If you’re keen on delivering community energy and overseeing two solid existing projects this post could be for you

UK govt war on bats and newts, part 328 Small building developments will no longer need to worry too much about the damage they cause to nature Or as London Wildlife Trusts say "We’ve got a flatlining economy, I know what’s to blame: hedgehogs" www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

The decline in Arctic sea ice from climate change is not only a tragedy for the region's people & wildlife Scientists at the National Snow & Ice Data Center talk of "a potential causal relationship between Arctic ice retreat and extreme weather in midlatitudes" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

The world of electric vehicles is changing rapidly as increasingly the leaders are in developing countries India, Mexico & Brazil now have a higher EV sales share than Japan Indonesia’s EV sales share has reached 15% this year, overtaking the US ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

The Conservatives are threatening to abandon the phaseout date for petrol and diesel cars should they win the next election There are so many reasons this is an awful idea you wonder whether any thought has been involved Let me run through them 🧵🧵 1/7 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Legal adviser to Rachel Reeves quits after advising plans to rip up planning laws could jeopardise trade with the EU and lead to widespread habitat destruction The laws derive from EU Habitats Regulations, and non-regression forms part of the trade deal with EU www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Obviously it's not new, but it is once again striking how the United States, Saudi Arabia & Russia amongst others think they can deal with the environmental crisis by ignoring the evidence and cosying up to existing interests www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Staggering statistic on the health burden of phthalates, bisphenols, pesticides & “forever chemicals" in the FOOD SYSTEM. Mad $2.2 trillion is about half the annual healthcare spend of the USA There's also a further cost of approx $640bn ecological damage www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A new record - on 5 December wind power produced enough electricity for 3/4 of UK homes At 23.8GW it meant that even during winter peak demand, it was still providing nearly half the country's power needs Still a way to go though.... www.edie.net/uk-soars-pas...

The heat isn't going away. 2025 on track to tie second warmest year ever Climate change is generating food-price inflation in Europe, catastrophic flooding in south-east Asia Likely this warmth will continue into next year with further impacts. It may be permanent www.ft.com/content/9e0e...

It's 25th anniversary of the 1st offshore wind turbine in the UK this week Offshore wind now provides over 1/6 of UK power Success was not inevitable, and it continues to be a battle against the fossil fuel industries Greenpeace UK has been part of the fight www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/powerin...

The British electricity system was over 50% renewables last year The system operator is expecting by 2030 grid companies will connect 34.5GW batteries, 32.1GW offshore wind & 29.9GW solar Considerably more than any of those sectors has operating in Britain today www.ft.com/content/9913...

This is such a good story of how random interaction can lead to potentially huge impact from new science It’s on one of the major frontiers of science- understanding the soil that grows pretty much all our food www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

PFAS, or 'forever chemicals', are among the most widely used pesticide active substances in UK 27 known PFAS active ingredients are used in UK, 6 of which are highly hazardous "Our findings underscore the urgent need for an immediate ban" say PAN-Europe www.theguardian.com/environment/...

2025 was heat and drought. 2024 was incessant rain Three of the five worst British harvests on record have now occurred since 2020 Some farmers are asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops www.theguardian.com/environment/...

New CEO of Diageo writes: "Environmental shocks, from flooding to soil degradation to heat stress, pose direct threats to commercial viability Recent evidence found that the share prices of companies most exposed to biodiversity risk underperformed those less exposed" www.ft.com/content/5094...

There's a move to delay EU phaseout date of petrol & diesel cars because of domestic auto industries are struggling to change But head of Volvo says “If Europe doesn’t take lead in this transformation [to electric] rest assured, other countries will do it for us” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The 'forever chemicals', which don't breakdown, in the blood of this BBC reporter at levels that can impact health will be replicated in many across the UK population That they've been allowed into products and into the food chain is a monstrous failure of regulation www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The World Health Organization recommends annual limit on fine particulate air pollution of 5ug/m3 The UK Govt Environmental Improvement Plan will align UK’s standards with EU's - 10ug/m3 by 2030 This means in some places wood-burning stoves will be restricted www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Europe’s water reserves are drying up - freshwater storage shrinking across S & central Europe, & parts of UK Satellite data on changes in gravitational field show changes in available water as it's heavy Climate breakdown can be seen in the data say scientists www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Greenpeace UK assessment of climate side of Budget 2025 "a budget without a vision.... playing energy policy whack-a-mole – reacting to problems as they popped up without a coherent strategy" Energy bills, nuclear, oil & gas, electric vehicles all in here www.greenpeace.org.uk/resources/bu...

And as a rough comparison: Hinkley Point C: - estimate now up to £35bn+ - 6 million homes - proposed 2008, ready approx 2030 Dogger Bank Wind Farm: - sub £10bn - 6 million homes - proposed 2008, already producing power

So it's now news Hinkley Point C will be really expensive? FFS, I & others were trying to tell people this over a decade ago, before contracts were signed But the nuclear-political establishment thought they knew better They didn't. Not for the first time www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

The UK throws 216 million pieces of children's clothing into landfill each year Britain is the 'worst offender' across Europe in contributing to the children's clothing waste mountain www.businessgreen.com/news/4522463...

Tar sands have a good claim to be the most polluting form of oil on the planet So sad to see the once-green Carney approve a pipeline, enhancing output, over to Canada's west coast www.ft.com/content/29e0...

UK national security risks in going slow with exiting fossil fuels UK system operator "said there's a risk of gas supply shortages in scenario where Britain moved to lower carbon energy slower than planned... the system might not cope with loss of a major piece of infra" www.ft.com/content/7c5b...

Hoo boy, another fictitious "EV market slows" headline from the Times *EU EV sales are up 25.6% in 2025* Receipts in thread.

“Govt’s propaganda machine is working overtime to perpetuate the false narrative that nature blocks development,” say Wildlife Trusts, with “confected outrage about a fish disco” The claim that a system to avoid killing fish at Hinkley C is slowing development weak www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Despite worries about solar under Trump, the sector has not collapsed & prospects look good - hence surge in solar share prices A lot of tax credits have been maintained, datacentres need power and solar is cheap &fast to deploy, rooftop promising as power prices rise www.ft.com/content/af1f...

Blaming the planning system for high prices of nuclear power is absurd The EPR being built at Hinkley was way over budget in Finland, China & France The AP1000 the USA is keen on bankrupted Westinghouse when built in S Carolina Nuclear power is expensive. Period www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wind was delivering 22.7GW during the evening peak on Nov 11, nearly 44% of power, equivalent to 22 million homes supplied The System Operator said "our national grid can run safely and securely on large quantities of renewables generated right here in Britain" news.sky.com/story/new-re...

European meat industry lobbying extends its footprint to the UK as terms like 'veggie burger' to be banned n order to protect meat sales www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Study of all-electric properties in Birmingham, with heat pumps and solar, shows they use less energy at peak times than expected, reducing stress on the grid “We’re finding all those reasons not to go ahead with a heat pump are slowly but surely falling away” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The world's govts already agreed to triple renewables, double energy efficiency, & substantially cut methane emissions *If* they follow through on these by 2035, it would quickly slow the rate of warming, lowering temperature rise this century from 2.6C to 1.7C www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As clear a demonstration as possible governments can choose to accelerate renewables development **if they want to** This is levelised cost of renewable projects versus Average Cost of Capital (= % interest paid) Using govt balance sheet to lower ACC matters theconversation.com/renewable-en...

Lobbyists representing the interests of industrial cattle farming, commodity grains & pesticides is up 14% on last year’s climate COP The agricultural industry, esp in Brazil, is the major cause of deforestation www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Filming at an abandoned uranium mine in Arizona. The mining waste is uncontained, open to the winds. Professor Kearfott, University of Michigan, telks me the Geiger counter readings I took here are similar to those remaining around Chernobyl. vimeo.com/ondemand/thi...

UK govt's war on bats & newts - update UK Govt still sees this war as necessary to unblock infrastructure projects But the Environmental Audit Committee of MPs, said nature was being scapegoated, wasn't a block to growth, and is necessary for resilient towns www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Ban on neonicotinoid pesticides is allowing insect-eating bird species to recover Skilled volunteer ornithologists looked at over 1,900 sites across France dividing data into 2 groups – 5 years before the ban, 2013 - 2018; & post-ban period from 2019 - 2022 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This chart can, and should, get a lot of attention in the second week of #COP30 because it starkly demonstrates the inequality at the heart of the climate problem www.ft.com/content/d0c2...

As #COP30 brings the Amazon into focus, reminder that the voluntary agreement known as the 'soya moratorium' has slowed rates of deforestation in the region It's under thereat from big farmer interests. It's vital Tesco, Sainsbury's, McDonald's, KFC et al stand firm www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The UK does need a chunk of grid upgrade, but £80bn is a lot when there’s such a challenge with energy bills Surely we need a clear justification for every major transmission project If these justifications are essentially secret, it’s a huge governance fail www.theguardian.com/business/nil...

China now emits more CO2 than the USA, EU, India and Japan combined New reports say we’re still on track for over 2.6C climate warming www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Almost half a billion people live within 1km of fossil fuels sites incl drilling wells, processing plants & pipelines Most active projects have created heavily contaminated areas where low-income & marginalized groups bear a disproportionate burden of pollution www.theguardian.com/environment/...

That's quite a contrast of headlines in the news on the same report It arises because of the way that the International Energy Agency is choosing to report its scenarios 🧵🧵 1/3 www.ft.com/content/8696... www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Flatlining CO2 emissions in China foreshadows that global emissions will peak Not fast enough, and the fall may not be steep enough. But at least the peak is is sight www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chi...

Good to see @dougparr.bsky.social from Greenpeace quoted. It’s clear that insulation gives people warmer homes and more disposable income to put back into the economy.

"We need nuclear power because renewables are unreliable" is sounding more and more stupid. At this rate, by the time Hinkley C is built we'll have enough battery storage to run the electricity system on 100% renewables for many days at a time - quite possibly all year round.

Hinkley Point C in UK will be delayed by another year after EDF "continues to grapple with installation of electrical systems" I am shocked, shocked! Message to UK govt & hangers on: delay has nothing to do with planning, bats, newts or other bete noir www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Starting at Cop26 in 2021, 159 countries signed the global methane pledge, requiring a cut of 30% by 2030 Yet collectively, emissions from 6 of the biggest signatories – US, Australia, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan & Iraq – are now 8.5% *above* 2020 level www.theguardian.com/environment/...