20 new nature projects across the country will receive funding to create and restore critical habitat areas equivalent in total to the size of York benefitting many species such as water voles and habitats including saltmarshes. Grants of up to £3 million have been awarded to projects run by wildlife charities, farmers, and community groups […]

Read More

The Tidal Lagoon Challenge, initiated as a Programme for Government commitment, aims to position Wales as a global hub for emerging marine technologies. Launched in June 2024, it allocated a £750,000 grant fund to projects targeting two main objectives: overcoming barriers to tidal lagoon development; and quantifying potential benefits. Examples included addressing environmental uncertainties and […]

Read More

Private sector funding for English nature recovery projects took a major step forward today with Lloyds Banking Group becoming the first organisation to provide funding through the government-developed Projects for Nature platform. Projects for Nature (PFN) aims to connect businesses and other donors with 25 English quality nature projects, to help close the nature finance […]

Read More

One Home has created an interactive map to highlight the 21 English coastal communities most at risk of coastal erosion, which is accelerating because of the climate crisis. These include seaside villages in Cornwall, Cumbria, Dorset, East Yorkshire, Essex, Kent, the Isle of Wight, Northumberland, Norfolk and Sussex, amounting to 2,218 properties that are together […]

Read More

The Office for Environmental Protection is investigating the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Secretary of State (SoS) and Natural England over possible failures to comply with environmental law in relation to Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for wild birds, it has announced. The investigation will seek to determine whether Defra SoS and Natural […]

Read More

By Samantha Garrard, Senior Marine Ecosystem Services Researcher at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Plastic has been found in every single part of the ocean, from the surface to the seafloor and from the tropics to the poles. Land-based sources of plastic account for the majority of this pollution, with plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, food containers and cutlery among […]

Read More

The Sustainable Solutions for Water and Nature (SSWAN) partnership has published an outline of a new model and discussion paper for regulation of the water environment. The new SSWAN model shifts regulation towards catchment-based approaches to support cheaper, more innovative, more collaborative projects that more accurately reflect local priorities. SSWAN proposes a four-tier regulatory framework: […]

Read More

Last week’s Spring Budget was widely criticised for missed opportunities on energy efficiency and growing low-carbon industries. Key points from the useful summary by Carbon Brief UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt failed to mention the term “climate change” at all when setting out the government’s spring budget – the first since it was confirmed that 2023 was […]

Read More