Sam Bright

Senior lawyer at the Foundation for International Law for the Environment (FILE). Tweets largely my own opinions. Retweets probably somebody else’s.

[Sam Bright @TheBrightSam]

@lucycjstone Or the state of their underpants

[Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta]

It's become a bit of a cliche to call it a paradox or a contradiction that China is building staggering amounts of both new clean power generation and new coal power plants.

It only is one if you fail to grasp the scale of China's electricity consumption growth, as most people inevitably do.

China today generates enough power from clean sources to power Germany SIX times over, up from two times a decade ago. In a few years, China's clean power generation will be equal to U.S.' total electricity consumption. China's power generation from wind&solar alone is about to hit three times Germany's total electricity consumption next year.

If China's power demand had stayed on 2009 level, the massive increase in CO2-free power generation would have made the grid 80% clean, instead of the current 33%. CO2 emissions from the power sector would have fallen by 75%.

What happened instead is that electricity demand doubled and clean power generation didn't keep up, while it did manage to increase its share from 20% to 33%. Predictably, the difference was delivered from coal, and CO2 emissions went up by 90%.

China now uses twice as much power as the U.S., after overtaking the country only in 2010. Put another way, China's additional power demand since 2010 is equal to the total consumption of the U.S.

60% of that electricity demand growth went to industry, mainly basic manufacturing like steel and other metals, cement, glass and chemicals, so it's really a function of China's extremely investment- and construction intensive growth model.

And no, it's not just about the size of China's population: per capita electricity consumption in China overtook Germany in 2022.

The good news is that China's clean energy growth is finally reaching the scale where it can cover all of the growth in power demand. This is happening even as power demand growth likely slows down with the economic slowdown.

These trends have been masked in the past year by the collapse in hydropower generation which is readily visible in the graph, but will likely become apparent in the year or two.

Most of the data for the post and the graph is from the amazing datasets of @EmberClimate.

[Sam Bright @TheBrightSam]

@jonburkeUK I live on a green square in the Netherlands, with no road access, where children can all play out, and 100% agree that this creates a real sense of community

[Greenpeace Africa @Greenpeaceafric]

The entire industry is built on colonialism and injustice.

For a safe and fair world, we need climate justice and to fast-track a just transition to clean, renewable energy that will create jobs across Africa.

Add your voice 👉 https://t.co/EBNQQAZljX

[Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) @CCSI_Columbia]

CCSI and @SabinCenter are hiring for the position of Senior Legal Researcher, Climate Law & Finance... come join our team! #Hiring
➡️Apply here: https://t.co/UAqDThWdez

[Environmental Defenders Office @EDOLawyers]

🎉#BREAKING: @YouthVerdict and @BimbleboxNR just won their historic legal challenge to Clive Palmer's proposed Galilee Coal Project on environmental, climate and human rights grounds!

[Ember @ember_energy]

The world's coal mines knowingly release the same amount of #methane EVERY 2.5 DAYS

#CoalMineMethane
https://t.co/a6yyQOoDQU

[Dave Jones @CleanPowerDave]

Interesting these are ALL supply-side.
What about the demand-side?

[AukeHoekstra @AukeHoekstra]

This is unbelievable! New study claims it has found a 23-66% methane loss rate over shallow water gas wells!

With 3-6% gas becomes worse than coal. So imagine how bad 23-66% is!

Reason we find this now is apparently that we finally have remote sensing that works over water.

[James Murray @James_BG]

This is a lovely sentiment from @zoesqwilliams that I suspect contains more than a grain of truth. https://t.co/GBE4iAHyCS

[ClientEarth @ClientEarth]

BREAKING: We won our case against the UK gov's inadequate net zero strategy!

On the hottest day on record in the UK, the High Court has ruled that the government’s Net Zero Strategy breaches the Climate Change Act.

This is a landmark victory.

[Leo Hickman @LeoHickman]

Here's the half-page cartoon on the comment pages of today's Times...

[Sam Bright @TheBrightSam]

@samjtomlin Is that being an activist - or just, being (good)..?

[Sam Bright @TheBrightSam]

@suejbright The formulae remind me of the first law essay I wrote after switching from economics (which Prof. Cartwright said was either brilliant or terrible, and my formulas made it impossible to understand which it was, so assumed to be terrible...)

[Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air @CREACleanAir]

BREAKING: Our new research tracked the flows of EUR63 billion worth of fossil fuels from Russia in the first two months of the brutal invasion of Ukraine, revealing the largest importers. It’s time to stop supporting Putin’s war crimes. 🧵

[Adam Hawksbee @ahawksbee]

Damming graph from @JenWilliamsMEN article on what's happened to Britain's buses

https://t.co/XY7Rn9E5e0

[Sam Bright @TheBrightSam]

@lucycjstone ClientEarth!

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Ukraine gained a complete victory in its case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. The ICJ ordered to immediately stop the invasion. The order is binding under international law. Russia must comply immediately. Ignoring the order will isolate Russia even further

[CIJ_ICJ @CIJ_ICJ]

READ HERE: full text of the #ICJ Order indicating provisional measures in the case concerning Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (#Ukraine v. #Russia) https://t.co/LmjyyFayh0