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We all know that we can’t afford to burn all of our fossil fuel reserves if we’re to stay within the ‘safe’ climate change of around 2°C average global temperature rise, but a new report last week has revealed just how big the mismatch is between economic and environmental...

John Lanchbery, Principal Climate Change Advisor We are not on course to save the world from climate change. Emissions are not heading downwards so as to ensure an average global temperature rise of less than two degrees, the target agreed by all nations. Instead they are surging upwards towards a...

Helen Blenkharn, RSPB Climate Change Policy Officer Last week we posted a blog on our concerns about proposals for a Severn Barrage that are being discussed by a Government committee . The project would involve a shore-to-shore barrage across the Severn Estuary, with potentially catastrophic consequences...

Tony Whitehead, RSPB South West Regional Office With the DECC Minister Greg Barker saying yesterday that it’s not at all realistic that a Severn Barrage Bill will come before parliament this term we think now is the ideal time for everyone to take stock and look anew at generating power from...

Researchers have found a common physical cause behind recent severe weather extremes, such as the heat waves in the United States in 2011 and Russia 2010, and the 2010 Pakistan flood. They say that man-made climate change repeatedly disturbs the patterns of atmospheric flow around the world’s northern...

Helen Blenkharn, Climate Change Policy Officer I hear so much about onshore wind these days, are fossil fuels even a big deal in the UK any more? Yes, they are! In fact, demand for fossil fuels in the UK could be on the verge of a resurgence! For example: So what are we actually extracting...

Helen Blenkharn Climate Change Policy Officer It’s that time of year again when our energy use soars through the roof as we warm our homes from the January weather - the extra couple of degrees on the central heating, the extra hour with the gas fire on in the evening, the higher setting on...

John Lanchbery, at the UNFCCC conference Two days to go at the global climate negotiations in Doha and the sun continues to shine outside, although not much light percolates through to the negotiations. Ministers have arrived now and with them have come the journalists; I am sitting next to John Vidal...

John Lanchbery, at the Doha UNFCCC conference Sunday, and I am just back from an early morning walk around the dhow wharf, one of last remnants of the old pearl fishing village of Doha. The rest of the city is brand, spanking new and stretches far out into the deserts of Qatar. Thanks to its huge...

O Canada! My home and native land! True patriot love, in all thy son’s command! Heather Ducharme That’s the first line the national anthem of my mother country. However, sitting in the RSPB climate change policy team two desks over from the guy who goes to the UNFCC meetings, I’m...

Helen Blenkharn, Climate Change Policy Officer We all need an electricity supply, but can we make policies and investments work better for local communities, and perhaps for wildlife and climate change at the same time? If you want to influence decisions about our energy infrastructure, two current...

John Lanchbery, Principal Climate Change Advisor The European Parliament voted in favour of countries taking responsibility for their emissions from agriculture and peatlands. ‘Shouldn’t they be doing that anyway?’ you may well ask, slightly surprised. The answer is, of course, ‘yes’...

Guest post by Sarah Alsbury, RSPB Environmental Systems Project Manager The mad thing about importing biomass to burn for energy is that we have plenty in the UK, which is often left to rot on the ground. We have this problem on many reserves, especially our wetlands. We need to cut grass, reeds,...

Helpfully confirming the mess we're in over climate climate, the new AVOID report surely must help to redouble efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The headline messages are stark. An evens chance of limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius is no longer feasible - 1.6 is the very...

John Lanchbery from the Bangkok UN climate meeting The UN climate talks in Bangkok are drawing to a close. After running straight through the weekend, typically for at least twelve hours each day, everyone is feeling a bit tired now. This is not helped by the fact that, as the guide books say, Bangkok...

Post from Matt Williams Who couldn’t help but get caught up in Olympic fever on Saturday evening? One of the many companies spurring on a wave of patriotism this summer has been British Airways. Its adverts have been patriotically urging the British public not to fly, to stay at home and...

A new study confirms the widely agreed science on climate change – that doesn’t sound like much of a news story. But it is: because the study was undertaken a climate sceptic who was expecting a different result, and part-funded by a well-known climate change denier. And as a good scientist...

Guest post from Charmian Flowerday, RSPB Project Manager Last Monday was quite a special day for me – Now don’t get me wrong, I know that going to visit a farm in a small village in Cambridgeshire to see construction work might not be everyone’s idea of an inspiring way to spend...

From Ivan Scrase, RSPB Senior Climate Change Policy Officer With the UK’s energy policy proposals under fire from MPs, the National Audit Office and the Major Projects Authority, it is clear some new thinking is needed. There is no doubt it is an immense challenge to find workable policies that...