Category Archives: Green economy

UK failing to honour net zero farming pledges, report finds

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.”

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Johnson to defy cabinet fears and push for onshore wind expansion

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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.

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How ‘super-enzymes’ that eat plastics could curb our waste problem

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Nudged along by scientists and evolution, micro-organisms that digest plastics have the potential to create an efficient method of recycling

Beaches littered with plastic bottles and wrappers. Marine turtles, their stomachs filled with fragments of plastic. Plastic fishing nets dumped at sea where they can throttle unsuspecting animals. And far out in the Pacific Ocean, an expanse of water more than twice the size of France littered with plastic waste weighing at least 79,000 tonnes.

The plastic pollution problem is distressingly familiar, but many organisations are working to reduce it. Alongside familiar solutions such as recycling, a surprising ally has emerged: micro-organisms. A handful of microbes have evolved the ability to “eat” certain plastics, breaking them down into their component molecules. These tiny organisms could soon play a key role in reducing plastic waste and building a greener economy.

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EU in row over inclusion of gas and nuclear in sustainability guidance

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Activists including Greta Thunberg criticise ‘fake climate action’ in response to planned investment taxonomy

The European Commission is facing a backlash from Greta Thunberg and fellow climate activists over plans to include gas and nuclear energy in a “green” investment guidebook.

Both energy sources are expected to feature in the next part of the EU’s “taxonomy for sustainable activities”, which is expected at the end of the year, following a period of intense political bargaining between the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen; the French president, Emmanuel Macron; and Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

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Vast area of Scottish Highlands to be rewilded in ambitious 30-year project

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Affric Highlands initiative to restore nature will involve tree planting, restoring peat bogs and connecting wildlife habitats

A large swathe of the Scottish Highlands stretching between the west coast and Loch Ness is to be rewilded as part of a 30-year project to restore nature.

The Affric Highlands initiative aims to increase connected habitats and species diversity over an area of 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres), incorporating Kintail mountain range, and glens Cannich, Moriston and Shiel. Plans include planting trees, enhancing river corridors, restoring peat bogs and creating nature-friendly farming practices.

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Norway votes – but is Europe’s biggest oil giant ready to go green?

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The Scandinavian country faces a crisis of conscience on the eve of elections

Norway goes to the polls on Monday in parliamentary elections that are forcing western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer to confront its environmental contradictions.

Climate issues have dominated the campaigning since August, when the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its starkest warning yet that global heating is dangerously close to spiralling out of control.

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North Sea oil was battered by Covid, but now faces much deadlier waves

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Since the pandemic hit, the world’s altered attitude to fossil fuels is throwing doubt over the industry’s future

The UK’s North Sea oil industry may have survived one of the darkest market downturns in history during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the deepest gloom lies over the future of the fossil-fuel industry.

Companies are braced for this week’s annual economic report from industry body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK). It is expected to lay bare the full toll of the pandemic on the ageing oil and gas basin last year.

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