Interesting Ideas

In this week’s newsletter: Conservationists have seen nests raided around the country to match demand from the Middle East

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Earlier this week we published an investigation that found hundreds of UK peregrine falcon nests have been raided in the past decade, in order to feed a growing appetite to own prized birds for racing and breeding in the Middle East.

This piece has been a year in the making, working with a great team of reporters from Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) to shed light on a multimillion-dollar industry that stretches around the world.

Germany’s dying forests are losing their ability to absorb CO2. Can a new way of planting save them?

The LA wildfire victims still living in toxic homes: ‘We have nowhere else to go’

‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate?

How demand for elite falcons in the Middle East is driving illegal trade of British birds

‘It’s soul destroying to find nests have failed’: inside the battle against Scotland’s falcon thieves

Global wildlife crime causing ‘untold harm’, UN report finds

Swedish producer is trying to to accelerate the process of extracting the elements vital for hi-tech products

It is deep winter with temperatures dropping to -20C. The sun never rises above the horizon, instead bathing Sweden’s most northerly town of Kiruna in a blue crepuscular light, or “civil twilight” as it is known, for two or three hours a day stretching visibility a few metres, notwithstanding heavy snow.

But 900 metres below the arctic conditions, a team of 20 gather every day, forgoing the brief glimpse of natural light and spearheading the EU’s race to mine its own rare earths.Despite identification of several deposits around the continent, and some rare earth refineries including Solvay in France, there are no operational rare earth mines in Europe.

Canada is planning LNG export infrastructure as if global gas demand growth will persist for decades, but the energy system is moving in a different direction. Under conditions of sustained LNG oversupply, rapid global deployment of solar and batteries, and rising financing costs for fossil infrastructure, most proposed Canadian LNG ... [continued]

The post Canada’s LNG Mirage: Why Most Projects Won’t Be Built and Taxpayers Won’t See the Payoff appeared first on CleanTechnica.

With a new technology comes issues people haven’t adequately foreseen and prepared for. I’ve seen readers highlight potential problems with robotaxis like customers needing help with their luggage, but I don’t recall seeing anyone bring this one up: passengers not closing the door properly and then walking away. Apparently, Waymo ... [continued]

The post Waymo Hiccup — Paying People $20 To Close Doors — To Get A Real Fix appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Rigby saved his Yarck home but many were lost. Another resident says: ‘No one actually knows how bad it is. So many livestock are dead’

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On the outskirts of Yarck, a small farming town in central Victoria, the ground is still smouldering. Gumtrees are flickering with flames as white ash whips through the air.

Across the region houses are reduced to warped steel, with brick chimneys often the only thing left standing.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

The 4xe versions of the Jeep Wrangler and Grand Wagoneer have been axed from the Stellantis lineup along with the Pacifica PHEV.

The post Stellantis Scraps 4xe Plug-In Hybrid Platform For US appeared first on CleanTechnica.

US President Donald Trump’s easy-peasy takeover of the Venezuelan oil industry is already hitting speed bumps, to the surprise of exactly no-one, except maybe Trump himself. The near-term obstacles include fast-moving security concerns as well as structural issues. However, the real problem is the long-term persistence of the global decarbonization ... [continued]

The post No Wonder Oil Execs Are Skittish, They Know Perovskite Solar Cells Are Coming appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Hyundai and Kia had one heck of a party this week in Europe. They launched the compact but practical Kia EV2 as well as the Hyundai STARIA electric van. But that’s not all! While launching the EV2, Kia also launched the EV3 GT, EV4 Hatchback GT, and EV5 GT. And ... [continued]

The post Kia Unveils New EV3 GT, EV4 Hatchback GT, and EV5 GT appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Richest 1% took 10 days while wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust annual carbon budget, study shows

The world’s richest 1% have used up their fair share of carbon emissions just 10 days into 2026, analysis has found.

Meanwhile, the richest 0.1% took just three days to exhaust their annual carbon budget, according to the research by Oxfam.

It was apparently the week for sporty “GT” models in Brussels last week. For the Brussels Motor Show, Chinese EV brand Zeekr launched its new 7GT model for the European market. This is not a mass-market model, but it’s actually not as expensive as I thought it would be. The ... [continued]

The post Zeekr Launches New 7GT In Europe appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Oceans absorb 90% of global heating, making them a stark indicator of the relentless march of the climate crisis

The world’s oceans absorbed colossal amounts of heat in 2025, setting yet another new record and fuelling more extreme weather, scientists have reported.

More than 90% of the heat trapped by humanity’s carbon pollution is taken up by the oceans. This makes ocean heat one of the starkest indicators of the relentless march of the climate crisis, which will only end when emissions fall to zero. Almost every year since the start of the millennium has set a new ocean heat record.

Experts and community trying to untangle mystery of outburst that saw water travel almost 10km overland into a bigger lake

Manoel Dixon had just finished dinner one night last May when a phone dinged nearby with a Facebook message.

Dixon, 26, was at his family’s hunting camp near their northern Quebec home town of Waswanipi. They knew the fellow hunter who was messaging Dixon’s father, but what he wrote didn’t make sense.

Ynys Môn (Anglesey): The wolf moon is spectacular enough, but look east and you’ll see a celestial titan the size of a pinprick

As unmissable as new year’s fireworks, the wolf moon held the heavens for the first few nights of January, casting an unearthly radiance over everything, night almost as bright as day. Now, as that moon wanes, prepare to be wowed by a true planetary A-lister: Jupiter.

Named after the king of the sky gods in Roman mythology, Jupiter rises each evening in the east, unmatched by any star save Sirius. Tonight, however, it will be at its biggest and brightest, having reached “opposition”, meaning we on Earth are directly between Jupiter and the sun. If you have never tried “star” gazing before, tonight’s the night to start.

Plant Heritage says gardening trends mean many species in danger of disappearing as they are no longer offered for sale

More than half of garden plants previously grown in the UK are no longer offered for sale as flower fashions and modern gardening trends have reduced the diversity of blooms.

Plant Heritage is asking the public to choose unusual plants for their gardens, and maybe even start their own national collections of rare blooms, in order to stop some cultivated plants from dying out.

Chevy dealers should have the updated version of the Bolt -- the least expensive EV in the US -- in their showroom soon.

The post Chevy Bolt 2.0 Will Be In Dealer Showrooms Soon appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Stirling Distillery project risks being viewed as heresy but it says it wants to make the industry more sustainable

Whisky drinkers and tourists are often bewitched by the amber rows of malt whisky that line the shelves of Scotland’s bars, restaurants and hotels.

So proposals from one of Scotland’s smallest distilleries could be viewed by many as heresy.

Germany recently completed and pressurized the first roughly 400km segment of its national hydrogen backbone. The pipes are in the ground, the compressors work, and the system is technically ready. There is only one problem. There are no meaningful hydrogen suppliers connected and no material customers contracted. This is not ... [continued]

The post 400km Hydrogen Pipeline With No Users Will Raise Germany’s Electricity Prices appeared first on CleanTechnica.

At CES, one of the busiest booths was for the Sony AFEELA, made in partnership with Honda. Zach already touched on AFEELA, so I will keep this short. By the time I got there, much of the promotional material was already gone, and they were requiring signup for even the ... [continued]

The post Sony AFEELA Was A Hit At CES: Will It Be The Same In The Market? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation’s Project CAPTURED life cycle assessment is one of the more important documents yet produced on shipboard carbon capture. Not because it proves the technology works, but because it finally grounds the discussion in measured data across an end to end value chain. For years, ... [continued]

The post The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation’s Trial Shows Shipboard Carbon Capture Is a Dead End, But Refuses to Say So appeared first on CleanTechnica.