5 x 400 meters

Considering that this weblog is ostensibly about "climate and energy policy", I thought it would be worth mentioning that there is some potentially very good news out of China which is planning a $440 billion nuclear buildout over the next 15 years. If these plans come to pass, which is obviously a big “if”, it has the potential of making a real dent in emissions while delivering affordable and reliable energy for China going forward.

Meanwhile in Sweden, SAS has entered into an agreement to produce the world’s first synthetic aviation fuel. Unlike biofuels that only further entrench the forest-industrial complex, synthetic fuels could enable real decoupling and help making flying more sustainable. While high-speed railways are clearly the way forward in densely populated countries like Germany, building them in Sweden may be less clear-cut given the massive amounts of concrete needed and the barrier effects that the new lines create. As such, my own position has slowly shifted in favour of upgrading the existing rail network in Sweden and limiting new construction to some key sections such as between Stockholm and Linköping. In any case, aviation will always be needed to bring the wider world together and, even if the sector’s total contribution to global carbon emissions is only a couple of per cent, it has become highly symbolic with “fly shaming” etc.

Back here on the ground in Umeå, William has come down with another nasty respiratory bug so it remains uncertain if he will be able to return to school on Monday. Unwilling to leave the kids for too long, I thus decided to skip my usual lake run and instead go for 5x400 meters intervals near the house.