The tension over solar, and could Trump reverse climate progress? The Climate Show with Tom Heap

Tom Heap looks at the tension over where to put solar panels as the industry expands.

And with a second Trump presidency a possibility, what would that mean for the climate?

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This has been my livelihood and my way of life and and I don’t want that to change should Farmers like this lose their livelihoods to make way for solar Panels welcome to the show there are 110 cattle on this Farm but the proposal is to replace them and their pasture with solar panels neither the farmer nor the local community are happy also on the program we’re going to drill baby drill right away with a resurgent Donald Trump

Confident of returning to the White House what would that mean for climate policy with labor reducing ambition on green Investments we hear from a business now slowing down their growth plans it’s bafter this weekend we hear from the filmmakers hoping for a Gong for this unique nature short

And with Winters in this part of North America warming faster than most places on Earth people there are fearing for traditions like pond hockey we know we need a lot more clean green energy but should it come at the expense of this the traditional farming way of life Our old way of life will be gone forever I’ve worked on this Farm all my life this has been my livelihood and my way of life and and I don’t want that to change but change is coming for Andrew and his family who farmed this land for

94 years Andrew is a tenant farmer meaning he doesn’t own his own farm and if his landlord wants to change the land use away from producing food to producing energy he has little power to stop it what will happen to this and surrounding Fields if the developers get

Their way well it’ll all be fenced off with 10t high deer fencing um covered in solar panels and my livelihood will be destroyed but I mean this isn’t the best agricultural land it’s not producing a huge amount of food overall perhaps it would be better if it was producing a

Large amount of energy well that’s it’s a a thought but uh I still think the this sort of permanent pasture ground is better for the Wildlife um and the Ecology of of the whole thing we have LP Wings curlo Sky loocks the brown hairs I think solar panels have got the part

Play I think house rofes Factory roofs Brownfield sites uh are the best place for solar panels they don’t blend in with the natural environment in my opinion the land owners have not yet applied for planning permission for the solar farm and say they don’t want to comment on A Private Matter that’s the

Hairs but Andrew has found plenty of willing allies in his fight our fundraising pages and all our petitions they’re all on here as well excellent locals have gathered around him organizing Town Hall meetings and a social media campaign would you acknowledge there is a climate emergency out there we need Greener

Energy yeah and we’re hugely Behind Green energy we really do support well you say that but you don’t want it in your view no we don’t want it on Rural agricultural work in land not on land that is in use it’s being used to support businesses it’s being support

Our vill and our towns it’s part of the food chain children from local schools come and visit it and Andrew has worked so hard through his life to support this livelihood that he has it’s really unfair that that’s taken away when there’s plenty of other places for those

Solar pels to go but is it reasonable to say that our Countryside should sort of be preserved as a single moment and and not change no I think as developers you know they push for for more sites and they push for for higher targets and bigger financial gain it’s the small

Local Villages that are the ones suffering and it’s it’s not the villages that are at fault it’s it’s big kind of national government targets and we all agree that green energy is the way forward but don’t do that on working protected darbishire landscape do it on

Rooftops do it on Brownfield site do it elsewhere that’s not on someone’s entire livelihood the very warm start of the year has been a reminder that climate change is here and the recent flooding damaged farming so solar supporters say renewable energy is the long-term answer well the biggest threat to food Security

In this country is climate change and if we don’t tackle climate change and really reduce our fossil fuel use then then a lot of Farmland is going to be lost to to drought and other another effects so we absolutely have to do that it’s we we also have to find the most

Appropriate sites for those like Andrew who we’ve seen in our film who are affected by this I mean what can you say to them is it just tough the world is changing I think all of these changes in in Land Management have to be address very very sensitively and and there’ll

Be clearly needs to be compensation in some cases but in the end we do need to deploy Loy renewable very quickly we’re in a climate emergency climate is is is really just that we need to solve this problem and that’s something which we we as a society we cannot ignore but the

Tenant Farmers Association say Andrew is very far from a oneoff just about every week now I get another TFA member calling me to say that they have for the first time had knowledge of a huge solar scheme that’s going to either engulf their Farm or take a large part of their

Farm so yeah weekly we’re getting members coming to us and we’re talking about thousands of Acres being taken out nationally the land taken for solar energy is less than golf courses and similar to that of Christmas trees while panels can share the ground with sheep grazing or Wildflower medows the

Enormous growth plans are likely to gobble up some productive fields we need to be concerned about things like food security we need to be concerned about things like Environmental Management of land and we’ve seen an awful lot of land being taken out of food production being taken out of agricultural production and

That’s causing issues for landscape and biodiversity as well as food security issues come on to reduce emissions and bills Britain does need more renewable energy the government wants five times as much solar by 2035 but should that happen at the expense of a more traditional way of

Life steady steady steady this has been my livelihood than my way of life and and I don’t want that to change and I would like that to be passed on to somebody else in the future when I’ve retired which hoping that won’t be any time soon well despite some tensions over

Where to deploy solar or onshore wind the world is at a clean energy Tipping Point according to the US climate Envoy John Kerry and that Meers to places like this that make heat pumps too he was speaking in Paris where he said even a Donald Trump presidency couldn’t change

That so whatever happens and I don’t have a whatever approach about it for sure uh but but that’s not going to change the direction that we’re moving but what actually happened to us climate action last time Donald Trump was in power I’m an environmentalist you a lot of people don’t understand that I

Withdrew the United States from the unfair and one-sided Paris climate Accord over four years his administration had a profound impact on climate policy my Administration is putting an end to the war on coal we will put our miners back to work he ditched more than 100 environmental

Rules and policies many of them designed to protect nature and reduce emissions I think I know more about the environment than most people it’ll start getting cooler you just watch I wish science agreed with you well I don’t think science knows actually regulations requiring the oil and gas industry to tackle methane leaks

And obliging car makers to produce cleaner Vehicles were either weakened or dropped entirely but despite Trump’s rhetoric and actions progress on the climate still happened on his watch during his presidency emissions were fairly flat and even declined slightly and coal fell while renewable energy grew rising from 15% of electricity

Generation when he won the election in 201 16 to 20% when he left office that was down to huge growth in wind and solar as the cost of both energy sources continued to fall more than 30 States also had mandated targets for growing Renewables stimulating the industry in

Spite of hostility from the white house we’re going to drill baby drill right away draw baby ahead of the election this year it looks like Trump 2.0 hasn’t changed his ways but with Renewables cheaper than ever and money to be made and many states fully on board with the energy

Transition it’s possible this is a train that even he can’t stop the US has also invested hundreds of billions of dollars under Joe Biden to create green jobs and slash emissions something that labor was thinking of replicating with its pledge to spend 28 billion on the sector that was until

Last week we won’t reach the 28 billion P envisaged um and that effect that figure is effectively uh stood down so what is the new plan if labor wins the upcoming election this graph shows the old policy ramping up to spending 28 billion pound a year over the 5-year parliament in comparison the

Conservatives are currently spending around 8 to 10 billion pounds a year on the green economy already with no promises to spend more this line shows Labour’s new plan substantially down on the previous promise but still 47% up on the current government’s plans and away from the Westminster Circus the energy

Industry seems to still like what it sees the proposals in Labour’s plan around things like sorting out grid reform sorting out the planning system this is the stuff that really matters to investors and governments all over the world are now competing for inward investment basically what we want in the

UK is the best place to put the money because 70 to 90% of the money for Net Zero is going to come from business and the private sector but others trying to make investment decisions about the future are less supportive this is ebac near Darlington a manufacturer of washing machines and dehumidifiers who’ve

Recently pivoted towards heat pumps and their head of design Tom Coverdale is here to tell me all about it why’ you make the move Tom so we’ve been manufacturing for the last 50 years uh making Dem MiFi and water coolers and a heat pump is pretty much a refrigeration

Circuit in a different application so it seemed like a natural move and obviously um the industry or the revolution green end Revolution heat pumps play a key part in that um that move well I can see them being made behind you I mean how is

The kind of uh heat pump world so far cuz there’s a little bit of uh let’s say unease yeah there’s um there some uncertainty I I would certainly uh put that down and for us to make some decisions on our investment and our growth I think we need that stability um

Other than that it’s exciting because I think heat pumps are the future of heating um so it’s certainly something we want to be a part of so how did Labor’s u-turn on this 28 billion for spending on the green economy affect a business like yours we’ve already made

Investments and and have developed a product on the back of the initial 28 billion pledge so the fact that now this starting to change that figure or or or this uncertainty there just puts us in a little bit of a precarious position um how fast do we grow now does it actually

Do you feel it undermines the future viability of this business I think it sets the pier at which we move I don’t think it compromises anything for the future but it sets the pace at which we move and and forgive me but it sets it at a lower level you think you’ll grow

Slower is that that’s the risk yes we had some big targets some big Ambitions and we might now have to scale that back because of the certainty and how do you feel about that having to change like that it’s disappointing because we’ve set our next 5year Targets on the growth

That on the back of the 28 billion pledge and the fact that now that’s looking less always unstable and it could change again who knows um just means that we’re going to have to do it at a pace that we can do without having to rely on Government funding we’ve also

Seen a bit of flip-flopping from the government over its green policy when you put these together how does it affect businesses like this we just need consistent strategies from all parties it doesn’t matter which part is in power we need stability as a manufacturer in this area of of County Durham do you

Think both for yourselves and for others around here there is great opportunity in the green economy definitely I mean with our growth plans we’re going to create new jobs our company’s actually in the foundation so we what part the um Foundation terms is that we actually create jobs in the Northeast and we

Can’t be sold overseas so it’s important that we do grow and we’d like to be able to plan around that grow uh sorry have a plan behind that growth that’s in line with what the government’s doing this Factory is in the so-called red wall area where a lot of Labor MPS lost their

Seats to conservatives at the last election do you think changes like this from labor could affect their popularity around here in this region yes I think there’s quite a lot of initiatives going on with with regards to manufacturers like us um making green Greener products um renewable Solutions so I think yes it

Could have swayed more um voters towards labor I me you got more or less one line making heat pumps here were you hoping that this could have become you know I don’t know five or 10 yes we we intended to grow this line to to either replace

It or to to make a to invest in it yeah um so it’s not on ice but we might have to S the pace down and and limit the investment it’s disappointing um we want to grow and we want to grow as quickly as we can without being too ambitious um

But we based a lot of our decisions and our investments and our job creation on government policies now this weekend is the film and television Awards the bafs with titles like killers of the flower Moon and Oppenheimer up for best film also in contention in the British short animation category is a nature

Documentary with a difference here’s Sky entertainments and arts reporter Bethany minell Nature Documentaries tend to follow a tried and tested format footage captured in the animals natural habitat and a Pres enter leading you through key moments of their lives but what if we reimagine that wildlife in human form

That’s just what this husband and wife team have done and it’s seen them shortlisted for an Oscar and up for a bter this Weekend hailed is a new form of nature documentary wild summon is Nico fantasy following the life cycle of a world salmon in human form heav pregnant starving and exhausted she is now nearing her limits narrated by singer and actress Maran faithful it takes us on a journey through rivers and out to

Sea portraying the survival of nature in the face of human impact and climate change I’m delighted to be joined by filmmakers Saul freed and Carney oreli hi guys so tell me what was the reasoning behind making your salmon human we’ve been always you know looking for fantasy in our work and when the

Idea popped in our head God knows how ideas come into your head but uh when you come to think about the life of the salmon as a human all these situations come in light which are just brilliant and we just thought oh you know we have

To tell this story with this angle yeah it’s sort of Flipping The Narrative on its head because in the end we empathize with things that are like us that are in human form and so giving the salmon that you might not look too closely at a human female form um creates this sort

Of ideally a sense of connection and empathy there’s some really shocking moments in the film but perhaps the most shocking for me was when we see our protagonist come into contact with factory farming tell me why that was really important to includ in the film we realized that you know beyond the 50

Predators that the salmon has on this journey from birth to death and you know to spawn a new generation man is one of its you know biggest issues biggest problems between uh you know pollution and farming and um uh over fishing and the documentary is narrated by maranne

Faithful what was the reasoning behind behind that choice it would seem quite left field why I mean look first of all Mariann Faithful is an icon she’s a woman who’s LIF this incredible life uh she’s an artist she’s a mother she’s a woman she’s a fighter she’s a Survivor

We didn’t want it to be too preachy or too whimy or too you know there’s a very fine line we walk with the animation as well you know not to fish not to wom not to live action not to animation just to create a new genre in a way which is a

Hybrid genre you’re walking this fine line and the same was with the vo we went through a lot of different options climate crisis messaging can sometimes feel a bit a bit bleak a bit heavy if there an uplifting m message too I think the film itself you know is we were very

Careful not to be pretty oblique I mean obviously the story is hard but if when you think about it the cycle life of the salmon they do die in the end but that’s their happy end because there’s no other you know they they’ve lived their life they’ve they’ve succeeded in giving life

To a new generation so although we do see her Dy in the end the last shot of the film is the new generation is a new baby yeah AB think that’s for us it’s a happy end we’ll see if their efforts are rewarded this weekend Bethany manell Sky

News Now ice hockey played on frozen lakes is the sport in its purest form according to American enthusiasts but New England is warming so much faster than the global average it’s putting such winter Traditions at risk for the last 15 years Lake wiip pasak the largest lake in the state of New

Hampshire has been home to the pond hockey classic an annual Ice Hockey event showcasing the sport in what many believe is its purest form just being outdoors skating playing hockey like we used to when we were kids but Traditions like this are now under threat after a warm winter organizers were forced to

Move this year’s event to a smaller lake lake wnab basaki is not frozen to aity uh ice thickness for us to get our crews out there to maintain the Ice uh the last 2 or 3 weeks before the event and the effects of climate change are being

Felt far and wide it sister tournament on Lake Champlain in Vermont was cancelled completely experts say the amount of ice is decreasing smaller Lakes have already lost around 20 days of annual ice cover in the last century driving up to the lakes in Northern New Hampshire Lake wiip pasak you typically

Expect by Jan that things are fully iced over that there’s snowmobilers out there there’s ice fishing going on and in recent years that’s just not what I’ve experienced New England is a hot spot for winter warming since the 1970s it’s one of the fastest warming regions in

The US and the Eastern us as a whole it’s winter is the fastest warming season for now the joy of these winter Traditions remain but with temperature records continuing to Tumble the winters of childhood memory could soon be consigned to his Molly Malone Sky News well for me at

Least that still looks much more idilic than the warm slightly boring winter we’ve had here that is it for this week remember you can catch up on all your environment and climate news on the Sky News website and app or by scanning the QR code that’s on your screen right now Bye