Jonathan Watts

A short bureaucratic note from a brutally degraded microstate in the South Pacific to a little-known institution in the Caribbean is about to change the world. Few people are aware of its potential consequences, but the impacts are certain to be far-reaching. The only question is whether that change will be to the detriment of the global environment or the benefit of international governance.

In late June, the island republic of Nauru informed the International Seabed Authority (ISA) based in Kingston, Jamaica of its intention to start mining the seabed in two years’ time via a subsidiary of a Canadian firm, The Metals Company (TMC, until recently known as DeepGreen). Innocuous as it sounds, this note was a starting gun for a resource race on the planet’s last vast frontier: the abyssal plains that stretch between continental shelves deep below the oceans.

The confirmation, in response to a question raised on Twitter last month, will hopefully put an end to confusion on the issue, with a number of cyclists having been fined in the past for riding in excess of a speed limit which applies only to motor vehicles.
Cyclists are not subject to speed limits on the public highway, but the special status of the Royal Parks, with separate bylaws in force, has muddied the waters, particularly in Richmond Park, which is hugely popular with road cyclists, particularly at weekends.
Indeed, as far back as 2013, after reports of cyclists being fined in Richmond Park, road.cc’s John Stevenson undertook a lengthy dissection of the regulations, coming to the conclusion that “there’s grounds to fight a cycling speeding fine in Richmond Park” – although some have been fined since then.

Dodge the queue
We’ve seen the queues, heard the honks and dodged the traffic jams (hopefully). For car-dependent Londoners, it’s chaos out there and now with talk of bringing in the Army to help manage the fuel shortage, it doesn’t take an expert to see that our transport system is deeply flawed.
This crisis reveals an increasingly fragile system and the extent to which we are reliant on fossil fuels to keep London moving even when there are easily accessible alternatives. Low-traffic neighbourhoods and cycle tracks can’t continue to be the scapegoat for chaos on our roads when it’s so clearly our over-reliance on cars causing the problems.

The fourth local transport plan (LTP) was due to be examined by Norfolk County Council on Monday but was pulled by the council leader.
The LTP covers Norfolk-wide plans, such as improving highway conditions, encouraging walking and cycling and delivering major projects like the Norwich Western Link, Long Stratton bypass and Great Yarmouth third river crossing.
Andrew Proctor, the Conservative leader of the council, said he was no longer moving the recommendations forward after the government published a transport decarbonisation plan.
The government’s plans require councils to set out how their LTPs will deliver carbon reductions in transport in line with national carbon budgets.

Nowadays, wind power is one of the fastest-growing renewable energy technologies, with its usage increasing rapidly year by year, on a worldwide level. in Denmark, wind power is so commonly used that wind turbines are now really part of the local landscape. in fact, wind energy already provides 40% of the energy in Denmark, while the Danes hope to reach 70% by 2030.

Jim Waterson
As the longstanding boss of the FairFuelUK organisation, which campaigns against tax rises on petrol, Howard Cox is used to criticism from environmentalists and cyclists.
What he did not expect was someone listing his home address in Kent as a petrol station on Google Maps in the middle of a fuel crisis.
“I got 70 phone calls with people saying: ‘Have you got any petrol for sale?’” he said. “I was panicking because my phone didn’t stop ringing and it’s my private home address. They typed in ‘petrol stations near me’ and it came up with a little flag over my house saying ‘petrol station’.”

Peter Walker

Labour has called for rapid extra spending on safe cycling and walking, saying that as motor traffic levels return to pre-Covid levels the gains in active travel made during the pandemic could soon be squandered.
This is seen as particularly an issue for cycling: the number of bike trips rose notably during lockdown, but there is concern that many new or returning cyclists could stop now that the roads are busier.

Jack Horgan-Jones Sat, Oct 2, 2021
Tense negotiations over the level of investment in roads projects saw talks on the National Development Plan (NDP) go down to the wire, it is understood.
Government sources said significant investment in roads had been approved as part of the NDP process, which sources said had now been signed off.
The €165 billion plan, to be published on Monday, will include a swathe of heavy-spending schemes which will see more than 50 projects with a price tag of more than €100 million included.