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Government should help energy consumers by supporting the rapid development of green hydrogen, generated using renewable electricity, as a cheap energy source for the future, a new report by RenewableUK urges. The study, Renewable Hydrogen - Seizing the UK Opportunity, says the renewables sector is confident that it can repeat the success of the UK's world-leading offshore wind industry by...

For the first time more than a third of board members in the UK’s top 350 companies as a whole are women, new data has shown. The figures show a continued increase in representation of women on the boards of the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 350 companies. Despite the challenges faced by businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic, representation of women...

China, the world's biggest emitter of CO2, has made a historic pledge to become carbon neutral in 2060. The announcement was made by the Chinese President Xi Jinping when he spoke via video at the annual General Debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tueday. In his speech, President Jinping stated: "The Paris Agreement on climate...

The government is introducing powerful new measures to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and ensure that large businesses and public bodies tackle modern slavery risks in supply chains. In a world-first, public bodies which have a budget of £36 million or more, including local authorities in England and Wales, will be required to regularly report on the steps they...

Today government has launched a consultation on the implementation and design of the Green Gas Levy. The Green Gas Levy will be applied to gas suppliers in Scotland, Wales and England, and will be used to increase green gas production to help decarbonise the gas grid. Gas suppliers will pay the cost of the levy to Ofgem, who will use the...

Smaller providers can now more easily access Great Britain’s balancing mechanism (BM) market following the successful roll-out of a new IT interface. National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO)’s new wider access application programming interface (API) went live in its national control room on 17 September, opening up the market for non-traditional participants to join through 'a more simple, cost-effective, web-based...

Global populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have suffered an average two-thirds decline in less than half a century due in large part to the very same environmental destruction which is contributing to the emergence of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19, according to WWF’s new Living Planet Report 2020. The Living Planet Index (LPI), provided by the Zoological...

Tesla stakeholders will be discussing two proposals that host several ESG-related issues at the company's AGM on 22 September. Firstly, charity Sisters of the Good Shepherd has filed what is known as the Human Rights Disclosure proposal due to their concerns about the actual and potential human rights impacts in Tesla’s operations and supply chain. The proposal asks for Tesla to...

New analysis from the RSPB has revealed the UK’s self-assessment is 'overly optimistic' as high environmental ambitions have not led to real progress being made. The Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 published last week by the United Nations shows that the international community has failed to halt environmental decline over the last 10 years. while the the RSPB report ‘A Lost...

Under new proposals announced on 16 September, the time it takes for certain convictions to become ‘spent’ will be reduced so that they are no longer automatically disclosed on employment checks. This will only happen after a period of rehabilitation has been successfully completed, allowing offenders who have turned their backs on crime to get a fair chance of employment...