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A trial where hydrogen is added to natural gas raises hopes of a low-carbon heating revolution. 
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Football clubs’ matchday programmes are saturated with gambling adverts and branding, including on pages aimed at children, according to a new study
Graham Watson's insight:
Is this part of the reason why problem gambling emerges? Research suggests that young fans are exposed to a large number of gambling adverts in club programmes and this might contribute to creating the gamblers of the future. Indeed, 17 out of 24 clubs in the Championship are sponsored by gambling firms.
Including the one featured, Birmingham City who the article notes "The club are no longer sponsored by 888." They're sponsored by BoyleSports instead.
Alternatively, you might view this sort of research as likely to prompt unnecessary intervention in the market...
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A British Airways insider says the industry deliberately fills planes with extra fuel to save costs.
Graham Watson's insight:
Is this a story?
I'm not sure, however, it seems that tonight's Panorama is looking at the practice of 'fuel tankering' whereby airlines overfill their planes with fuel to lower costs, by avoiding having to pay for higher priced fuel in other locations.
However, the flipside of this is that it increases the CO2 emissions associated with flying to each destination, because each plane is now heavier and this creates more emissions.
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Britain now G7's biggest net importer of CO2 emissions per capita, says ONS | UK news | The Guardian
Fall in UK-produced emissions has been offset by those from increase in imported products
Graham Watson's insight:
This sort of net effect is always interesting to consider - the ONS have discovered that despite the good news that UK-produced carbon emissions have fallen, what has simply happened is that the UK has offshored its emission to other nations and importing goods from there.
Hence, the rather alarmist headline - the UK is now the highest per capita importer of CO2 emissions in the G7.
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Projected production surge in next 12 years to be led by Shell despite climate crisis
Graham Watson's insight:
And here's further condemnation of the fossil fuel producers - notably Shell and ExxonMobil. The latest research forecasts that oil production is going to increase, rather than decrease. This might have catastrophic environmental consequences. Or not, depending upon your world view.
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The drinks levy is working but England’s sugar consumption has still gone up. So what next?
Graham Watson's insight:
This article starts with quite a claim: "The drinks levy is working but England's sugar consumption has still gone up". I'm not entirely sure that I agree with this; even the article admits that we eat more sugar than we drink.
As a result, it is argued that we should be taxing cakes and biscuits rather than soft drinks in attempting to reduce obesity levels.
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ONS says rise is result of growing traffic as campaigners say car use must be curbed
Graham Watson's insight:
A really interesting piece that highlights the fact that despite improved miles per gallon, and a decline in emissions from individual cars, the level of road transport emissions has risen since 1990, according to the ONS.
This is because the number of cars on the road has continued to grow - something that is apparent on my drive home every day. However, you might wonder whether the increased efficiency of cars is a double-edged sword - if cars are more efficient, they are cheaper to run and hence people will drive them more. The only 'cost' that has significantly increased since 1990 will be the opportunity cost of being sat in traffic, and most commuters will simply have to lump that - there's not really much alternative to going to work. Unless, of course, you could persuade people driving to work to take public transport.
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Germany leads complaint against plan to leave polluted remains of Shell rigs in place
Graham Watson's insight:
Is it an environmental disaster if the UK leaves obsolete oil rigs in the North Sea? Certainly other EU member states would think so.
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Gambling Commission figures obtained by BBC Panorama show record 8,266 complaints in 2018
Graham Watson's insight:
On the basis of this evidence it doesn't look like self-regulation is the best way of tackling problem gambling. However, be careful: can we easily quantify the negative externalities of problem gambling? What are the alternative policies?
However, the substantial rise in the all-pervasive nature of the internet and the lack of regulation of the sector make the problem more likely. Whilst fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) now have minimum stakes, that's not the case online where virtual slot machines can see people gamble up to £200 every few seconds.
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Globalisation has led to the rise of fast fashion but at what cost to the workers in developing nations?
Graham Watson's insight:
What is the true cost of fashion?
This BBC article suggests that there are significant costs to buying cheap clothes. One to file under 'fast fashion'.
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One in 10 people in a hospital bed are alcohol-dependent and one in five are harming themselves by drinking
Graham Watson's insight:
Basics: a straightforward negative consumption externality. And this article just looks at the costs of alcohol consumption to the NHS, never mind the other costs.
You might think about exactly what form these external costs take.
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Air travel accounts for 2%-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Are electric engines an answer?
Graham Watson's insight:
To recycle an old advertising strapline: "This is the Age of the Electric Plane".
I could sing it if you like, but I'd encourage you to read the article instead.
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Most of Britain's cities have had illegally polluted air for nearly a decade and the effect of air pollution is particularly bad on children. Ahead of Clean Air Day, we conducted an experiment to assess the air quality on a school run in central London, using new state-of-the art monitors that can measure air pollution in real time.
Graham Watson's insight:
The Guardian looks at the state of the nation's air by looking at one family's journey to school, and considers the adverse effects that pollution levels are having on the nation's health.
The family in question have to navigate the Marylebone Road, and the data gathered, whilst not shocking is salutary.
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Exhausted delegates reach agreement on the key question of ambition with tricky issues postponed.
Graham Watson's insight:
The Madrid climate change talks have ended with the now traditional unseemly scramble to find a compromise, and, ultimately, little in the way of progress.
We shouldn't be surprised by this: the nature of these talks is such that it's always going to be difficult to reach agreement and, let's face it, today's politicians aren't interested in the votes of prospective voters in 25, 50 or 100 years' time.
Another missed opportunity?
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Exclusive: VIP schemes lead to claims that industry is ‘merely paying lip service to safer gambling’
Graham Watson's insight:
Is this another instance of gambling companies acting unethically, and looking to facilitate problem gambling? Certainly the Guardian thinks so, with the industry currently under intense scrutiny.
This raises the question of whether regulation or self-regulation is the way forward in such markets.
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Council proposes barring the vehicles from city centre to comply with legal limits on NO2
Graham Watson's insight:
Bristol is contemplating becoming the first UK city to ban diesel cars from the city centre as it looks to reduce harmful emissions.
The city, like other UK urban areas, is also contemplating a broader charging zone, as it looks to reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
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Government vows to unveil climate roadmap next year but critics demand action not more policies and plans
Graham Watson's insight:
The government is committed to decarbonising the transport sector, but critics argue that at the moment there's more hot air than concrete policies.
Ironically, the presence of hot, polluted air carrying particulate matter is one of the biggest problems.
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Bali generates enough plastic everyday to fill a 14-storey building. 95% of plastic bags are thrown away after use - drowning the island’s beautiful beaches.
Graham Watson's insight:
This could be on the International section of the board but I think it should be here. The island of Bali has banned plastic bags, responding to a remarkable campaign led by a 16 year-old girl.
It looks at the extent to which waste plastics were a problem on the island - and it is a beautiful place - I was there twenty-five years ago. However, these days single-use plastics have been banned and it is to be hoped that this will tackle the negative externalities associated with waste plastics.
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Soft drinks have 29% less sugar on average since a levy was imposed, but we're eating more sugary food.
Graham Watson's insight:
There are some articles that are just too good. This is one, which looks at how the measures implemented to tackle the over-consumption of sugar have fallen flat.
Is this a perfect example of government failure? In short, has the allocation of resources been made less efficient as the result of government intervention? To reach that judgment, you'd need to look at the costs and benefits of the policy interventions.
There's a lot of real interest here - we've cut the amount of sugar in foods but we're still consuming more of the stuff. And, arguably, this generates negative externalities. So what next? Are there going to be more invasive interventions, and, if so, what are the likely welfare implications?
I know that Christopher Snowden at the IEA will have a view.
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The president says his administration will implement strong rules to protect "innocent children".
Graham Watson's insight:
The US government is on the point of introducing regulation to limit the flavour of e-cigarettes to tobacco only, in the hope of deterring young people from vaping.
Is this good economics? Is there evidence that flavoured e-cigarettes are responsible for a rise in vaping-related deaths? Or is this simply an attempt to introduce a popular but wrong-headed policy.
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All UK online casinos and bookmakers will be told to sign up to Gamstop, it is understood
Graham Watson's insight:
Another attempt, adopted begrudgingly it seems, to tackle problem gamblers.
Problem gamblers should be able to block themselves from all online gambling: however, you might wonder whether this is going to successful or not. Surely that's why they're problem gamblers.
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The fossil-fuel lobby is threatened by public concern over the climate crisis. So it’s buying influence, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Graham Watson's insight:
This George Monbiot polemic in the Guardian looks at the lobbying power of the fossil fuels sector, and how it has undue power over policymaking.
It implies that we are unlikely to meet our climate change obligations - and highlights the absurd extent to which the sector is subsidised.
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Even going electric won't stop cars polluting city streets, government advisers say.
Graham Watson's insight:
The extent of urban air pollution is made apparent in this BBC article which notes that even in the age of the electric vehicle, car tyres and brake dust residue will still generate particulate matter to pollute cities.
The answer, it seems, is to reduce the reliance upon private cars.
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The UK's biggest betting firms agree to contribute more money to fund problem gambler treatment.
Graham Watson's insight:
The UK gambling firms have pledged more money to help gambling addicts - increasing their voluntary levy from 0.1% of gambling profits to 1% of gambling profits.
However, as the article notes, it's a tiny fraction of the advertising spend of the bookmakers, and scarcely makes a dent in their profits. And as critics suggests, it's a rhetorical play for sympathy rather than a genuine attempt to tackle the negative externalities associated with problem gambling.
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Britain is obtaining more of its power from zero-carbon sources than from fossil fuels.
Graham Watson's insight:
The changing nature of the UK's energy mix in favour of clean technologies is highlighted in this BBC article. It reflects the ways in which the market has started to resolve the problem, but perhaps there's a case for saying that a lack of government intervention has meant that the move has taken longer than would otherwise been the case.
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Another instance of how markets generate solutions to economic problems, in this case carbon emissions and climate change.
The addition of hydrogen to natural gas has the ability to lower carbon emissions, although there are concerns that such a pilot scheme will prove impossible to roll out on a large scale. We shall see.