Central Government

Housing Over the Environment?

Housing Over the Environment?

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 …

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Rosebank back in court

Rosebank approved

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 …

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Ambitious Action on Emissions

Ambitious action on emissions

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 …

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End of the Cumbrian coalmine?

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 …

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Carbon Reduction Commitments

Carbon reductions

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 …

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Insulate Draughty Homes

Loft insulation

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 …

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Taxpayer billions for Drax carbon capture

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 …

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