🥕💡The carrots are cooked #7
Veggie Recipes + Climate Readings + How I switched electricity provider
Recipes of the week
See here to see the list of recipes for the week and corresponding groceries.
Also click here to revisit all recipes from the past month.
Recipe #1 - Butternut & Goat Cheese Tatin
Recipe via Ottolenghi via The Guardian
Recipe #2 - 1-pot Chickpea Tomato Peanut Stew
Recipe via Minimalist Baker
Recipe #3 - Sweet Potato Fritters
Recipe via Bianca Zapatka
If you are making any of the recipes I share, could you please let me know in the comments?
Climate News
#1 - Crushing climate impacts to hit sooner than feared: draft UN report
Everyone is talking about this news of a draft IPCC report obtained by the AFP. But, experts are warning us to not comment about this report, as it is preliminary and incomplete, and not the version due to be released in feb 2022.
The credibility and authority of the IPCC comes from their intense highly rigorous process for validation and peer-review. Releasing results ahead of the official process is a risk of undermining the IPCC legitimacy.
Besides, we don’t need the latest data to know that things are bad and going to get worse.
#2 - Unesco recommends Great Barrier Reef world heritage site should be listed as ‘in danger’
UN officials say the Great Barrier Reef should be placed on the list of world heritage sites that are “in danger”. Australia says “Naaah maaaaate, we’ve got this”.
Of course, their concern is that the downgrade will impact what was a A$6.4bn industry prior to the pandemic.
But as the IPCC pointed out in its 2018 special report, a 2°C warming could mean 99% of coral reefs disappearing. Australia’s current climate policies are “more consistent with a 2.5-3.0°C rise in global average temperature.
#3 - In a Growing Campaign to Criminalize Widespread Environmental Destruction, Legal Experts Define a New Global Crime: ‘Ecocide’
Legal experts from around the globe have drawn up a “historic” definition of ecocide, intended to be adopted by the international criminal court to prosecute the most egregious offences against the environment.
Ecocide is defined as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”.
Other news
Scientist who led largest Arctic expedition says heating may be irreversible (Independent)
Auckland chapter of New Zealand’s School Strike 4 Climate group admits racism and disbands (The Guardian)
Nestlé document says majority of its food portfolio is unhealthy (Times)
🔢 Number of the week
80.3% - that’s the share of fossil fuels in the 2020 global energy mix. Can you guess what the share of fossil fuels was back in 2009?
It was 80.2% - which is why it really pisses me off that the media keeps talking about the boom of solar and wind and how renewables are taking over. They ‘re not. We are not replacing fossil fuels by renewables, we are just stacking up new energy sources to meet our ever growing demand.
Rana Adib, REN21’s executive director, speaking to Recharge ahead of the report’s launch:
“We are waking up to the bitter reality that the climate policy promises over the past [decade] have mostly been empty words. The share of fossil fuels in final energy consumption has not moved by an inch.
“Clearly we see renewables has grown [at record rates], but so has energy demand, and we continue to use fossil fuels as we do… This is one of the strongest messages from the report: we need to be careful not to create blindspots in dealing with the climate emergency by speaking only about the positive story that renewables is.”
👊 How I switched my electricity provider
This section is NOT about telling you what to do. Because, as it turns out, hearing eco-friendly tips like these actually makes people less likely to do anything about climate change. Oops!
So, instead, I’m just telling you the story of why and how I switched my electricity provider. 🤷♀️ You can come back to this article here.
Electricity is a utility and the way we think about it is often “out of sight out of mind” - we care little and buy on price. However, some new actors are disrupting the traditional big retailers who are heavily invested in fossil fuels, and switching your provider is a very impactful action you can take for the climate.
In Australia, a large majority (76% in 2020) of the electricity consumed still comes from fossil fuels. (Source: Australian Energy Statistics) and electricity represents 33% of Australia’s greenhouse gases emissions. (Source: Industry.gov.au)
Electricitymap is a visualization of where your electricity comes from and how much CO2 was emitted to produce it:
Thanks to our favourable climate, Australia has the highest uptake of solar globally, with around 29% of homes with rooftop solar PV. (Source: Energy.gov.au). It is on my personal “action list” to investigate installing solar panels on the rooftop of our building, but we’re not there yet.
A few years ago, we switched our electricity provider to Powershop and more recently we went with Amber.
There is little information out there on what makes an electricity provider sustainable, and there’s a lot of greenwashing going on, so it can be quite confusing. Greenpeace used to produce a Green Electricity Guide but they stopped updating it.
One point to keep in mind is that the electricity that arrives in your home is the same as everyone else’s, regardless of how “green” your provider is. This is because we’re all connected to the same grid.
So how to choose a better provider?
I chose to stay away from the Big 3 providers in Australia - AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin - because of their significant investments and support of fossil fuels and despite their claims for being “green”. AGL recently lost its court case against Greenpeace who described them as Australia’s “biggest climate polluter”.
Below are the rationale for going with the 2 providers we tested.
Powershop
They are owned by a 100% renewable company, Meridian Energy.
They do not invest in fossil fuels.
They offset 100% of customers electricity usage and were the first AU retailer to get the Carbon Neutral Network accreditation back in 2014.
They are online only so I would assume them to be more efficient than traditional retailers.
More about what makes Powershop a good electricity provider choice here.
Why I left: I was getting super confused by their powerpacks and wanted to test Amber’s model.
Amber
Amber is a disruptive energy retailer that has been operating in Australia since 2017. The innovative aspect is that they pass real-time wholesale electricity prices and charge you a monthly $15 flat fee.
I align with their purpose of unlocking the value of renewable energy to everyone
They are super transparent and give me tools to reduce my electricity consumption, and therefore both my bill and environmental impact.
For example, we implemented a pretty simple change in our daily routines. We stopped operating our washing machine and dishwasher during peak evening hours, when electricity is more expensive and there’s little renewables on the grid. We use the scheduling button on the machines to start them during the day, when electricity is cheaper and there are more renewables in the grid.
Knowing that we’re in control and paying the wholesale price makes a great incentive to be conscious about our electricity usage.
Other options for more sustainable electricity providers
Nectr - launched in 2019 and backed by a global renewable energy company, they focus on offering smarter energy products and plans that focus on the environment.
Mojo Power - also very new, they give customers simple and affordable plans, and smart tools to reduce their consumption.
Do you have other examples of more planet-conscious electricity providers? Share with us in the comments!
For my readers in France
Je vous encourage fortement à regarder ces vidéos du Réveilleur sur les rouages de l’électricité verte en France: