With the arrival of smaller and cheaper options on the market, the average price paid for a new electric car is now cheaper than petrol cars in the UK, according to Autotrader. The total cost of ownership was already lower, and now the sticker price shouldn’t be a sticking point either.
Beyond private cars and almost completely unnoticed, the government published an integrated transport strategy this month. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I will.
Over a quarter of households in Pakistan now have solar panels. This will save the country an estimated $6.3 billion in energy imports this year, and insulate people from Trump’s energy price rises.
OECD figures for 2025 show a 23% cut in international development aid over the last year. Since much of this was funding life-saving work, this cut in funding will cost an estimated 9 million lives between now and 2030.
Peace with Nature is a new basic income experiment that will support indigenous people to live more sustainably in the Colombian Amazon. Interesting to see the coming together of poverty alleviation, reparations and sustainability here.
Recent highlights
Orienting building for energy savings
I’ve been doing quite a lot of work around summer overheating recently, looking at how we adapt buildings for a warmer climate. For the day job that’s with schools, and I have a personal interest in it in homes as well. Our own house has a tendency to get too hot in the summer, and…
Book review: Two Wheels Good, by Jody Rosen
There’s no shortage of histories of the bicycle out there, but this is a fun one. Published in 2023, Two Wheels Good brings the story of the bike right up to the modern day, with elements of travelogue and personal memoir, and a curiosity about the eccentric corners of the cycling world. The book covers…
Trump’s accidental boost to the energy transition
One of the greatest spurs to environmental action was the series of oil shocks in the 1970s. As the Rapid Transition Alliance describe in a history of the era, it transformed the environmental movement from a focus on conservation to a focus on energy. Governments responded in all sorts of ways to the wake up…
The Earthbound Report 