International: United Kingdom
UK foreign aid for nature hits £800m record due to cash for carbon credits
Tue 16 Sep 2025
The UK’s climate-aid spending on “nature protection and restoration” reached record levels of nearly £800m last year, according to government figures obtained by Carbon Brief.
Ex-actor Zack Polanski's unusual path to become UK Green Party's new leader
9 Sep 2025
Zack Polanski has stormed to victory in the Green Party leadership election on a platform promising bold communication and "eco-populism".
Scottish oil and gas regulator says net-zero 'not a platitude' for sector
8 Sep 2025
The head of the oil and gas regulator says cutting the sector's carbon emissions is not "a platitude or a soundbite" but presents significant commercial benefits.
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
8 Sep 2025
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has described her plan to “maximise extraction” of the UK’s oil and gas from the North Sea as a “common sense” energy policy.
UK Conservatives pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea
2 Sep 2025
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has said her party will remove all net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the North Sea if elected.
Underserved communities are reaping the benefits of London’s solar microgrids
2 Sep 2025
Thanks to a change in regulations, residents in social housing can now access the clean, affordable energy coming from their own roofs.
What happens to net zero if the trees don’t survive?
20 Aug 2025
When climate change undermines the climate plan.
Climate scientists criticise Ireland over new ‘temperature neutrality’ proposal
13 Aug 2025
Climate scientists have criticised Ireland over proposed measures that would weaken the country’s commitments to reducing methane emissions.
Record UK wildfires have burned an area twice the size of Glasgow in 2025
12 Aug 2025
Wildfires have scorched more than 40,000 hectares of land so far this year across the UK – an area more than twice the size of the Scottish city of Glasgow.
By changing our diets now, we can avoid the food chaos that climate change is bringing
8 Aug 2025
Climate change is pushing up the prices of the food we buy and changing what we eat.
What is net zero and is the UK on track to achieve it?
7 Aug 2025
The political consensus around the UK's net zero policies has collapsed, with opponents now branding them too difficult and expensive.
Barclays exits net zero banking alliance
5 Aug 2025
Barclays will exit the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, marking the second UK-based bank to withdraw from the UN-backed coalition dedicated to advancing global net zero goals through their financing activities, after the departure last month of HSBC.
Climateflation could push up UK food prices by more than a third by 2050, report says
29 Jul 2025
Increasingly extreme weather threatens production and supply chains in Britain and elsewhere.
Climate groups want UK wealth tax to make super-rich fund sustainable economy
17 Jul 2025
Growing number of campaigners urge government to ensure green investment is not done ‘on backs of the poor’.
HSBC becomes first UK bank to quit industry’s net zero alliance
15 Jul 2025
Campaigners condemn ‘troubling’ move that follows departure of six of largest US banks after Trump’s election.
“Compliant deception”: MPs warn of oil industry greenwashing at debate on proposed fossil ad ban
14 Jul 2025
UK’s first parliamentary debate on the issue drew comparisons both with tobacco industry tactics and the industry’s now widely accepted ad ban.
UK: Thousands lobby MPs to demand climate action
10 Jul 2025
More than 5,000 people from across the UK arrived in Westminster on Wednesday to meet their MPs and demand urgent climate action to protect their communities.
Net-zero much cheaper than thought for UK – and unchecked global warming far more costly
9 Jul 2025
Reaching net-zero will be much cheaper for the UK government than previously expected – and the economic damages of unmitigated climate change far more severe.
Activists protest at London headquarters of global ad giant promoting fossil fuels
3 Jul 2025
The agency’s work for the fossil fuel industry has made it “complicit in causing existential harm to people and planet”, say campaigners, who are calling on WPP to drop those clients.
UK can reach net zero by 2050, climate report finds
26 Jun 2025
Climate Change Committee says current targets could be met provided country takes ‘steps forward’ to achieve them.
Oil giant funds computer game that promotes fossil fuels to schoolchildren
9 Jun 2025
Equinor, the company looking to develop the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea, has funded a computer game aimed at UK school children, promoting the idea that fossil fuels are part of a green energy mix.
British farmers 'making a change' to cut carbon emissions
6 Jun 2025
It follows the UK experiencing the warmest spring on record and predictions of a hotter-than-normal summer, with an increased chance for heatwaves.
UK’s solar power surges 42% after sunniest spring on record
6 Jun 2025
The UK’s solar farms and rooftops generated more electricity than ever before in the first five months of 2025, as the country enjoyed its sunniest spring on record.
Why expensive gas – not net-zero – is keeping UK electricity prices so high
28 May 2025
The UK’s high electricity prices have become intensely political, with competing claims over the cause of rocketing bills and how best to get them down.
Watchdog urges Scotland to take action after repeatedly missing climate targets
23 May 2025
Climate Change Committee says original goal of a 75% emissions cut by 2030 will now be delayed by up to six years.
EU, UK to work on linking carbon markets
21 May 2025
The European Commission and the government of the UK announced today an agreement to work towards linking their carbon markets through establishing a link between their emissions trading systems (ETS), which have been developing separately since Brexit.
Deadly April rainfall in US South and Midwest was intensified by climate change, scientists say
12 May 2025
Human-caused climate change intensified deadly rainfall in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and other states in early April and made it more likely to occur.
Real-world geoengineering experiments revealed by UK agency
9 May 2025
Trials will test ways to block sunlight and slow climate crisis that threatens to trigger catastrophic tipping points.
UK: The choppy waters between North Sea oil and green energy revolution
9 May 2025
The Great Energy Transition is under way, and may come to define this era, but it's not going smoothly.
UK: How the political consensus on climate change has shattered
7 May 2025
When the UK became the first major economy in the world to commit to reducing its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, there was so little disagreement among MPs it was simply 'nodded through' without a vote.
Carbon capture company wins $5m to scale up
6 May 2025
UNDO, founded by Jim Mann, won an Xprize competition offering cash prizes for projects that could combat climate change.
UK banks put £75bn into firms building climate-wrecking ‘carbon bombs’, study finds
5 May 2025
Britain is the key financial hub for destructive fossil fuel mega-projects, according to research.
UK is not ready for coming climate ‘disaster,’ government advisers warn
1 May 2025
Despite increased examples of extreme weather, advisers say ‘we are seeing no increase in action’.
UK project trials carbon capture at sea to help tackle climate change
1 May 2025
The world is betting heavily on carbon capture — a term that refers to various techniques to stop carbon pollution from being released during industrial processes, or removing existing carbon from the atmosphere, to then lock it up permanently.
UK: Tony Blair at war with Ed Miliband over net zero
30 Apr 2025
Tony Blair has warned of a credibility gap with voters over sacrifices needed to get to net zero, but Ed Miliband’s allies point out his agenda was part of Labour’s victorious election manifesto.
Area burned by UK wildfires in 2025 already at annual record
29 Apr 2025
The area of the UK burnt by wildfires so far this year is already higher than the total for any year in more than a decade, satellite data suggests.
Just Stop Oil was policed to extinction – now the movement has gone deeper underground
28 Apr 2025
Just Stop Oil activists are dusting down their placards, digging out their infamous fluorescent orange vests, and charging up their loud hailers — a routine they have gone through many a time before.
Extinction Rebellion co-founder loses appeal over Heathrow drone conspiracy
23 Apr 2025
The co-founder of environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion has lost a Court of Appeal bid to have a conviction for conspiring to fly drones over Heathrow to close it, quashed.
Wildfire warnings issued as UK temperatures set to reach 24C on Friday
11 Apr 2025
London fire brigade asks people to behave responsibly and Scottish fire and rescue service gives ‘extreme’ alert.
UK to relax electric car rules as US tariffs hit
8 Apr 2025
The government has announced a relaxation of electric vehicle sales targets to help the car industry in the face of trade tariffs from the US.
London police arrest six people at climate change meeting
1 Apr 2025
British police raided a Quaker meeting house in London on Thursday and arrested six women attending a meeting on climate change and the war in Gaza, according to a statement from Quakers UK.
Why middle class Brits who think collapse is coming still stay silent
28 Mar 2025
OPINION: In one hand, an oat latte. In the other, a phone with social feeds full of doom-scroll posts about the end of the world. Across Britain, a quiet transformation is happening.
Britain considering linking with EU carbon market
25 Mar 2025
Britain is actively considering the case for linking its Emissions Trading System (ETS) with the European Union's carbon market ahead of a UK-EU Summit in May, the government said on Thursday.
UK: new national forest to see 20 million trees planted
24 Mar 2025
Twenty million trees will be planted and 2,500 hectares (6,178 acres) of new woodland created in the west of England as part of a "national forest" drive, the government has announced.
Factcheck: Why Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is wrong about UK's net-zero goal
20 Mar 2025
The leader of the opposition Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch, has shattered the political consensus on climate change in a speech attacking the UK's net-zero by 2050 target.
Conservative party to ditch commitment to net zero in UK by 2050
19 Mar 2025
Kemi Badenoch is dropping her party's commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, as she launches the Conservatives' widest policy review in a generation.
UK carbon prices surge as minister talks about EU market linkage
14 Mar 2025
UK carbon futures jumped on Wednesday after a Treasury minister said the government would consider linking the country's emissions market to the European Union's system.
Dramatic fall in London's levels of deadly pollutants after low emissions zone expansion
10 Mar 2025
People in the UK capital are breathing much cleaner air, with significant improvements in the city's most deprived areas.
UK government announces plans to axe oil and gas windfall tax in 2030
10 Mar 2025
The Government has announced plans to end a windfall tax on oil and gas profits in 2030 as it launches a consultation on the future of the North Sea energy sector.
UK: Reducing emissions 87% by 2040 could cut household costs
4 Mar 2025
The UK should cut its emissions to 87% below 1990 levels by 2040 under its seventh five-yearly "carbon budget", according to official advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC).
Rising seas will threaten 1.5 million Australians by 2050 – report
Tue 16 Sep 2025
One and a half million Australians living in coastal areas are at risk from rising sea levels by 2050, a landmark climate report has warned.
US Securities and Exchange Commission chief threatens ban on European accounting rules
Tue 16 Sep 2025
Paul Atkins questions whether overseas companies should be barred from using International Financial Reporting Standards.
China aims to nearly double battery storage by 2027 in $35 billion plan
Tue 16 Sep 2025
China is looking to almost double its so-called new energy storage capacity to 180 gigawatts (GW) by 2027, according to an industry plan announced by authorities on Friday.
EU considers faster Russian oil and gas exit after US pressure
Mon 15 Sep 2025
The European Union is considering a faster phase-out of Russian fossil fuels as part of new sanctions.
Carney government noncommittal about Canada meeting 2030 climate goals
9 Sep 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney would not say Monday whether Canada will meet its climate goals under the Paris agreement by 2030, as his government faces criticism over his emission-reduction plans.
Tax rebalancing in Indian energy sector: Renewables cheaper, coal costlier
Fri 12 Sep 2025
Industry experts and developers have hail GST cuts on clean energy equipment, saying it will be a major enabler for India’s ambitious climate goals.
China, climate crisis and COP31: Five takeaways from the Pacific Islands Forum
Tue 16 Sep 2025
A key climate crisis funding treaty struck as Pacific leaders backed Australia’s bid for Cop31 despite some criticism of its environmental credentials.
Iconic Antarctic species at risk amid 'regime shift', with 'rapid and self-perpetuating changes'
22 Aug 2025
Scientists say there is emerging evidence of abrupt and potentially unstoppable changes in the Antarctic environment.
Second Africa Climate Summit seeks to jump hurdles to green industrialisation
10 Sep 2025
A report on progress since the first summit in 2023 says financial, infrastructure and trade obstacles are hampering “climate-positive growth” on the continent.
Brazil implores businesses to attend COP30 climate summit, despite 'second thoughts' amid Trump backlash
5 Sep 2025
November's COP30 summit comes at a precarious time for climate action, as companies back away from environmental initiatives, and attacks on green energy by President Trump.
UN pushes countries for new climate targets this month
9 Sep 2025
The United Nations urged countries on Wednesday to set more ambitious climate plans during this month, seeking to pressure major economies including the EU and China ahead of this year's U.N. climate summit.
