Negotiators are today (30 June) preparing to meet in Nairobi for the next round of closed-door Heads of Delegation (HoDs) meetings that will shape the outcome of the Global Plastics Treaty. These meetings matter! While informal in name, they increasingly determine what will and won’t make it into the final agreement. After the turbulence of […]
Cooling technologies are vital for a functioning society – refrigeration for food and medicine, air-conditioning to adapt to a warming planet and heat pumps for decarbonised heating. But the refrigerants inside these technologies can exacerbate climate change, some of them hundreds or thousands times worse than carbon dioxide over a short time frame. Fortunately, there […]
The UK is this week in the midst of yet another unseasonal heatwave – and with global temperatures rising every year, it’s only going to get worse. Many people around the world are turning to air-conditioning to find some relief from the heat, but air-conditioning is itself a part of the problem as it also […]
For more than a decade, the illegal trade in Burmese teak has stood as a stark example of how environmental crime, corruption and conflict intersect within global markets. Recent enforcement actions in Europe and the US mark an important shift – authorities are increasingly recognising that importing timber linked to military-controlled supply chains is not […]
As the latest rupture in an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape, military strikes on Iran by the USA and Israel will likely increase pressure on the world’s ability to feed itself – and it begins with synthetic fertilisers. It is barely more than century since the Haber-Bosch process was developed and the industrial production of ammonia […]
The UK Government has promised global climate leadership, yet new evidence shows that programmes designed to protect forests, oceans and climate stability in developing countries are being quietly cut, scaled back or drip-fed year-by-year. At least £11.6 billion was pledged for international climate finance (ICF) between 2021-26. According to reporting this week in the Guardian, […]