Wanderer

A Labour government would aim to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP "as soon as resources allow", Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The Labour leader also told the i newspaper he would conduct a strategic review of defence and security "to be clear what the priorities are".

Sir Keir's aim matches that of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has also said he wants defence spending to rise to 2.5%

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14084343

EU pushes to curb China’s green tech market lead

Brussels’ new probe into Chinese wind turbines comes as Beijing grabs dominance over global market for solar panels.

On paper, the EU sees China as a partner in the fight against climate change.

But the trade reality tells a different story. 

As Beijing responds to weak domestic demand with heavy state subsidies, it’s a perfect recipe for overcapacity — from electric vehicles to solar panels — just as the European Union puts the green transition at the top of its policy agenda.

On Tuesday, EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager will launch a new anti-subsidy investigation into China’s fast-growing and increasingly dominant wind turbine sector, as exclusively reported by POLITICO’s China Watcher.

Europe was once a leader in the renewable energy source, but China’s rapid development since 2018 has inflicted billions in losses on its leading wind power players, including Denmark’s Vestas and German-owned Siemens Gamesa, forcing them into drastic cost cuts.

The EU is keen to avoid a mistake it made over the past decade, when China’s solar panel-makers all but killed their European competitors. Today’s playbook on wind turbines is indeed “all too familiar” to European policymakers, said one EU diplomat, who was granted anonymity to discuss the imminent policy announcement.

"Signed into law by President Biden in August 2022, the IRA, along with the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) enacted in November 2021, are intended, amongst other things, to funnel billions of federal dollars into developing clean energy.

The aim is to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and incentivise private investment, to encourage the growth of green industries and jobs: a new foundation for the US economy.

With a 10-year lifespan, and a cost originally estimated at $391bn (£310bn) but now predicted to reach over $1tn - the final figure is unknown - the IRA offers new and juicer tax credits, as well as loans and loan guarantees for the deployment of emissions reducing technology."

Some analysts think that China’s coal emissions have already peaked – or will peak in the next few years. We’ll have to wait and see if they’re right. But the fact that they can even suggest that a peak in coal use is coming, while China is adding more coal plants, seems contradictory.

Both points can be true, though. China could build more plants while burning less coal. It just has to run them less often. Based on data over the last decade or two, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Solar panels — 80% of which are made in China — are so cheap that they're now being used to line garden fences in Germany and the Netherlands, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Record-breaking renewable energy production signals ‘end to fossil age’, some researchers believe.

Renewable energy sources generated more electricity than gas in the UK this winter, according to new analysis.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/27893453

How Wolves Change Rivers

From July 2023 through summer 2024, battery cell pricing is expected to plummet by over 60% (and potentially more) due to a surge in EV adoption and grid expansion in China and the U.S.

Thought this was a good video.

At times Squidge can be quite unbareable. But there doesn't seem to be too much of that in this video.

WRU rant was pretty good too