The only way that Britain’s energy bills can come down is if we are no longer reliant on fossil fuels. Today marks a big step towards that goal
Offshore windfarm contracts to fuel 12m homes in Great Britain after record auction
In the 18 months since I became energy secretary, the government has made a simple argument: that if we want to bring down energy bills for good, Britain needs to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuels and instead build up clean homegrown power that we control.
We know that bills rocketed when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine because in the international fossil fuel markets, Britain is a price-taker, not a price-maker. Renewables and nuclear, on the other hand, offer a chance for Britain to stand on our own two feet in the world – making and setting the price of our own energy.
Ed Miliband is the secretary of state for energy security and net zero and the Labour MP for Doncaster North
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/14/2026 - 04:30
01/14/2026 - 02:25
Subsidies awarded to eight new projects after ministers increased funding available to developers
Will Great Britain’s offshore wind subsidy auction mean lower energy bills?
Ed Miliband: With this record wind power auction, we’ve proved the rightwing doubters wrong
A make-or-break auction for the UK government’s goal to create a clean electricity system by 2030 has awarded subsidy contracts to enough offshore windfarms to power about 12m homes.
In Great Britain’s most competitive auction for renewable subsidies to date, energy companies vied for contracts that guarantee the price for each unit of clean electricity they generate.
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01/13/2026 - 22:00
Data leads scientists to declare 2015 Paris agreement to keep global heating below 1.5C ‘dead in the water’
Last year was the third-hottest on record, scientists have said, with mounting fossil fuel pollution behind “exceptional” temperatures.
The EU’s Copernicus climate agency said 2025 had been marginally cooler than 2023 at the end of a scorching three-year run during which surface air temperatures averaged 1.52C above pre-industrial levels.
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01/13/2026 - 16:09
Study from research firm finds that US greenhouse gas emissions grew faster than economic activity last year
In a reversal from previous years’ pollution reductions, the United States spewed 2.4% more heat-trapping gases from the burning of fossil fuels in 2025 than in the year before, researchers calculated in a study released on Tuesday.
The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to a combination of a cool winter, the explosive growth of datacenters and cryptocurrency mining, and higher natural gas prices, according to the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. Environmental policy rollbacks by Donald Trump’s administration were not significant factors in the increase because they were only put in place this year, the study authors said. Heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas are the major cause of worsening global warming, scientists say.
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01/13/2026 - 09:20
Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’
High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives. One chemist called the concerns “a bombshell”.
Studies claiming to have revealed micro and nanoplastics in the brain, testes, placentas, arteries and elsewhere were reported by media across the world, including the Guardian. There is no doubt that plastic pollution of the natural world is ubiquitous, and present in the food and drink we consume and the air we breathe. But the health damage potentially caused by microplastics and the chemicals they contain is unclear, and an explosion of research has taken off in this area in recent years.
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01/13/2026 - 09:00
ACF analysis finds amount of habitat approved by Albanese government for land-clearing hit a 15-year high last year
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More than 57,000 hectares of threatened species habitat was approved for destruction by the Australian government in 2025 – the most in 15 years, according to analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The ACF’s latest annual “extinction wrapped” report has revealed that the threatened species habitat greenlit for land-clearing was about 10 times the size of Sydney Harbour – more than double the 2024 figure, and over five times the 10,426 hectares approved for razing in 2023.
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01/13/2026 - 07:00
If enacted, Utah and Oklahoma measures would restrict litigation against oil companies over role in climate crisis
US lawmakers in two red states are attempting to shield the fossil fuel industry from climate liability.
In Oklahoma, a newly introduced bill would bar most civil lawsuits against oil companies over their role in the climate crisis, unless plaintiffs allege violations of specific environmental or labor laws. A similar proposal in Utah would block lawsuits over climate-warming emissions, unless a court finds the defendant violated a statute or permit.
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01/13/2026 - 02:07
Eastern region on high alert as authorities try to track animal tearing through villages in Jharkhand after apparently becoming separated from herd
Forest officials in India are on the hunt for an elephant that has killed more than 20 people in a days-long rampage through the eastern state of Jharkhand.
Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.
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01/13/2026 - 00:00
A deadly fungus has already wiped out 90 species and threatens 500 more but Anthony Waddle is hoping gene replacement could be their salvation
Standing ankle-deep in water between two bare cottonwood trees on a hot spring day, eight-year-old Anthony Waddle was in his element. His attention was entirely absorbed by the attempt to net tadpoles swimming in a reservoir in the vast Mojave desert.
It was “one of the perfect moments in my childhood”, he says.
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01/12/2026 - 23:21
After a four-year wait, the abundant fruiting of the rimu tree could inspire the world’s heaviest parrots to boost their population
It has been four long years, but the world’s heaviest parrots, the kākāpō, are finally about to get it on again. The mass fruiting of a native New Zealand tree has triggered breeding season – a rare event conservationists hope will lead to a record number of chicks for the critically endangered bird.
Kākāpō, the world’s only nocturnal and flightless parrot, were once abundant across New Zealand. But their population plummeted after the introduction of predators such as cats and stoats, and by the 1900s they were nearly extinct.
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