This is definitely one to tune in to! ⚠️ ENDS has teamed up with the same duo that brought you the BBC's Buried podcast ⬇️

A bale of plastic. A mystery body. A global investigation. Boy Wasted - a new true-crime series - out next week. Subscribe to the Eco Chamber podcast now wherever you get your podcasts to get it in your feed.

Years and years of work is going to be undone if we go back on net zero, at a time when the biggest push is needed to meet our climate and nature targets. These targets aren't just to protect the planet, its to ensure our survival & the future generations survival. Plus they're the bare minimum!

🚨BREAKING 🚨 Steve Reed, former DEFRA secretary, has been appointed as housing secretary following the resignation of Angela Rayner today ⬇️

@chemtrust.bsky.social & other campaigners have called on water minister Hardy to use the revised Environmental Improvement Plan to close the UK-EU “regulatory gap” on chemicals. This follows the news that a long promised chemicals strategy has been shelved 💡 Letter seen by @endsreport.com ⬇️

Thrilled & honoured to have made the #PPANextGen list of 30 rising stars for 2025 🙏 Extremely grateful to my editors @pippaneill.bsky.social and @jamiecarpenter.bsky.social for putting me forward - plus the hugely @endsreport.com team 💚

🚨EXCLUSIVE 🚨 Who has been granted a slice of the £11m in water company fines ring-fenced for river restoration by the Tories all that time ago? This is now public, after an EIR request I made in response to the uncertainty over the fate of the fund ⬇️

Finally! HSE has published its restriction dossier on PFAS in firefighting foams, which will now see a six month consultation 🚨 consultations.hse.gov.uk/crd-reach/pf...

“Faced with political gridlock, businesses increasingly represent an effective lever to move the environmental agenda forward...” I explore how NGOs are weathering the current geopolitical storm for @endsreport.com, featuring insights from a press trip I recently went on with Novotel x WWF ⬇️

Particularly concerning as there are thousands of unmonitored highway outfalls across the UK, channeling road run-off with chemical contaminants from tyres into rivers, estuaries and the sea ⚠️ We need to get a grip on this!

🌊The government has been advised to review the current water legislative framework, including reforming the Water Framework Directive. But what is proposed, and why are some proposals controversial? @shoshaadie.bsky.social reports ⬇️

“Farmers are being deceived by the water companies” - @georgemonbiot.bsky.social Have you read the sludge files yet? 💡 ENDS revealed 22 tonnes of microplastics are dumped on farms PER DAY via sewage sludge - and that the government has sat on warnings for years ⚠️ Find out more ⬇️

Vegetables grown in an allotment near a Lancashire chemical plant have been found to contain elevated levels of PFOA, a carcinogenic forever chemical ⚠️ Soil samples in nearby residential gardens were also confirmed to contain elevated levels of the chemical. @pippaneill.bsky.social reports ⬇️

David Attenborough’s call to end damaging fishing practices in a recent documentary has seen marine protections soar up the public agenda 🌊 But did policymakers manage to ride this wave at the UN Oceans conference last week? Here's my take for @endsreport.com ! ⬇️

Spending Review here we go! At @endsreport.com we'll be covering what it the announcements mean for the environment 🌱

Finally got confirmation on the rumours that the long delayed Chemicals Strategy, first announced by the previous government, has been shelved by Labour ⚠️ A new one might be developed though! An update is expected in the new Environment Improvement Plan ⬇️

The Monday EU-UK reset talks were a big topic at CHEM UK Expo 2025 today 💡 Very few updates on Labour’s direction for main post-brexit chemicals regulation (UK REACH), but it is clear the government is still seeking a ‘besoke’ deal with the EU…

⚡️Now launched! ENDS Power List 2025 ⚡️ #ENDSPowerList2025 shines a spotlight on 100 UK environmental professionals who've made a great impact in the past two years, as nominated by peers 🗳️ Today, we start by naming the most impactful campaigners 📢 and unsung heroes 🌠 🧵

🎆COMING SOON🎆 Mark your calendars, because ENDS Report’s 2025 Power List will be announced NEXT WEEK 🥂 The list celebrates the 100 UK environmental professionals who have made the greatest impact in the past two years – as nominated by their peers ⭐️

A PFAS 'forever chemicals' subgroup (LC-PFCAs) are among three groups of harmful chemicals that are to be banned 🌍 under the Stockholm Convention, following a recent UN chemicals conf 💡 Surprised to see this not reported more widely, given the growing awareness of the threat these chemicals pose!

Water companies have been urged to prepare for a medium risk of summer drought following the driest Spring since 1961, after a meeting of the National Drought Group on Wednesday... ⚠️

Northern Ireland has formally designated seven new bathing sites, one of which is its first inland bathing water! 💧 This is the first round of new designations since 2018! The inland site is situated on the north-eastern shore of Lough Neagh 🌊 But there are water quality concerns...

⚠️ DEFRA and water regulators have “failed” to ensure that necessary investments have been made into the water sector to ensure good performance, according to a report by the National Audit Office. The report partly attributes the recent big jump in water bills to these past failures ⬇️

The Environmental Audit Committee has launched an inquiry into PFAS forever chemicals It says this comes after news coverage has exposed the level of problems with PFAS' @endsreport.com has reported extensively on the impact of PFAS over the past few years. Here are some of our key stories 🧵⬇️

🚨BREAKING 🚨 The Court of Appeal has upheld a landmark ruling that DEFRA and the Environment Agency’s ‘generic’ plans to improve a Yorkshire water body were unlawful, in what has been described as a “turning point” for England's rivers 🌊 @fishlegal.bsky.social

Changes to registration fees under UK REACH have come into force today 💡 This is the main chemicals reg. in England, Wales and Scotland following Brexit. The government estimates this will save chemical companies £40m in total over the next six years (good news). But at what cost? @endsreport.com

🚨No river in England is in good chemical health 🚨 Earlier this year ENDS travelled to the frontlines of this crisis – here's a sneak peek of what we saw 📽️ The full exclusive footage will be shown next Thursday at our live panel event. Register for free ⬇️ ends-report.wavecast.io/dead-in-the-...

A larger number of water company incidents reported to regulators are likely to classify as pollution events under a proposed update to the Environment Agency’s internal guidance 💡

Awful news ⚠️ 'Nurdles' might sound harmless, but these small plastic pellets soak up pollutants and become more toxic as they go up the food chain. According to the chief coastguard (contacted by ENDS today), a retrieval operation began yesterday and is ongoing. www.endsreport.com/article/1910587

The government was due to make a decision on whether to ban lead shot by 13 March this year. But this deadline was missed, as pointed out by a number of green groups that have been calling for this for a long time incl. WWT, @wclnews.bsky.social ⚠️ ✍️ @pippaneill.bsky.social for @endsreport.com ⬇️

⚠️A court case against South West Water over sewage spills in Cornwall will go ahead after the water company’s attempt to get the charges dropped failed. The 12 charges being brought by the Environment Agency relate to discharges from two sewage pumping stations between 2016-2021 ⬇️

The percentage of Welsh water bodies that are on track to meet statutory targets has stalled since 2021 due to chemical pollution, new data shows, with just 40% at the required standard. Story by @shoshaadie.bsky.social www.endsreport.com/article/1910...

Two big watery announcements today 🌊 The environment secretary has pledged to clean up Windermere which he describes as being “choked by unacceptable levels of sewage pollution”. PLUS the government has allocated the £11m of ring-fenced water company fines to “locally-led schemes”.

The transport secretary has sent a ‘minded to approve’ letter for the expansion of Gatwick Airport, but has delayed the final DCO decision 🚨✈️ Already Europe’s busiest single runway airport, Gatwick’s plans could reportedly increase the number of departures from the airport by 50,000 per year.

🚨OUT NOW🚨 New investigative podcast special God's Own Dark Waters reveals how Bentham in Yorkshire came to be polluted with the highest known levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in the UK. Stream the first part of the two episode ECO Chamber series now wherever you get your podcasts🎧 pod.fo/e/2b22ae

“Almost regardless of what you think about climate change, when you look through the analysis you'll see a pretty good economic message" - @thecccuk.bsky.social What you need to know from the government's climate advisors' report on how the UK can reduce emissions by 87% (on 1990 levels) by 2040 ⬇️

A high court has given Thames Water the green light to take a high interest £3bn loan to stave off insolvency, that was contested by some creditors🚨 Without this, the company said it would have gone into a special administration regime (SAR) in March. Now it has extended its "liquidity runway".

Fish Legal have filed an official complaint with the Office for Environmental Protection over the final determinations for the 2024 price review. In brief, they question whether Ofwat's consultation was fair, and if the Environment Agency provided enough info ⬇️

Just 4.5% of staff in the environmental charity sector identify as people of colour and other racially or ethnically minority groups, the latest RACE report has found 💡 This a figure that is ‘substantially below’ the UK workforce average ⬇️

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 The government's approval of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea was illegal, the Scottish Court of Session has ruled ⬇️

The past week has RAMMED with green news, with a fair share of the good, bad, and (I think its fair to say) ugly when it comes to UK government signals on nature. @pippaneill.bsky.social and I have unpacked this for the latest episode of the ECO Chamber. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or👂⬇️

@financialtimes.com reports that consultancies have been approached by the government over taking on the role of special administrator at Thames Water, in the latest update on the water firm which is on the brink of insolvency. We have also covered this and what it means at @endsreport.com ⬇️

Quite big news from the green policy world that you might have missed! The government has said it will “explicitly consult” on applying a consistent chemicals, labelling and packaging regime across the UK, in a letter rejecting Northern Ireland’s request to depart from EU regulations 🧪

Day 5 of our PFAS series for the Guardian. Second story of the day: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This week I covered the government’s appeal against a ‘landmark’ ruling on rivers made back in 2023. The outcome is expected to have major implications for how plans to improve waterways in England need to be set out 🌊 Here is my write up of the hearing for @endsreport.com ⬇️

The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach the equivalent of over £84bn a year across the UK and Europe over the next two decades!! @watershed-i.bsky.social & Forever Lobbying Project in the Guardian ⬇️

The government’s appeal of a landmark ruling that its ‘generic’ plans to improve a Yorkshire water body were unlawful is due to be heard at the Court of Appeal TODAY & tomorrow 💡 #breaking #uk I will be covering this for the @endsreport.com ✒️ Here's the main bits of info ahead of the trial ⬇️

Super handy animation from Tim showing why 2024 being above 1.5ºC does not mean the long term global warming trend is there yet. Although we're ~ 1.37 (according to ERA5). 2030 is the @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social prediction also: apps.climate.copernicus.eu/global-tempe... 🌏🌊🧪⚒️📈🌡️

Calling all UK environment professionals, politicians & anyone who looks up to someone in that space(all of us right?)🚨 Nominate your peers/idols/rivals for a chance to get them recognised on 2025 ENDS Power List! Insider tip:Detailed applications tend to do the best, especially for unsung heroes✨

Environment secretary Reed has been urged to protect nature by following through with a “full and swift” ban on lead ammunition for outdoor shooting 🦢 The call comes from nature groups and parliamentarians✉️ [email protected] @wclnews.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social @chemtrust.bsky.social