Interesting Ideas

Oh Lordy, where to begin? On December 22, the Trump administration urgently dropped a stop-work order on not one but five offshore wind farms spanning five different states on the Atlantic Coast, citing an extremely dire national security emergency. Oh, really? How dire? Clear and present danger dire? Not that ... [continued]

The post The Case Against Offshore Wind Is Already Crumbling (Shocker!) appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A helpless baby elephant has won the Thai public’s sympathy but her case has shed light on the pressures facing herds across Asia

Khao Tom, a two-month-old elephant, plays with a wildlife officer, nudging his face and curling her trunk around his wrist. When she lifts her trunk in the air, signalling that she is hungry, the team at the rescue centre seems relieved – she has not been eating well. A vet prepares a pint-sized bottle of formula, which she gulps down impatiently.

Khao Tom has been in the care of Thailand’s national parks and wildlife department since September, when rangers rescued her from a farming area inside Lam Khlong Ngu national park. Born with a congenital disorder affecting her knees, she struggled to keep up with the herd. Within days of her birth, her mother had moved on without her.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Bird organisations say more research on the species needed to control impact on other wildlife

In the past 20 years, the soundscape in the ancient wild, rolling landscape of Richmond Park has been transformed. Once you would have heard the chirrup of the stonechat, the chirp of the greater spotted woodpecker or the song of the skylark. Today, the auditory power of one bird dominates.

The bright green ring-necked parakeet increased 25-fold from 1994-2023 in the UK. They are still mainly based in the skies, parks, and woodlands around London and suburban areas in the south east, but in recent years they have made their way to northern cities including Manchester and Newcastle.

BYD is the new global EV sales champion, as Tesla has fallen to second place. BYD expects sales growth to continue in 2026.

The post BYD New Global BEV Sales Leader, Displacing Tesla appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Exclusive: Critics say removing battery installation requirement will reduce amount homebuyers save on energy bills

Ministers are poised to allow homes in England to be built without carbon-cutting technology in what experts have said is a climbdown after pressure from housebuilders.

The future homes standard (FHS), due to be published in January, will regulate how all homes are built and is expected to enforce tough new regulations such as mandating solar panels on nearly all houses and high standards of insulation and heat pumps in most cases.

AI can do some extraordinary things, especially in the field of medicine. It also has some dangerous tendencies that need more examination.

The post AI & Its Discontents — Part One appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The monsoon season is crucial for agriculture, making up 80% of annual rainfall, but also extremely destructive

January brings torrential rain to south-east Asia – more than 250mm fell in just two days in Singapore last year. This is because of the monsoon, a pattern of wind and rainfall, the name of which stems from the Arabic word for “season”.

The monsoon is sometimes described in terms of a sea breeze, in which the wind reverses direction in the morning and evening as the relative temperature of land and sea change, blowing out to sea at first and then inland as the land cools.

Texas has emerged as a hotbed of green hydrogen activity in the US, supported in part by know-how borrowed from the oil and gas industry. Now another iconic fossil fuel state, Oklahoma, is jockeying for a piece of the action. A case in point is the Oklahoma City startup Tobe ... [continued]

The post A Green Hydrogen Innovator In Oklahoma Has A Message For Texas: Hold My Beer appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In this week’s newsletter: From geopolitics to populism, multilateralism is under pressure – but climate action cannot succeed in a fractured world

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January might seem a bit too early to propose a word of the year, but I know mine already: multilateralism – the principle that common problems should have common solutions. It rests on the idea that all countries and people have a stake in the future of the planet we share, and that their rights should be respected. That cooperation beats competition, or going it alone.

Multilateralism is what has kept the UN process of climate diplomacy going, but now the principle is under threat as never before, amid a rising tide of populism and conflict. The US, under Donald Trump, explicitly rejects multilateralism, in favour of carve-ups between great powers. But if we are to stave off climate breakdown, only multilateralism will work.

‘Cities need nature to be happy’: David Attenborough seeks out London’s hidden wildlife

EU’s new ‘green tariff’ rules on high-carbon goods come into force

Renewable energy project approvals hit record high in GB in 2025, data shows

Multilateralism faces a toxic brew of debt, climate crisis and war. It’s time for a reboot | Mo Ibrahim

The ‘new world order’ of the past 35 years is being demolished before our eyes. This is how we must proceed | Gordon Brown

Into the void: how Trump killed international law

China recently placed a supercritical carbon dioxide power generator into commercial operation, and the announcement was widely framed as a technological breakthrough. The system, referred to as Chaotan One, is installed at a steel plant in Guizhou province in mountainous southwest China and is designed to recover industrial waste heat ... [continued]

The post China Built A Supercritical CO₂ Generator. That Doesn’t Mean It Will Last. appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Looking back on 2025, my trip to Guangzhou in November was one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve had. I knew that the media portrays a distorted and outdated picture of China, but I really didn’t grasp how much until seeing it with my own eyes on this latest trip. ... [continued]

The post 2025 Highlight: Guangzhou Shows a Potential Future of Clean City Living appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Extreme heat and drought has destroyed 70% of Jordan’s olive crop, endangering livelihoods of 80,000 families and a centuries-old tradition

Abu Khaled al-Zoubi, 67, walks slowly through his orchard in Irbid, northern Jordan, his footsteps kicking up dust from the parched earth beneath centuries-old olive trees. He stops at a gnarled trunk, its bark split and peeling from months of unrelenting heat.

He points out that the branches should be sagging under the weight of ripening fruit, but instead they stretch upward, nearly bare, with only a few shrivelled olives clinging to the withered stems.

Fire chief says summer, the UK’s hottest on record, was ‘one of the most challenging for wildfires that we’ve ever faced’

Ten English fire services tackled a record number of grassland, woodland and crop fires during what was the UK’s hottest spring and summer on record, figures show.

In total nearly 27,000 wildfires were dealt with by fire services in England during the prolonged dry weather of 2025, according to analysis by PA Media.

Mousley Bottom, Derbyshire: This area was a literal dump 40 years ago, devoid of life. But time and a dedicated council have worked their magic

Stand in this wood by the River Goyt, listening to the basso profundo of ravens overhead, and you could imagine that this place is some long-tempered blend of town and country.

In one sense it is. High overhead to the east is the busy Albion Road bridge leading into New Mills town centre. Turn north, and in front of you trees stretch all the way up the hillside, where there are redwings gorging on holly berries and the first pre-spring sounds of wren song that even the rush of the river cannot drown.

New year plant hunt shows rising temperatures are shifting natural cycles of wildflowers such as daisies

Daisies and dandelions are among hundreds of native plant species blooming in the UK, in what scientists have called a “visible signal” of climate breakdown disrupting the natural world.

A Met Office analysis of data from the annual new year’s plant hunt over the past nine years found an extra 2.5 species in bloom during the new year period for every 1C rise in temperature at a given location during the previous November and December. This year’s hunt started on Thursday and runs until Sunday.

China is supplying low cost solar panels to many African nations, including South Africa. Doing so also increases its political power.

The post Chinese Solar Panels Are Transforming Africa appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Intertubes lit up earlier today with news of a new, compostable “paper battery” introduced by the Singapore-based startup Flint. The new battery aims to elevate the sustainability profile of energy storage systems for EVs, among other applications, by eliminating toxic materials and supply chain complications. That doesn’t necessarily mean ... [continued]

The post One Step Closer To The Compostable EV Battery Of The Future appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Tesla has released its 4th quarter and 2025 vehicle delivery data. It was strange a few days ago that the company released consensus Wall Street analyst estimates of its coming 2025 delivery numbers. I questioned why Tesla would start doing so, and wondered if it was to try to get ... [continued]

The post Tesla Sales Down 10% Since 2023 — CHARTS appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Our eyes need to be on the environment in 2026. No longer will we accept individual guilt for climate degradation. Yes, changing behaviors is a starting place to protect the environment, but we can only achieve about one-tenth of the emissions-reduction potential that corporations need to adopt, says the World ... [continued]

The post Here Are Some Crucial Climate Actions You Can Take To Protect The Environment In 2026 appeared first on CleanTechnica.