Category: Comment

We might have finally seen a peak in greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation. According to new research by energy thinktank Ember, the amounts of coal and gas burnt globally for electricity generation in the first half of the year fell, very slightly, despite growing electricity demand.  It’s not a huge drop – just 27TWh,…

All the world loves a good story. So how can you make sure your case studies are telling a story that’ll grab your audience’s attention? Case studies and success stories can be a brilliant way of promoting whatever it is that you do. A satisfied customer talking about the value of your product or service…

I had a fascinating couple of days in Leeds last week at ReGeneration Earth, the flagship conference for the Yorkshire Sustainability Festival.  Run by the team behind the Green Finance conference in Sheffield earlier this year, ReGeneration Earth set out to tackle the full scope of the polycrisis. If that wasn’t enough, it also aimed…

Government investment in new nuclear power is welcome, and very overdue.  Decarbonising the UK’s power supply would be a lot harder and more expensive without a significant share for nuclear, whether that comes from current designs of gigawatt-scale reactor or new smaller designs. Third-generation nuclear fission is a proven technology, and the main challenge is…

During the hottest days of the year so far, I was deep in networking and learning with a focus on sustainable manufacturing.  I started with a fascinating couple of days at the AMTecH spring forum, catching up with the latest in advanced manufacturing for the nuclear sector.  AMTecH is an evolving network of like-minded UK-based…

The 89 Percent Project is a welcome initiative to promote one simple fact that’s often denied – most people around the world support action on the climate crisis.  As noted in our recent review of Mike Berners-Lee’s A Climate of Truth, research consistently shows that most people are willing to take action on climate, but…

Yesterday, I headed down to my native city of Sheffield for the first Green Finance UK conference hosted by The Sustainability Community.  The day’s discussions largely focused on financing the energy-efficient retrofit of the UK’s current housing stock, including social housing. Retrofitting council housing in Sheffield alone will cost some £2 billion, according to city council…

Greenwashing can cause serious reputational and financial harm to your business – but what is it, and how do you avoid it? Greenwashing is a special kind of bullshit. The phrase was coined in the 1980s to describe misleading claims about the environmental benefits of some product, service or business practice. In 2025, companies found…

What can SMEs do this year to reduce their emissions?  2025 still sounds like the future to me. 2000AD meant weird and wonderful scifi when I was a lad, and now we’re halfway from that date to the UK’s deadline for achieving net zero emissions.  The optimistic view is that we’re more or less on…