There are some TRULY idiotic "I hate net-zero" takes on yday's OBR report, which set out long-term risks to govt finances It's right there in the report, but to repeat, OBR makes it crystal clear that climate action will be far less costly than inaction www.carbonbrief.org/...

☀️It’s been an exceptionally sunny & dry spring – what role is climate change playing? Dr Clair Barnes, an Imperial College climate scientist, explains the shifts in spring weather. And Colin Chappell, a farmer, lays out how these changes are impacting UK agriculture.

Yesterday, Ross Clark claimed in the @thespectator1828.bsky.social "The likely fall in the energy price cap will be purely a reaction to lower wholesale prices on international markets... it is simply markets at work" Is this the same Ross Clark who blames "net zero" every time bills go up? 🧵😂

Interesting @theipaper.com story highlighting claims by the Food & Drink Federation that higher NI contributions and new food packaging levies are increasing prices. But here's something they don't mention... what about climate change? 🧵 inews.co.uk/news/politic...

The deal apparently includes 13,000 tonnes in tariff free beef access to the US for UK farmers, and 13,000 tonnes in tariff free beef access to the UK for US farmers. No one's standards change. By way of context the tariff free quota Australian beef gets into the US is 448,214 tonnes per annum.

A sound long gone from British villages & gardens - a singing Wryneck. There’s Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts, Hawfinches, Tree Sparrows and Swallows around this garden too. It’s like going back in time, challenging the shifting baseline and reminding how much birds have declined in Britain.

This is what farming with climate change looks like After the second worst harvest on record in 2024, farmers in England have had record breaking rain in September, followed very little rain and record breaking sun & heat in March & April Good for berries I guess, less good for lots of others!

FACTCHECK: Almost all the headlines on Tony Blair / net-zero are *wildly* inaccurate REALITY: 1️⃣Net-zero is *only way* to stop warming 2️⃣Blair calls for tech to "turbocharge our path to net-zero" 3️⃣He categorically *does not* say "net-zero is doomed to fail" 🧵 1/6

Thousands more people could die from overheating each year if Britain does not adapt to a warming world to avert “tomorrow’s disasters”, the UK government’s climate advisers have warned. @thecccuk.bsky.social says no sign Labour are taking climate adaptation more seriously than Tories

NEW: Who are the voters Labour risks losing to Reform? How might Lab unite them with the rest of its election winning coalition? How might Reform win them over? Some big new research out today with @persuasionuk.bsky.social as featured by @greenmirandahere.bsky.social in today's FT 🧵👇

A considerable amount of the Northern hemisphere's landmass has already warmed more than 2C since the industrial era. The cold blob in the North Atlantic is a telltale sign of a weakening AMOC current. Visual by @edhawkins.org

Great thread this If I was Prime Minister for the day and wanted people to feel a material improvement to their day-to-day, I’d throw what money I had at local government And not just at pot holes, but at stuff like the services that get drinkers and addicts off the streets

ICYM Solar panel push still won’t cover as much land as golf courses, even if the UK government's 2030 solar power goals are met www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

This is an, ahem, interesting piece from Jawad Iqbal in today's Times: "Miliband has in the past boasted about the previous Labour government’s decision to phase out coal power… Miliband claimed other countries would follow “our example”. Really? It seems highly unlikely." Here’s why he's wrong 🧵

Very important point. It's not green energy that is making UK electricity expensive: it's mostly gas

I've just caught up with Nick Robinson's interview with James Murray MP on #r4today. 1) Green energy isn't driving energy prices up. As Murray said, our high energy costs are down to reliance on foreign gas. We need *more* home grown renewables! Robinson seems keen to reopen UK coalmines... 1/

🚨Some major errors & misleading claims from experienced presenter Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4 Today, when discussing British Steel with Treasury Minister James Murray I hope these are corrected on tomorrow's programme, and Robinson sticks to the facts in future. Here's what he got wrong... 🧵

This is really important for everyone to be aware when out & about in the British countryside. 15 years ago I rarely had ticks on me during fieldwork. Nowadays I have several every time I'm in the same woods. Ticks can & do cause life-changing health problems.

Would be sad if these went. Only been to Romania once but these haystacks across the landscape were one of the things that made the place special & different As this story points out, they're also important habitats for fauna and flora www.theguardian.com/environment/...

29 years of natural colonisation, woodland expansion. Oaks, hawthorns, blackthorns. This 2 ha of new woodland, all self-sown creates new habitat and future ancient woodland, but also buffers the existing woodland next door from drying winds and agri-spray drift. Win, win, win.

The foods in danger of disappearing from UK supermarket shelves within 10 years A weekly shop without coffee, chocolate or a joint of meat may seem unthinkable but consumer experts predict our changing climate could remove key products from supermarkets within a decade.

What's remarkable about Nick Robinson's discussion with Rishi Sunak about net zero is not just Sunak's lack of knowledge but that Robinson doesn't ask at all about climate change: do you know anything about it? What would you do about it? www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

But I thought nobody wants heat pumps? And they dOn'T wOrK iN tHe CoLd? Looks like misinfo isn't slowing growth in UK heat pumps Good, bc we can't have energy security with the status quo (gas boilers) & we can't have national security without energy security Heat pumps = national security

I briefly interrupt your feed of constant US-based doom and/or gloom to remind you that in other countries, there's some pretty cool stuff happening on the food / agriculture / nature / climate policy front at the national level, and that Denmark recently took a step that could inspire others.

Denmark is  one of the world's largest meat producers, but they are also innovative leaders in decarbonizing food and farming. Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl of the Vegetarian Society of Denmark tells @alexisconran.bsky.social how their approach is ‘more carrot, less stick’.

NEW: Official advisers CCC say UK shld cut emissions 87% by 2040 ⚖️Net cost of net-zero 73% less than thought 💷Total cost to 2050 = £108bn (~£4bn/yr, 0.2% GDP) 🏡🚗H’hold energy/fuel bills to fall £1,400 🔌Electrification is key THREAD + charts www.carbonbrief.org/... 1/10

The 7th carbon budget is a MASTERCLASS in avoiding a climate culture war, despite having to talk about flying and farming. Kudos to the team!

We have published our advice on the Seventh Carbon Budget. It is in line with previous Government commitments – the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Carbon Budgets, international commitments, and the Net Zero commitment in 2050.

Some good news! Defra is extending Farming in Protected Landscapes & announced an extra £30 million for Higher Level Stewardship. Supporting land managers & farmers via these schemes is essential to achieve nature-rich National Parks. @campaign4parks.bsky.social www.gov.uk/government/s...

I mean nobody thought a US/UK trade deal was on the cards because of chlorinated chicken. But the prospect must now have hit absolute zero.

Defra announces farmers in HLS scheme will see increased payments, and decision to re-open Capital Grants Offer, @tommlancaster.bsky.social, @eciu.net commented: “Farmers in the Higher Level Stewardship scheme are amongst those doing the most for climate and nature."eciu.net/media/press...

As a Liverpool fan, I still think Clive Darwell here could be right

New in #BirdStudy, and in last week's Altmetric top 10! Well-managed solar farms have higher bird diversity & abundance than arable farmland. Solar farm management influences breeding bird responses in an arable-dominated landscape (Copping et al) doi.org/10.1080/0006... #ornithology #ukbirding

This week's edition of Most Favoured Nation looks at the legal, semi-legal, and defintely not legal ways countries could abide by Donald Trump's demands to lower their tariffs on US exports. mostfavourednation.substack.com/p/most-favou...

If you want to know why Vance meant everything he said yesterday, and why that's even more dangerous than it might appear, have a read of my post this week on the ideology behind Musk and Vance. "Technology vs Democracy" (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/technology...

Our new paper, free to read in Bird Study, compares bird counts on solar farms and adjacent farmland. For solar farms with infrequently cut/grazed grass and bounded by hedges/trees, both farmland and woodland birds were more abundant than on adjacent arable land www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This Guardian article on brake pad dust misses some fairly important context EVs use friction brakes far less than internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, because of the magic of regenerative braking Meaning they produce less of this toxic dust A 🧵 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Some good news for a change Scientists found solar farms had a greater number of species & individual birds per hectare than surrounding arable land Solar did not pose a threat to national food security, esp when built on low or moderate grade agricultural land www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Liz Truss called solar farms a “blight on the landscape”, but researchers have found they are actually better for birds than farmland Solar farms in East Anglia had greater bird diversity & bird abundance than nearby arable land, a study finds Paper here later www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

World’s largely unprotected peatlands are ticking ‘carbon bomb’, warns study - Bogs and swamps are a colossal carbon store but their continued destruction would blow climate change targets #climatecrisis Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...

UK gas prices hit 2-year high @eciu.net say "Gas prices will always be volatile....The UK’s dependence on gas drives up the cost of living "Building more renewables, insulating homes and transitioning away from boilers [will] shield households from volatility" news.sky.com/story/gas-pr...

Every single tree burned at #Drax is one too many, but reducing that by half is at least a step in the right direction, @mattadamw.bsky.social tells Dominic O'Connell. @nrdc.org | @listentotimesradio.bsky.social

Admittedly I’m a geographer who loves maps and politics But I think this story map is a great example of a story told well and very simply

THREAD: New UK govt contract with Drax biomass power plant * 4-yr contract 2027-2031 * £113/MWh (2012 prices – £155 in today's money) * Output cap of 6TWh (<2% of UK supplies, cf recent yrs 12-15TWh) * CfD cost ~£500m/yr * 100% of fuel must be "sustainable", up from 70% 1/5

The brilliant @esmeefairbairn.bsky.social is looking for a Funding Manager focused on sustainable and ethical food and nature-friendly farming www.inclusivehires.com/jobs/funding... #jobs #FoodStudies

Final UK greenhouse gas emissions statistics for 1990 to 2023 reveal that agriculture now accounts for higher percentage of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions than electricity supply. Comment by @tommlancaster.bsky.social eciu.net/media/press-...

Temperatures are still rising faster than scientists expected, despite La Niña changing. Not the time to slow down action on climate change www.ft.com/content/b5d1...

The world's richest man is taking food and medicine from the world's poorest children www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...

The world's richest man - perhaps the richest man who has ever lived - gloating about shutting down aid for the world's poorest people. All while posing as the champion of the common man. The great lie of populism in its most naked and morally putrid form.

The UK produces 60% of its own food, 114% of its lamb and mutton, but only 16% of its fruit. There's huge scope to increase the amount of fruit and veg that we produce –– and in a way which is very land efficient, @tommlancaster.bsky.social tells @alexisconran.bsky.social. @eciu.net