Biospace wrote: ↑1 Oct 2024, 1:54pm
Our electricity which was once produced by burning coal has been replaced by renewable energy from solar and wind power, whereas steel will now be brought in from abroad. Stopping burning coal to power our Grid makes sense for our air quality, whereas off-shoring production likely increases emissions. I'm not sure how you see this as a win for the climate.
It's a win for the UK's contribution to the climate and to the health of local people, other countries have responsibilities too.
There are 11 current Air Quality Management Areas in Wales, all contiguous and in the south. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is the reason for 10 of those areas, and only one, Neath Port Talbot, is designated for Particulate Matter (PM10).
Granted, it's more complex than, "It's the steelworks", but that's a massive contributor and directly affects people's health. You also have to consider that coke production is no longer needed for Port Talbot.
Port Talbot is also the UK’s largest single source of carbon emissions, contributing 1.5% to national emissions. If you include Ratcliffe Power Station (now closed), Scunthorpe steelworks and the Grangemouth oil refinery then they totalled 4.5% of national carbon emissions in 2022
While Germany has invested billions in green hydrogen which will replace coal in steel making, the UK is led on its merry way to becoming a cloudier, colder version of the Cayman Islands.
What we're really talking about here is a just social contract with climate issues as a by-product. Our politicians letting us down yet again with little thought for an industrial strategy. We still have to implement a solution for Scunthorpe
https://justtransitionfinance.org/publi ... ransition/
From the BBC article linked in the OP,
- "Greenpeace UK has branded the decision to shut them down "tragic".
"We should be absolutely clear that those blast furnaces closed because of a lack of strategy from Tata and from the government," says Paul Morozzo, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace.
"They weren't closed because of carbon emissions."
The closure is because Port Talbot had passed its sell-by date, needed replacing and had cost £4bn since 2007 just to keep it open
. Another victim of a system of Parliamentary governance that might know the price of something but has no idea what its value is.
. Another victim of a system of Parliamentary governance that might know the price of something but has no idea what its value is.