The Summary for Policy Makers is a sobering reminder of the sheer weight of scientific evidence behind the IPPC’s latest conclusion: mankind is about to trigger a cascading series of disasters that will tip the world’s ecosystem irreversibly out of balance. But it is not too late, stresses the panel. Fast and decisive action to halt global warming at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels would likely stabilise the world for decades. At just 34 pages, it is well worth the time it takes to read.

Market prices for electricity from solar and wind get ever more attractive in comparison with electricity from fossil fuel and nuclear technologies. That is not only because fossil fuel prices are burdened by carbon costs and nuclear by safety costs, but also because the cost of constructing wind and solar continues to fall. Analysis of 2016 data by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) provides useful evidence for the downward trend. It also reveals that construction costs for gas went up.

Despite a hot summer in Denmark with little wind, the country’s wind turbines supplied more electricity than coal, gas, solar and biomass combined, reports the national wind turbine owners association in a briefing note. Although the 1653 GWh of wind energy provided in June and July compares poorly with the 2167 GWh from the same, but windier, period in 2017, the total wind production was still three times more than the next largest volume from a single electricity producing technology, natural gas.

See datasets for production and consumption here