Can State-of-the-Art Batteries Fuel a Clean, Renewable Energy and Transport Future?
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
But something else happened in Australia in 2019 which might point the way ahead for accelerating the rapid, global transition to renewable energy. Can the nation now point the way from its fire disasters to a clean energy future?
Banking for Good: Trust, Transition and the Return of Public Banks
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
The Bank of North Dakota has fostered a tradition of public sector banking since it was founded in 1919 – the same year incidentally that Neville Chamberlain launched the Birmingham Municipal Savings Bank, which – before it was subsumed into the TSB – and subsequent loss of mutual status, had more than sixty branches around the city.
Zero Carbon Britain: Rising to the Climate Emergency
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
A new report out today from Rapid Transition Alliance founding member the Centre for Alternative technology (CAT) looks at how the UK can cut energy demand by 60% and reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions using current technologies, without relying on unproven carbon capture.
How Learning to Share Again Cuts Waste, and Makes more Resilient Communities
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
The Share Shed is a library of things in the town of Totnes in the southwest of the UK (also home to the Transition Town network). People can donate useful items to the library – like ladders, drills, carpet cleaners, camping, cooking and gardening equipment, and sewing machines – and others can borrow them for an affordable fee.
Iceland – Independent Economic Policy, Holding Finance Accountable and Experimenting with Local Democracy
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
Iceland’s economy had thrived on speculative finance but, after the meltdown, rather than making the public pay for the crisis, as the Nobel economist Paul Krugman points out, Iceland ‘let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net’ and instead of placating financial markets, ‘imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to manoeuvre.’
Can Costa Rica’s Path to Carbon Neutrality be Replicated by Other Countries?
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
Costa Rica’s culture encourages the treatment of the environment as a top priority. Already, it has managed to achieve the highest combined life expectancy and life satisfaction relative to ecological footprint in an international ranking.
Shine On: Solar Power is Eclipsing Coal, Oil, Gas and Nuclear Energy with Rapid Growth and Cost Reductions
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
Ever since 2013, the installation of new renewable energy capacity has outstripped all other major energy generating sources combined, coal, oil, gas and nuclear. There are impressive figures for all renewables but the growth and fall in costs of solar power has stunned even seasoned industry observers.
Future Homes: The Rapid Rise, Fall, and Return of UK Social Housing
By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
The pioneering Dutch “Energiesprong” model – Dutch for “energy leap” – involves a major, whole-house retrofit to achieve a near net-zero energy home, typically including the fitting of an external “wall envelope” for insulation, as well as rooftop solar panels.