Road to zero carbon: council action on green jobs and skills
25 Jan 20222.08 MB PDF file
A report for Friends of the Earth, Ashden and others on what councils can do to boost green skills in their areas, including for disadvantaged communities.
Is flooding in Northern Ireland getting worse?
Mike Childs11 Jan 2022
This briefing examines why so many more homes are threatened by flood water, where they are and what we can do to manage flood risk.
New UK law won’t halt deforestation or protect human rights
Clare Oxborrow06 Jan 2022
Commodity supply chains are trashing forests and trampling human rights. Clare Oxborrow explains why the government’s new Environment Act will fail to protect communities and why it must take effective action to regulate UK companies.
The future of Drax: old, inefficient, damaging and expensive
09 Dec 2021
Drax power station in Selby, Yorkshire is old, inefficient, environmentally damaging and will need £billions of subsidies to survive. We argue it should start preparing for closure and its workers retrained for decent jobs elsewhere.
When will the government act to halt plastic pollution?
Camilla Zerr01 Dec 2021
Camilla Zerr, Plastics campaigner reflects on the current crisis and government’s slow progress in facing up to the plastics reduction challenge.
Failing to insulate – a double threat of fuel poverty and climate harm
Mike Childs22 Nov 2021
There’s a price to pay for decades of underfunding energy efficiency improvements to the UK’s older and badly insulated houses. And the price is causing harm to the poorest in society, pensioners, people of colour, young people and people with health and disability challenges. These communities suffer disproportionately from fuel poverty and the impact of climate breakdown, which is exacerbated by inefficient, energy-hungry homes.
Rank of fuel poverty neighbourhoods by LA
17 Nov 202137 kB XLSX file
Data on levels of fuel poverty in neighbourhoods by local authority area.
Tackling climate breakdown – how do government strategies measure up?
Mike Childs16 Nov 2021
In the run-up to and at the climate talks at COP26, there was an avalanche of pledges, promises and strategies – but do they add up? Mike Childs, Head of Science, Policy & Research, gives his verdict.
Tip of the iceberg: The future of fossil fuel extraction
26 Oct 2021
This report explores how the UK government supports fossil fuel extraction at home and abroad. It reveals the 40 new UK oil, gas and coal extraction projects that are in the pipeline for approval in the next few years.
A dangerous distraction – the offsetting con
Mike Childs and Paul de Zylva22 Oct 2021
Carbon offsetting and nature offsetting are both worsening the climate and nature emergencies. They can’t be made to work, at least not at scale, and trying to do so is dangerous distraction from the real job at hand, cutting carbon emissions and restoring nature.
“Immediately halt any new extraction projects” in the UK, authors of landmark study reveal
Steve Pye, Dan Welsby, James Price, Paul Ekins and Danny Gross15 Oct 2021
Friends of the Earth interview the authors of the milestone academic study that estimates how much oil, fossil methane gas and coal needs to remain in the ground. They reveal that new fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK are incompatible with limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees.
Global Britain? 6 ways the UK can protect and restore nature
Paul de Zylva04 Oct 2021
What can the government do to restore nature here and overseas?
U-turn on planning reform opens opportunity for progress on climate and nature
Rebecca Murray10 Sep 2021
With the government abandoning its attempt to write communities out of planning decisions, forthcoming legislation later this year may be the chance to finally align the planning system with the climate and nature emergencies. But, as Senior Planner Rebecca Murray explains, the most recent policy documents released by government do anything but that.
Why a hasty trade deal may not be good for us – or for the environment
Kierra Box, Trade Campaigner19 Aug 2021
What precedent might be set by the new Australia trade deal and what could it tell us about the future for UK environmental standards?
20 actions parish and town councils can take on the climate and nature emergency
Mike Childs24 Jun 2021
Parish and town councils may not be as powerful as local authorities but they can be a force for change in addressing the climate and nature emergency.