IPCC BAD NEWS AND OUR GOOD NEWS:

The UN climate committee published this up-date report just a couple of weeks ago, and it is clear from the report that unless we do a lot more to stop runaway global warming, we may not be able to stop serious climate change.

The full report goes on to say that the window to stop this is now rapidly closing.

This is their summary:

IPCC / Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, Vulnerability

Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and is affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, says the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit. Increased heatwaves, droughts and floods are already exceeding plants and animals’ tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species such as trees and corals.

These weather extremes are occurring simultaneously, causing cascading impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage. They have exposed millions of people to acute food and water insecurity, especially in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, on small islands and in the Arctic.

To avoid mounting loss of life, biodiversity and infrastructure, urgent, ambitious and accelerated action is required to adapt to climate change, at the same time as making rapid, deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Will our government rise to the challenge and stop putting action off until tomorrow? Bur here is a glimmer of hope from the scientists: A group of engineers and scientists in the home counties are working on an up-graded solar panel that should be able to make double the power than existing panels.

Current panels with just one silicone type of coating, converts around 20% of the Sun’s energy into electricity. The new ones will have two different layers, at about 30% conversion rate and even better, a prototype has now been made with three different layers and can convert over 40% of the Sun’s energy.

It could be possible if enough homes had them installed and with battery storage for night-time, we could get rid of all of our coal-fired power stations and a good amount of our gas powered stations as well.

A quick bit of science: Sunlight is a spectrum, we often call it the colours of the rainbow, our current panels only collect the red end of it. The two new materials will pick up on more of the yellow and some of the blue spectrum, this is what gives these new generation of panels the extra power. Lets hope that we in the UK make these panels that we have pioneered, and they don’t get made in China, as it’s time to be self-sufficient in these uncertain times.

‘Could this be one of the big break-throughs in green energy we have been waiting for?’ Let’s hope it will be part of the solutions.

Even with these fantastic technical innervations’ we must still do everything to play our part if we are to win this battle.