Action on climate emergency
Is AI a silver bullet? Lots of media coverage from the recent Labour Party Conference about the big gains (as yet unproven) to be made for the UK with the expansion of AI and data centres, would suggest so. Take, for example, the PM’s enthusiasm. In his conference speech, Keir Starmer talked up AI as …
Drax protestors freed – fifteen people appeared before Leeds Magistrates Court on 22 September following their pre-emptive arrest last summer, amid plans to hold a climate change camp near Drax power station. By the end of the day they walked free as charges were thrown out after their lawyers argued there was insufficient evidence against …
A deep peat burning ban is coming into force attendees of Saturday’s ACE Green Café meeting in Settle learnt. The meeting heard that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will ban the burning on England’s deep peat so as to restore habitats for rare wildlife and reduce air pollution and flooding. England’s …
Ed Miliband survives reshuffle – for now at least. A number of national newspapers have claimed that Sir Keir Starmer tried to move Ed Miliband out of his energy brief and into the housing department in the recent Government reshuffle, but the former Labour leader refused – insisting he wanted to keep overseeing the climate …
Shares drop as Drax investigated by the City watchdog over “historical statements” made about the sourcing of wood pellets for its Yorkshire biomass power station. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed the investigation which will cover a period of more than two years from January 2022 to March 2024, and will examine whether the company …
Global plastic talks fail in Geneva to develop a landmark treaty to end plastic pollution. The UN negotiations, the sixth round of talks in just under three years, remained divided between a group of about 100 nations calling for curbs on production of plastic, and oil states pushing for a focus on recycling. An opposing …
Cumbria mine developers seek compensation when we all thought the Woodhouse coalmine near Whitehaven had been confined to the dustbin of history. Well not quite, as on 11 August The Guardian reported that the government is being sued in a secretive “corporate court” despite the proposed new coalmine in Cumbria being quashed by the high …
From new town to power station as The Guardian reveals that one of Britain’s first all-electric towns to be built with almost no reliance on fossil fuels could soon help to power the grid with renewable energy. The developers of a new garden town in Kent, just a few miles from Folkestone and Hythe and …
World agreement vital on plastics as the scale of plastic production and its threat to public health and the environmentwas underlined once more earlier this week (Monday) when a new report warned that the world is in a “plastics crisis” which is causing disease and death from infancy to old age and is responsible for at least …
Wet wipe producer charges may happen on the ‘polluter pays’ principle for the pollution they contribute to England’s waterways, according to a recent government review focused on reforming the water sector. Sir Jon Cunliffe, the author and a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, pointed to the urgency of tackling various pollution sources …