Mitrany

🌍 Worldwide, New Renewable Energy Capacity Hit Record Levels in 2019 🌏

Almost three-quarters of new electricity generation capacity built in 2019 uses renewable energy, representing an all-time record. New data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) shows solar, wind and other green technologies now provide more than one-third of the world’s power, marking another record.

Fossil fuel power plants are in decline in Europe and the US, with more decommissioned than built in 2019. But the number of coal and gas plants grew in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In the Middle East, which owns half the world’s oil reserves, just 26% of new electricity generation capacity built in 2019 was renewable.

New solar power provided 55% of the new capacity, most of which was installed in Asia, with China, India, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam leading the way. Other major increases were seen in the US, Australia, Spain, Germany and Ukraine.

Wind power made up 34% of the total, with almost half in China and significant additions in the US. Global wind power capacity remains just ahead of solar, with 95% being onshore turbines.

Other green technologies – hydropower, bioenergy, geothermal and marine energy – all grew modestly year-on-year. While small compared with solar and wind power, geothermal energy – tapping the heat of deep rocks – is growing, with Turkey, Indonesia and Kenya leading the way.

Our next suggestion is a book that has stirred economic viewpoints on policy levels in the Netherlands. Fantoomgroei (ghost growth) by Heijne and Noten is a book explaining how our narrow definition of economic growth has led to increasing inequality and hollowing out of vital sectors. As a consequence, the authors were asked to present their findings in the Dutch ‘House of Representatives’ and the book is nominated for Management Book of 2021! Unfortunately the book is only written in Dutch, but definitely a good read for those pondering on how to rebuild society after the pandemic.

✨Last Reminder✨
Next wednesday we will be hosting the very first Mitrany pubquiz. Sign up if you haven’t already!

Things to note
🌟 sign up link in bio
🌟 deadline for sign up is the 23rd
🌟 you can sign up individually or in teams of max 4 people
🌟 we go online at 19:00 and finish around 20:30 (so you can rush home before curfew if need be haha)
🌟 we will be using discord so if you haven’t already, download and sign up there
If there’s any questions or issues do let us know!

See you wednesday🤓

📌Save the date: 24th of February

2021 is here and we only have one new years resolution, a new year and a new me-trany! ✨

Please excuse the awful pun, but we are very excited to announce our very first event of the year. Our pubquiz will be held online so there is no need to switch out of your pyjamas and also no one will see how much wine exactly you're pouring yourself to get through the evening.

We're very excited to see you all again! You can participate by yourself or in a team, so tag that friend who always saved your ass with their lecture notes or secret IRIO crush you always had but never told.

And of course there is no fun without a little competition, so there is a special prize for the winner/winning team 🤓👸

Sign up sheet and more details, soon to follow! (but start thinking of a punny team name, much appreciated by the Mitrany board).