Brands behaving badly
Brands that don’t care enough, if at all
What has Game Theory, got to do with climate change?
Photo by Johnson Wang on Unsplash
Last week the Conservative government finally announced its 1,000 page, climate strategy plan, already criticised for doing little to support energy security in the UK. There’s a myriad of other things wrong with it, depending on your point of view, but you can read all about that elsewhere.
What we have playing out here, is something called the Tragedy of the Commons,which is a game theory predicament. Everyone does what is rational for them. The problem is, it leaves everyone else worse off when we all choose to behave in the same way.
Game theory focuses on how people or organisations interact when resources are limited, there’s a finite amount of time and potentially a number of desired outcomes. Sounds like the thorny issue of climate change.
There are plenty of examples where tragedies of the commons confront us.
If I choose to take the tube to Ealing Golf Club rather than the car, my individual act doesn’t save the planet, so why bother? I may as well drive my fossil fuelled V8 instead.
If we all adopt that approach, the impact becomes significant.
Trying to employ this reciprocity to countries that emit the most carbon is also tricky, because they’re often the wealthiest and have the least need for reciprocal behaviour from others.
The Tragedy of the Commons, can also be extended to rationality itself. We see it playing out everyday in American and British politics, where effectively, an unhealthy, two-party political system exists.
As voters, we are challenged to take sides. If I believe one set of principles, then I’ll be respected by friends, but society is worse off as a result. We also end up with divided factions rather than the politicians being forced to collaborate.
Commitment to the truth is also more important than a clever slogan, which might make a political party more electable.
Getting Brexit Done did not, in the end, help the UK, its citizens or the Conservative party. I’m not even talking about Brexit, more the turmoil of three prime ministers in historic quick succession.
The Labour party has had 12 slogans apparently, since Keir Starmer became the leader and we’re still a way from understanding what they stand for, apart from a change.
It’s very clear to see from this latest strategic plan, that the current government will continue to cosy-up to the oil and gas industry, despite the views of many scientists who don’t support their assumptions about carbon capture back into the North Sea or hydrogen replacing the gas running our boilers.
If we want the truth and a better outcome, the UK government needs to reward cooperation and reciprocity. They need to limit the temptation of oil companies and other carbon-intensive polluters to keep on getting away with it. Those that continue to obfuscate and ignore the predicament, must be punished.
Green discovery
Something green enough to generate hope rather than carbon
All the way from Morocco
Courtesy of Morocco World News
When I saw this story, I had to double down on the research to make sure it wasn’t an April Fool’s prank.
I discovered that Morocco’s government has been planning and now implementing an ambitious approach to the country’s energy consumption, with a switch away from coal to solar, wind and hydroelectric renewables.
In 2009, the target was set, 42% of the installed power capacity would be renewable by 2020. As you’d expect, it led to a significant expansion of wind and solar including the Noor-Ouarzazate complex, the world’s largest solar power plant (see above). It’s an enormous array of curved mirrors which is spread over 11.6 square miles. While the country fell slightly short of its original target, it’s well on its way, taking full advantage of the beneficial, renewable energy-rich climate.
That actually wasn’t the surprise. What astonished me, is a plan by a company called Xlinks based in Billericay, Essex, looking to tap into Morocco’s treasures.
I’m not sure who owns what, but the board consists of the ex-Tesco’s boss, Sir Dave Lewis, plus they’ve recruited the Project Director responsible for the North Sea Link, a high-voltage, 720km long submarine power cable connecting Norway with the UK.
Investors include con|energy, a Germany-based investor in the European energy industry, who’s stumped up multiple millions and Octopus Energy in the UK, although their press release didn’t mention cash, just cooperation. I’m sure there must be many more who have decided to take a punt on this one.
Courtesy of Octopus Energy
The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project is to be located in an energy rich region of Morocco using a very strong sun alongside convection current winds, all linked to a battery storage facility.
This crazy project will generate 10.5GW of zero carbon electricity, delivering 3.6GW of reliable energy for 20 plus hours a day to the UK. That’s enough energy for 7 million British homes or 8% of the UK’s total electricity needs by 2030.
It’s all going to be delivered through 3,800km of high voltage direct transmission (HVDC) cables under the sea, which will make it the longest power superhighway ever created.
They already have an agreement in place with National Grid to provide 2, 1.8GW connections in Devon. Xlink describe the project as baseload energy which is expected to be half the cost of nuclear electricity. Octopus’ press release talked about a price of £48/MWh, about the same as offshore wind is currently.
All of this is also being done without any interference from the UK government, who is not coughing up a penny.
Xlink’s marketing spin is a reminder that offshore and onshore UK wind is fluky, although that problem is solved in part by continuing improvement and reliance on battery technology. A key fact is the price of solar continues to fall, supporting their reasons for choosing an environment where the sun is always on. Whether the British public will see the longer term benefit of this is yet to be seen.
It was not long ago, when I was entertained by a similar debate about solving the world’s need for clean energy by developing vast solar farms in the Sahara desert. There seemed to be many technical naysayers. All they could see were the obstacles to such an idea ever happening. On the same continent, in North Africa, albeit further west, such a project has clearly moved well beyond any hypothetical online discussion.