Happy COP-mas Eve! To celebrate, on 1st day of COP-mas morn, under the tree you may find a sparkly chat with our friend @ben-cooke.bsky.social to set the expectations for the season. Check out wickedproblems.earth and/or your favourite media platform and Inshallah we will be there.

Pick up a copy of today's Times for 12 pages of in-depth coverage of the Cop30 talks, and the wider state of play for climate change and clean energy. It's got some brilliant stuff in it.

The US and China both have ambitions for energy dominance. But they're betting on very different visions of the global energy future. With China pumping out solar panels and batteries, and the US doubling down on gas, only one can be right. www.thetimes.com/world/asia/a...

We must be patriotically proud to be British but not to learn about or contribute to any of the culture that pride might be based on

my takeaway from climate week nyc is that "climate storytelling" is a little too much "we must reimagine our deepest souls in relationship to mother nature and the moral abyss of the polycrisis into which we must now stare" and not enough "ok but get a heat pump"

Excellent must-read by @ben-cooke.bsky.social clearest exposition I have yet seen of how problems with the #grid are holding up the Uk’s energy transition and imperiling Ed miliband’s #renewables ambitions. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Every day Britain loses 3 billion litres of water through leaky pipes - a big problem as Britain's summers become more arid. But water companies have some new tech with which to find them, including satellites that can spot leaks from space. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

We had the pleasure to welcome @ben-cooke.bsky.social in our CLEW team for 2 months for an IJP fellowship Ben’s stay was a truly enriching experience that showed just how powerful cross-border collaboration and exchange can be Read more about his experience: www.cleanenergywire.org/blog/why-wor...

Will hydrogen be the next LNG? That's the hope of a group of companies who want to ship the fuel from Oman to Amsterdam to power European industry. Tata Steel is onboard, but many analysts believe it's a fool's errand to ship the fuel thousands of miles. www.cleanenergywire.org/news/green-h...

It is remarkable that the west is committing to spending 5% of GDP on defence, and almost no one has made the case that the most pressing threat to our security this century is climate change and we should be spending more on tackling that.

Electricity is the power source of decarbonisation. But in Germany it's expensive, hindering industries's efforts to go green. As Germany prepares to discount its steelmakers' bills, can it subsidise its way to a green future? Or is steelmaking going to move to places with more abundant renewables?

In recent years London has been hit repeatedly by flash flooding. This has been due to climate change, but also due to its 32 boroughs trying to plan their flood defences separately. I spoke to Elizabeth Rapoport about a new strategy to change that. www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

Europe experienced two sides of climate change last year, with wet weather hitting western countries while eastern countries became exceedingly dry, a study has found. @ben-cooke.bsky.social reports on @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social research: www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Across the next week, the Times will be publishing a series about climate adaptation and the clean tech revolution. It'll be looking at the solutions that can help Britain prosper, even as the climate heats up. They're free to read, and will appear in print in next Thursday's Times Earth supplement.

Wind and solar power overtake coal in US for first time - Milestone highlights the rapid growth of renewable energy despite political headwinds since President Trump’s re-election HT @carbonbrief.org www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

This survey by E3G is a counterpoint to the narrative of ESG backlash. Turns out institutional investors are actually quite fond of the climate in which all civilisation has evolved, and would invest more in the UK if the gov was clearer on its plans to preserve it. www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

I write a weekly 'new reader' column in the Times on babies; if anyone's interested in being featured message me!

What's better than spending time with an interesting author writing about the wicked problem of climate? Having the right glass of something to accompany. So we bring you the Wicked Problems - Climate Tech Conversations Books of 2024 (non-fiction). open.substack.com/pub/wickedpr...

The carbon credits market has had a rough ride the last couple of years, as reports have revealed many credits to be worthless. But a new group of "carbon removal" companies believe they can rebuild it. Here's my piece on their efforts in today's Times. www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

The startup Material Evolution has cleared one of the biggest hurdles to net zero - making genuinely low carbon cement. But they've got a long way to go if they're to clean up an industry that produces 4 billion tonnes a year, and far more CO2 than aviation. www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Nice story on a UK startup producing low-carbon cement in Wrexham, by @ben-cooke.bsky.social: www.thetimes.com/business-mon... Cement is soooo hard to decarbonise because of the chemistry. I did a big read on this here: www.newscientist.com/article/mg24...

A while ago I realised that a baby girl born in Spain in 2016 can expect to live 85 years, which is beyond the time horizon of most climate scenarios (that range from 'not looking good, but maybe manageable for most' to 'chaotic hothouse hell-planet'). Also, that baby girl is my daughter.

More poorly informed takes on climate from The Rest Is Politics as they assess COP29. Rory Stewart says climate finance for developing countries is "completely the wrong way" to "stop global warming". Instead G20 should have met for a couple more days to "crack this". A few problems with this...

Here's my piece about the enormous lobbying battle about to commence to save Biden's climate agenda, and why its supporters believe they can salvage it by reframing it as an energy security agenda. www.thetimes.com/world/us-wor...

Made my first starter pack! These are the climate journalists I know and love and highly recommend following on BlueSky so far. Please tell me who I'm missing (and apologies in advance if I've missed you, I swear it's not intentional!) go.bsky.app/1ivUnG

Trump selects Chris Wright to run the Dept. of Energy. "Wright is the chief executive of oil and natural gas fracking services company Liberty Energy and sits on the board of a nuclear reactor company." He's a climate skeptic but supportive of geothermal, solar, nuclear: www.npr.org/2024/11/16/n...

Hello Bluesky! I'm covering the environment and clean energy at the Times so am looking to connect with climate people as they move over to here from the other place. Always on the lookout for stories about the mess we're in and how to get out of it, so do feel free to DM with tips!

Last week I was at Castle Howard to talk to the Environment Bank about their plans to fund rewilding with the sale of Biodiversity credits. Many carbon credits have been found to be worthless. So can this new market in biodiversity be any more trustworthy? www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Hello Bluesky! I'm covering the environment and clean energy at the Times so am looking to connect with climate people as they move over to here from the other place. Always on the lookout for stories about the mess we're in and how to get out of it, so do feel free to DM with tips!