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Happy new year, and welcome to this week’s Fix the Planet, the weekly climate change newsletter that reminds you there are reasons for hope in science and technology around the world. To receive this free, monthly newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

I’ve been looking to see how my predictions for 2021 fared. Betting on a strong year for hydrogen and the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere turned out to be good ideas, while my hope for green economic recoveries transpired to be wishful thinking.

Today I’m turning my eye to 2022. Delivering on the promises made in the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed last November will be a big challenge, while two major set-piece climate science reports will dominate February and March. But many of the trends we’ll see this year will be due to economics, technology, science and, of course, politics. Climate change may feature in several key election battles, from national votes in Australia, France and Brazil to the US midterms.

Below is my list of what to watch.

Impacts and solutions

Next month sees  of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s current round of reports on the state of climate science. It will mostly cover the impacts of climate change, such as heatwaves, fires and flooding, and how we can adapt to them. As demonstrated by the  and the UK’s  – both records for those dates  – every year now brings a deluge of extremes and records. And that’s with just 1.1°C of global warming to date. So expect the IPCC report to make waves with leaders who will have to plan for flood barriers,�� and so on. The IPCC also has a  on mitigation, or how we can cut and remove emissions enough to avoid the worst ravages of climate change. If you missed part one of these reports,��.

Floating wind turbines

Almost all offshore wind farms are attached to the seabed, which is why the shallow North Sea is the world’s hotspot for the technology. But floating turbines, to stay upright, open up even the deepest waters to the clean energy source. One reason floating wind power makes my 2022 list is developers in the  to build them later this decade. The second is that other countries are on the brink of exploiting the technology. Spain’s BlueFloat Energy , which would be the country’s first. Meanwhile, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell is .

Biodiversity and climate crisis crossover

�ճ���������Ի��� last year were, rightly, at pains to remind us that the solutions to a warming world and the degradation of nature overlap, from tree planting and soil health to conserving species and restoring ecosystems. Most countries are still a long way from acting on that knowledge, but I’m hopeful a ( refers to more “nature-based solutions” by 2030 to mitigate climate change).

Whither nuclear?

A row over the Christmas season about the  was a good reminder that the world is still divided on  . With retirements of old nuclear plants in the ,��  and elsewhere scheduled for this year, nuclear proponents will be pushing for new generation. Rolls Royce in the UK is setting out on its four to five-year journey to win regulatory approval for . EDF Energy will be hoping to secure a business model from the UK government to build a second new large plant in the UK, at Sizewell in Suffolk. And a decision on a site  is due this year too.

The Glasgow Climate Pact promises

A lot . This year, eyes will be on the pledge by governments to “revisit and strengthen” their national climate plans before an end-of-year climate summit in Egypt.  have already said they won’t deliver new plans, though the latter may have a new government later this year so watch this space. Meanwhile, let’s see if new financially sweetened packages to wean countries off coal emerge,��. Indonesia and India could be next.

More eyes in space

NASA is launching a bunch of satellites this year to better monitor everything from tropical cyclones to ocean eddies (). Green groups are getting in on the act too: US non-profit Environmental Defense Fund is  to put a satellite into orbit from October to pinpoint methane plumes. Given , such monitoring will be vital.

Energy bills crisis

High wholesale gas prices mean rising energy bills will continue to be a big political issue in many countries. In the UK, the crisis will come to a head in February when an increase in a regulated price cap is announced, taking effect in April. It will likely raise typical annual household energy bills by several hundred pounds, partly because of how expensive gas is and partly to recoup  . The big question is whether renewables and green options emerge as the solution to avoiding repeats of the crisis, or as an unfair scapegoat for the mess.

Greener plane fuel starts to take off?

The production and consumption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), or biofuel as most of us know it, is pitiful today. About 0.1 per cent of all fuel burned for flights globally uses SAF. That is unlikely to increase enough this year to put the airline industry on track for its target of 5 per cent by 2025, but recent policies from the �����Ի��� should send a signal for firms to invest in .

Pump it up

Regular readers will know I like to , but there’s little sign of this low-carbon heating technology going away. Expect to hear lots more about pumps in coming months, as manufacturers work on ways to make them mimic the “instant-on” ability of gas boilers and energy companies try to bring down their installation costs. And in England and Wales,��.

The $555 billion question

Will US president Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan ever happen? Senator Joe Manchin has repeatedly almost derailed the whole plan, which includes hundreds of billions of dollars for clean energy investment. Talks between Biden’s administration and Manchin . Delivering the plan will be crucial for the US’s credibility for climate action on the international stage.

Electric cars accelerate

The UK car industry body thinks that , up on . I suspect the 2022 forecast will be wildly beaten ( ). That’s mostly because of the sheer volume of new models launching this year, including from the two biggest car makers, VW and Toyota. Rising oil prices as economies shrug off the pandemic will make electric alternatives look more attractive too. As always, the growth will be uneven globally, and you can expect Norway to eclipse its incredible  while the UK .

MORE FIXES

• Yet more heat pump-related news. Swedish energy firm Vattenfall  which could counter one of the criticisms of the technology, that it works at lower temperatures than the gas boilers it’s replacing, which sometimes requires costly upgrades to radiators.
• I’ve written before about , so was pleased to hear the company working on the idea has successfully extracted lithium. Whether it’ll make economic sense is another matter. .
• It’s not going to save the world, but it’s a step in the right direction: Samsung has  that doesn’t need batteries and draws power from wi-fi routers. A small addition to the long list of reasons to decarbonise electricity grids.
• There’s a lovely feature about peatland restoration in �鶹��ý. .

Thanks for reading, and please do share  with a friend if you think they’d enjoy it.