In two separate cases, Downing Street faces intense scrutiny over environmental inaction, as a new study shows just 25% of the public believes national politics is on their side.  A two-day ‘rolled-up’ judicial review into the UK Government’s National Adaptation Plan is set for the High Court on 18th and 19th June 2024. This follows action by Friends of the Earth and two individuals who believe their lives have been severely impacted by the climate crisis.  Kevin Jordon’s home was demolished due to coastal erosion just before last Christmas, and Doug Palley has health conditions exa ..read more

Manchester is the UK’s largest climate tech hub outside the capital. Now the future looks even brighter with a new accelerator fund.  Climate startup support organisation Sustainable Ventures [SV] has helped more than 500 new climate-focused businesses launch since it was established in 2011. Last year, it announced expansion to North West England, taking advantage of a government-backed focus on hydrogen in the city.  In partnership with independent technology innovation accelerator CPI, £1.5million is now available to help hydrogen startups scale over a period of 12 to 18 months t ..read more

From smart meters to smart resource management, we get a guided tour around artificial applications at grid and consumer level, to better understand how algorithms are increasingly running our power supplies.  Many of the worst environmental catastrophes we face today, including those here in the UK, are the direct result of the energy industry. Fossil-fuel-burning power plants are the second largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions and have many other consequences, including the emission of airborne mercury. Understandably, there has been an increased push for renewable energy, but ..read more

The EU Council goes to vote this week on groundbreaking CSDDD regulations, enforcing  business  to  conduct risk-based human rights and environmental assessments. But as Ruth Knox writes, the bloc now risks litigation overload.  After weeks of delay, despite having reached a provisional agreement in December, the EU Council’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) finally passed in March. The decision marks a real landmark outcome for human rights regulation, especially in the face of concessions and eleventh-hour opposition from a number of member states ..read more

One of the UK’s biggest suppliers of renewable power and sustainable solutions has confirmed its latest offers to those generating electricity via sunlight. Customers who choose to sell excess power from solar through E.ON Next could now be eligible for one of two new prices. The most generous, Next Export Plus, pays 40p per kWh of exported electricity and is available to anyone who had panels and battery solutions installed by E.ON Solar and Storage since 1st January 2024. Meanwhile, those who had solar panels-only installed in the same period are offered 25p per kWh of exported electricity ..read more

Travelling via northern Sweden, we explore the potential of wooden structures to reduce carbon footprints, and ask if a new UK roadmap can finally unlock the material’s potential to drive net zero development.   It’s an early-February evening and Skellefteå is bathed in the glow of streetlights and pure white snow. Life here feels frozen in a moment, which at -15C on arrival, is completely understandable. But appearances deceive, and this corner of the subarctic moves fast. As the region’s Market and Business Development Manager, Bo Wilkstrom tells us, specialised industries are fuelling ..read more

While access remains an issue, electric vehicle drivers are being warned that ‘idle fees’ and dead batteries are big risks if you stay too long at charge points.  According to Graham Conway, Managing Director at Select Car Leasing, EV etiquette is becoming far more important as the number of plug-in and hybrid vehicles continues to grow. At the last count, there were over 1million fully-electric models and 640,000 hybrid on Britain’s roads. However, a crisis is emerging due to the lack of adequate charge point coverage. Despite a 47% increase in the number of charge points available sinc ..read more

Revolutionary low-cost sensors now mean anyone can assess the state of any water body in the UK, delivering data on pollution events, dried up rivers, and more.  Overall, the IoT devices can lead to a 70% reduction in the cost of monitoring outdoor water quality. Meanwhile, a resilient design means the system can be deployed even during a flood event, is less prone to vandalism and requires minimal maintenance.  With no sign of a let up in Britain’s ongoing water pollution crisis, and decades of network neglect and disrepair to undo, we speak to Dr Tom McNamara, founder of FreeUP, t ..read more

Tech has brought about the climate crisis but now offers myriad solutions. But what about the industry itself? Here’s an inside look at how the sector can clean up its act. With e-waste and packaging waste still growing rapidly worldwide, embracing sustainability has become an urgent priority for every company in the technology space and beyond. Doing so requires a top-down view of how products are made, how they are used, how they are packaged, and how they are managed at their end of life. The technology industry has been engaged with these issues for many years, through circular economy ap ..read more

The future of green energy production could be transformed by the catalysing properties of the humble sponge.  Findings published in the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces shows that by combining a sample of a loofah with nano-sized silver donuts, water can easily be split into hydrogen and oxygen if an electrical current is allowed to pass through it.  This could mean that green hydrogen might become far cheaper to produce than current methods allow for, offering a significant boost to hopes that the fuel source offers a ‘missing link’ in the energy mix of renewable and ..read more