- The Progress Playbook
- Posts
- Newsletter (copy 48)
Newsletter (copy 48)
Portugal steps off the gas
Happy Tuesday, dear reader.
Some good news to kick things off:
Wind and solar made up 40% of Chile’s electricity output in September, and all renewables were at 74% of the mix, per Ember data.
Former climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum has been sworn in as Mexico’s president. She plans to expand renewable energy to 45% of power generation by 2030, from 24% in 2022, Bloomberg reports.
MSC Cruises can no longer claim it’s “making great strides to be net zero by 2050” or that LNG is a clean shipping fuel, Dutch advertising regulators have ruled.
Electric car sales in the UK had a record month in September, making up 21% of sales.
Know anyone else who’d be interested in signing up to this free newsletter? They can do so here.
Thanks for reading.
Nick Hedley
Editor, The Progress Playbook
Portugal’s fossil gas consumption has fallen sharply in 2024 thanks to the country’s increasing reliance on renewable energy technologies in the power sector.
Plants that burn fossil gas accounted for just 8% of the country’s electricity mix in the first nine months of the year. Renewables comprised 73% of the mix and imports (mostly of low-carbon power from Spain) 19%.
As a result, Portugal’s total gas consumption was down 23% over the nine-month period, compared to a year before. A 68% drop in use in the electricity market was partly offset by a 2.1% increase in the conventional market, which includes heavy industry.
The country shut its last coal-fired power plant in 2021 and is working to reduce the use of gas as well.
- Read the full story here.
Households and businesses in the UK will be paid to reduce their electricity consumption when the system is tight all year round — rather than during winter alone — according to an updated strategy published by the system operator, which aims to ease the path to a clean power system by 2030.
- Read the full story here.
Germany’s flat-rate ticket for local and regional public transport, the Deutschlandticket, reduced car emissions by 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 between its introduction in May 2023 and April 2024, an analysis by the Ariadne energy transition research alliance shows.
- Read the full story here.
Through this programme, waste pickers collect recyclables along specific routes through the city’s neighbourhoods, stopping by homes and apartments where residents have requested recycling pick-ups. The recyclables are deposited at one of dozens of “eco-points” — a network of collection centres — where they are sorted, cleaned and then sold to recycling intermediaries.
- Read the full story here.
The number of plug-in solar systems dubbed “balcony power plants” in Germany has surpassed 700,000 as of 2 October, having doubled since the start of 2024.
- Read the full story here.
The Belgian town of Zoersel, home to around 22,000 people, has substantially reduced waste levels in recent years and pledged to become the country’s first zero-waste certified municipality by 2027.
- Read the full article here.
Other articles you might find interesting:
Help us grow and maximise our impact via a voluntary monthly subscription facilitated by Google.
Have any tips, ideas or feedback for us?
Please contact [email protected].
Follow The Progress Playbook on social media:
Copyright (C) 2023, The Progress Playbook. All rights reserved.Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to subscribe yourself.Want to change how you receive these emails?You can unsubscribe
Reply