V2G tech enables drivers to charge automatically when electricity is cheaper and then sell some back to the grid at times of high demand
Electric cars that can be used as “power plants on wheels” could be given government backing as part of plans under consideration to help UK manufacturers.
Ministers are considering giving manufacturers incentives to add “vehicle to grid” (V2G) technology to cars as part of its review of the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate.
Continue reading...Official forecasts show country will meet energy demand by paying high prices to secure imports
Great Britain is expected to pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe this winter as its reliance on imports to ensure a steady supply is forecast to deepen.
Energy system operators have said the country will have enough gas and electricity to meet demand over the coldest months – in part because of paying higher market prices than neighbouring markets to secure imports.
Continue reading...Zia Yusuf claims undercover investigation broke the law as broadcaster stands by its journalism
Here is an explainer by Jill Ambrose about the Jackdaw decision.
But environmental groups have condemned the decision. Ami McCarthy, head of politics for Greenpeace UK, said:
Approving Jackdaw shows the toxic grip fossil fuel lobbyists still hold over our energy policy. Andy Burnham promised pragmatism [see 8.40am], but there is nothing pragmatic about rubber-stamping a project that won’t lower energy bills, won’t boost energy security and will create just 27 full-time jobs …
True pragmatism means severing our reliance on expensive oil and gas that leaves British households broke, supercharges extreme weather, and leaves our energy security at the mercy of petrostates.
Is the prime minister living in a parallel universe? One where we haven’t just endured our hottest summer on record, with droughts, wildfires and, in all likelihood, the most heat-related deaths on record? And where the UN hasn’t warned that we’re on the brink of breaching the all-important 1.5 degree warming limit?
Shell will be cheering this decision but it won’t knock a penny off our energy bills, which is what’s keeping people up at night, or make a meaningful difference to our gas supply.
Jackdaw will provide around just 2% of our gas demand for roughly ten years. It has been oversold and won’t stop the decline in North Sea jobs, as it will be largely unmanned and operated remotely.
More than 160 offshore rig workers plan walkout amid rising tensions between unions and oil companies
North Sea workers are preparing to strike at oil rigs across the ageing basin over the coming weeks in a sign of growing tensions between trade unions and oil companies.
The Unite union said on Monday that more than 160 offshore rig workers would take part in a 24-hour strike from Wednesday that could “severely disrupt” UK fuel supplies.
Continue reading...Madeleine King says national gas reservation scheme, expected to come into effect from 2028, will reduce power prices
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The resources minister, Madeleine King, says Australian industry will be reliant on gas for the “foreseeable future”, and that the national gas reservation scheme will push down power prices.
But the Western Australian MP did not put a price tag on the cost of gas under the proposal – as the former opposition leader Peter Dutton once did – nor predict when households and businesses would start to see that financial relief.
Continue reading...Party in England and Wales ditches commitment to phase out nuclear in major shift in its energy policy
Green party members have voted to end the party’s opposition to nuclear power, dropping a commitment to phase out the technology in a major shift in its energy policy.
The motion, adopted at conference, removes a “blanket opposition to nuclear fission” and instead commits the Green party of England and Wales to assessing nuclear projects alongside other low-carbon technologies.
Continue reading...Independent Planning Commission says climate change impacts from Hunter Valley project will be ‘outweighed’ by economic benefits
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The New South Wales independent planner has approved the biggest coalmine project to ever go before it, allowing mining to continue until 2045 at a Hunter Valley project described by climate groups as a “carbon bomb”.
The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has greenlit the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) Continuation Project after a contentious assessment that drew in climate and environment groups, unions, state authorities and more than 10,000 public submissions.
Continue reading...PM, in first speech to party conference as leader, insists his plans are a ‘good deal’ for older people
Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has apparently confirmed that Andy Burnham will float the prospect of getting rid of the pensions triple lock to help fund the creation of an NHS-style care service.
Asked about the prospect on Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Rayner said that Burnham was “absolutely right to start the conversation” and that he was being “brave”.
The high principle on this is that people have paid in all their lives. They are willing, I think, to look at that.
What they don’t want is what they consider to be, quite frankly, incompetent politicians that are going to take something from us to fill a black hole.
When we met with Andy [Burnham] this week, it certainly wasn’t mentioned.
But I do think that it’s important that Labour make sure that working-class people know that they’re on their side, and this would be a direction of travel that would say the opposite to that.
What I understood the national care service to be was a universal benefit: everybody paid in and everybody gets out, and that is what actually the principle of that is.
Going to a group of people who are getting around £12,500 a year in order to pay for it to take away their security is wrong.
Continue reading...A new tool called Carbon Impacts Tracer can be used to estimate climate impact from emissions across eight metrics, including lost food production
The biggest coal project before authorities in New South Wales, the Hunter Valley Operations mine, will emit the equivalent of about 809m tonnes of climate-warming carbon dioxide if it wins approval.
That number, for most people, will carry little meaning, as might the calculation that adding that amount of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere will cause an extra 0.00036C of global heating.
But what if the public was instead told that that amount of carbon dioxide would expose almost half a million people to unprecedented heat or kill nearly 15 million coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef every time it bleaches?
All those statistics come from a new tool that translates the emissions from burning fossil fuels into estimated real-world climate effects taken from peer-reviewed climate studies.
“Small numbers in global warming can mean catastrophic impacts,” says Prof Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist at the Australian National University who is part of a team launching the Carbon Impacts Tracer.
Continue reading...EU to push member states to cut tax rate below duty on gas, with 11% surge in sales also put down to fallout from Iran war
Sales of residential heat pumps increased 11% across Europe in the first six months of the year as the Iran war sent oil and gas prices rocketing and some countries lowered electricity taxes.
Homeowners bought 1.16m heat pumps across 12 European countries, up from 1.05m in the first half of 2025, according to the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA).
Continue reading...Fossil fuel firms have spent years trying to regulate climate research by donating to US universities, study authors argue
Recent attacks on US universities by the Trump administration have built on decades of efforts by libertarian donor networks, fossil fuel companies and conservative thinktanks to reshape university governance and increase outside influence, according to a new study.
The authors of the new perspective study argue that the erosion of university autonomy has left colleges more vulnerable to corporate interests, especially within climate and energy research.
Continue reading...Campaigners say plan marks notable shift away from oil and gas as previously pledges were only for carbon neutrality
Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, has committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2045, despite fierce debate about its green policies.
In a roadmap published on Wednesday, the German government set out for the first time an explicit promise of “transitioning away” from fossil fuels. Previous pledges were only for “carbon neutrality”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Australian Gas Infrastructure Group lobbying campaign warns energy bills could increase by $100 unless ban is reversed, despite experts disagreeing
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The gas industry has been accused of unleashing a “scare campaign” before the Victorian election as it pressures the state government to reverse a ban on gas in new homes.
A paper prepared by a lobbyist for the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) and shared with ministers has warned annual household gas bills could increase by $100 unless the ban is overturned, without providing evidence to support that claim.
Continue reading...New rules also include a ban near schools and childcare centres and require them to source their own renewable energy
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Datacentres in Victoria will be banned in residential areas and required to use renewable energy and contribute to the community under new state government rules.
On Tuesday, the premier, Ben Carroll, will release the government’s sustainable datacentre action plan after it was approved by cabinet on Monday.
Continue reading...It comes after the Green leader, who is standing as a candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, recorded a campaign video in Urdu
Andrew Griffith has delivered his speech, and he is now taking questions.
Q: You want the government to pause the making tax digital programme. Is that an admission that the last government got this wrong when it introduced it?
It is an admission that despite [good] intentions, the execution of that has left a lot to be desired.
In fact, coming to parliament from business, I can confess the law that we pass the most often is the law of unintended consequences. And I think making tax digital is a good example of that.
The truth is that Burnham and Miliband ignored the advice they were given – which was that if they were determined to sanction Israel, they should not do so before the Israeli election on 27 October.
It may not be surprising that this was the message from the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, when Miliband called him on 11 August to warn sanctions were imminent. ‘He said postpone it until after the elections,’ a diplomatic source confirms. It was also the message the Israeli embassy in London – and its new chargé d’affaires Chris Cantor – was relaying to the Foreign Office. ‘Their message was clear: why do it now? Wait until after the elections, because something might change,’ a senior Labour figure says.
Continue reading...Premier describes deal as ‘major win’ that will deliver more jobs for the state and put more energy into its grid
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Anthropic, the AI company behind the large language model Claude, has done a deal to lease the site of its first Australian datacentre in western Queensland.
The $31.9bn datacentre will be the largest of its kind in Australia, according to planning documents.
Continue reading...Businesses, charities and other groups sign letter calling for levies to be paid by the government
More than 120 organisations including big businesses and charities have called for the removal of “hidden taxes” added to energy bills to help reduce costs for consumers and prevent businesses closing.
In a letter to the chancellor the signatories – including Energy UK, business trade body the CBI, End Fuel Poverty and Age UK – called for levies amounting to 10% of energy bills that fund policies to be paid for by the government. John Healey is to present his first budget on 28 October.
Continue reading...A Queensland open-cut mine will be able to keep digging until 2055 as Anthony Albanese denies tensions with Pacific leaders over fossil fuels
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Australia’s new national agency for environmental protection has approved its first coal project, allowing a Queensland open-cut mine to keep digging until 2055 while clearing threatened woodland and koala habitat.
The confirmation of the extension of the Saraji mine, which digs and exports coal for steel making, comes after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, denied this week there was tension over Australia’s fossil fuel exports during talks with Pacific leaders.
Continue reading...Bangladeshi complainants allege Rampal power station’s pollution and climate risks threaten the Sunderbans, a world heritage site
Barclays Bank is facing a formal complaint over its financial links to a coal-fired power station near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to millions of people in Bangladesh and India.
Three complainants from the region have submitted a case to the UK government’s Office for Responsible Business Conduct, alleging that the British bank breached international guidelines by underwriting companies involved in the emission-heavy Maitree super thermal power project, also known as the Rampal power plant.
Continue reading...A plug-in solar kit that costs about $1,000 ‘pays for itself in three years’, one expert says
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Millions of Australians could be saving up to $370 a year on energy bills and doing their bit for the climate crisis if Labor followed the UK’s lead in legalising plug-in solar panels, an advocacy group has said.
Plug-in solar refers to small standalone solar units that could be attached to balconies or used in back yards and plugged into power points, offsetting the energy used by household appliances.
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