The Trump administration has paid $765 million to another wind power developer to make them go away, following earlier deals worth $928 and $885 million respectively. Others have challenged Trump’s ban in the courts and won, meaning Trump’s personal vendetta against renewable energy in America has failed. Ten times more more clean power will come online in 2026 than the cancelled projects would have produced.
In a striking example of how climate harm spins out in unexpected directions, a dentist in Pakistan writes about prolonged outdoor working in extreme heat destroys people’s teeth. He describes it as “environmental collapse writing itself directly into human biological systems”. One of his patients puts it more directly, saying that climate change is “here, right now, in my mouth.”
Social media has become the biggest source of news for the first time, according to the Reuters Institute’s annual report. I thought that had happened already, but TV news and news websites had been ahead until 2025.
Are hot schools putting pupils and teachers at risk? My wife Louise, the proper journalist in the house, writes about school overheating for the BBC.
Let’s Go Zero, the schools campaign I work on with Ashden, has released its impact report for 2026. With over 9,000 schools signed up, it’s now the biggest schools climate campaign in the UK.
Recent highlights
The changing colours of the energy transition
Here’s a map that I enjoyed from the latest Our World in Data newsletter. It shows the leading source of electricity in each country. It’s a fascinating geopolitical snapshot, telling us a lot about who has access to cheap coal, gas or oil. There are lots of little stories here, adding up to one big…
Price parity for EVs has arrived
Twenty years ago it looked like renewable energy was a luxury product. The world would never be able to afford to transition to clean energy, and many environmentalists concluded gloomily that a sustainable future would be one of energy constraints, re-localisation and austerity. Others were looking past the sticker price at the underlying trends and…
Why buildings overheat
Last week I wrote about how Britain was built for a different climate, and how a growing number of buildings are overheating in the summer. In order to do anything about that, we’re going to need to understand the causes of overheating. Buildings don’t just overheat because it’s hot outside. Design plays a big part,…
The Earthbound Report 