In the eight years EDG had been building Hinkley Point C, it has given four updates on when it expects to finish. It has gone from within seven years to within 13. Now I'm no mathematician, but I think that means it should be finished by... 2046

Even worse, plug-in hybrid sales increased 47% year on year in January, while electric vehicle sales did not increase at all. This really, really sucks

NESO informed us this week that we should finally see batteries as a "fuel type" in live grid data soon, perhaps as early as April. Will be great to see what the ~6 GW of battery energy storage systems in GB are up to in real time

New generation record in 2026: As of January, wind and solar have now consistently out-generated fossil gas power for 12-months in a row, for the first time. A threshold has now been crossed where wind and solar have generated more than gas through winter, spring, summer and autumn.

I've been looking out for an article like this; inside China's extraordinary build out of solar power. Dry numbers like "China added 300 GW of solar in 2025" don't do justice to the scale and engineering of these projects

It has raised every day of the year in Exeter – 50 days straight My gauge has recorded 351 mm, over a third of the annual average, in just 1/8th of the year

🇷🇺 NEW | Monthly analysis of Russian fossil fuel exports & sanctions 📉 In January 2026, Russia’s monthly fossil fuel export revenues saw a marginal 3% month-on-month decline to EUR 464 mn per day — the lowest figures since full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Ethiopia has the insight that seems to be eluding EU leaders.

An extraordinary new column in the Daily Telegraph (no, that's not a typo!) by Ambrose Evans Pritchard. Yes, it includes two charts by Carbon Brief, sure. But stay for the concluding few paragraphs about the electoral suicide of climate denial... www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

We all knew this was coming, and 12p/kWh for export from Octopus is still pretty good. EDF, British Gas, and Good Energy offer 15p/kWh (16p with Ecotricity) if you have your import tariff with them too, but I wouldn't be surprised if they move to cut their export rate now Octopus has.

The news that our local elections will go ahead brought me so much joy. Labour councillors scrapped our low traffic neighbourhood halfway through a trial which was showing it was working (walking and cycling up dramatically, driving down) They denied us a new bus lane, over-riding council officers

Good morning. Reading's old town-centre coal-fired power station, 1943. The site became a depot and some offices, and is now being rebuilt as flats. The rail sidings are a retail park. The substation is still here.

Have less, pay more: The ‘necessities’ budget share has soared at the bottom end.

The suffering my friend's dad is going through at the end of cancer in unspeakable. We don't know if he would have chosen a different route. But he should have had the option to avoid it.

Interesting to hear the economist Lord Jim O'Neill saying much the same on #r4today this morning

If China's CO₂ emissions really have begun a sustained fall, which seems increasingly likely (but is by no means a certainty), would be great news. However it does look like any fall in emissions in 2025 was due to a decline in the construction sector leading to less demand for cement

The energy department, run by Ed Miliband, has admitted that it cannot name a single national park where regulations are holding up nuclear projects, despite a review urging that protections for the landscapes be reduced. Latest on Fingleton review www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

While a lot of people watch the Countryfile weather for the week ahead forecast, I use the NESO operational transparency forecast – and today there is a lot more yellow, indicating solar power generation, than there has been in the last few weeks!

The Contract for Difference Allocation Round 7a results have been published – onshore wind and solar. The strike price agreed through auction – lowest bids win – is £72/MWh for onshore wind, and just £65/MWh for solar. With average wholesale prices around £80/MWh these projects will reduce bills

France has ended up in a strange position after using some €250bn of tax-payer money to build a fleet of nuclear power stations. Wind and solar power is merrily entering the French power market at prices nuclear production can't match, resulting in huge surpluses of power. 1/

Peter Menzel (qui a 78 ans ce 7 février) est un photographe connu pour ses "une semaine de la nourriture d'une famille". Les clichés pour une famille en Allemagne, en France, au Mali, au Bhoutan en disent long sur les inégalités, mais pas sur le bonheur !

China's unmatched status as the global leader in clean energy technologies is perhaps best underscored by the massive reach of its EV exports, which hit nearly $70 billion in 2025 and spanned well over 150 countries and territories. More below: www.reuters.com/markets/chin...

The GB grid saw 4 GWh of battery storage added in 2025, 30% more than in 2024. (For context an average of about 80 GWh is drawn from the grid every day) The average capacity was 95 MWh (about 10,000 times bigger than a domestic battery), and 75% had a max power output of over 50 MW

Unchanged wage growth + less inflation = stronger real wages. The Bank projects more than twice as much real pay growth in the next three years (3.5%) as the OBR does over the next five (1.6%). If the Bank is right, that's a much rosier outlook for living standards.

The Beauly-Denny upgrade is a cost-optimal project to add about 300 MW of much-needed capacity across a number of grid constraint boundaries in northern Scotland, but of course the local council had to bow to the NIMBYs

Did you know that there is only 5.2 GW of onshore wind in England and Wales, while Scotland has 10.7 GW? Now the planning system permits onshore wind in England again, hopefully we'll see more turbines being built. Geography will restrict them to the windier parts, nonetheless.

European survey finds citizens concerned about heat and ability to cope with climate change Many citizens underprepared to deal with increasing frequency and magnitude of heatwaves, flooding, or water shortages in own homes www.eea.europa.eu/en/newsroom/...

Flush door handles seem dangerous but then don't modern cars lock their doors when driving, preventing them being opened from the outside anyway? (Originally the feature was to resist the doors bursting open in a crash)

The test had to be abandoned due to a persistent hydrogen leak. Never underestimate how hard hydrogen is to work with! H2 is such a tiny molecule vis anything solid it can get through gaps in what you thought was a perfect seal. And if it's leaking into a confined space, the risk of 💥 is huge

My local Labour party disgusts me, I must be honest • Cancelled local elections so they can keep their seats for another two years • Then immediately voted to increase their 'allowances' for themselves

NASA is currently carrying out a 'wet dress rehearsal' of Artemis II, the moon rocket set to take humans back to lunar space. For the uncrewed Artemis I, NASA took four attempts at the test and never completed it due to hydrogen leaks. Then two launch attempts failed, due to hydrogen leaks.

Need to be a little careful interpreting this – PHEV electric motors aren't powerful enough by themselves for cross-country or motorway driving so the petrol engine turns on, but also drivers don't necessarily charge the onboard battery as often as they could

Good news from Australia: power generation from coal down 4.6% and from gas down 27% in Oct-Dec, with more than half of power generated from carbon-free sources. Power prices were fell by nearly 50%, as they do when you have a lot of zero marginal cost generation.

“Yes, obviously” Two words to shut down the question and still communicate to everyone watching “what a stupid thing to ask”.

Share of renewables in the generation of electricity in EU member states. The EU has generated more electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels since 2023.

We (Europe) need to burn less gas, by fitting heat pumps to our buildings and by building out wind and solar power to push gas-fired power stations off the grid.

If you've been wondering who the anti-choice unelected peers trying to talk the assisted dying bill out at the House of Lords stage, this is them. The bill only has 59 clauses! The top name, Ilora Finlay, is a noted anti-choice campaigner. #R4Today

One-sixth of transport emissions in the UK are from HGVs. They need to switch to battery-electric, but BEV HGV sales in the UK are tiny. Meanwhile in China:

Overall, UK solar growth in 2025 reached the highest level in a decade, but is yet to recover from the crash that followed the then-Conservative "cutting the green crap" in the 2010s www.carbonbrief.org/... 2/3

When it rains, it now rains more. For those experiencing the flooding in south-west England, it is worth remembering that rainfall in winter has increased by about 25% overall. And, the rainfall has also become more intense: when it rains, it now rains more, increasing the risk of flooding.

Apropos of nothing, today I took some jeans to a repair cafe for patching (top tip: don't cycle on black ice) and one the repairers was ex-XR and is now a climate change denier. I was told that plants need CO₂ to grow (of course) so more CO₂ is good (😳) and that it does harm is nonsense.

Only if you don't count hybrids as "petrols", but they are petrols. Even plug-in hybrids get most of their energy from petrol, as real-world research has shown. Other hybrids, whether "mild" or "full" (the latter can move without the petrol engine running) get all of their energy from petrol.

Shout out to Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium who are joining Norway in having battery-electric vehicles make up very large proportions of total car sales

The numbers are in. ▸Tesla sales in the EU in 2025 down 37.9% compared to 2024. ▸EU battery-electric share rose to 17.4%.

While "but whatabout China" or India can no longer be said, sadly "whatabout Indonesia" (population 270 million) can be said

National Grid's analysis shows that interconnectors have saved consumers £1.65bn since 2023 by replacing expensive gas power with cheaper power from continental Europe. Goodness only knows how Rowlatt managed to conclude they could increase prices!

BBC News never ceases to find new ways to get facts completely wrong. In interconnectors *lower* prices in markets where supply is tight. Power flows from areas with low prices (areas with plentiful supplies) to those with high prices (areas with tight supplies), lowering the price in those places.

This gives me an opportunity to link to one of my favourite videos of all time youtu.be/GAi8Lxf8JXA?...

Some really unhelpful comments in this interview with Alan Milburn, particularly: "Anxiety is normal. Depression is normal." And the claim that 83% of the population could be diagnosed with a mental health problem at any given time It's simply not good enough when stigma is rising again...

You know who”stayed a little back” in VIetnam? DJT.