Doug Parr

Water firms cause more than 100 potentially illegal sewage spills a day Raw sewage is pouring into waterways on dry days far more often than reported as infrastructure fails to keep pace with population growth and climate change

Raw sewage spills from England's sewage works are only legal when there's been heavy rain

There shouldn't be any on dry days, although still thought to be about 6000 per yr

New analysis shows in 2025, there were over 6000 "dry day spills" in just January & February
www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

China now producing green(er) steel than traditional coal blast furnace one

EU & UK govts need to realise that the steel sector looks on track to pan out like electric cars and solar panels - better cleaner technology which wipes out European competition

fuelcellsworks.com/2025/07/25/h...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

"The source of current trajectory towards societal collapse are large, psychopathic corporations & groups which produce global catastrophic risk

"Nuclear weapons, climate change, AI, are only produced by v small number of secretive, v wealthy, powerful groups"

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"Plastics endanger people & planet at every stage, the review said, from extraction of fossil fuels they're from, to production, use & disposal

"This results in air pollution, exposure to toxic chemicals, infiltration of body with microplastics"

World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet

Plastic is often seen as a cheap material but scientists in The Lancet argue it is expensive when including damage to health

One estimate of the health damage from just three plastic chemicals – PBDE, BPA and DEHP – in 38 countries was $1.5tn a year.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Sizewell C costs could hit £100bn including financing, modelling shows Total for nuclear power station project set to be billions of pounds higher than official government estimates

So now the real costs of Sizewell C are leaking out

Remember this project got Finally Investment Decision, and contracts signed, without the full costs being public

Always the case with nuclear - the rationale withers when the full facts & costs are known

www.ft.com/content/5f54...

Exxon chief urges Donald Trump to use trade talks to fight ‘bone-crushing’ EU regulation Darren Woods says bloc’s climate and human rights directive will hurt competition

Exxon openly calling on their mate in the White House to seek to dilute EU regulation on human rights & environment

This is regulation that 180 **investors & businesses** say “are essential for achieving EU’s wider sustainability, growth & competitiveness ambitions”

www.ft.com/content/82ba...

Are Labour’s plans to offset Heathrow expansion emissions all pie in the sky? Government is counting on tech to provide a panacea, but there may be simpler ways to keep climate goals on track

QTWTAIY

“Wishful thinking about future tech is not a coherent plan, and certainly not a plausible basis to allow the huge increase in emissions from a third runway at Heathrow. It's kicking the problem down the road for a future government to deal with”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

NEW: UK electricity generation was over 50% renewable in 2024 for the first time, with fossil fuels falling to under a third (31.8%), also for the first time

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6889ec...

Charity in legal action against minister for failing to act over Thames Water River Action says failure to publish and put into practice policy on nationalisation of failing water firms is unlawful

River Action have lodged judicial review against UK Environment Minister for failing to publish govt policy on when to nationalise of water companies after they've breach their licence

They say Thames Water should be nationalised for multiple pollution failures

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Half of UK councils still use pesticides in public places, research finds Pesticide-free movement has grown, but many local authorities still spray weedkiller linked to wildlife declines and cancer

Pesticide-free public spaces are already the norm in Paris, and in Denmark, showing chemicals aren't needed to maintain them

Two thirds of the British public would support “schools, parks, playgrounds & other public spaces" being pesticide free

Time for a ban

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Solar power electricity production is rising faster than any other generation technology in history (say Goldman Sachs)

"Solar energy.... is likely to meet a high share of long-run global energy demand because drivers of the surge look structural"

www.gspublishing.com/content/rese...

Trump: wind farms are a ‘con job’ President condemns ‘windmills’ blighting the landscape in comments that could complicate meeting with Starmer

It's a shame that the Telegraph has this clickbait headline, but at no point in this 35 para article mentions that Trump's complaints about wind turbines is total bollocks

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

Climate change in action

Water stressed areas around the world form a band around the northern lower-to mid-latitudes

As if atmospheric circulation which carries heat from the equator to the poles has been disrupted

www.ft.com/content/e67a...

Air pollution raises risk of dementia, say Cambridge scientists Most comprehensive study of its kind highlights dangers of vehicle emissions and woodburning stoves

PM2.5 - vehicles, woodburning, boilers
NOx - fossil fuels incl vehicles
Soot - fuel burning incl wood

Researchers say that for these pollutants:

"long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution is risk factor for the onset of dementia in previously healthy adults"

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Thousands of pollution tests cancelled due to lack of staff Testing programmes affected include those monitoring the impact of drought.

Environment Agency in England forced to suspend water testing programmes because of staff shortages, so we don't know the state of our rivers

Rearrange the regulators of the water industry may get headlines, but it the basics aren't in place, it will make no difference
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘Total infiltration’: How plastics industry swamped vital global treaty talks Petrostates and well-funded lobbyists at UN-hosted talks are derailing a deal to cut plastic production and protect people and the planet

Life as an academic criticising industry at Global Plastics Treaty

"I filed harassment reports... I’ve been harassed & intimidated lots of other times, in lots of other contexts, at off-site meetings, at side events, also at sci conferences, via email and so on”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The investors have shoved their money in on the basis of the returns guaranteed by the RAB mechanism. We still don't know what price Sizewell C's power will be sold at, even though govt says it has been modelled to show it saves us all money. Go figure

Britain has saddled itself - or more accurately, UK govt has saddled Britain's consumers - with paying for the most expensive nuclear plant ever

And I'm bored of saying it, but that means other more cost-effective & faster action on climate change will not happen

www.ft.com/content/e1e1...

"only" about 850,000. But that's still a lot

The 'subsidy scheme' budget for Sizewell C is £54.6 billion ($73.7bn)

That's about the same as the total for non-nuclear bit of GB Energy, National Wealth fund, & Carbon Capture and Storage combined (totalling £55.6bn)

Just for one power station

searchforuksubsidies.beis.gov.uk/scheme/?sche...

‘Net zero’ emissions standard paused as Shell quits Energy group experts left after draft guidance on global warming plans ‘did not reflect the industry view’

Big Oil walk away from Science Based Targets Initiative after finding 'no new oil & gas' is part of the standard needed for oil companies to comply

'No new oil & gas' is what most science-based analyses show is necessary for 1.5C climate target

Guys, clue is in the name

www.ft.com/content/21c8...

At time of writing we know contacts have agreed, but Value-for-Money Assessment, details of the contracts, what happens if there's cost over-runs, modelling which claims there'll be savings on bills when it's working, are all awaiting publication, despite breathless commentary in govt press release

As per usual with nuclear, the real costs and commitments are only made public when contracts are signed, so the paying British public only see what their politicians have committed them to paying for when it's too late to change anything

Sizewell C nuclear plant sees government become main funder of £38b project The cost of the project is now £38bn - the last official figure was for £20bn.

Colossal commitment from UK govt on one of the most expensive & poor performing #nuclear reactors ever built

Given govt's parlous financial situation, this is money that will be unavailable for real needs like long term storage, electrifying heat & transport infra etc

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Hinkley Point C’s soaring costs blamed on red tape Britain Remade think tank says UK nuclear power regulations create ‘most expensive infrastructure projects in history’

The EPR reactor planned for Sizewell has been over-budget, over time, and not always worked, having to constantly be re-designed and reworked because of poor workmanship

But sure, blame ‘British red tape’ if that’s your agenda

www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Investors hitting ‘limit’ for insuring against UK floods, warns Flood Re chief CEO of reinsurer says exposure to risks is now ‘worse’ than when the scheme started in 2016

Insurance companies will no longer be able to cover the UK's most flood-exposed homes, because "the [flooding] problem is....now worse than when we started" (climate change huh?)

350k homes will become uninhabitable

Should the oil industry pay to cover this?

www.ft.com/content/c439...

Republicans and Democrats Finally Agree on Nuclear. It’s the Industry That’s the Problem. The atomic age is perpetually on the verge of dawning.

Nuclear advocates have mostly shouted their environmentalist opponents into submission, but it turns out that didn't solve the real problem, which is that the nuclear industry is a f'ing disaster with long, rich history of subsidies built on false promises, failures, & cost overruns.

He didn’t ‘show’ anything of the sort and in discussions and round table events he was very explicit that if one wanted to, one could do it with RE. It was about cost

His book “without the hot Air” was written long before the price crash in renewable technology and storage

Ministers set to admit Sizewell C nuclear plant pricetag has soared to £38bn New official estimate reflects surging construction inflation and contingency costs

Astonishing (or not?) UK Labour govt will make exactly the same mistakes over nuclear power as Tories

Steadily gulled into a bad project until they have no option but to agree an expensive deal

And only publish the embarrassing details when it’s too late to alter them

www.ft.com/content/d431...