International: United Kingdom
The carbon footprint of a full English breakfast
14 Sep 2021
Over four-fifths of the English population say they enjoy a full English breakfast. But when food production accounts for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, and 11% of UK emissions come from agriculture, it’s time to think critically about how we can reduce the impact of our breakfasts – without compromising on quality or taste.
Jobs at risk if UK fails to hit carbon emissions target
13 Sep 2021
Up to 660,000 jobs could be at risk if the UK fails to reach its net-zero target as quickly as other nations, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has warned.
Glasgow records hottest summer in run-up to Cop26 climate summit
2 Sep 2021
Glasgow, the host city of the crucial Cop26 UN climate summit in November, has experienced its hottest summer on record, the Met Office has said.
Queen shirks climate responsibilities
23 Aug 2021
Queen Elizabeth II’s lawyers have secretly negotiated with Scottish ministers to change a draft law about reducing carbon emissions, ensuring that her private land is made exempt from new regulations.
IPCC report a "call to arms" say architects and designers
11 Aug 2021
The latest IPCC climate report offers a "nugget of hope" but architects and designers must "make changes to the way they design" to help avert catastrophic climate change, according to Architects Climate Action Network.
Surplus renewable energy powers Orkney's hydrogen economy
4 Aug 2021
Perched atop the United Kingdom, ten miles north of mainland Scotland, the Orkney Islands are a wild place. Encircled by roiling waters — the North Sea on one side, the Atlantic Ocean on the other — and battered by winds year round, the weather-lashed archipelago is bracing, beautiful and has in abundance that which others are scrambling to produce: renewable power.
Call for compulsory assessment of embodied carbon emissions
22 Jul 2021
A group of UK architects, developers and contractors have called for compulsory whole-life carbon assessments of buildings in a bid to tackle "hidden" emissions caused by construction supply chains.
Increase in number of slow moving storms linked to climate change
19 Jul 2021
Climate change is driving a large increase in intense, slow-moving storms, a new study by Newcastle University and the Met Office has found.
UK e-bike boom
1 Jul 2021
E-bike sales outstripped electric car sales in 2020, according to the United Kingdom's Bicycle Association.
Welsh freeze new road-building projects
25 Jun 2021
THE Welsh government is freezing new road-building projects as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency, and an external panel will review all proposed schemes.
Northern Ireland's beef farmers oppose net zero target
25 Jun 2021
Northern Ireland's red meat sector is opposing moves towards a net-zero emissions target of 2045.
UK aviation emissions up, up and away till mid-2030s
23 Jun 2021
The UK aviation industry has announced carbon targets that allow emissions from planes to increase into the mid-2030s.
UK’s ‘really shocking’ climate record damned
18 Jun 2021
In a searing indictment of its failure to act fast enough to prepare for the onslaught of rising heat, there is condemnation of the British government by its independent advisers for the UK’s “really shocking” climate record.
Halogen lightbulbs to be banned in UK
10 Jun 2021
Sales of halogen lightbulbs are to be banned in the UK from September, with fluorescent lights to follow, under government climate change plans.
UK banks to be stress-tested for climate change
9 Jun 2021
Britain's banks and insurers will be tested on how well-prepared they are to cope with climate change emergencies.
Airships could cut short hop flying’s CO2 emissions by 90 per cent
27 May 2021
Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), which has developed a new environmentally friendly airship and hopes to be flying between European cities by 2025.
Investor pressure on Shell grows
25 May 2021
Britain’s biggest fund manager has piled pressure on Shell after joining a shareholder rebellion over the oil company’s carbon-cutting plans, saying that they lack credibility and the ambition required to combat global heating.
Cool homes and hot water are there on the cheap
30 Apr 2021
Would you like cool homes and hot water without paying to power them? They’re already working in the laboratory - reports Tim Radford of the Climate News Network.
Extinction Rebellion protesters cleared by jury
27 Apr 2021
Six Extinction Rebellion protesters have been cleared of causing criminal damage to Shell’s London headquarters despite the judge directing jurors they had no defence in law.
Report calls for end of carbon gluttony
14 Apr 2021
The world’s wealthy must radically change their lifestyles to tackle climate change, a report says.
Where £100 can make you a solar entrepreneur
8 Apr 2021
In Bath, England, even the smallest investors can support – and profit from – the city’s green energy boom.
Frequent flyers should pay more
8 Apr 2021
Wealthy frequent flyers who take several holidays a year should pay higher taxes each time they fly, a British charity says.
UK groups demand peat compost ban
7 Apr 2021
The UK government must ban the sales of peat compost this year after its goal of a voluntary phaseout by 2020 proved an “abject failure”, according to a group of gardening experts, conservationists and scientists.
UK taken to task for ignoring Paris Agreement
31 Mar 2021
Prominent scientists and lawyers have said Britain's decision to ignore the Paris climate agreement when deciding on major infrastructure projects undermines its presidency of UN climate talks this year.
'Historic' climate bill due before NI Assembly
24 Mar 2021
Supporters of Northern Ireland's first climate bill say it is an "historic moment".
Appliances should last longer, says UK
12 Mar 2021
Tougher rules are being introduced to make appliances such as fridges, washing machines and TVs cheaper to run and last longer, says the British Government.
Eco-homes becoming hot property
8 Mar 2021
Smart, low-carbon homes were once the preserve of one-off grand designs, but now Britain has up to 30,000 projects in the pipeline.
Bank of England gets green remit
4 Mar 2021
The Bank of England’s remit has been changed to include a duty to support the country's net-zero carbon ambition.
Carbon tax would be popular with UK voters, poll suggests
25 Feb 2021
Taxing carbon dioxide emissions would be popular with British voters, polling suggests, as the government moots ways to put a price on carbon that could help tackle the climate crisis and fund a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Ditch GDP and value nature, says report
3 Feb 2021
Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, says a report calling for a new economic framework recognising the importance of ecology.
Reformed trade rules could help save the climate
26 Jan 2021
Reformed trade rules could provide a climate dividend of the rancorous Brexit process of leaving the European Union.
Pressure mounts on UK to update its UN climate target
4 Dec 2020
Scotland and British businesses are piling pressure on the UK government to set an ambitious 2030 climate target ahead of a summit co-hosted by Britain and the UN on the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.
UK scrambles to decide first post-Brexit climate pledge
1 Dec 2020
Britain is preparing to announce its first solo carbon-cutting pledge to the Paris climate agreement, in a tight political manoeuvre ahead of an ambition summit on December 12.
Scottish homes will use 100% green hydrogen in world first
1 Dec 2020
Scotland is set to start the world’s first trials of green hydrogen to replace natural gas for cooking and heating in 300 homes.
XR launches campaign of financial disobedience
24 Nov 2020
Extinction Rebellion is launching a campaign of financial civil disobedience aimed at exposing the “political economy’s complicity” in the unfolding ecological crisis.
Boomers are the greenest generation - study
23 Nov 2020
Parents and grandparents, not the so-called Generation Green, are the most likely groups to try to minimise their environmental footprint, a new study finds.
Billionaire investor forcing climate action from companies
23 Nov 2020
British billionaire Chris Hohn is aiming to force hundreds of US and European companies to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by enlisting global investors to demand an annual vote on their climate plans at shareholder meetings.
UK must stop sales of fossil-fuel cars by 2026
19 Nov 2020
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to bring forward a ban on the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles by 10 years to 2030 will still not go far enough to meet the government’s own legally binding climate targets, according to new research.
Thousands of jobs from carbon-capture-and-storage
19 Nov 2020
Developing technology to capture and store harmful climate-changing emissions may create up to 49,000 jobs, a report suggests.
Floating turbines to power the future
18 Nov 2020
Wind turbines floating miles out to sea could one day provide electricity to our homes, experts believe.
Bank of England needs more powers to decarbonise economy, say experts
17 Nov 2020
Urgent reforms of the Bank of England are needed to help decarbonise the financial system and boost green investment as Britain recovers from the covid-19 pandemic, a group of leading academics has said.
UK expected to ban fossil-fuel cars by 2030
16 Nov 2020
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to announce a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, five years earlier than previously planned, the Financial Times reports.
Farming faces 'historic' shift to cut GHG emissions
13 Nov 2020
Tackling greenhouse gas emissions in farming will require the biggest change since the shift from horses to tractors, a United Kingdom inquiry has found.
UK follows NZ on compulsory carbon disclosure
11 Nov 2020
Large companies and financial institutions in the UK will have to come clean about their exposure to climate risks within five years under the terms of a tougher regime announced.
Mandatory climate disclosure coming to UK companies...
20 Oct 2020
Current rules on company disclosures to help markets price in risks from climate change will become mandatory, a senior Bank of England official said on Friday.
...and investors say they want it
20 Oct 2020
An influential group of investors is urging UK regulators to make climate risk reporting mandatory for nearly 500 FTSE-listed firms.
Why Britain needs negative interest rates
19 Oct 2020
As Britain and the rest of Europe battle the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic, desperate eyes turn to central bank bosses, wondering what rescue plans they have up their sleeves.
UK finance minister wants a carbon tax
12 Oct 2020
British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak is planning for a UK-wide carbon tax that could raise billions of pounds while encouraging the drive towards net-zero emissions.
Airport appeals court's climate ruling
9 Oct 2020
Heathrow appeared in front of the UK Supreme Court this week in a bid to overturn a judgment that blocked Europe’s busiest airport from expanding.
York's green-home revolution
5 Oct 2020
The English city of York plans to build Britain’s biggest zero-carbon housing project, boasting 600 homes in car-free cycling paradises full of fruit trees and allotments.
Forget net zero. We need ‘real zero’ – and these companies prove it’s profitable
Fri 15 Aug 2025
OPINION: Three huge global companies – IKEA, Lendlease and Fortescue Mining – are heading towards real zero. If they can do it, so can everyone.
Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims
Fri 15 Aug 2025
A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.
Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
Thu 14 Aug 2025
Last year, China started construction on an estimated 95 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, enough to power the entire UK twice over.
Wildfires fanned by heatwave and strong winds rage across Europe
Fri 15 Aug 2025
Wildfires caused by arsonists or thunderstorms and fanned by a heatwave and strong winds wreaked destruction across southern Europe on Wednesday, burning homes and forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee.
Challenges persist in bid to mine the deep sea, even after boost from Trump
29 Jul 2025
After years of delay, the deep-sea mining plans of Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) now appear to be progressing as it pursues a controversial new path to securing a license to mine in international waters under U.S. jurisdiction.
India misses chance to tackle UK carbon tax in trade pact
28 Jul 2025
India’s efforts to secure a concession for its small and medium enterprises under the UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism did not materialise, as the text of the India-UK Free Trade Agreement made no mention of a resolution on the contentious issue.
Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say
Wed 13 Aug 2025
Samoa, Fiji and Tonga among the worst affected amid warning the disease and others will become ‘more common and more serious’ as the planet warms.
Nordic countries hit by ‘truly unprecedented’ heatwave
5 Aug 2025
Scientists have recorded the longest streak of temperatures higher than 30C in the region in records going back to 1961.
African $60 billion high-speed rail project takes shape
Fri 15 Aug 2025
One of the largest infrastructure projects in Africa has received a new update that could see construction begin soon.
Brazil's Lula vetoes parts of environment bill pushed by the opposition that could harm the Amazon
Wed 13 Aug 2025
Brazil’s president has vetoed parts of a controversial congressional bill that sought to loosen the country’s environmental licensing rules.
How could the UN climate talks be reformed?
Wed 13 Aug 2025
This year marks a decade since nations successfully negotiated the Paris Agreement, a landmark treaty that has been the guiding force for international climate politics ever since.
