Action on climate emergency
Happy bees and other pollinators as the government bans bee-killing pesticides for emergency use in the UK in response to an application for its use from the NFU (National Farmers’ Union) and British Sugar. The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB, which is used on sugar beet, is highly toxic to bees and has the potential to …
Housing over the environment? Is a question posed by the publication last week by the government of an 82-page National Planning Policy Framework report outlining what it hopes to do – and how. It is subject to publicconsultation, but there are serious concerns that housing will take priority over nature and the environment, The Guardian reports. Changes …
Rosebank back in court as Shell has won a landmark case in the Dutch courts, overturning a 2021 ruling requiring it to cut its carbon emissions by 45%. Ironically the ruling came as the UN climate talks (COP 29), involving some 200 countries, started in Azerbaijan earlier today. The Hague court of appeal said it …
Ambitious action on emissions is needed if the UK is to achieve its 2030 target. In its 2024 Report to Parliament the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) assessment is that only a third of the emissions reductions required to achieve the country’s 2030 target are currently covered by credible plans. The 2030 target is the first …
Will Labour ban new licences? The Guardian reports that following its election victory the Labour government is facing a legal dilemma over plan to impose an immediate ban on new North Sea oil and gas exploration before the industry’s latest licensing round closes. Its election manifesto pledged to the banning of new North Sea exploration …
Last week’s Budget failed to boost green industries as February comes in as the world’s warmest – 1.77c warmer than “pre-industrial” times – the EU’s climate service says, extending the run of monthly records to nine in a row. Each month since June 2023 has seen new temperature highs for the time of year. Temperatures …
End of the Cumbrian coalmine? In December 2022, the levelling up secretary Michael Gove MP, approved plans to build theWoodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven. He said the UK would need the coal in order to carry on making steel. However, newly revealed documents, drafted around the same time at the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy …
Carbon reduction commitments are the subject of the UK’s Climate Change Committee‘s latest report. The Committee advises the United Kingdom and devolved Governments and Parliaments on tackling and preparing for climate change. The reported says that the UK exceeded its third five-year carbon budget, which ran from 2018 to 2022, requiring reductions of 38% compared …
Insulate draughty homes and do more to make that happen is the call from Britain’s climate change chief Chris Stark, head of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. Speaking to the BBC this week Stark rated government policy on insulation as “very poor” and went on to say that insulation, together with renewable power, is the …
Taxpayer billions for Drax carbon capture, it is claimed, are being made to a company that generates around 4% of the country’s power and 9% of the UK’s renewable electricity by output and is seen as an energy source when weather conditions preclude significant wind and solar power generation. Drax has received government permission to …