Abby Wallace
Why Greta Thunberg is up in a London court
LONDON — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is due to appear in a London court Thursday morning...
8 months ago
Nuclear power to generate a quarter of electricity under UK plans
The U.K. government wants nuclear power to meet a quarter of electricity demand by 2050, under plans...
8 months ago
UK government scraps heat pump plan
LONDON — The government has scrapped controversial plans to fine boiler manufacturers if they miss targets for installing heat pumps.The Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM), which was due to start next month, has been “scrapped” until April 2025 in a bid t...
6 months ago
UK energy minister denounces his own government’s oil and gas plans
LONDON — Energy Minister Andrew Bowie has rejected a key plank of the energy plans announced in his own government's budget.Bowie criticized plans unveiled by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday to extend the windfall tax on oil and gas giants.Bowie — who...
6 months ago
Claire Coutinho: The UK’s chancellor-in-the-wings?
LONDON — Late summer 2023. Claire Coutinho, a junior minister at the Department for Education and a rising star in the U.K. Conservative government, is enjoying a quiet morning at home when her phone rings.The caller has a message from one of Coutinho’s o...
6 months ago
Wanted: Someone, anyone to sell climate policies to UK voters
LONDON — Rishi Sunak needs all the help he can get selling his green vision to the British public.The U.K. prime minister reckons Britain can hit its headline climate goal — net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 — in a way which “brings people with us.” That’...
6 months ago
Revealed — the next Brexit headache on the Irish border
LONDON — In 2019, Boris Johnson promised his Brexit deal would do away with checks on the Northern Irish border. Five years later, the region is about to be whacked with yet another trade headache.The latest tension comes from net zero rules, with the U.K...
6 months ago
Nigel Farage’s new party wants net zero to be center stage at UK general election
LONDON — Nigel Farage has made immigration a central issue at numerous U.K. elections. This year he hopes to repeat the trick with climate change policy.Farage’s right-leaning Reform UK party plans to make scrapping Britain's ambitious climate targets cen...
6 months ago
New UK climate minister voted against key Tory green plan
LONDON — The U.K.’s new energy minister voted against flagship government environmental policy when he was a backbench MP.Conservative Justin Tomlinson, named a minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on Friday, rebelled in December ag...
6 months ago
Scottish government abandons flagship climate goal
LONDON — The Scottish government will ditch a key climate target, ministers in Edinburgh confirmed on Thursday afternoon.Net Zero Cabinet Secretary Màiri McAllan told the Scottish Parliament that the government will scrap plans to reduce carbon emissions...
5 months ago
Labour will need ‘Herculean effort’ to hit green goals, says UK climate watchdog
LONDON — It will take a “Herculean effort” for Labour to reach its key net zero target of clean power by 2030 if it wins power, the U.K. government’s chief climate adviser has said.Chris Stark, who steps down as chief executive of the Climate Change Commi...
5 months ago
How Brexit’s fallout doomed climate action in Northern Ireland
ANTRIM HILLS, Northern Ireland — Nestled away in Northern Ireland’s sprawling Antrim Hills, a wind turbine towers over a beef farm. Its sweeping blades generate all the energy the farm needs, and send excess electricity back to the power grid, where it is...
2 months ago
The UK is backing away from oil
LONDON — North Sea oil and gas fields used to be a cash cow for the U.K. But now the government is gearing up for a future without drilling.Labour swept into power at the general election with pledges to shift away from fossil fuels to greener, cleaner en...
1 month ago
UK energy policy: 20 people to lobby at Labour conference
Ministers newly installed in their Whitehall offices. Special advisers moving from opposition to government. The first Labour administration for 14 years — and one marked in its early weeks by a raft of energy and climate promises which could, at least in...
3 weeks ago