The global energy transition is now “unstoppable” due to “smart economics”, UN general-secretary António Guterres has said in an online speech titled: “A moment of opportunity.”
His comments coincide with two reports released today, one from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the other from the UN that utilises the former’s research.
Between them, the reports provide details of how the “plummeting” cost of renewables has helped the sector expand at pace, meaning that renewables now almost match fossil fuels in terms of global installed power capacity.
In 2024, 91% of renewable power projects that were commissioned were more cost effective than any new fossil-fuel alternatives, according to IRENA.
The 582 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity added to the global energy system in 2024 helped avoid fossil-fuel use valued at about $57bn, with further cost savings expected as the sector continues to grow.
In his speech, Guterres said:
“Throughout history, energy has shaped the destiny of humankind – from mastering fire, to harnessing steam, to splitting the atom. Now, we are on the cusp of a new era. Fossil fuels are running out of road. The sun is rising on a clean-energy age.”
Below, Carbon Brief details five of the key points from the reports and Guterres’ speech.
- Renewables are increasing as costs fall
- Investment in clean energy tips $2bn
- ‘Stability…in a volatile global energy landscape’
- China dominates deployment…others should now follow
- ‘Faster and fairer’ for 1.5C
Renewables are increasing as costs fall
The cost of renewable energy technologies has fallen over the past decade, with 96% of new solar and wind now costing less than new coal and gas plants, according to IRENA.
In 2024, the global average cost of electricity generated by solar photovoltaics (PV) and onshore wind was 41% and 53% cheaper, respectively, than the least-cost new fossil fuel-fired power plant.
The global average cost of solar PV has fallen to $0.43 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and onshore wind to $0.34/kWh.
There were some small increases in costs between 2023 and 2024 for some technologies, IRENA notes. Solar PV’s levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) increased by 0.6%, onshore wind by 3%, offshore wind by 4% and bioenergy by 13%.
According to BloombergNEF, increases were broadly due to inflation and supply chain pressures. These led to the first jump in the costs of offshore wind in the UK’s renewable energy auctions, for example.
However, IRENA explains that long-term cost reductions are expected to continue, as further technological lessons are “learnt” and supply chains mature.
Alongside this drop in cost, renewable energy capacity has increased significantly over the past decade, growing by around 2,600GW, or 140%, between 2015 and 2024, according to the UN report.
Over the same period, fossil fuels increased by around 640GW, or 16%.
In 2024 alone, renewables made up 92.5% of all new electricity capacity additions, as well as 74% of electricity generation growth.
This means that the share of global installed capacity is now nearly a 1:1 ratio between fossil fuels and renewables, the UN report notes.
Between 2015 and 2024, renewables increased by 81% in terms of global annual electricity generation compared to a 13% increase for fossil fuels.
The global rollout of solar and wind is already having a significant impact on emissions, saving almost the equivalent of the EU’s annual emissions.
Despite the increase in renewable energy capacity to date, lagging investment in expanding and modernising electricity grids is “becoming a bottleneck for the energy transition”, cautions the UN report. There are at least 3,000GW of renewable power projects waiting for a grid connection.
Investment in clean energy tips $2bn
In 2024, global annual clean-energy investments exceeded $2tn for the first time, according to the UN report.
This is $800bn more than fossil-fuel investment, as shown in the chart below, up almost 70% in 10 years. It follows investment in clean energy surpassing fossil-fuel investment in 2016.
Subsequently, the number of jobs in the clean-energy sector has also continued to grow, reaching 34.8m in 2023, of which 16.2n were in the renewables sector.
According to the UN report, in 2023, the clean-energy sector added $320bn to the global economy. This accounted for 10% of GDP growth globally.
Clean energy accounted for an even higher percentage in certain regions, For example, nearly a third of the EU’s GDP came from the sector. It made up 5% in India, 6% in the US and 20% in China.
In his speech, Guterres noted that, despite clean energy increasingly driving economies, there is still “clean market distortion” with fossil fuels benefiting nine-to-one from consumption subsidies globally. He continued:
“Add to that the unaccounted costs of climate damages on people and planet – and the distortion is even greater. Countries that cling to fossil fuels are not protecting their economies – they are sabotaging them. Driving up costs. Undermining competitiveness. Locking-in stranded assets. And missing the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”
The UN report notes that, in 2024, the economic losses from weather-related extreme events were estimated to be $320bn, of which 56% were uninsured.
Under IRENA’s 1.5C scenario for the energy transition, global annual GDP would increase by 1.5% between 2023 and 2050.
‘Stability…in a volatile global energy landscape’
In 2024, renewable energy helped “avoid” $467bn in fossil-fuel costs globally, according to IRENA.
This reinforces renewables’ role as “not only as the lowest-cost source of new power, but also as a key driver of energy security, economic stability and resilience in a volatile global energy landscape”.
Between 2000 and 2023, Asia saw the biggest savings from clean-energy investment, with £212bn avoided, as shown on the chart below.
This was predominantly due to China, where renewable energy is surging, helping to put the country’s emissions “into reverse” for the first time earlier this year, according to Carbon Brief analysis. (The UN report cites two articles published by Carbon Brief this year.)
In a statement released alongside the report, IRENA director-general Francesco La Camera said:
“The cost-competitiveness of renewables is today’s reality. Looking at all renewables currently in operation, the avoided fossil-fuel costs in 2024 reached up to $467bn. New renewable power outcompetes fossil fuels on cost, offering a clear path to affordable, secure and sustainable energy. This achievement is the result of years of innovation, policy direction and growing markets.”
Additionally, the continued expansion of renewable energy technologies can, says the UN report, help to protect people from the impact of geopolitical instability on international energy markets.
Around 74% of the global population lives in a country that is a net importer of fossil fuels, the report notes. As such, when oil and gas prices surge, they are left particularly vulnerable.
For example, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, gas prices reached record highs and oil prices hit their highest level since 2008, the UN report adds.
Consequently, the average energy bill globally was 20% higher than the average over the previous five years. This was more acute in countries that are particularly reliant on gas imports, such as South Korea, which spent $17bn more on gas in 2022 compared to 2021.
China dominates deployment…others should now follow
While renewable energy deployment has been increasing around the world, the distribution remains uneven, notes the UN report.
As shown in the chart, of the 4,448GW of total renewable capacity installed globally as of the end of 2024, 41% was in China, 39% in OECD countries and almost half of the remaining 20% in Brazil and India.
Africa made up just 1.5% of the capacity installed by the end of last year, despite accounting for 85% of the global population without electricity access and having a renewable energy resource potential 10 times larger than the continent’s projected electricity demand in 2040.
Since 2016, outside of China, less than one in every five dollars invested in clean energy has gone to emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), explains the UN report.
Investment is hampered in part by higher costs in EMDEs – for example, the cost of capital for a large-scale solar PV project in one of these economies is well over twice as high as in advanced economies, adds the UN report.
To keep the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C goal within reach, annual clean-energy spending in EMDEs beyond China will need to increase by around five to seven times from 2022 levels, notes the UN report. This would see investment increase to $1.4-1.9tn a year in 2030 and to more than $2tn a year by 2035.
‘Faster and fairer’ for 1.5C
The UN and IRENA reports, along with Gueterres’ speech, highlight that, while progress in transitioning the energy sector away from fossil fuels is underway, “the transition is not yet fast enough or fair enough”.
Since the Paris Agreement came into force almost a decade ago, the collective ratcheting up of global climate ambition and action has meant that “projected global warming has been progressively declining”, the report notes.
It points to the UNEP emissions gap report, which found that warming this century under current policies have fallen from just below 4C to 3.1C. If parties’ conditional climate pledges – known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – are fully implemented, warming could fall from 3-3.5C to 2.6C.
This would be lower still, falling to 1.9C, if all net-zero pledges are fully achieved, the UN report notes.
As such, parties need to do more to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the “dawn of a new energy era”, Guterres said, as the “fossil-fuel age is flailing and failing”.
He set out six “opportunity areas”, which include NDCs, meeting surging energy demand with sustainable sources and using trade and investment to “supercharge” the energy transition.
The UN report highlights that at COP28 in Dubai, parties agreed to global targets to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, double the annual rate of energy efficiency improvement and transition away from fossil fuels in line with global net-zero emissions by 2050.
In his speech, Guterres said “we must drastically speed up the reduction of emissions – and the reach of the clean-energy transition” to reach these goals as the “1.5C limit is in unprecedented peril”.
The impact of current plans and policies, in comparison to those needed to align with 1.5C, is shown in the chart below.
In his statement, La Camera welcomed the surge in renewables to date, but added:
“Progress is not guaranteed. Rising geopolitical tensions, trade tariffs and material supply constraints threaten to slow the momentum and drive up costs. To safeguard the gains of the energy transition, we must reinforce international cooperation, secure open and resilient supply chains, and create stable policy and investment frameworks – especially in the global south. The transition to renewables is irreversible, but its pace and fairness depend on the choices we make today.”
The post UN: Five reasons why switching to renewables is ‘smart economics’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.
UN: Five reasons why switching to renewables is ‘smart economics’
Half of nations have met a UN deadline to report on how they are tackling nature loss within their borders, Carbon Brief analysis shows.
This includes 11 of the 17 “megadiverse nations”, countries that account for 70% of Earth’s biodiversity.
It also includes all of the G7 nations apart from the US, which is not part of the world’s nature treaty.
All 196 countries that are part of the UN biodiversity treaty were due to submit their seventh “national reports” by 28 February, of which 98 have done so.
Their submissions are supposed to provide key information for an upcoming global report on actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, in addition to a global review of progress due to be conducted by countries at the COP17 nature summit in Armenia in October this year.
At biodiversity talks in Rome in February, UN officials said that national reports submitted late will not be included in the global report due to a lack of time, but could still be considered in the global review.
Tracking nature action
In 2022, nations signed a landmark deal to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, known as the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF).
In an effort to make sure countries take action at the domestic level, the GBF included an “implementation schedule”, involving the publishing of new national plans in 2024 and new national reports in 2026.
The two sets of documents were to inform both a global report and a global review, to be conducted by countries at COP17 in Armenia later this year. (This schedule mirrors the one set out for tackling climate change under the Paris Agreement.)
The deadline for nations’ seventh national reports, which contain information on their progress towards meeting the 23 targets of the GBF based on a set of key indicators, was 28 February 2026.
According to Carbon Brief’s analysis of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s online reporting platform, 98 out of the 196 countries that are part of the nature convention (50%) submitted on time.
The map below shows countries that submitted their seventh national reports by the UN’s deadline.
This includes 11 of the 17 “megadiverse nations” that account for 70% of Earth’s biodiversity.
The megadiverse nations to meet the deadline were India, Venezuela, Indonesia, Madagascar, Peru, Malaysia, South Africa, Colombia, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Australia.
It also includes all of the G7 nations (France, Germany, the UK, Japan, Italy and Canada), excluding the US, which has never ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The UK’s seventh national report shows that it is currently on track to meet just three of the GBF’s 23 targets.
This is according to a LinkedIn post from Dr David Cooper, former executive secretary of the CBD and current chair of the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee, which coordinated the UK’s seventh national report,
The report shows the UK is not on track to meet one of the headline targets of the GBF, which is to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.
It reports that the proportion of land protected for nature is 7% in England, 18% in Scotland and 9% in Northern Ireland. (The figure is not given for Wales.)
National plans
In addition to the national reports, the upcoming global report and review will draw on countries’ national plans.
Countries were meant to have submitted their new national plans, known as “national biodiversity strategies and action plans” (NBSAPs), by the start of COP16 in October 2024.
A joint investigation by Carbon Brief and the Guardian found that only 15% of member countries met that deadline.
Since then, the percentage of countries that have submitted a new NBSAP has risen to 39%.
According to the GBF and its underlying documents, countries that were “not in a position” to meet the deadline to submit NBSAPs ahead of COP16 were requested to instead submit national targets. These submissions simply list biodiversity targets that countries will aim for, without an accompanying plan for how they will be achieved.
As of 2 March, 78% of nations had submitted national targets.
At biodiversity talks in Rome in February, UN officials said that national reports submitted late will not be included in the global report due to a lack of time, but could still be considered in the global review.
Funding ‘delays’
At the Rome talks, some countries raised that they had faced “difficulties in submitting [their national reports] on time”, according to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
Speaking on behalf of “many” countries, Fiji said that there had been “technical and financial constraints faced by parties” in the preparation of their seventh national reports.
In a statement to Carbon Brief, a spokesperson for the Global Environment Facility, the body in charge of providing financial and technical assistance to countries for the preparation of their national reports, said “delays in fund disbursement have occurred in some cases”, adding:
“In 2023, the GEF council approved support for the development of NBSAPs and the seventh national reports for all 139 eligible countries that requested assistance. This includes national grants of up to $450,000 per country and $6m in global technical assistance delivered through the UN Development Programme and UN Environment Programme.
“As of the end of January 2026, all 139 participating countries had benefited from technical assistance and 93% had accessed their national grants, with 11 countries yet to receive their funds. Delays in fund disbursement have occurred in some cases, compounded by procurement challenges and limited availability of technical expertise.”
The spokesperson added that the fund will “continue to engage closely with agencies and countries to support timely completion of NBSAPs and the seventh national reports”.
The post Analysis: Half of nations meet UN deadline for nature-loss reporting appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Analysis: Half of nations meet UN deadline for nature-loss reporting
Greenhouse Gases
DeBriefed 27 February 2026: Trump’s fossil-fuel talk | Modi-Lula rare-earth pact | Is there a UK ‘greenlash’?
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Absolute State of the Union
‘DRILL, BABY’: US president Donald Trump “doubled down on his ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda” in his State of the Union (SOTU) address, said the Los Angeles Times. He “tout[ed] his support of the fossil-fuel industry and renew[ed] his focus on electricity affordability”, reported the Financial Times. Trump also attacked the “green new scam”, noted Carbon Brief’s SOTU tracker.
COAL REPRIEVE: Earlier in the week, the Trump administration had watered down limits on mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants, reported the Financial Times. It remains “unclear” if this will be enough to prevent the decline of coal power, said Bloomberg, in the face of lower-cost gas and renewables. Reuters noted that US coal plants are “ageing”.
OIL STAY: The US Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments brought by the oil industry in a “major lawsuit”, reported the New York Times. The newspaper said the firms are attempting to head off dozens of other lawsuits at state level, relating to their role in global warming.
SHIP-SHILLING: The Trump administration is working to “kill” a global carbon levy on shipping “permanently”, reported Politico, after succeeding in delaying the measure late last year. The Guardian said US “bullying” could be “paying off”, after Panama signalled it was reversing its support for the levy in a proposal submitted to the UN shipping body.
Around the world
- RARE EARTHS: The governments of Brazil and India signed a deal on rare earths, said the Times of India, as well as agreeing to collaborate on renewable energy.
- HEAT ROLLBACK: German homes will be allowed to continue installing gas and oil heating, under watered-down government plans covered by Clean Energy Wire.
- BRAZIL FLOODS: At least 53 people died in floods in the state of Minas Gerais, after some areas saw 170mm of rain in a few hours, reported CNN Brasil.
- ITALY’S ATTACK: Italy is calling for the EU to “suspend” its emissions trading system (ETS) ahead of a review later this year, said Politico.
- COOKSTOVE CREDITS: The first-ever carbon credits under the Paris Agreement have been issued to a cookstove project in Myanmar, said Climate Home News.
- SAUDI SOLAR: Turkey has signed a “major” solar deal that will see Saudi firm ACWA building 2 gigawatts in the country, according to Agence France-Presse.
$467 billion
The profits made by five major oil firms since prices spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago, according to a report by Global Witness covered by BusinessGreen.
Latest climate research
- Claims about the “fingerprint” of human-caused climate change, made in a recent US Department of Energy report, are “factually incorrect” | AGU Advances
- Large lakes in the Congo Basin are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from “immense ancient stores” | Nature Geoscience
- Shared Socioeconomic Pathways – scenarios used regularly in climate modelling – underrepresent “narratives explicitly centring on democratic principles such as participation, accountability and justice” | npj Climate Action
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The constituency of Richard Tice MP, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of Reform UK, is the second-largest recipient of flood defence spending in England, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. Overall, the funding is disproportionately targeted at coastal and urban areas, many of which have Conservative or Liberal Democrat MPs.
Spotlight
Is there really a UK ‘greenlash’?
This week, after a historic Green Party byelection win, Carbon Brief looks at whether there really is a “greenlash” against climate policy in the UK.
Over the past year, the UK’s political consensus on climate change has been shattered.
Yet despite a sharp turn against climate action among right-wing politicians and right-leaning media outlets, UK public support for climate action remains strong.
Prof Federica Genovese, who studies climate politics at the University of Oxford, told Carbon Brief:
“The current ‘war’ on green policy is mostly driven by media and political elites, not by the public.”
Indeed, there is still a greater than two-to-one majority among the UK public in favour of the country’s legally binding target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, as shown below.
Steve Akehurst, director of public-opinion research initiative Persuasion UK, also noted the growing divide between the public and “elites”. He told Carbon Brief:
“The biggest movement is, without doubt, in media and elite opinion. There is a bit more polarisation and opposition [to climate action] among voters, but it’s typically no more than 20-25% and mostly confined within core Reform voters.”
Conservative gear shift
For decades, the UK had enjoyed strong, cross-party political support for climate action.
Lord Deben, the Conservative peer and former chair of the Climate Change Committee, told Carbon Brief that the UK’s landmark 2008 Climate Change Act had been born of this cross-party consensus, saying “all parties supported it”.
Since their landslide loss at the 2024 election, however, the Conservatives have turned against the UK’s target of net-zero emissions by 2050, which they legislated for in 2019.
Curiously, while opposition to net-zero has surged among Conservative MPs, there is majority support for the target among those that plan to vote for the party, as shown below.
Dr Adam Corner, advisor to the Climate Barometer initiative that tracks public opinion on climate change, told Carbon Brief that those who currently plan to vote Reform are the only segment who “tend to be more opposed to net-zero goals”. He said:
“Despite the rise in hostile media coverage and the collapse of the political consensus, we find that public support for the net-zero by 2050 target is plateauing – not plummeting.”
Reform, which rejects the scientific evidence on global warming and campaigns against net-zero, has been leading the polls for a year. (However, it was comfortably beaten by the Greens in yesterday’s Gorton and Denton byelection.)
Corner acknowledged that “some of the anti-net zero noise…[is] showing up in our data”, adding:
“We see rising concerns about the near-term costs of policies and an uptick in people [falsely] attributing high energy bills to climate initiatives.”
But Akehurst said that, rather than a big fall in public support, there had been a drop in the “salience” of climate action:
“So many other issues [are] competing for their attention.”
UK newspapers published more editorials opposing climate action than supporting it for the first time on record in 2025, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
Global ‘greenlash’?
All of this sits against a challenging global backdrop, in which US president Donald Trump has been repeating climate-sceptic talking points and rolling back related policy.
At the same time, prominent figures have been calling for a change in climate strategy, sold variously as a “reset”, a “pivot”, as “realism”, or as “pragmatism”.
Genovese said that “far-right leaders have succeeded in the past 10 years in capturing net-zero as a poster child of things they are ‘fighting against’”.
She added that “much of this is fodder for conservative media and this whole ecosystem is essentially driving what we call the ‘greenlash’”.
Corner said the “disconnect” between elite views and the wider public “can create problems” – for example, “MPs consistently underestimate support for renewables”. He added:
“There is clearly a risk that the public starts to disengage too, if not enough positive voices are countering the negative ones.”
Watch, read, listen
TRUMP’S ‘PETROSTATE’: The US is becoming a “petrostate” that will be “sicker and poorer”, wrote Financial Times associate editor Rana Forohaar.
RHETORIC VS REALITY: Despite a “political mood [that] has darkened”, there is “more green stuff being installed than ever”, said New York Times columnist David Wallace-Wells.
CHINA’S ‘REVOLUTION’: The BBC’s Climate Question podcast reported from China on the “green energy revolution” taking place in the country.
Coming up
- 2-6 March: UN Food and Agriculture Organization regional conference for Latin America and Caribbean, Brasília
- 3 March: UK spring statement
- 4-11 March: China’s “two sessions”
- 5 March: Nepal elections
Pick of the jobs
- The Guardian, senior reporter, climate justice | Salary: $123,000-$135,000. Location: New York or Washington DC
- China-Global South Project, non-resident fellow, climate change | Salary: Up to $1,000 a month. Location: Remote
- University of East Anglia, PhD in mobilising community-based climate action through co-designed sports and wellbeing interventions | Salary: Stipend (unknown amount). Location: Norwich, UK
- TABLE and the University of São Paulo, Brazil, postdoctoral researcher in food system narratives | Salary: Unknown. Location: Pirassununga, Brazil
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 27 February 2026: Trump’s fossil-fuel talk | Modi-Lula rare-earth pact | Is there a UK ‘greenlash’? appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Greenhouse Gases
Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding
The Lincolnshire constituency held by Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right Reform party, has been pledged at least £55m in government funding for flood defences since 2024.
This investment in Boston and Skegness is the second-largest sum for a single constituency from a £1.4bn flood-defence fund for England, Carbon Brief analysis shows.
Flooding is becoming more likely and more extreme in the UK due to climate change.
Yet, for years, governments have failed to spend enough on flood defences to protect people, properties and infrastructure.
The £1.4bn fund is part of the current Labour government’s wider pledge to invest a “record” £7.9bn over a decade on protecting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses from flooding.
As MP for one of England’s most flood-prone regions, Tice has called for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.
He is also one of Reform’s most vocal opponents of climate action and what he calls “net stupid zero”. He denies the scientific consensus on climate change and has claimed, falsely and without evidence, that scientists are “lying”.
Flood defences
Last year, the government said it would invest £2.65bn on flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) schemes in England between April 2024 and March 2026.
This money was intended to protect 66,500 properties from flooding. It is part of a decade-long Labour government plan to spend more than £7.9bn on flood defences.
There has been a consistent shortfall in maintaining England’s flood defences, with the Environment Agency expecting to protect fewer properties by 2027 than it had initially planned.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has attributed this to rising costs, backlogs from previous governments and a lack of capacity. It also points to the strain from “more frequent and severe” weather events, such as storms in recent years that have been amplified by climate change.
However, the CCC also said last year that, if the 2024-26 spending programme is delivered, it would be “slightly closer to the track” of the Environment Agency targets out to 2027.
The government has released constituency-level data on which schemes in England it plans to fund, covering £1.4bn of the 2024-26 investment. The other half of the FCERM spending covers additional measures, from repairing existing defences to advising local authorities.
The map below shows the distribution of spending on FCERM schemes in England over the past two years, highlighting the constituency of Richard Tice.
By far the largest sum of money – £85.6m in total – has been committed to a tidal barrier and various other defences in the Somerset constituency of Bridgwater, the seat of Conservative MP Ashley Fox.
Over the first months of 2026, the south-west region has faced significant flooding and Fox has called for more support from the government, citing “climate patterns shifting and rainfall intensifying”.
He has also backed his party’s position that “the 2050 net-zero target is impossible” and called for more fossil-fuel extraction in the North Sea.
Tice’s east-coast constituency of Boston and Skegness, which is highly vulnerable to flooding from both rivers and the sea, is set to receive £55m. Among the supported projects are beach defences from Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and upgrades to pumping stations.
Overall, Boston and Skegness has the second-largest portion of flood-defence funding, as the chart below shows. Constituencies with Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs occupied the other top positions.
Overall, despite Labour MPs occupying 347 out of England’s 543 constituencies – nearly two-thirds of the total – more than half of the flood-defence funding was distributed to constituencies with non-Labour MPs. This reflects the flood risk in coastal and rural areas that are not traditional Labour strongholds.
Reform funding
While Reform has just eight MPs, representing 1% of the population, its constituencies have been assigned 4% of the flood-defence funding for England.
Nearly all of this money was for Tice’s constituency, although party leader Nigel Farage’s coastal Clacton seat in Kent received £2m.
Reform UK is committed to “scrapping net-zero” and its leadership has expressed firmly climate-sceptic views.
Much has been made of the disconnect between the party’s climate policies and the threat climate change poses to its voters. Various analyses have shown the flood risk in Reform-dominated areas, particularly Lincolnshire.
Tice has rejected climate science, advocated for fossil-fuel production and criticised Environment Agency flood-defence activities. Yet, he has also called for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.
This may reflect Tice’s broader approach to climate change. In a 2024 interview with LBC, he said:
“Where you’ve got concerns about sea level defences and sea level rise, guess what? A bit of steel, a bit of cement, some aggregate…and you build some concrete sea level defences. That’s how you deal with rising sea levels.”
While climate adaptation is viewed as vital in a warming world, there are limits on how much societies can adapt and adaptation costs will continue to increase as emissions rise.
The post Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding
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