is not the new energy sources you add, but the old ones you retire. Unfortunately it's politically easier to build renewables than to shutter fossil fuels.🧵
www.forbes.com/sites/rrapie...

This by @hooks.bsky.social, about Trump's Greenland fixation, is a thoughtful musing on his second term and this moment of frenetic ferment in American politics. "Why are the Americans doing this? My worry is that the answer is simple: We're bored." newrepublic.com/article/1947...

“One question that we are getting a lot at the moment is: ‘With the Trump administration in office, what does that mean for the green economy?,’” Kooroshy said. The answer is “this thing is now so big and so robust, it’s not going to implode just like that.” 🎁 link www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

One week on from Spain's blackout - and media outlets can talk about is solar power. So I decided to look into Spain's nuclear fleet, and discovered that in April, it was operating at its lowest levels in ten years

Why? Here's a hefty piece digging into that, for you:

ketanjoshi.co/2025/05/05/w...

Much ado about the role of renewable energy (RE) in the Spanish blackout. The investigation into the effective cause is still ongoing, but many pointed to the fact that RE has no ‘inertia’. Is that true? The answer is: yes, but ... 🧵

This is an incredible collection of testimony that shows how renewable energy support is widely bipartisan.

I’m from small town Texas so every testimony here feels personal. Often, in rural America these days, renewables are the best opportunity for economic development. Let’s do more, not less!

Friends: a short thread on data centres + general rising power demand, based off the amazing new @ember-energy.org Global Electricity Review 2025, out today

(as always: THANKYOU Ember for making all the data freely available, it is very invaluable to ppl like me)

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

25 years ago, but relevant www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/t...

🚨NEW: climate inaction will cost more than a third of global GDP this century, but an investment of less than 2% GDP now will reduce harms by 90% - a "massive opportunity for humanity", finds a report from Boston Consulting Group and University of Cambridge.

some ways to generate electricity

A) use sunlight to drive photosynthesis in plants, let plants die, wait ~100 million years, dig up fossilized plants, burn plants, use heat to boil water, use steam to drive a rotating turbine, use generator to make electrons

B) use sunlight to make electrons

2024 is almost history and the global temperature forecast for the remaining few days is rock solid now. Time to wrap up.

In most datasets, 2024 will be 0.1 degree C warmer than 2023. Also, 2024 will be the 1st individual year above the 1.5 degree Paris warming threshold in all datasets.

(1/10)

This is an absolutely incredible example of how, if you ever decide to engage with a right-wing media outlet, *how* you do it almost perfectly. Bravo @risingtideaus.bsky.social!

2 and 3 wheelers like mopeds, e-bikes and e-scooters are globally displacing about four times (!!!!!) as much oil demand as passenger EVs

theconversation.com/the-worlds-2...