The human race needs to master itself – as Rachel Carson said. If we cannot do that, then all of our technological mastery will only make us more dangerous to ourselves, to all of life and to our planet home.

It is the role of Resurgence Trust to help us to move positively in that direction of mastery and understanding. To help us to create a calm, conscious, peaceful present for ourselves and therefore for all around us. 

To help us to see clearly that we are not principally individuals, but rather part of the totality of life. We must drop the illusion of separation if we are to find peace and if we are to have a chance of ending our destruction and pollution of the planet.

Misery and destruction

So the role of Resurgence is also to help us to be connected – connected to nature, to each other, to our community, to true values and to ancient wisdom.

We need to connect to the knowledge common to all the primal religions of the world – that there is no significant separation between the human and the animal worlds, between the human and natural worlds or between matter and spirit.

Resurgence can also give us a stronger sense of passion, persistence and partnership in relation to serving each other and the planet and in relation to finding a new understanding of ethics, economics and politics.

This will enable us to confront and – let us hope – overcome the immeasurably vast environmental crisis which is unfolding in our lifetimes and is clearly the greatest challenge of our day, by our response to which we will be measured by future generations.

In terms of our connection to nature, we know that – as we continue to jeopardise our own future and that of the entire, fragile biosphere – the numerous crises we face have the potential to cause misery and destruction on an historic scale and tragically are already beginning to do so.

Wildflowers and birds

At the same time, the long-standing political consensus around prioritising economic growth is undermining wellbeing and sanity in numerous equally well-documented ways. We chase this growth partly to service debt, partly to try to conceal the underlying structural deficiencies and inequalities of our societies. But it is tragically accelerating that planetary crisis.

Thus, in a way that is central to our being, we feel uprooted, alienated and dispirited, because we have forgotten how to care for the land, to value it, protect it, respect it, adore it, belong to it and worship it.

Meanwhile, in terms of connection to each other and to a sense of community, the dominance of urban, technological, dualistic values, much discussed in Resurgence over the years, promotes and values the wrong kinds of connections.

Specifically, these values are transactional and economic, rather than personal and direct ones based on empathy, trust and experience.

It is no surprise, then, that most of lowland Britain, along with so many parts of our planet, has been turned tragically and avoidably into an agricultural desert, largely devoid of wildlife, especially of insects, wildflowers and birds.

Positive gains

On a broader scale, the same values have led to the destruction of vast areas of precious wilderness and are bringing the whole planet towards the brink of disaster.

Indeed, Pope Francis has described humanity’s destruction of the environment as a sin and accused mankind of turning the planet into a “polluted wasteland full of debris, desolation and filth”.

So, in order to strengthen the human spirit and roll back this unfolding disaster, we must hold fast to the values and the wisdom which Resurgence has itself upheld for the last half century – including, not least, interconnectedness, non-violence, gratitude, responsiveness and community.

Happily, Resurgence is by no means alone in trying to promote those values and the greater wellbeing that follows surely from them. It is constantly remarked upon that there is an intense hunger and need for new political thinking.

Many people – while acknowledging the positive gains – are acutely aware of what we have lost in our obsession with growth and see also what we need to retrieve.

Understand and appreciate

It is often the most simple and basic things: clean, fresh water; healthy soils; biodiversity; authentic, healthy, unadulterated food; clean breathable air; open spaces readily accessible to everyone; nature respected and protected everywhere; a strong sense of community, of belonging and of place; jobs which provide meaning, purpose, pride, pleasure and companionship –  livelihoods not just employment.

There is still much to do. Supporters of business as usual are in charge, setting the agenda and making those simple things harder to achieve, because they are thought to stand in the way of growth and progress.

It sometimes seems that as a species we are almost incapable of acting in our own genuine long-term interest, and all the more so when entrenched systems of vested interests stand in our way.

Resurgence, however, remains optimistic about the true essence and capacity of the individual and collective human spirit.

There is therefore an urgent need for many more people to understand and appreciate that the environment is just as important as the economy – in fact more so, for without a healthy environment there can ultimately be no economy at all.

Vibrantly animate

In the words of Peter Abbs, Resurgence & Ecologist poetry editor: “The appalling predicament we have thoughtlessly placed ourselves in requires nothing less than a dramatic change of consciousness in which we envisage ourselves as a creative and responsible part of nature, not as exploiters and profiteers, but conservers, guardians and witnesses”.  

Resurgence stands wholeheartedly for the belief that such a change of consciousness is both possible and urgent.

The green movement itself is far broader and larger than Resurgence, but Resurgence is uniquely well placed to develop, bring together and spread the sort of new narratives, which are needed to bring about the wide scale, global change of heart and outlook, which alone will provide the momentum and motivation to pull us and our planet back from the brink.

There is a unifying narrative that emerges from the insights of the green movement and which Resurgence seeks to strengthen and to spread.

This narrative – and I quote from a Resurgence & Ecologist article by Jonathan Dawson, a teacher at Schumacher College –  speaks of “interdependence in place of isolation, within a vibrantly animate Earth, whose health and wellbeing arise out of myriad relationships in a dizzyingly rich web of life”.

Source of consciousness

In other words, we need to construct a new narrative for all of us – to replace the one in which economic growth, technological progress and human scientific brilliance are the focus of our actions and beliefs. We must do this before our current story leads us through pride and hubris to the brink of disaster and beyond.

In the new narrative, on the other hand, all creation is connected. Humans are not, never can be, and could never sanely wish to be, separate from the rest of nature. Our true essence is best expressed through compassion and co-operation, not through competition and misguided individualism.

A resurgence of the human spirit is by definition desirable and a good thing in itself – who could not wish for an increase of joie de vivre, of purpose and of meaning?

But it is also an essential precondition for addressing the multiple challenges facing the planet and the human race.  Moreover, these challenges can only be confronted co-operatively, by nations working together and through a clear appreciation of what constitutes true wealth and true wellbeing – something which has always been at the core of the Resurgence message.

Let us believe, in the optimistic spirit of Resurgence, that it is still not too late to change direction and to restore those simple, natural and precious things, which are our greatest treasures, to their proper place in the world.

We also surely need a return to a sense of wonder and mystery – and a move away from the dangerous and dispiriting idea that humans should be seen as the sole source of consciousness in an otherwise meaningless and inanimate universe, when in fact our own finite egos are infinitesimally small and insignificant compared to the great wonders of creation and the infinity of time.

This Author

James Sainsbury is chair of the Resurgence Trust, the owner and publisher of The Ecologist online and the Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. You can become a member of Resurgence online. This article is an edited version of a speech written for the Resurgence Summer Camp. 

Meat and fish companies worth $152 billion have been labelled “high risk” due to their poor performance in managing risk from climate change, antibiotics risk and worker safety.

The research aimed to produce the world’s first comprehensive assessment of how some of the world’s biggest suppliers of meat and fish are managing risks of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and biodiversity loss, water scarcity and use, waste and pollution, antibiotics, animal welfare, working conditions and food safety. Scores were based on a company’s commitments, policies and disclosure. 

Failing to manage

A total of 36 out of 60 listed companies – including suppliers to fast food chains McDonalds and KFC – were categorised as “high risk”. The third largest poultry producer in the US, Sanderson farms, was also given a bottom-tier ranking.

Almost half of the firms analysed (46) were ranked “high risk” on antibiotics stewardship, after they were found to have few or no measures in place to reduce excessive use of antibiotics, despite emerging regulation on the issue, including in the US.

The research was carried out by the investor network FAIRR, whose members include Aviva Investors and Schroders. The index produced from the results aimed to improve corporate disclosure in sustainability issues by all major livestock and fisheries companies, and bridge the knowledge gap for investors in this sector.

On climate change, 72 percent of the sector is failing to manage climate risk, despite being responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Potential stranded assets

Jeremy Coller is the founder of the FAIRR Initiative and chief investment officer of Coller Capital which manages $17 billion of assets.

He said: “Investors need environment, social and governance (ESG) data and transparency to make better investment decisions, yet this information is lacking in the meat, fish and dairy sector. This is the first index to help investors bridge that knowledge gap.”
 
“As megatrends like climate change, antibiotic resistance and food technology radically reshape the way we produce and consume meat, fish and dairy, the Coller FAIRR index will help institutional capital identify both best in class companies and potential stranded assets in the food sector.”

The index also highlights best practice, including Norwegian aquaculture business Marine Harvest.

This top ranked firm was praised for tracking its use of antibiotics and quantifying it on the basis of a gram of active substance per tonne of product. The company only uses antibiotics when fish are at risk, and says it aims to have “minimal” use of antibiotics by 2022.

Good food

Meanwhile, in Scotland, campaigners have gathered outside the Scottish Parliament to call for legislation on improving the sustainability of food.

The Scottish Government pledged to publish a consultation on how to make the country “a good food nation”, where everyone has access to nutritious food and dietary-related diseases and the environmental impact of food are in decline.

In January, cabinet secretary for the rural economy Fergus Ewing told MSPs that ministers had been considering the recommendations of a commission set up to develop policies to implement the good food nation.

But campaigners from the Scottish Food Coalition and Obesity Action Scotland said that the consultation was overdue.

Amabel Crowe, coordinator at the Scottish Food Coalition, said: “Never has there been a timelier moment to introduce law – food sits at the heart of Scotland’s biggest challenges, from food insecurity to poor health, from worker rights to our warming climate.

“The public consultation can’t just be about business as usual, it has to listen to the families relying on food banks, the people with chronic health conditions, the workers and the farmers who feed Scotland,” she said.

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and the former deputy editor of the environmentalist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

Anti-fracking network Reclaim the Power has announced it will take “unprecedented” disruptive action against Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road fracking site this summer.

It will begin with a fortnight of action disrupting companies across the UK supplying services and materials to Cuadrilla and the fracking industry and culminate in a so-called ‘Block Around the Clock’ for 48 hours at the site.

Kate Robertson, member of Reclaim the Power (London), said: “This summer we’re going all out to stop fracking. Fracking is a major threat to the health of local communities and does not offer meaningful secure jobs like a thriving renewables industry would.

United resistance

“Westminster continues to force this on communities despite overwhelming opposition. Fracking needs access to our natural resources, vehicles, finance and politicians to survive. We will break those links in the fracking supply chain.

“The fracking industry is on the ropes – plans are behind schedule and the companies responsible are losing money. Meanwhile our movement is stronger than ever. We have a commitment to the people of Lancashire and won’t rest until it’s defeated.”

The plans come as part of United Resistance: three months of action between April and June, called for by local campaigns Frack Free Lancashire and the anti-fracking Nanas.

Banned in England

The United Resistance began with a 100-woman march last week, highlighting the increased risks of breast cancer near fracking sites. Block Around the Clock will conclude the United Resistance and feed into a summer of continued disruption.

Tina Rothery, from Nanas against fracking, said: “The support of Reclaim the Power as well as others since Cuadrilla arrived in January 2017  has been so welcomed and necessary.

“Our energy wavers as we continue for more than a year of unending campaigning, to turn up daily. The surge of support, energy and power that returns with Reclaim the Power, is a light in an often dark tunnel.

“We know we can succeed because Scotland, Ireland and Wales have halted the industry as have others globally. It can be done and we’re not going anywhere until  it is banned in England too.”

This Author

Catherine Harte is a contributing editor of The Ecologist. This story is based on a news release from Reclaim the Power.

The increasingly dynamic renewable power sector is enjoying “falling costs, increased investment, record-setting installation and new, innovative business models that are creating rapid change”, according to the REN21 Renewables 2018 Global Status Report (GSR), published this week.

Taken together, renewables accounted for an estimated 70 percent of net additions to global power generation capacity, up from 63 percent in 2016.

“Thanks to years of active policy support and driven by technology advances, rapid growth and dramatic reductions in costs of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind, renewable electricity is now less expensive than newly installed fossil and nuclear energy generation in many parts of the world”, the report states. “In some places it is less expensive even than operating existing conventional power plants.”

Market prices

Solar PV emerges in the report as the “star performer for the second year in a row”, with newly installed capacity increasing by almost 100 GW over 2017, representing an astonishing increase of 33 percent over the record-setting additions of 2016.

This brought the world’s PV capacity to just over 400 GW by the end of the year. Underlying the trend is the ever-falling cost of solar PV. A Mexican tender late in 2017 saw a world record low price below $20 per MWh, while a 150 MW project in Texas came in at $21 per MWh – the country’s lowest ever US solar power purchase agreement.

Wind power remains well ahead of solar PV with some 540GW of installed capacity by the end of last year, but with a much slower growth rate – about 50 GW of wind power was added globally in 2017, an increase of nearly 11 percent over 2016. Canada, India, Mexico and Morocco all saw prices bid for onshore wind power come down to about $30 per MWh.

Within the wind sector, the global offshore wind market was the star performer, with an impressive 30 percent growth rate reflecting sharply falling costs with increasing industrial experience of the technology, and with growing investor confidence reducing financing costs.

Indeed offshore wind is now so cheap that tenders in Germany and the Netherlands in 2017 attracted zero-subsidy bids – that is, producers agreed to be paid market prices only for projects due to come online in 2024 and 2022, with governments providing grid connections and other support. “This would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago”, comment the authors.

National targets

So far, so good. But the GSR warns against excessive optimism as renewable power generation is only one facet of a much wider energy landscape that needs to be delivering on all fronts to meet key climate objectives.

“The power sector on its own will not deliver the emissions reductions demanded by the Paris climate agreement or the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

The heating, cooling and transport sectors, which together account for about 80 percent of global total final energy demand, are “lagging behind”. In heating and cooling, modern renewable energy supplies only about 10 percent of final energy use (while 16 percent still comes from traditional biomass). 

In transport, only three percent of the final energy use is met with modern renewable energy, and 92 percent of transport energy demand is met by oil.

These sectors also lack the intensity of policy focus enjoyed by renewable generation. While 146 countries have national targets for renewable power generation, only 48 have similar targets for heating and cooling; only 42 countries have national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport.

More competitive

However the growth in renewable power generation does offer the potential for inroads into these neglected sectors.

This is illustrated by the example of China, for example, which is “specifically encouraging the electrification of heating, manufacturing and transport in parts of the country where large renewable power capacity exists”.

This means that when ‘variable renewable energy’ (VRE) from wind and solar is abundant, it can be diverted to these non-traditional uses rather than going to waste, so reducing the fossil fuel burn, and maintaining grid stability.

China has also emerged as the single dominant country for renewables investment generally, with 45 percent of the world’s total investment in the sector – excluding large hydropower over 50MW), up from 35 percent in 2016.

By contrast the EU comes in with 15 percent and the US with 14 percent. Paradoxically, world investment in renewables grew only two percent from 2016-2017 (up from $274 bn to $280 bn) and remained well below the 2015 record of $323 bn – even as the technologies are becoming ever more competitive.

Devastating impacts

And among ‘developed’ economies investment fell by 18.3 percent on average. Here the UK led the negative trend with a massive 65 percent cut, followed by Germany (35 percent), Japan (28 percent) and the US (six percent).

One explanation may come from the world’s lamentable performance on ending subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Despite numerous high level commitments to phase out these subsidies, most recently from the G20 in 2017, “governments have continued to allow such subsidies to distort the market and impede the transition to renewable energy.”

In 2016, global fossil fuel production and consumption subsidies were estimated to total some $370 billion, only a 15 percent reduction since 2015″, states the GSR.

“And while renewables continue to be perceived as ‘too expensive’ in some quarters, subsidies for fossil fuels were nearly double the estimated subsidies for renewable power generation”, at $140 billion.

“If negative ‘externalities’ from burning fossil fuels such as their devastating impacts on human health, pollution and climate change were factored in, it adds, “the value of fossil fuel subsidies would be considered higher by an order of magnitude.”

Ending subsidies

An important consequence of the subsidies, both direct and indirect, is that although renewables are increasingly often the least-cost power generation option, investments in fossil fuel capacity remained high in 2017 at an estimated $103 billion, while $42 billion was invested in high-priced nuclear power.

Together, the two account for 32 percent of global investment in new power capacity.

But these figures suggest a solution. According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2017 (‘Sustainable Development Scenario’), keeping global temperature rise well below 2C in accord with the Paris Agreement would require a $12 trillion investment in renewable power supply from now to 2040.

This implies investments of around $500 billion per year, compared to the $280 billion recorded in 2017. Switch the $140 billion fossil fuel subsidy to renewables and the figure would rise to $420 billion. Factor in the additional private investment into renewables that would follow and … problem solved.

Arthouros Zervos, chair of the REN21, said at the report launch: “To make the energy transition happen there needs to be political leadership by governments – for example by ending subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, investing in the necessary infrastructure, and establishing hard targets and policy for heating, cooling and transport.

“Without this leadership, it will be difficult for the world to meet climate or sustainable development commitments.”

This Author

Oliver Tickell is a regular contributor to Resurgence & Ecologist and a former editor of The Ecologist. He is the author of International Law and Marine Plastic Pollution: Holding Offenders Accountable, a report published by Artists Project Earth.

The increasingly dynamic renewable power sector is enjoying “falling costs, increased investment, record-setting installation and new, innovative business models that are creating rapid change”, according to the REN21 Renewables 2018 Global Status Report (GSR), published this week.

Taken together, renewables accounted for an estimated 70 percent of net additions to global power generation capacity, up from 63 percent in 2016.

“Thanks to years of active policy support and driven by technology advances, rapid growth and dramatic reductions in costs of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind, renewable electricity is now less expensive than newly installed fossil and nuclear energy generation in many parts of the world”, the report states. “In some places it is less expensive even than operating existing conventional power plants.”

Market prices

Solar PV emerges in the report as the “star performer for the second year in a row”, with newly installed capacity increasing by almost 100 GW over 2017, representing an astonishing increase of 33 percent over the record-setting additions of 2016.

This brought the world’s PV capacity to just over 400 GW by the end of the year. Underlying the trend is the ever-falling cost of solar PV. A Mexican tender late in 2017 saw a world record low price below $20 per MWh, while a 150 MW project in Texas came in at $21 per MWh – the country’s lowest ever US solar power purchase agreement.

Wind power remains well ahead of solar PV with some 540GW of installed capacity by the end of last year, but with a much slower growth rate – about 50 GW of wind power was added globally in 2017, an increase of nearly 11 percent over 2016. Canada, India, Mexico and Morocco all saw prices bid for onshore wind power come down to about $30 per MWh.

Within the wind sector, the global offshore wind market was the star performer, with an impressive 30 percent growth rate reflecting sharply falling costs with increasing industrial experience of the technology, and with growing investor confidence reducing financing costs.

Indeed offshore wind is now so cheap that tenders in Germany and the Netherlands in 2017 attracted zero-subsidy bids – that is, producers agreed to be paid market prices only for projects due to come online in 2024 and 2022, with governments providing grid connections and other support. “This would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago”, comment the authors.

National targets

So far, so good. But the GSR warns against excessive optimism as renewable power generation is only one facet of a much wider energy landscape that needs to be delivering on all fronts to meet key climate objectives.

“The power sector on its own will not deliver the emissions reductions demanded by the Paris climate agreement or the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

The heating, cooling and transport sectors, which together account for about 80 percent of global total final energy demand, are “lagging behind”. In heating and cooling, modern renewable energy supplies only about 10 percent of final energy use (while 16 percent still comes from traditional biomass). 

In transport, only three percent of the final energy use is met with modern renewable energy, and 92 percent of transport energy demand is met by oil.

These sectors also lack the intensity of policy focus enjoyed by renewable generation. While 146 countries have national targets for renewable power generation, only 48 have similar targets for heating and cooling; only 42 countries have national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport.

More competitive

However the growth in renewable power generation does offer the potential for inroads into these neglected sectors.

This is illustrated by the example of China, for example, which is “specifically encouraging the electrification of heating, manufacturing and transport in parts of the country where large renewable power capacity exists”.

This means that when ‘variable renewable energy’ (VRE) from wind and solar is abundant, it can be diverted to these non-traditional uses rather than going to waste, so reducing the fossil fuel burn, and maintaining grid stability.

China has also emerged as the single dominant country for renewables investment generally, with 45 percent of the world’s total investment in the sector – excluding large hydropower over 50MW), up from 35 percent in 2016.

By contrast the EU comes in with 15 percent and the US with 14 percent. Paradoxically, world investment in renewables grew only two percent from 2016-2017 (up from $274 bn to $280 bn) and remained well below the 2015 record of $323 bn – even as the technologies are becoming ever more competitive.

Devastating impacts

And among ‘developed’ economies investment fell by 18.3 percent on average. Here the UK led the negative trend with a massive 65 percent cut, followed by Germany (35 percent), Japan (28 percent) and the US (six percent).

One explanation may come from the world’s lamentable performance on ending subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Despite numerous high level commitments to phase out these subsidies, most recently from the G20 in 2017, “governments have continued to allow such subsidies to distort the market and impede the transition to renewable energy.”

In 2016, global fossil fuel production and consumption subsidies were estimated to total some $370 billion, only a 15 percent reduction since 2015″, states the GSR.

“And while renewables continue to be perceived as ‘too expensive’ in some quarters, subsidies for fossil fuels were nearly double the estimated subsidies for renewable power generation”, at $140 billion.

“If negative ‘externalities’ from burning fossil fuels such as their devastating impacts on human health, pollution and climate change were factored in, it adds, “the value of fossil fuel subsidies would be considered higher by an order of magnitude.”

Ending subsidies

An important consequence of the subsidies, both direct and indirect, is that although renewables are increasingly often the least-cost power generation option, investments in fossil fuel capacity remained high in 2017 at an estimated $103 billion, while $42 billion was invested in high-priced nuclear power.

Together, the two account for 32 percent of global investment in new power capacity.

But these figures suggest a solution. According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2017 (‘Sustainable Development Scenario’), keeping global temperature rise well below 2C in accord with the Paris Agreement would require a $12 trillion investment in renewable power supply from now to 2040.

This implies investments of around $500 billion per year, compared to the $280 billion recorded in 2017. Switch the $140 billion fossil fuel subsidy to renewables and the figure would rise to $420 billion. Factor in the additional private investment into renewables that would follow and … problem solved.

Arthouros Zervos, chair of the REN21, said at the report launch: “To make the energy transition happen there needs to be political leadership by governments – for example by ending subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, investing in the necessary infrastructure, and establishing hard targets and policy for heating, cooling and transport.

“Without this leadership, it will be difficult for the world to meet climate or sustainable development commitments.”

This Author

Oliver Tickell is a regular contributor to Resurgence & Ecologist and a former editor of The Ecologist. He is the author of International Law and Marine Plastic Pollution: Holding Offenders Accountable, a report published by Artists Project Earth.

The increasingly dynamic renewable power sector is enjoying “falling costs, increased investment, record-setting installation and new, innovative business models that are creating rapid change”, according to the REN21 Renewables 2018 Global Status Report (GSR), published this week.

Taken together, renewables accounted for an estimated 70 percent of net additions to global power generation capacity, up from 63 percent in 2016.

“Thanks to years of active policy support and driven by technology advances, rapid growth and dramatic reductions in costs of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind, renewable electricity is now less expensive than newly installed fossil and nuclear energy generation in many parts of the world”, the report states. “In some places it is less expensive even than operating existing conventional power plants.”

Market prices

Solar PV emerges in the report as the “star performer for the second year in a row”, with newly installed capacity increasing by almost 100 GW over 2017, representing an astonishing increase of 33 percent over the record-setting additions of 2016.

This brought the world’s PV capacity to just over 400 GW by the end of the year. Underlying the trend is the ever-falling cost of solar PV. A Mexican tender late in 2017 saw a world record low price below $20 per MWh, while a 150 MW project in Texas came in at $21 per MWh – the country’s lowest ever US solar power purchase agreement.

Wind power remains well ahead of solar PV with some 540GW of installed capacity by the end of last year, but with a much slower growth rate – about 50 GW of wind power was added globally in 2017, an increase of nearly 11 percent over 2016. Canada, India, Mexico and Morocco all saw prices bid for onshore wind power come down to about $30 per MWh.

Within the wind sector, the global offshore wind market was the star performer, with an impressive 30 percent growth rate reflecting sharply falling costs with increasing industrial experience of the technology, and with growing investor confidence reducing financing costs.

Indeed offshore wind is now so cheap that tenders in Germany and the Netherlands in 2017 attracted zero-subsidy bids – that is, producers agreed to be paid market prices only for projects due to come online in 2024 and 2022, with governments providing grid connections and other support. “This would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago”, comment the authors.

National targets

So far, so good. But the GSR warns against excessive optimism as renewable power generation is only one facet of a much wider energy landscape that needs to be delivering on all fronts to meet key climate objectives.

“The power sector on its own will not deliver the emissions reductions demanded by the Paris climate agreement or the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

The heating, cooling and transport sectors, which together account for about 80 percent of global total final energy demand, are “lagging behind”. In heating and cooling, modern renewable energy supplies only about 10 percent of final energy use (while 16 percent still comes from traditional biomass). 

In transport, only three percent of the final energy use is met with modern renewable energy, and 92 percent of transport energy demand is met by oil.

These sectors also lack the intensity of policy focus enjoyed by renewable generation. While 146 countries have national targets for renewable power generation, only 48 have similar targets for heating and cooling; only 42 countries have national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport.

More competitive

However the growth in renewable power generation does offer the potential for inroads into these neglected sectors.

This is illustrated by the example of China, for example, which is “specifically encouraging the electrification of heating, manufacturing and transport in parts of the country where large renewable power capacity exists”.

This means that when ‘variable renewable energy’ (VRE) from wind and solar is abundant, it can be diverted to these non-traditional uses rather than going to waste, so reducing the fossil fuel burn, and maintaining grid stability.

China has also emerged as the single dominant country for renewables investment generally, with 45 percent of the world’s total investment in the sector – excluding large hydropower over 50MW), up from 35 percent in 2016.

By contrast the EU comes in with 15 percent and the US with 14 percent. Paradoxically, world investment in renewables grew only two percent from 2016-2017 (up from $274 bn to $280 bn) and remained well below the 2015 record of $323 bn – even as the technologies are becoming ever more competitive.

Devastating impacts

And among ‘developed’ economies investment fell by 18.3 percent on average. Here the UK led the negative trend with a massive 65 percent cut, followed by Germany (35 percent), Japan (28 percent) and the US (six percent).

One explanation may come from the world’s lamentable performance on ending subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Despite numerous high level commitments to phase out these subsidies, most recently from the G20 in 2017, “governments have continued to allow such subsidies to distort the market and impede the transition to renewable energy.”

In 2016, global fossil fuel production and consumption subsidies were estimated to total some $370 billion, only a 15 percent reduction since 2015″, states the GSR.

“And while renewables continue to be perceived as ‘too expensive’ in some quarters, subsidies for fossil fuels were nearly double the estimated subsidies for renewable power generation”, at $140 billion.

“If negative ‘externalities’ from burning fossil fuels such as their devastating impacts on human health, pollution and climate change were factored in, it adds, “the value of fossil fuel subsidies would be considered higher by an order of magnitude.”

Ending subsidies

An important consequence of the subsidies, both direct and indirect, is that although renewables are increasingly often the least-cost power generation option, investments in fossil fuel capacity remained high in 2017 at an estimated $103 billion, while $42 billion was invested in high-priced nuclear power.

Together, the two account for 32 percent of global investment in new power capacity.

But these figures suggest a solution. According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2017 (‘Sustainable Development Scenario’), keeping global temperature rise well below 2C in accord with the Paris Agreement would require a $12 trillion investment in renewable power supply from now to 2040.

This implies investments of around $500 billion per year, compared to the $280 billion recorded in 2017. Switch the $140 billion fossil fuel subsidy to renewables and the figure would rise to $420 billion. Factor in the additional private investment into renewables that would follow and … problem solved.

Arthouros Zervos, chair of the REN21, said at the report launch: “To make the energy transition happen there needs to be political leadership by governments – for example by ending subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, investing in the necessary infrastructure, and establishing hard targets and policy for heating, cooling and transport.

“Without this leadership, it will be difficult for the world to meet climate or sustainable development commitments.”

This Author

Oliver Tickell is a regular contributor to Resurgence & Ecologist and a former editor of The Ecologist. He is the author of International Law and Marine Plastic Pollution: Holding Offenders Accountable, a report published by Artists Project Earth.

The increasingly dynamic renewable power sector is enjoying “falling costs, increased investment, record-setting installation and new, innovative business models that are creating rapid change”, according to the REN21 Renewables 2018 Global Status Report (GSR), published this week.

Taken together, renewables accounted for an estimated 70 percent of net additions to global power generation capacity, up from 63 percent in 2016.

“Thanks to years of active policy support and driven by technology advances, rapid growth and dramatic reductions in costs of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind, renewable electricity is now less expensive than newly installed fossil and nuclear energy generation in many parts of the world”, the report states. “In some places it is less expensive even than operating existing conventional power plants.”

Market prices

Solar PV emerges in the report as the “star performer for the second year in a row”, with newly installed capacity increasing by almost 100 GW over 2017, representing an astonishing increase of 33 percent over the record-setting additions of 2016.

This brought the world’s PV capacity to just over 400 GW by the end of the year. Underlying the trend is the ever-falling cost of solar PV. A Mexican tender late in 2017 saw a world record low price below $20 per MWh, while a 150 MW project in Texas came in at $21 per MWh – the country’s lowest ever US solar power purchase agreement.

Wind power remains well ahead of solar PV with some 540GW of installed capacity by the end of last year, but with a much slower growth rate – about 50 GW of wind power was added globally in 2017, an increase of nearly 11 percent over 2016. Canada, India, Mexico and Morocco all saw prices bid for onshore wind power come down to about $30 per MWh.

Within the wind sector, the global offshore wind market was the star performer, with an impressive 30 percent growth rate reflecting sharply falling costs with increasing industrial experience of the technology, and with growing investor confidence reducing financing costs.

Indeed offshore wind is now so cheap that tenders in Germany and the Netherlands in 2017 attracted zero-subsidy bids – that is, producers agreed to be paid market prices only for projects due to come online in 2024 and 2022, with governments providing grid connections and other support. “This would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago”, comment the authors.

National targets

So far, so good. But the GSR warns against excessive optimism as renewable power generation is only one facet of a much wider energy landscape that needs to be delivering on all fronts to meet key climate objectives.

“The power sector on its own will not deliver the emissions reductions demanded by the Paris climate agreement or the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

The heating, cooling and transport sectors, which together account for about 80 percent of global total final energy demand, are “lagging behind”. In heating and cooling, modern renewable energy supplies only about 10 percent of final energy use (while 16 percent still comes from traditional biomass). 

In transport, only three percent of the final energy use is met with modern renewable energy, and 92 percent of transport energy demand is met by oil.

These sectors also lack the intensity of policy focus enjoyed by renewable generation. While 146 countries have national targets for renewable power generation, only 48 have similar targets for heating and cooling; only 42 countries have national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport.

More competitive

However the growth in renewable power generation does offer the potential for inroads into these neglected sectors.

This is illustrated by the example of China, for example, which is “specifically encouraging the electrification of heating, manufacturing and transport in parts of the country where large renewable power capacity exists”.

This means that when ‘variable renewable energy’ (VRE) from wind and solar is abundant, it can be diverted to these non-traditional uses rather than going to waste, so reducing the fossil fuel burn, and maintaining grid stability.

China has also emerged as the single dominant country for renewables investment generally, with 45 percent of the world’s total investment in the sector – excluding large hydropower over 50MW), up from 35 percent in 2016.

By contrast the EU comes in with 15 percent and the US with 14 percent. Paradoxically, world investment in renewables grew only two percent from 2016-2017 (up from $274 bn to $280 bn) and remained well below the 2015 record of $323 bn – even as the technologies are becoming ever more competitive.

Devastating impacts

And among ‘developed’ economies investment fell by 18.3 percent on average. Here the UK led the negative trend with a massive 65 percent cut, followed by Germany (35 percent), Japan (28 percent) and the US (six percent).

One explanation may come from the world’s lamentable performance on ending subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Despite numerous high level commitments to phase out these subsidies, most recently from the G20 in 2017, “governments have continued to allow such subsidies to distort the market and impede the transition to renewable energy.”

In 2016, global fossil fuel production and consumption subsidies were estimated to total some $370 billion, only a 15 percent reduction since 2015″, states the GSR.

“And while renewables continue to be perceived as ‘too expensive’ in some quarters, subsidies for fossil fuels were nearly double the estimated subsidies for renewable power generation”, at $140 billion.

“If negative ‘externalities’ from burning fossil fuels such as their devastating impacts on human health, pollution and climate change were factored in, it adds, “the value of fossil fuel subsidies would be considered higher by an order of magnitude.”

Ending subsidies

An important consequence of the subsidies, both direct and indirect, is that although renewables are increasingly often the least-cost power generation option, investments in fossil fuel capacity remained high in 2017 at an estimated $103 billion, while $42 billion was invested in high-priced nuclear power.

Together, the two account for 32 percent of global investment in new power capacity.

But these figures suggest a solution. According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2017 (‘Sustainable Development Scenario’), keeping global temperature rise well below 2C in accord with the Paris Agreement would require a $12 trillion investment in renewable power supply from now to 2040.

This implies investments of around $500 billion per year, compared to the $280 billion recorded in 2017. Switch the $140 billion fossil fuel subsidy to renewables and the figure would rise to $420 billion. Factor in the additional private investment into renewables that would follow and … problem solved.

Arthouros Zervos, chair of the REN21, said at the report launch: “To make the energy transition happen there needs to be political leadership by governments – for example by ending subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, investing in the necessary infrastructure, and establishing hard targets and policy for heating, cooling and transport.

“Without this leadership, it will be difficult for the world to meet climate or sustainable development commitments.”

This Author

Oliver Tickell is a regular contributor to Resurgence & Ecologist and a former editor of The Ecologist. He is the author of International Law and Marine Plastic Pollution: Holding Offenders Accountable, a report published by Artists Project Earth.

The increasingly dynamic renewable power sector is enjoying “falling costs, increased investment, record-setting installation and new, innovative business models that are creating rapid change”, according to the REN21 Renewables 2018 Global Status Report (GSR), published this week.

Taken together, renewables accounted for an estimated 70 percent of net additions to global power generation capacity, up from 63 percent in 2016.

“Thanks to years of active policy support and driven by technology advances, rapid growth and dramatic reductions in costs of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind, renewable electricity is now less expensive than newly installed fossil and nuclear energy generation in many parts of the world”, the report states. “In some places it is less expensive even than operating existing conventional power plants.”

Market prices

Solar PV emerges in the report as the “star performer for the second year in a row”, with newly installed capacity increasing by almost 100 GW over 2017, representing an astonishing increase of 33 percent over the record-setting additions of 2016.

This brought the world’s PV capacity to just over 400 GW by the end of the year. Underlying the trend is the ever-falling cost of solar PV. A Mexican tender late in 2017 saw a world record low price below $20 per MWh, while a 150 MW project in Texas came in at $21 per MWh – the country’s lowest ever US solar power purchase agreement.

Wind power remains well ahead of solar PV with some 540GW of installed capacity by the end of last year, but with a much slower growth rate – about 50 GW of wind power was added globally in 2017, an increase of nearly 11 percent over 2016. Canada, India, Mexico and Morocco all saw prices bid for onshore wind power come down to about $30 per MWh.

Within the wind sector, the global offshore wind market was the star performer, with an impressive 30 percent growth rate reflecting sharply falling costs with increasing industrial experience of the technology, and with growing investor confidence reducing financing costs.

Indeed offshore wind is now so cheap that tenders in Germany and the Netherlands in 2017 attracted zero-subsidy bids – that is, producers agreed to be paid market prices only for projects due to come online in 2024 and 2022, with governments providing grid connections and other support. “This would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago”, comment the authors.

National targets

So far, so good. But the GSR warns against excessive optimism as renewable power generation is only one facet of a much wider energy landscape that needs to be delivering on all fronts to meet key climate objectives.

“The power sector on its own will not deliver the emissions reductions demanded by the Paris climate agreement or the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

The heating, cooling and transport sectors, which together account for about 80 percent of global total final energy demand, are “lagging behind”. In heating and cooling, modern renewable energy supplies only about 10 percent of final energy use (while 16 percent still comes from traditional biomass). 

In transport, only three percent of the final energy use is met with modern renewable energy, and 92 percent of transport energy demand is met by oil.

These sectors also lack the intensity of policy focus enjoyed by renewable generation. While 146 countries have national targets for renewable power generation, only 48 have similar targets for heating and cooling; only 42 countries have national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport.

More competitive

However the growth in renewable power generation does offer the potential for inroads into these neglected sectors.

This is illustrated by the example of China, for example, which is “specifically encouraging the electrification of heating, manufacturing and transport in parts of the country where large renewable power capacity exists”.

This means that when ‘variable renewable energy’ (VRE) from wind and solar is abundant, it can be diverted to these non-traditional uses rather than going to waste, so reducing the fossil fuel burn, and maintaining grid stability.

China has also emerged as the single dominant country for renewables investment generally, with 45 percent of the world’s total investment in the sector – excluding large hydropower over 50MW), up from 35 percent in 2016.

By contrast the EU comes in with 15 percent and the US with 14 percent. Paradoxically, world investment in renewables grew only two percent from 2016-2017 (up from $274 bn to $280 bn) and remained well below the 2015 record of $323 bn – even as the technologies are becoming ever more competitive.

Devastating impacts

And among ‘developed’ economies investment fell by 18.3 percent on average. Here the UK led the negative trend with a massive 65 percent cut, followed by Germany (35 percent), Japan (28 percent) and the US (six percent).

One explanation may come from the world’s lamentable performance on ending subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Despite numerous high level commitments to phase out these subsidies, most recently from the G20 in 2017, “governments have continued to allow such subsidies to distort the market and impede the transition to renewable energy.”

In 2016, global fossil fuel production and consumption subsidies were estimated to total some $370 billion, only a 15 percent reduction since 2015″, states the GSR.

“And while renewables continue to be perceived as ‘too expensive’ in some quarters, subsidies for fossil fuels were nearly double the estimated subsidies for renewable power generation”, at $140 billion.

“If negative ‘externalities’ from burning fossil fuels such as their devastating impacts on human health, pollution and climate change were factored in, it adds, “the value of fossil fuel subsidies would be considered higher by an order of magnitude.”

Ending subsidies

An important consequence of the subsidies, both direct and indirect, is that although renewables are increasingly often the least-cost power generation option, investments in fossil fuel capacity remained high in 2017 at an estimated $103 billion, while $42 billion was invested in high-priced nuclear power.

Together, the two account for 32 percent of global investment in new power capacity.

But these figures suggest a solution. According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2017 (‘Sustainable Development Scenario’), keeping global temperature rise well below 2C in accord with the Paris Agreement would require a $12 trillion investment in renewable power supply from now to 2040.

This implies investments of around $500 billion per year, compared to the $280 billion recorded in 2017. Switch the $140 billion fossil fuel subsidy to renewables and the figure would rise to $420 billion. Factor in the additional private investment into renewables that would follow and … problem solved.

Arthouros Zervos, chair of the REN21, said at the report launch: “To make the energy transition happen there needs to be political leadership by governments – for example by ending subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, investing in the necessary infrastructure, and establishing hard targets and policy for heating, cooling and transport.

“Without this leadership, it will be difficult for the world to meet climate or sustainable development commitments.”

This Author

Oliver Tickell is a regular contributor to Resurgence & Ecologist and a former editor of The Ecologist. He is the author of International Law and Marine Plastic Pollution: Holding Offenders Accountable, a report published by Artists Project Earth.

The increasingly dynamic renewable power sector is enjoying “falling costs, increased investment, record-setting installation and new, innovative business models that are creating rapid change”, according to the REN21 Renewables 2018 Global Status Report (GSR), published this week.

Taken together, renewables accounted for an estimated 70 percent of net additions to global power generation capacity, up from 63 percent in 2016.

“Thanks to years of active policy support and driven by technology advances, rapid growth and dramatic reductions in costs of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind, renewable electricity is now less expensive than newly installed fossil and nuclear energy generation in many parts of the world”, the report states. “In some places it is less expensive even than operating existing conventional power plants.”

Market prices

Solar PV emerges in the report as the “star performer for the second year in a row”, with newly installed capacity increasing by almost 100 GW over 2017, representing an astonishing increase of 33 percent over the record-setting additions of 2016.

This brought the world’s PV capacity to just over 400 GW by the end of the year. Underlying the trend is the ever-falling cost of solar PV. A Mexican tender late in 2017 saw a world record low price below $20 per MWh, while a 150 MW project in Texas came in at $21 per MWh – the country’s lowest ever US solar power purchase agreement.

Wind power remains well ahead of solar PV with some 540GW of installed capacity by the end of last year, but with a much slower growth rate – about 50 GW of wind power was added globally in 2017, an increase of nearly 11 percent over 2016. Canada, India, Mexico and Morocco all saw prices bid for onshore wind power come down to about $30 per MWh.

Within the wind sector, the global offshore wind market was the star performer, with an impressive 30 percent growth rate reflecting sharply falling costs with increasing industrial experience of the technology, and with growing investor confidence reducing financing costs.

Indeed offshore wind is now so cheap that tenders in Germany and the Netherlands in 2017 attracted zero-subsidy bids – that is, producers agreed to be paid market prices only for projects due to come online in 2024 and 2022, with governments providing grid connections and other support. “This would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago”, comment the authors.

National targets

So far, so good. But the GSR warns against excessive optimism as renewable power generation is only one facet of a much wider energy landscape that needs to be delivering on all fronts to meet key climate objectives.

“The power sector on its own will not deliver the emissions reductions demanded by the Paris climate agreement or the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

The heating, cooling and transport sectors, which together account for about 80 percent of global total final energy demand, are “lagging behind”. In heating and cooling, modern renewable energy supplies only about 10 percent of final energy use (while 16 percent still comes from traditional biomass). 

In transport, only three percent of the final energy use is met with modern renewable energy, and 92 percent of transport energy demand is met by oil.

These sectors also lack the intensity of policy focus enjoyed by renewable generation. While 146 countries have national targets for renewable power generation, only 48 have similar targets for heating and cooling; only 42 countries have national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport.

More competitive

However the growth in renewable power generation does offer the potential for inroads into these neglected sectors.

This is illustrated by the example of China, for example, which is “specifically encouraging the electrification of heating, manufacturing and transport in parts of the country where large renewable power capacity exists”.

This means that when ‘variable renewable energy’ (VRE) from wind and solar is abundant, it can be diverted to these non-traditional uses rather than going to waste, so reducing the fossil fuel burn, and maintaining grid stability.

China has also emerged as the single dominant country for renewables investment generally, with 45 percent of the world’s total investment in the sector – excluding large hydropower over 50MW), up from 35 percent in 2016.

By contrast the EU comes in with 15 percent and the US with 14 percent. Paradoxically, world investment in renewables grew only two percent from 2016-2017 (up from $274 bn to $280 bn) and remained well below the 2015 record of $323 bn – even as the technologies are becoming ever more competitive.

Devastating impacts

And among ‘developed’ economies investment fell by 18.3 percent on average. Here the UK led the negative trend with a massive 65 percent cut, followed by Germany (35 percent), Japan (28 percent) and the US (six percent).

One explanation may come from the world’s lamentable performance on ending subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Despite numerous high level commitments to phase out these subsidies, most recently from the G20 in 2017, “governments have continued to allow such subsidies to distort the market and impede the transition to renewable energy.”

In 2016, global fossil fuel production and consumption subsidies were estimated to total some $370 billion, only a 15 percent reduction since 2015″, states the GSR.

“And while renewables continue to be perceived as ‘too expensive’ in some quarters, subsidies for fossil fuels were nearly double the estimated subsidies for renewable power generation”, at $140 billion.

“If negative ‘externalities’ from burning fossil fuels such as their devastating impacts on human health, pollution and climate change were factored in, it adds, “the value of fossil fuel subsidies would be considered higher by an order of magnitude.”

Ending subsidies

An important consequence of the subsidies, both direct and indirect, is that although renewables are increasingly often the least-cost power generation option, investments in fossil fuel capacity remained high in 2017 at an estimated $103 billion, while $42 billion was invested in high-priced nuclear power.

Together, the two account for 32 percent of global investment in new power capacity.

But these figures suggest a solution. According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2017 (‘Sustainable Development Scenario’), keeping global temperature rise well below 2C in accord with the Paris Agreement would require a $12 trillion investment in renewable power supply from now to 2040.

This implies investments of around $500 billion per year, compared to the $280 billion recorded in 2017. Switch the $140 billion fossil fuel subsidy to renewables and the figure would rise to $420 billion. Factor in the additional private investment into renewables that would follow and … problem solved.

Arthouros Zervos, chair of the REN21, said at the report launch: “To make the energy transition happen there needs to be political leadership by governments – for example by ending subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, investing in the necessary infrastructure, and establishing hard targets and policy for heating, cooling and transport.

“Without this leadership, it will be difficult for the world to meet climate or sustainable development commitments.”

This Author

Oliver Tickell is a regular contributor to Resurgence & Ecologist and a former editor of The Ecologist. He is the author of International Law and Marine Plastic Pollution: Holding Offenders Accountable, a report published by Artists Project Earth.

Britain’s under-threat bee populations were given a huge boost earlier this year when the EU agreed to ban the outdoor use of three neonicotinoid pesticides linked to bee decline.

The move was backed by UK environment minister Michael Gove, who has pledged to keep restrictions in place post-Brexit.

The announcement was a tremendous victory for science, the thousands of people who had urged a ban on these bee-harming chemicals – and of course our under-threat pollinators.

Under threat

But despite the good news, Britain’s bees are far from saved. A government review published in 2014, highlighted the overall decline in wild and honey bees over the past 50 years. Habitat loss, intensive farming and climate change are just some of the challenges that face these precious pollinators.

Since the 1930s, 97 percent of our flower-rich meadows have disappeared, and it’s been estimated that one in ten of Europe’s wild bee species face extinction. This is why Friends of the Earth is urging people to join the Great British Bee Count, which runs until 30 June.

Using a fun, free and easy-to-use app, participants simply record and photograph the bees they spot in their gardens, parks and countryside – and the information will be used to help experts learn more about how our bees are faring.

Thousands of verified sightings will be submitted to the government’s Pollinator Monitoring Scheme – the first comprehensive health check of Britain’s bees and other pollinators.

The information from this citizen science initiative will be used to help devise strategies for safeguarding our bees. The diversity of bee species will surprise many people. There are over 250 species of bee in the UK – but only one species that produces honey: the honey bee.

Bee-friendly paradises

The Great British Bee Count, which is sponsored by Ecotalk and supported by Buglife, not only helps people find out more about the bees they see – it also encourages them to take action to help them.

This year Friends of the Earth teamed up with some of the UK’s leading wildlife and gardening experts such as Kate Bradbury and Val Bourne to urge people with gardens to grow a few weeds to help our bees – and allow patches of grass to grow a bit longer.

Alas Fowler, from The Guardian, wrote: “Some call them weeds, but I call them rambunctious joy because surely that is what something that chooses to flower whatever the weather, however many times it’s head is chopped off, despite being trodden on, is called, to be so triumphant despite others’ prejudice.

And prejudice is just what it is because whilst we were mislabelling them weeds rather than wildflowers they carried on with their vital work, feeding our bees, pollinators, beneficial insects and beetles, whatever the weather, wherever they grow.”

It’s been estimated that around 87 percent of UK households have a garden covering an area about the size of one-fifth of Wales – providing lots of space to create bee-friendly paradises. And you don’t have to have a big garden to make a difference. 

Crucial pollinators

Martin Cox, from the Mail on Sunday, said: “Some people think it’s impossible to have a bee-friendly garden when you’re strapped for space, but even a pocket-sized plot can become an alluring place for these fascinating pollinators. The key for me is to include a few of their favourite plants that are rich in sweet nectar.”

Lavender, wallflowers and geranium are just some of the plants that are attractive to bees – but there are many other too. If you aren’t lucky enough to have a garden you can still help. You could consider growing herbs or other plants attractive to bees in a pot or a window box at home or at work – or even help transform a scruffy patch in your neighbourhood.

Bees aren’t just an iconic sign of summer, they’re also crucial for pollinating our crops.

Professor Simon Potts of the University of Reading points to estimates that the value of pollinators equates to approximately £691 million per annum – and this doesn’t even account for the value from gardens and allotments, and the provision of forage for livestock and dairy farming. In addition, honey has a value of £10-30 million per year.

Thousands of people have already taken part in the Great British Bee Count – if you’re concerned about these crucial pollinators download the app, join the buzz and take part in the Great British Bee Count.

This Author

Emi Murphy is a bee campaigner with Friends of the Earth.