YOUR WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE
- Five sites in England and Scotland are in the final running to be the home of the UK’s prototype fusion energy plant. The government is backing plans for the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (Step) with a final decision on its location expected at the end of 2022. It would create thousands of jobs and aim to generate a “near-limitless” source of low-carbon energy, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said. The plant should be operational by the early 2040s.
- Globally, the amount of so called e-waste generation is growing by two million tonnes every year. It is estimated that less than 20% is collected and recycled. By making products with shorter lifespans and limited repair options, manufacturers have a major role to play in the increase of waste. Consumers can also be reluctant to recycle their personal electronic equipment. In the UK, a 2019 study by the Royal Society of Chemistry found that as many as 40 million unused gadgets are languishing in our homes. That puts pressure on the supply of many valuable and rare elements.
- Developers may have won praise in the past for demolishing draughty buildings for energy-efficient replacements. But engineers now say existing buildings should be kept standing due to the amount of carbon emitted when original building materials were made – known as embodied carbon. A government spokeswoman said they were working on this issue. But despite the peer saying the government was in “the final stages” of creating its new heat and building strategy, neither gave more detail about what measures may appear.
- Carbon emissions are rebounding strongly and are rising across the world’s 20 richest nations, according to a new study. The Climate Transparency Report says that CO2 will go up by 4% across the G20 group this year, having dropped 6% in 2020 due to the pandemic. China, India and Argentina are expected to exceed their 2019 emissions levels. The authors say that the continued use of fossil fuels is undermining efforts to rein in temperatures.
- Two decades into the 21st Century, and the science fiction dreams of the creators of The Jetsons are closer than ever to becoming a reality. With the likes of Uber and Boeing developing eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) flying taxis, one report predicts that by 2040 there will be 430,000 such vehicles in operation around the world. This comes as delivery drones are also being increasingly developed and tested, with the global market for these tipped to be worth (£4bn) by 2028.
- Seeds from genetically modified barley plants are being used in a process which creates lab-grown meat. A protein in the seeds, called a growth factor, is harvested, milled and purified before it can be used. While the first growth factors came from animals, it is hoped this barley plant method will be cheaper and scalable. Research at Orf Genetics is now on-going to find out which barley produces the best growth factors.
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