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Doug Parr

@dougparr.bsky.social
11K followers 1.1K following 1.6K posts

@greenpeaceuk.bsky.social chief scientist, policy director View are all my own, except those I've borrowed

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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Upshot of US diesel export ban "Trump has been talking about a possible diesel export ban... during recent UN meeting I heard non-US execs & govt officials outlining plans to protect themselves from a fossil fuel squeeze by “diversifying”, ie embracing renewable energy" www.ft.com/content/3ae1...
ft.com
Trump’s diesel threats could go very wrong — just look at the soyabean
Yes, Nixon’s export ban did briefly suppress domestic prices but it had a huge long-term cost
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"In India, the government held an auction in August for renewable power delivered round the clock, with bidders required to match the typical supply of coal plants. It secured 1GW of solar and storage capacity at a lower cost than recent coal power contracts" www.ft.com/content/b847...
ft.com
The trouble with China’s bigger, better batteries
It’s the world’s fastest-growing power technology — and Beijing is dominant
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Water company for Devon & Cornwall to pay *record fine* of £8m for hundreds of sewage spills Incl untreated sewage gushing through a harbour wall for 10 hours on a bank holiday weekend Pennon Group, owner of SW Water, returned £138mn to shareholders last year www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
South West Water fined £8m for hundreds of sewage spills in Cornwall and Devon
District judge orders record fine for region and says incidents of pollution cannot be tolerated
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
HSBC & Barclays were among global banks pledging in 2021 to cut emissions from loans Driven mainly them, loans by UK banks to the coal industry rose 17% from 2022 to 2025, EU banks nearly halved coal financing. Banks in Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan also cut theirs www.ft.com/content/52e5...
ft.com
UK banks stick with coal financing, campaign report finds
Barclays and HSBC led in support of the industry since the war on Ukraine, study shows
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Internal documents show European Commission ignored its own advice to maintain a bloc-wide combustion engine ban in cars and instead caved to automakers & national capitals Short-termism at work as tech wave rolls out. So China will dominate 21st century car-making www.politico.eu/article/comm...
politico.eu
EU Commission ignored its own advice before weakening car CO2 rules
An internal document warned that it was too early to call the 2035 target unachievable, despite arguments from carmakers that they needed relief.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Crown Estate is the owner of England's seabed and charges offshore wind farms to use it But the way it has charged in the past has raised costs and looks like monopoly profiteering And it will add up to £38 to energy bills in the future, according to Oxford Uni www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
thetimes.com
Crown Estate sea bed auctions could add £38 a year to energy bills
The business that manages the King’s land has put wind farm projects at risk with move away from capped fees for developers, a University of Oxford study warns
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Based on current building patterns 115,000 new homes will be built in England’s flood zones in the next 10 years Many could become uninsurable in the future due to the risk of flooding, says Insurance company Aviva Which would make those houses essentially useless www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Aviva boss warns more homes will be uninsurable due to flood risk
Aviva boss Amanda Blanc said England was "for sure" building homes that might be uninsurable at some point in the future.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In 2020 Starbucks, in a public letter, said “sustainability has been at Starbucks’ core since the beginning...a great business that scales for good” Targets to cut water use & waste now abandoned, & likely climate targets The public letter is no longer on their website www.ft.com/content/f537...
ft.com
Starbucks retreats from green goals amid $2bn cost drive
Early corporate champion of climate action scales back or reviews targets to halve emissions, waste and water use
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Fuel cost of running an electric vehicle vs petrol was always significant, now factor of 9 for diesel New EVs inevitably flow into second-hand market where ££ savings are made by all societal segments UK Govt plans to dilute the mandate for EVs will stop that www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-evs...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Objections to giant water- and energy-guzzling datacentres are holding back Britain, says ex-politician-for-hire whose job it is to get datacentres built www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
OpenAI’s George Osborne says datacentre nimbys holding back Britain
Former chancellor, now senior figure at OpenAI, says UK needs datacentres to maintain ‘sovereignty’ over AI tech
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
EU feels diesel pain “We run road transport on internal combustion engines, we’re reliant on a commodity we have no control over" say @transportenvironment.org “As long as we are dependent on imported fossil fuels, our energy prices [will] be volatile ” @ec.europa.eu www.ft.com/content/76b5...
ft.com
Diesel surge costs European drivers €203mn per day
Motorists are spending 40% more each time they refill their tank, compared with the start of the year
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New analysis from US climate scientists says 450,000 deaths from El Nino heat stress It's a “postcard from our future” as world warms past 1.5C "we will see never-before-experienced heat extremes, with consequences on health, food security, water stress" www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“It’s a race against time for scientists to identify new species before deep sea mining threatens to wipe out fragile ecosystems for ever. Scientists estimate only 0.001% of deep sea floor – where sunlight fades to total darkness – has been observed by humans” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Meet Barbie Pig: new documentary reveals the wonders of life on the Pacific seabed
A magical new film captures the secret life of the deep sea in a stretch of the ocean at risk from industrial mining
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Latest data show the current El Nino is already bringing sea surface temperatures rises - 3.07C - greater than ever before, and they are going to get much higher yet This sea warming will change atmospheric dynamics, bringing droughts & floods across the world www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A more accurate headline would be “Oil pipeline-owning billionaire tax exile say UK should tax rich people less and allow more oil &gas drilling” Then we could understand the self interest at the heart of it, masquerading as disillusionment
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
First scientific study of Nepal flood disaster says unusually warm conditions before the glacier broke off probably weakened it The glacier collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing hundreds of people Climate change was, therefore, a key cause www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
Climate crisis likely behind devastating Nepal-Tibet floods that killed more than 1,300, first study finds
Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in August
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
UK Government climate change advisers say expanding Heathrow airport is incompatible with climate targets To make it so, the aviation industry should pay for carbon removals & sustainable aviation fuel Trouble is neither of those meaningfully exist www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Airlines should pay for CO2 removal if Heathrow expands, say climate advisers
Climate Change Committee says government cannot expand airport without requiring aviation industry to clean up its emissions
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
UK is on track to install around 300,000 solar rooftops this year That'll break records and on its own add at least 1GW of solar to UK generation For scale, UK maximum demand is around 50GW www.businessgreen.com/news/4535700...
businessgreen.com
'Unprecedented numbers': Solar industry on track to smash rooftop record
MCS tracker reveals number of small-scale solar installations completed this year has already surpassed long-standing 2011 record
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Energy Transfer gas facility at Shreveport, Louisiana, emits 1.56t methane per hour Climate impact of that over next 20 years is 1mn tonnes CO2, bigger than entire emissions of the Seychelles Top 10 US sites emit equivalent (almost) to CO2 from Albania www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
US ‘super-emitters’ of planet heating methane identified by satellite analysis
Energy Transfer, whose CEO is a major Trump donor, named as biggest single methane producer in new rankings
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Since 2010 fishing quotas for Atlantic mackerel have exceeded scientific advice, so population "in danger of collapse" Arising from years-long quota dispute involving UK, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Faroe Islands, EU & Russia "wide failure of international governance" www.ft.com/content/980a...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
England's water abstraction policy is no longer fit for purpose in a warming world Millions of households in England face use restrictions and are face record water bills. For big industrial customers, the more water they use, the less they pay per litre www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
UK ministers explore raising price of water for some users amid shortages
Environment Agency says talks under way about increasing prices for industrial users to try to reduce poor water management
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Green party leader in England will demand that the prime minister fullt publish report on scale and impact of climate & nature crises He’s not wrong. If intelligence chiefs say biodiversity collapse is a national security issue, we should all have full picture www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Polanski calls for report on ecosystem collapse to be published in full
Green leader says ministers must stop ‘hiding the truth’ about threat to UK security from climate and nature crisis
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
England is a water-stressed nation It's time our rules on water got up to date Allowing a sizeable proportion of places, catering to a well-heeled leisure activity, to carry out over-abstraction of water from a struggling natural environment reeks of complacency www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
One in 12 golf clubs in England broke water extraction rules in past five years
More than 140 clubs breached licences, with a third caught taking water illegally, analysis shows – but no fines issued
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
1/3 Yesterday Reform UK & Tories tried to blame Jaguar Land Rover's troubles on UK climate policy. So did UNITE the Union As BBC explain real problems are: - Trump tariffs hitting USA sales, JLR biggest market - Chinese innovation hitting sales in China, 2nd biggest www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Why the ‘Temu Range Rover’ is such a threat to Jaguar Land Rover
Job cuts come as JLR faces falling sales and intense Chinese competition while trying to switch to electric vehicles.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Nepal demands $20m in climate compensation from world’s most polluting countries for recent devastating floods Scientists believe the climate crisis triggered the floods when a melting glacier partially collapsed, leading to death or disappearance of 6000 people www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Nepal says big polluters must ‘wake up’ as it calls for climate compensation over flood disaster
Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Spain wants to tax fossil fuel producers in order to fund climate adaptation An application of the 'polluter pays' principle Economists estimate cost of climate-change induced drought in Europe this summer was €50bn, one bank says €180bn Someone's got to pay for it www.ft.com/content/86da...
ft.com
Spain pushes for EU oil and gas tax to pay for climate change response
Rising extreme weather costs fuel campaign ahead of new resilience strategy
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Less than 1% of businesses in England use more water than the daily needs of 10 mn people Biggest users of public water supply include oil refineries, chemical plants, paper mills. Some face no requirement to cut their consumption, even as there's a hosepipe ban www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Revealed: how companies ‘secretly’ use billions of litres of public water in drought-hit England
Exclusive: As millions of people face hosepipe bans, many companies are not required to report, let alone cut, use of public supply
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Why do GB News and Talk TV still have a broadcasting licence? They are propounding lies about the climate threat on a routine basis. This isn't freedom of speech, it's vandalism of a cohesive society response www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Former Conservative Party chairman attacks its current approach on climate change "what tin ear allows this attack on our cross-party agreements & intl commitments at the moment thousands of bodies are being recovered after climate-aggravated flooding in Nepal & Tibet?" www.ft.com/content/5b8f...
ft.com
Tory attempts to repeal the UK Climate Act are tin-eared
Summer’s droughts and wildfires demonstrate the need to stick to cross-party consensus on policy and to UK strategy on net zero
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Reposted by Doug Parr
Molly Scott Cato @greenpartymolly.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
We talk about the nature crisis and biodiversity loss but really we should be talking about the pesticides crisis These chemicals are designed to destroy life and that's what they do
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Pesticide Action Network study finds 402-433mn cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers & workers every year, incl 11,000 deaths Doesn't include longer term health issues from chronic poisoning Global pesticide use has doubled since 1990 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find
Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalities
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Pesticide Action Network study finds 402-433mn cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers & workers every year, incl 11,000 deaths Doesn't include longer term health issues from chronic poisoning Global pesticide use has doubled since 1990 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find
Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalities
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
BREAKING: Summer 2026 hottest ever for UK 5 warmest UK summers on record are:   2026: 16.5°C 2025: 16.1°C  2018: 15.7°C  2006: 15.7°C  2003: 15.7°C 1976 summer relegated to 7th on list as climate change makes previously unthinkably hot summers the norm www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
metoffice.gov.uk
Summer 2026 provisionally hottest on record for the UK
The season’s mean temperature was made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is how much a typical 4kW solar rooftop installation will generate and save on energy bills, in different parts of the UK Even in Central Scotland it will benefit the householder by £440 per year More with a heat pump and/or electric vehicle www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Another fossil-fuel industry, anti-renewables talking point bites the dust as wind turbine blades - in fact the whole wind farm - sends v little to landfill For years anti-wind farm campaigners have said landfill of turbines blades means wind power is unsustainable www.thetimes.com/business/ene...
thetimes.com
ScottishPower fully recycles Hagshaw Hill wind farm in UK first
A pioneering scheme to reuse turbines from one of Britain’s first wind power projects has sent less than 0.1 per cent to landfill
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Raw sewage spills should only happen when the sewage works is overwhelmed by heavy rain But in England & Wales between January & May this year, water companies discharged raw sewage during dry weather 7,280 times Compares with 8,576 during the whole of 2025 www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Dry weather sewage discharges soar as water companies face scrutiny
Exclusive: 7,280 suspected illegal spills in rivers and sea recorded in first five months of 2026
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah says last week's deadly Himalayan flood was "not an ordinary" event but driven by climate change Pledges to press international community for action economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/interna...
economictimes.indiatimes.com
Nepal PM Balendra Shah demands climate action after Himalayan disaster takes over 939 lives
Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah has blamed climate change for last weeks devastating Himalayan flood, calling it an “extraordinary” disaster triggered by a glacial collapse. With at least 939 peopl...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
62% of global losses from natural disasters are uninsured, leaving homes, businesses & govts facing about $279bn in uninsured losses annually The growing price tag reflects the mounting toll of climate change according to risk-modelling firm Verisk www.ft.com/content/b359...
ft.com
Disasters to cost world $450bn a year from climate change and development
More than half of losses not covered by insurance as carriers carve out risk and cut exposure
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
From today plug-in solar could be able to help those in flats and others who can't put solar on a roof A one-panel kit will cost £699 A household could save between £70 and £110 a year on their energy bills www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Plug-in solar panels are coming to a shop near you - what to know
The UK government claimes panels could help homes "significantly cut" energy bills.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Datacentres in Wapseys Wood, Bucks & Quest Park, Beds will use 1.3GW of gas power, producing over 4.5mt CO2. Well over 1% of UK emissions They've been fast-tracked through govt’s significant infra regime, allowing developers to bypass local planning objections www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds
Exclusive: Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire sites predicted to emit 4.5m tonnes a year when fully running
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
"England’s water companies have long been accused of putting the interests of shareholders above those of customers. From their perspective, privatisation of water has been an astounding success. Between 1991 - 2019, dividends to shareholders totalled £57bn" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
From Scotland, I look at England’s water privatisation disaster. I wish you had done what we did | Devi Sridhar
Listening to debate, you’d think bringing English water companies into public ownership was a radical socialist idea. Here, we call it common sense, says chair of global public health at the Universit...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A key political test for new UK PM Andy Burnham is whether to approve Rosebank & Jackdaw oil & gas fields New academic research shows economic damage caused from CO2 produced would be between £119bn and £336bn, compared with estimated £28.7bn economic benefits www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Climate damage would obliterate any economic benefits of new North Sea fields, analysis shows
Exclusive: Economic harm of CO2 pollution from Rosebank and Jackdaw forecast to far outweigh any boost to UK
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
So good to see applications for onshore wind in England increasing - let's hope they can be accelerated to delivery in case right wing fools get elected who think 'more gas' is a good energy strategy www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
So how does the anti low-emission zone story go now? “We want to keep kids lungs under-developed so we can drive our polluting cars where we like “ Other cities need to follow London’s example www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
Children's lung capacity caught up with their peers in less polluted areas once a clean air zone came in, a study shows.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
This is such a bad idea Rapid advancement of electric vehicles - tackles climate change, and in case anyone hasn’t noticed, Europe & UK are on fire - cuts consumer costs - lowers oil dependence, and in case anyone hasn’t noticed, there’s war in the Middle East www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Andy Burnham moves to cut new EV sales targets
Possible cut from 80% down to as little as 50% could add millions of tonnes of CO2 to emissions and comes amid UK heatwaves
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Exxon is annoyed EU is insisting on some kind of CO2 capture Makes most sense if you think oil company advocacy for CCS is more about pretending to politicians they have an answer for climate change, rather than their actual willingness to do anything about it giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The Wildlife Trusts are calling for a complete ban on 5 dangerous chemicals “Two sugar cubes of the concentrated active ingredient imidacloprid would be enough to exceed the predicted no-effect concentration in about 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools” www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
Calls to ban ‘toxic’ pet flea treatments that harm UK wildlife and environment
Over-the-counter treatments for cats and dogs contain chemicals that are banned in pesticides and pollute waterways
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Reposted by Doug Parr
Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
One in seven units of electricity used in Britain in July came from solar power As @solarenergyuk.bsky.social say: “15 years ago solar was a footnote in the electricity mix - now it’s a major player” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Solar powers record share of Britain’s electricity mix in July
Farms and rooftop panels contribute 14.4% to the grid – and figures reveal a surge in new installations
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
One in seven units of electricity used in Britain in July came from solar power As @solarenergyuk.bsky.social say: “15 years ago solar was a footnote in the electricity mix - now it’s a major player” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Solar powers record share of Britain’s electricity mix in July
Farms and rooftop panels contribute 14.4% to the grid – and figures reveal a surge in new installations
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Into climate change denial? Go on, knock yourself out trying to explain this www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
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