Guardian covers response from me and CSOs to the false claim by Tony Blair that abandoning net zero and drilling for every last drop in the North Sea would be good for the U.K. - it’s nonsense and driven by his links to the fossil fuel industry. Our fossil fuel dependence has caused economic mayhem

We are in midst of another fossil fuel crisis and need to accelerate electrification to strengthen energy and economic security. This decision by HMRC to appeal a court ruling that government should not be charging more than 5% VAT on EV charging only undermines that mission - No 10 needs to step in

As Iran war reminds us all the cost of fossil fuel dependence, news breaks that new electric cars are now cheaper to buy than new petrol cars for first time. They are already £1000 a year cheaper to run each year. EV demand is set to accelerate

14 years of new North Sea oil and gas licenses under Tory administrations under a maximum extraction policy led to one months supply of gas. It proves that new licenses will do nothing to strengthen our energy security. It is a fantasy peddled by the political wing of the fossil fuel barons

Why have progressive voters deserted Labour? I’ve worked as a climate campaigner for 20 years and one clue to this question may be that since Labour came to power I’ve detected no change from Treasury on climate action - they are as backward as the Tories - perhaps scared of Reform. This must change

Great thread from @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org ripping to pieces the shameless disinformation on the cost of net zero from oil and gas funded Tufton Street and covered without due scrutiny by the right wing media. It assumes funding and running a fossil fuel system is free - 100% bollocks

Drivers of EVs can save on average over £1000 a year on fuel costs. Badenoch is not on the side of drivers. She is on the side of the fossil fuel companies. A faster transition to EVs will also help to keep our car manufacturers competitive

ECO was failing but needed reform, not axing. The impact will be a cut of £5 billion to insulate fuel poor homes and loss of 10,000 jobs. Reeves cut winter fuel payments then u-turned; she then cut disability benefits then u-turned. Now she is slashing funding for the fuel poor. A Labour Chancellor

I’m quoted in this article criticising Chancellor for axing ECO, the U.K. insulation scheme. The most recent version failed due to terrible design by former government, but it needed reform, not scrapping. The decision is a £5 billion cut to insulate homes of fuel poor and will cost 10,000 jobs

The real story here is Reeves trying to gut the warm homes plan. If she gets her way at Budget and the ECO green levy is axed, then green homes funding for insulation and electrification will be cut from £21bn to £13bn over 5 years - a 40% cut which will lead to more gas dependency and higher bills

What a great project to make the use of veteran skills - helping to accelerate the clean tech revolution. Extra poignant given clean energy is super essential to energy security and indeed national security

Guardian cover letter we helped coordinate to call on the Chancellor not to cut or axe the Energy Company Obligation at Budget. 67 civil society groups and major businesses say it would threaten fuel poverty and climate targets to remove UKs leading insulation programme. Thanks to all that signed

The Treasury is at serious risk of killing off the transition to electric vehicles by bringing in a new pay per mile tax at Budget. Given the market is only just going mainstream, this move could torpedo progress. It’s bad timing which won’t help the U.K. EV industry or climate action

The Treasury is actively contemplating axing the UKs main insulation programme (ECO) to cut energy bills. Given how critical insulation is to ending fuel poverty and reducing energy bills, it would be completely self defeating and destroy the insulation industry as well. Mobilise. Now.

This catastrophic, record breaking hurricane was made 5 times more likely by climate change. The politicians and media figures arguing for slowing down the transition to carbon free energy are fuelling this destruction

This is powerful research showing that the UK has saved over £100 Billion on our energy bills due to the roll out of wind power. That is the saving after accounting for green subsidies. This shreds false claims by Reform that renewables drives up energy bills. They are lying. The reverse is true

Data from the real world shows that hybrid cars are little better than regular petrol and diesel cars when it comes to the fuel they consume, the CO2 they produce and the money they cost to run. The lesson here is that the industry (and consumers) should leap straight to full electric cars

Every day is a good day to point out that 92% of Reform's donations were found to come from figures and groups linked to the fossil fuel industry. @desmog.com

China ≠ just coal plants and solar exports. The deeper shift: electrifying everything it can. Strategic, because China relies on imported fossil fuels. Coal is still king in the power mix—for now. But the balance is changing year by year.

This blog is my take on the Tory Party vow this week to axe the Climate Change Act. This is not leadership. It is surrender to the commercial interests of fossil fuel barons at the cost of us all.

My take on the decision by Kemi Badenoch to end the fight against the climate crisis and torpedo the U.K. economy and a great critique by @fionaharvey.bsky.social of the falsehoods set out in the Tory press release. This action by Badenoch is utterly shameful.

Kemi Badenoch has now aligned the Tory party on climate with Trump and the far right parties of Europe. Tragic. It shows that she is more interested in the profits of oil and gas companies than the security of the country. The Tory party can no longer be trusted on the environment or the economy

There’s a persistent myth that new solar farms don’t really help tackle climate change because panels are “made with coal” and “never pay back” their carbon debt. This is simply false. - UN: solar ~8x cleaner than gas, ~19x than coal per kWh - panels repay CO2 in 4 months; save 57x over life

And here is the graphic showing the potential for heat pumps to cost half as much to run as a gas boiler WITH policy reforms - full report is here : www.e3g.org/publications...

www.theguardian.com/environment/... - our latest E3G report showing that with policy reform, running a heat pump could be half the price of running a gas boiler. The future is electric !

Ofgem just approved a record £24bn investment in gas & electric grids to 2031, making bills "£30 lower" than they would have been Predictably, some usual-suspect media have mangled the reporting. So here's a Really Simple guide to counterfactuals, with Bluey refs:

The Tony Blair Institute should issue a public apology for putting out a climate ‘solutions’ report that has been so easily weaponised by those seeking to delay climate action. This was a gross misjudgement and it should have been properly vetted before publication - what a mess

This is one of the worst reports I’ve seen to date on the energy transition. It is divisive and inaccurate. In the U.K. people have not lost faith in climate action. The issue is just being weaponised by Farage and Badenoch because it is part of their culture war strategy to gain power #climate

See below my article in Environmental Politics on ‘reasons to be cheerful’ despite the massive challenges we face on climate action. When you get past the politics, there are economic meta trends that make the shift to clean energy unstoppable. Happy reading

Latest gov 2024 figures show U.K. greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 54% (since 1990) and renewables made up over 50% of our electricity supply for first time. But gas is still driving up energy bills. We need to GET OFF GAS as soon as possible to bring down energy bills and boost our security

🚨 In Today’s spring statement, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has left a “huge open goal” by neglecting the clean economy as the primary driver for growth in the UK. Meanwhile, devastating cuts to overseas development aid undermine UK security. Read our rapid reaction👇🧵

Solar is quickly becoming the cheapest source of electricity & will fundamentally change the energy system. This paper argues that solar will be cheapest source of electricity around the world. Surprisingly this is AFTER including short- & long-term storage costs. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"By abandoning net-zero by 2050, Badenoch has sold out the interests of the British people to the fossil fuel industry." - @edmatthew.bsky.social in @desmog.bsky.social The CCC recently said targeting net-zero would help cut household costs by £1,400 a year by 2050. www.desmog.com/2025/03/18/k...

📢 UK heat pump installations hit a record high! A key driver? Boosting the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant. But high costs still block many. E3G’s @edmatthew.bsky.social says the govt must recommit in June’s spending review & expand support for low-income households. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Dogs prefer electric cars. Surely that is now the death knell for the fossil fuel car!

Heat pump market surges in 2024. I’m quoted calling for extension of heat pump grants and for government to remove some levies off electricity bills to really make the heat pump market fly.

Over the weekend we asked the British public to describe in a word how they felt about the Trump-Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting. The answers somewhat speak for themselves.

The startling finding from the CCC’s advice on the 7th Carbon Budget is the scale of savings households can make by 2050 - on average a £700 cut in energy bills and another £700 cut in driving fuel bills a year. This means anyone arguing against net zero is in effect calling for high energy bills

Defence spending may well need to increase in face of Russian threats and American isolationism but there are better ways to pay for it - especially taxes on oil & gas companies, who have made obscene profits over last few years. Cutting aid spending is devastating.

The net-zero economy grew 10% in 2024. Green=Growth. The line I love from this article is that Tory & Reform parties did not respond to request for comment 🤦‍♂️ - in their pursuit or culture wars, Badenoch & Farage are undermining economic growth and would condemn U.K. to dependence on high cost gas

Drax subsidies extended but cut in half - my quote on Drax in Guardian: “its legacy is high emissions and forest destruction … its days are numbered”

Trump is a big fan of freedom of speech, unless of course it involves educating the public about the biggest existential threat to humanity - then he acts to remove all trace of it

Concerning article from the Sun on Sunday today on Rosebank, where the writer and Labour sources quoted clearly don’t quite grasp the economics of the oil and gas industry... maybe this thread can help 👇 archive.ph/Veh5p

Big news as Rosebank oilfield ruled illegal because the original decision did not take account of the climate impact of burning the oil. It is a total scandal these fields were approved without taking this into account. Gov must move fast to end all new oil and gas fields to stop climate breakdown

The catastrophic Los Angeles fires were made 35% more likely as a result of climate change. How bad does it need to get before the Republican Party acts to defend the people?

Great report from @julietphillips.bsky.social and Beyond Fossil Fuels on cost of gas dependence and the need for new policies to create green energy back up and stop gas companies from profiteering during this transition

China is already leading the world on clean tech investment. How do you think they feel about Trump’s climate roll back?

The seas ARE rising... And hotting up..

New sunlight beats old sunlight! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...