Category Archives: Green economy

UK needs Dragons’ Den approach to investing in net zero, says thinktank

Posted on by

IPPR wants government to take a stake in green technology firms to help Britain keep up with EU and US

The UK risks losing out to the US and EU in the global race to a net zero economy unless the government increases green investment by taking a stake in the companies of the future, a thinktank has said.

The left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research said Britain needed a “national investment fund” (NIF) that would back new firms and secure a share of any future profits for the public as it called for the state to adopt a “Dragons’ Den” type approach to supporting enterprises.

Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak must not retreat from climate pledges, says top Tory mayor

Posted on by

Andy Street, seen as most powerful Conservative outside London, vows to fight party’s retreat from climate pledges

The most powerful Conservative outside London has warned he will not hesitate to stand up to the party should it attempt to retreat from its pledge to tackle the climate crisis.

There are already serious concerns that Rishi Sunak and his advisers are using green policies as a political dividing line with Labour in an attempt to revive the party’s fortunes. The prime minister recently backed “maxing out” oil and gas reserves, while cabinet minister Michael Gove said net zero should not become a “religious crusade”. Tory MPs have also demanded a delay to the ban on petrol car sales by 2030.

Continue reading...

Energy bosses at No 10 summit warn investor confidence is waning

Posted on by

Chiefs say UK’s troubled economy and political uncertainty is dampening enthusiasm for clean energy rollout

The bosses behind Britain’s multibillion-pound clean energy rollout have warned the government that the UK’s difficult economic circumstances and political uncertainty have taken a toll on investor confidence.

About 20 industry bosses representing companies from across the sector attended a summit at No 10 to discuss their plans to invest more than £100bn in the UK economy.

Continue reading...

China accused of scores of abuses linked to ‘green mineral’ mining

Posted on by

Watchdog identifies 102 violations over past two years as country extracts ‘transition minerals’ for green-energy technology

A new report into China’s dominance in the green-energy market has identified more than a hundred allegations of environmental and human rights violations linked to its overseas transition mineral investments over the past two years.

China dominates the processing and refining of lithium, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, zinc, chromium, aluminium and rare-earth elements – and the manufacturing of technologies like solar panels, wind turbines and batteries for electric vehicles (EV), which require so-called transition minerals.

Continue reading...

Labour needs an ‘honest debate’ about Brexit damage, union warns

Posted on by

Unless Britain develops a closer relationship with the EU it will continue to haemorrhage investment and jobs, says the GMB

The leader of one of the country’s biggest unions has urged Labour to conduct an “honest debate” about the economic damage being caused to working people by Brexit, as evidence grows that it is fuelling inflation and driving jobs and investment abroad.

In an interview with the Observer, Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB union, which is one of Labour’s biggest financial backers, giving more than £1m a year, said politicians of all parties had been too afraid to admit the adverse consequences that leaving the EU was having on jobs and life in working communities.

Continue reading...

UK failing to honour net zero farming pledges, report finds

Posted on by

Exclusive: Projected emissions drop for agriculture and land use 58% below target in original net zero plan

The UK government’s pledges on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming and land use fall short of promises made in its net zero strategy, analysis has found.

Using figures from the government’s carbon budget delivery plan, analysts from WWF found that the total projected emissions reductions from now until 2037 for agriculture and land use were 58% less than the emissions reductions figures underpinning the original net zero strategy. This gap is equivalent to the emissions of the entire UK building sector.

Continue reading...

EU faces legal action after including gas and nuclear in ‘green’ investments guide

Posted on by

European Commission accused of acting unlawfully in two separate cases bought by environment groups

The European Commission is being sued by environmental campaigners over a decision to include gas and nuclear in an EU guide to “green” investments.

Two separate legal challenges are being lodged on Tuesday at the European Union’s general court in Luxembourg – one by Greenpeace and another by a coalition including Client Earth and WWF – after the classification of fuels in the so-called taxonomy, a guide for investors intended to channel billions into green technologies.

Continue reading...

‘Half-baked, half-hearted’: critics ridicule UK’s long-awaited climate strategy

Posted on by

UK’s 1,000-page plan criticised as doing ‘little to boost energy security, lower bills or meet climate goals’

The UK’s new energy plan unveiled on Thursday is a missed opportunity full of “half-baked, half-hearted” policies that do not go far enough to power Britain’s climate goals, according to green business groups and academics.

The 1,000-page strategy has been criticised by many within Britain’s green sectors who fear the country could surrender its leading role in climate action because of the government’s “business as usual” approach to delivering green investments.

Continue reading...

Germany faces EU backlash over U-turn on phasing out combustion engine

Posted on by

Row a further signal of tensions over the green deal landmark proposals to tackle climate crisis

Germany is facing a growing backlash inside the EU over its U-turn on a law to phase out the combustion engine in new cars by 2035, despite signs of an end to the standoff with Brussels.

The row comes amid growing concerns over France’s push to include nuclear across a swathe of laws on green technologies, a further signal of tensions over the EU green deal, landmark proposals to tackle the climate crisis.

Continue reading...

How retrofitting the UK’s old buildings can generate an extra £35bn in new money

Posted on by

Heritage and property groups outline plan to boost energy efficiency at historical sites to create jobs, cut emissions and meet net-zero targets

Retrofitting the UK’s historicsl buildings, from Georgian townhouses to the mills and factories that kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, could generate £35bn of economic output a year, create jobs and play a crucial role in achieving climate targets, research has found.

Improving the energy efficiency of historical properties – those built before 1919 – could reduce carbon emissions from the UK’s buildings by 5% each year and make older homes warmer and cheaper to run, according to a report commissioned by the National Trust, Historic England and leading property organisations.

Continue reading...

‘It’s a bit too castle-y’: plans to turn Cumbrian fortress into eco-attraction

Posted on by

Young ‘custodian’ hopes to make ancestral home of Muncaster first carbon-zero castle in UK

In 1990, the year Ewan Frost-Pennington was born, the final bears left Muncaster Castle in the westernmost corner of the Lake District. Winnie, an Asiatic black bear, departed Cumbria for Dudley zoo, along with Inca, her daughter, and her sister, Gretel.

Three decades later, the bear pit has now been covered over with a solar farm. It is the brainchild of Frost-Pennington, the heir to the 800-year-old pink granite fortress, as he tries to make Muncaster the first carbon-zero castle in the UK.

Continue reading...

Climate-focused reform of World Bank could be done in a year, says Al Gore

Posted on by

Former US vice-president says bank should refocus its spending and end its role in ‘fossil fuel colonialism’

Fundamental reform of the World Bank could be completed within a year, to refocus its spending on the climate crisis and end its contribution to “fossil fuel colonialism”, according to the former US vice-president Al Gore.

“I don’t know why it need take longer than a year,” said Gore, a longtime campaigner on the climate crisis since leaving politics, in an interview with the Guardian at the Cop27 UN climate summit. “We have an emergency on our hands.”

Continue reading...

‘Vital’ energy security bill must be brought back, says Labour

Posted on by

Shadow climate minister says Britain is losing the race to create green jobs

Labour has accused the government of being “highly irresponsible” in sidelining a crucial piece of energy legislation, arguing that Britain is “losing the race” to create green jobs.

The energy security bill was published in July with the aim of boosting domestic, low-carbon power supplies and bringing down energy costs.

Continue reading...

How Truss’s post-Brexit farming policy descended into chaos

Posted on by

Rumours rife as farmers fear PM plans U-turn on financial subsidy measures to improve environment

The chaos in the English countryside began with the click of a civil servant’s mouse. At the end of last week, farmers who had been working with the government on environmental subsidy schemes saw that their regular meetings about it had been removed from their online diaries without warning.

This appeared to hint at what had been feared – that the new post-Brexit farming subsidy scheme was in danger of being scrapped.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer unveils green growth plan to counter Liz Truss’s tax cuts

Posted on by

Labour pledges a revolution in green energy to ‘boost jobs and slash emissions’

Keir Starmer will pledge to deliver a new era of economic growth and permanently lower energy bills by turning the UK into an independent green “superpower” before 2030, through a massive expansion of wind and solar energy.

Announcing details of the plan exclusively to the Observer, the Labour leader says he will double the amount of onshore wind, triple solar and more than quadruple offshore wind power, “re-industrialising” the country to create a zero carbon, self-sufficient electricity system, by the end of this decade.

Continue reading...

EU plans ‘massive’ increase in green energy to help end reliance on Russia

Posted on by

European Commission says extra €210bn needed over next five years to pay for phasing out of Russian fossil fuels

The EU plans a “massive” increase in solar and wind power, and a short-term boost for coal, to end its reliance on Russian oil and gas as fast as possible.

In a plan outlined on Wednesday, the European Commission said the EU needed to find an extra €210bn (£178bn) over the next five years to pay for phasing out Russian fossil fuels and speeding up the switch to green energy.

Continue reading...

Sunak urged to issue green bonds with higher returns if climate goals missed

Posted on by

Thinktank says following Chile’s example would give ministers greater incentive to meet targets

Rishi Sunak is being urged to issue a new generation of green bonds that would offer higher returns to investors if the UK government fails to hit its climate change targets.

The Social Market Foundation (SMF) said its plan for sustainability-linked bonds would provide ministers with a greater incentive to meet carbon-reduction goals and would help boost the UK’s prospects of being a global financial hub for green finance.

Continue reading...

Greens unveil climate policy including coal export levy, renewable energy and net zero by 2035

Posted on by

Adam Bandt to unveil minor party’s climate policy including making Australia a ‘renewable energy superpower’ and net zero by 2035

The Greens will push for a new levy on coal exports to fund climate disaster recovery and clean export industries if they hold the balance of power after the election.

In a climate policy to be launched in Sydney on Thursday, the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, will announce measures that the party says will improve the budget bottom line by $51.9bn over a decade and create 805,000 new jobs.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Tories could lose 1.3m voters if net zero target ditched, says poll

Posted on by

Report finds strong support for climate policies among Tory voters despite some MPs’ negative stance

The Conservative party could lose more than 1.3 million voters if the government scraps its net zero target, research suggests.

A report by the centre-right thinktank Onward, which counts the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, among its supporters, has found there is strong support for tackling the climate crisis among Tory voters despite attempts by some on the right of the party to campaign against the measures.

Continue reading...

Johnson to defy cabinet fears and push for onshore wind expansion

Posted on by

PM ‘passionate’ about potential in light of fresh push for self-sufficiency after Russia invasion of Ukraine

Boris Johnson is expected to open the door to more onshore wind at next week’s energy strategy, despite some cabinet ministers lobbying against relaxing planning laws to allow more turbines.

The cabinet is split over whether to aim for more onshore wind projects, which can often get into lengthy planning battles, after officials drew up plans for a target of 30GW by 2030.

Continue reading...