Experts Urge Immediate Green Transition as Labour Wins: ‘Keir Starmer Take Note

Labour’s victory in the general election marks the beginning of the UK’s transformation to a green, low-carbon economy, according to campaigners and experts, as the scale of the win became evident. Greenpeace described the Conservative party’s environmental U-turns as “as popular with voters as a root canal,” leading to their worst electoral defeat in modern history. The Green Party also achieved its strongest-ever performance, quadrupling its parliamentary representation.

This substantial victory gives Keir Starmer, the incoming prime minister, a strong mandate to implement bold actions on net zero and nature conservation. Ed Matthew, campaigns director at the E3G think tank, emphasized that reliance on oil and gas has fueled the cost of living crisis. He criticized Rishi Sunak’s delay and damage to clean energy policies, which could have reduced energy bills, calling it a “catastrophic political blunder.”

Matthew urged Starmer to fulfil his manifesto pledge to transform the UK into a “clean energy superpower,” noting that the landslide victory provides a historic public mandate to accelerate climate action, invest in future industries, and restore UK climate leadership.

Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth, highlighted the urgency for the new Labour government to address environmental issues, citing recent extreme weather events and the rapid global deterioration of the planet. He called for immediate action on climate change and nature conservation.

Edward Davey, the UK head of the World Resources Institute, pointed out the new government’s opportunity and responsibility to lead in reforming the UK’s energy system and industrial base and to demonstrate global leadership on climate, development, and nature.

The message is clear: Labour’s election victory is seen as a mandate to act decisively on environmental issues and position the UK as a leader in the fight against climate change. Read More

News Credit: The Guardian

Picture Credit: Andrew Milligan/PA

Alaska’s Glaciers Near Irreversible Tipping Point, Study Warns

A major icefield spanning Alaska and British Columbia may reach an irreversible tipping point sooner than predicted, with glaciers rapidly receding since 2005, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. The research focused on the Juneau Icefield, which included 1,050 glaciers covering 3,816.3 square kilometres in 2019. The study found that glacier shrinkage from 2015 to 2019 was five times faster than between 1948 and 1979.

Bethan Davies, a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University and lead author of the study, emphasized the significant contribution of Alaskan glaciers to sea level rise, noting that they contribute the most from any glacierized region. The study reveals that Alaska’s glaciers are losing about 66.7 billion tonnes of ice annually, enough to raise global sea levels by 46.4 millimetres if melted completely. At this rate, all Alaskan ice could vanish in approximately 250 years.

Davies and her colleagues from the United States and Europe studied glacier mass loss acceleration and the processes amplifying this melt to understand glaciers’ long-term response to climate change. This research aims to improve predictions of how icefields might respond to future climate conditions.

The study reconstructed the Little Ice Age, revealing that the icefield covered 5,414.95 square kilometres in 1770, about 30% larger than in 2019. From 1770 to 2013, the glacier volume loss was 0.4 cubic kilometres per year. The accelerating glacier mass loss underscores the urgent need to address climate change to mitigate further impacts on global sea levels.