“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”

Can I suggest that most of those feeling Christmassy are not answering yougov polls

Renowned climate scientist James Hansen predicts a temperature rise of 1.7c within 2 years which will 'confirm climate change acceleration'

2 days : 2 massive announcements from Government which affect the 2 main gateways for any new building: Planning and Regulation Yesterday the draft NPPF was published: www.gov.uk/government/n... Today the prospectus for a new Single Construction Regulator: www.gov.uk/government/c... Hot takes?

Paris is Biobased! 🌾 🌲 🪨 Paris is at the forefront of biobased construction. Spurred on by progressive national regulation requiring new buildings to meet strict limits on embodied carbon & boosted by city leadership from the capital itself, a biobased revolution is underway parisbiobased.eu

It's giving Oswald Mosley

Why is the built environment not seen as one of the key sectors of the UK economy? It has a significant impact on so many of our priorities: cost of living, health, growth, employment, energy & climate - but does not receive significant amount of political attention

This is another ‘ozone layer’ moment. We must urgently target #methane now, says Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados - Oil and gas industry must be legally bound to cut methane emissions. With climate tipping points approaching, time is running out #climatecrisis www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Yes.

Within European real estate investment, sustainability requirements have proved to be remarkably resilient this year, in the face of US backsliding. One asset manager notes “there is a massive divide between Europe and the US”, but sees the issue well embedded into European asset management plans.

AI is having a massive effect on our built environment, already. This table from the Urban Land Institute's Emerging Trends in Real Estate report tells a very clear story: Real estate investors and developers both rank Data Centres & Energy Infrastructure as the two biggest prospects for 2026.

"Concrete! 8% of the carbon emitted worldwide comes from concrete. That's why we build wood hybrid structures" - well said Hubert Rhomberg! youtu.be/a0IP2pcU2Zg?...

Quite a position to argues that the wokes are destroying a civilisation built on Christian faith but gang bangs are fine actually.

Today marks 10 years since the Paris agreement was signed. How is it going? For 3 years already the global temperature rise has breached the safe limit of 1.5. This limit was agreed only a decade ago in Paris. If it dips back below 1.5 it will be the coolest years of the rest of our lives.

I'll be in Copenhagen in the spring, speaking at the Build in Wood conference on May 19th & 20th. There's an excellent line up of speakers and topics - and I'm excited to be back in the city where I studied my masters... it's been a while! See you there! buildinggreen.eu/buildinwood/...

The growth of the Green Party of England and Wales is phenomenal, and shows people are hungry for bolder, more compassionate, left politics. This will be one of the defining stories of the next election

The German meteorologists and physicists are saying recent observations suggest we could be on track for 3 degrees of warming by 2050... That's the IPCC worst case scenario. worldcrunch.com/focus/green-...

The European Union commits to a bioeconomy strategy - putting biobased materials, and their supply chains at the heart of the economy - thereby recognising the value that nature can provide. This is good news - and the UK must follow suit or risk falling further behind. ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Terrible news for Londoners this. The fact you can pick up an electric car on most streets in the capital - for not much more than an ebike - has kept car ownership down, which reduces parking congestion, saves money and benefits the climate

"even though the energy transition is moving too fast for countries still being their future on fossil fuels, it is moving fast too slowly to produce a safe climate"

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

COP30. It's impossible to see this COP as anything other than a failure. 1️⃣The final agreement failed to include a road map setting out how countries could wean themselves off fossil fuels - oil, gas and coal - despite 80 countries pushing for this.

The Environmental Audit Committee published its report into environmental sustainability of housing growth. It is full of excellent insight from the industry and recommendations to Government. Here are some of the key takeaways. Thread! publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

"the carbon level has reached 426.68 parts per million – well over scientists’ so called “safe” limit of 350. (...) news editors have told me not to be too downbeat; let’s have some optimism. I think the facts speak for themselves." www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

The timing of this is incredible. Could it be any more obvious? Among the reasons for the defeat cited by analysts are voter fatigue over hard-line immigration policies.

Six weeks since the PM said Britain faced a choice between decency or division and our bad, obviously, for not understanding that he was in fact Team Division

Maybe it's just me, but I find the positive tone of posts like this infuriating. It isn't "good" news. To limit warming to 2 (not 1.5) degrees, emissions must fall by ~8% p.a., every year, from NOW. Fossil fuel use GROWING for ~5 more years would be an unmitigated disaster.

If this chart bears out we are all doomed. Growth in renewables means little if we do not also phase out oil, gas and coal.

The @news.architectsjournal.co.uk excellent Climate Champions podcast is back & I had the absolute pleasure of speaking to Hattie Hartman & Joe Jack Williams as the first guest of the new series "the ‘mind-blowing’ growth of bio-based materials" 😀 www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/aj-clim...

The leader isn't Labour's problem Their problem is that people elected them to reverse the damage done by the Tories Whereas they just carried on doing more damage They need to tax wealth and invest in public services And challenge the oligarchs dominating our economy And focus on fairness

Bugonia !

Cross Laminated Timber production capacity in Spain has quadrupled in the last 5 years, with new plants operational across the north from Galicia in the west to Catalonia in the East Read about one of Europes emerging success stories in Mass Madera's annual report: massmadera.org/informe-mass...

Some good news. China's emissions appear to have peaked:

as requested by absolutely nobody, I am going to live blog the launch of the Principles for Responsible Timber Construction at the Buildings and Cooling Pavilion inside the Blue Zone at COP30, Belem, Brazil.

Walworth Town Hall in Elephant & Castle, south London. The Victorian building was gutted by a fire, now beautifully refurbished and extended up with gorgeous timber structural design. General Projects development, design by Feix & Merlin

Dominic Cummings, in an earlier incarnation, ran a secretly-funded 'think tank' dedicated to attacking the Beeb while Robbie Gibb glided effortlessly from GBNews to the BBC & started lecturing staff on impartiality. Imagine (cos you'll have to) how the 'left-wing' equivalent would be reported.

In 'How They Broke Britain', I do a pretty good job of detailing the depth & breadth of Tufton Street/Tory/Murdoch/Mail attempts to scupper the BBC, even as I castigate some presenters for going too easy on precisely the people who seek the Corporation's abolition. But I should have done more. 1/2

It's wild to me that Tim Davie was pushed out because of supposed bias *against* the right! Most people, myself included, have for years seen the BBC drifting further and further right:

Which one is more English?

Things are moving really fast in the world of built environment carbon removals Grown in Britain is now developing a certification called Biogenic Stored Carbon Quotient (BSCQ) - which would certify the carbon locked up in construction, in biogenic materials www.growninbritain.org/grown-in-bri...

Fantasic illustration of how complex & global the supply chain is for concrete (here with steel rebar) Obviously this snapshot says little about the specific ecological impact of those sites, but if this has less negative impact than timber I'll eat my hat - and yours Credit: Steve Brown Ramboll

Recently visited workstack in Charlton - a project by the Greenwich Enterprise Board and dRMM Studios. Light industrial spaces stacked on top of each other - CLT boxes, super minimal internal finish / super low embodied carbon

Completely agree. we need to begin to account for "lifestyle" emissions in development planning

As part of our plans for COP30 at Built by Nature, we've produced a film showcasing 6 exemplar timber buildings from around the world. Narrated by Kevin McCloud - the film asks; can the way we build our homes help solve the climate crisis? www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WxQ...

Highlights the benefit of other parties stepping aside, and the anti-reform vote coming together around a single candidate

This fact - 2024 saw the largest one year increase in CO2 levels since records began - should be leading the news agenda round the clock. There should be 24/7 crisis reporting, breaking news style, forcing politicians everywhere to respond. Every other news story should be connected to this.

Clay boards with or without natural fibers as fire protection layer (bye gypsum) 'beclaydung' project #eurocode #earthbuilding #regenerativematerials #bauwende youtu.be/MrObT7j4wHA?...

The asymmetry of don’t knows are a huge part of this. 2024 Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative voters are disproportionately likely to say they ‘don’t know’ who’d they vote for in future, which takes them out of the voter pool. Reform thus win a higher % of the remaining voters, pushing up their poll %

This new residential tower in Lyon is made from wood. In many ways, this is quite an incredible building. Here's why:

FYI Hemp is the future of housing Whole-of-plant use Carbon neutral Fireproof Environmentally friendly 3D printed houses/materials Hemp is ideally suited to Australian conditions CC: @JEChalmers @ClareONeilMP @CatherineKingMP @JulieCollinsMP 🐝 #auspol hemptoday.net/popular-uk-d...