• 24 Hours In Sustainability

  • Worldwide Highlights

  • UK Highlights

  • The Daily Climate Sceptic

• Long-Read of the Week

Worldwide Highlights

• BlackRock may exit business climate group Net Zero Alliance as backlash over ESG investing widens marking a sharp 180-degree turn for world’s largest asset manager.

• David Kennedy has been appointed as CEO of the SBTi (Science Based Targets Initiative).

• High winds, lack of rain and climate change stoking California fires

• Oil giant Exxon sues California attorney general, environmental groups for disparaging its recycling initiatives

• Greenland is in the news because Trump wants to annex it, here’s some great insight into Greenland’s importance to climate science.

• Biden administration will exit office without Old-Growth Forest Protection Plan to protect US’s most ancient trees, which play a key role in mitigating climate change.

• A quarter of freshwater animals are threatened with extinction, according to a new major global study. [Full Study / Summary]

UK Highlights

• The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) update has shifted the dynamics in favour of renewable energy. This revised policy directs planning authorities to prioritise renewable projects.

  • Several major new solar installations have been submitted/approved in recent weeks in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

• The public will not have to change their lives “radically” for the UK to meet its near-term emissions reduction targets, MPs have been told by Climate Change Committee (CCC) chief executive.

• Work is under way to create Europe's largest battery storage project at Coalburn in South Lanarkshire.

• UK EV sales reach record high of 381,970 units in 2024, although falls short of 22% target

• New rules requiring airlines to use green fuel, which came into effect on New Year’s Day, could be ripped up amid fears of price increases of more than 20% [Paywall - view cached copy]

• Report for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero recommends fitting air conditioning and shutters to minimise the risk of heat-related deaths

• New survey data: 58% of respondents view Labour and the Conservatives as equally unambitious on tackling the climate crisis.

• Facilities manager Mitie release their 2025 Decarbonisation Predictions [Long-read full report, summary round up is here].

The Daily Climate Sceptic

• Trump is quitting the Paris Agreement. Poor countries should, too. [Opinion]