Ben Cooke

Nov 17, 2024 | thetimes.com | Ben Cooke

Homeowners are waiting up to six months for permission to install a heat pump, data from local authorities has revealed. As demand for heat pumps rises across the country, councils are having to process far more planning applications, slowing the roll-out of a technology that is central to the government’s plan to fight climate change. While councils take an average of eight weeks to approve applications, some planning offices are taking far longer to respond.

Nov 15, 2024 | thetimes.com | Adam Vaughan |Ben Cooke

When French farmers took to the streets to protest at their government earlier this year, they used tractors to block motorways and dumped piles of manure on roads. In this country, farmers are still angry over inheritance tax reforms but are being terribly British — for now. Organisers of events in London next week pushing for a U-turn to Labour’s budget measures say protesters must be peaceful, respectful and “leave no mark”.

Nov 14, 2024 | thetimes.com | Ben Cooke

The farmland downhill from Castle Howard is so unproductive that its 18th century owners labelled it “Crappy Field”. Fortunately for their descendant, Nicholas Howard, farming is no longer the only way to make it turn a profit. Indeed, Howard believes, the most profitable thing might be to let it grow wild. He has leased Crappy Field and the surrounding 440 acres to the Environment Bank, a nature restoration business.

Nov 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Ben Cooke |Adam Vaughan

Taxes on oil companies, flights and shipping have been proposed to help fund a new global target of giving at least a trillion dollars a year to poorer countries to deal with climate change. The size and funding of the target will be the key issue at the Cop29 UN climate talks in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22, attended by representatives from almost every country in the world.

Nov 3, 2024 | thetimes.com | Ben Cooke

The head of the International Energy Agency has backed the government’s ambitious plan to clean up Britain’s power supply by 2030 so the UK can keep its lead in cutting-edge energy industries. Labour has faced criticism for its ambition to supply almost all the country’s electricity with wind, solar and nuclear energy in only six years’ time. Yet Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, told The Times: “[The 2030 target] is a good target.