Environment

Tuesday’s decision to support a third runway at Heathrow airport is just the latest in a string of decisions since the Tories were elected in May 2015 that should finally demonstrate that Britain has no intention of meeting its climate obligations.  Immediately on taking office, the Tories embarked on a …

In the course of two weeks, we have seen more international agreement and action on climate change than ever before.  On 4 October Canada introduced a carbon tax, setting a standard for other nations to follow.  On the same day the Paris climate agreement came into effect.  Two days later, …

The number of oil spills from North Sea rigs has reached a 14 year high according to a report by Neil MacKay at Herald Scotland: “The revelation comes in the wake of a major spillage last weekend from oil giant BP’s Clair rig off Shetland. It has prompted fierce criticisms …

No, this is not another energy industry-funded claim that climate change isn’t happening.  On the contrary, this is the claim by two eminent climate scientists that the climate science community has routinely toned down its message in order to make it palatable to political and economic elites in the developed …

Earlier this year, scientists in Tasmania recorded atmospheric carbon dioxide levels slightly higher than the symbolic 400 parts per million that we were once warned that we should not exceed.  At the time, it was assumed that this was a blip and that in subsequent months CO2 levels would probably …

Those who take the time to think seriously about our response to climate change understand the enormity of the predicament we are in.  Quite simply, we are not going to solve the problem with unfeasible technologies like solar roadways, energy-generating footpaths or bicycles that promise to power our homes.  Indeed, …

Global temperatures are set to pass a key target set out in the Paris Agreement within ten years.  That’s the stark warning from Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre to a meeting of climate scientists in Oxford. According to Laurie Goering at …

The world was momentarily stunned when investigators discovered that software engineers at Volkswagen had rigged on-board software to detect and give false readings for emissions tests.  It soon transpired, however, that all vehicle manufacturers use tricks of one kind or another to generate fuel-efficiency and emissions readings far more flattering …

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is something of a holy grail for an energy industry that has to lower the amount of carbon it pumps into the atmosphere.  And unusually, the problem is not that scientists and engineers do not know how to do it.  As Lynden Archer, a …

There is a meme that occasionally turns up in Facebook newsfeeds that goes something like this: “It’s pretty amazing that our society has reached a point where the effort necessary to extract oil from the ground, ship it to a refinery, turn it into plastic, shape it appropriately, truck it …