This week the Government announced that it is considering taxing imports from countries that don’t match the UK’s carbon emissions standards – a measure known as a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). That would be a major change to customs and trade policy, and suggests a fundamental shift in the UK’s strategy for addressing climate change.

Over the weekend, long-held policy positions fell like dominoes in Berlin. Having already blocked his country’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia, Olaf Scholz committed to two new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) shipping terminals and a review of Germany’s anti-nuclear power policy. He is decoupling his economy from Russian gas.

In the eyes of many, 2021 was an extraordinary year for environmental politics. Within hours of becoming president, Joe Biden announced that the U.S. would be re-joining the Paris agreement. Meanwhile, in Glasgow, a twelve-day summit on climate change was wound up with promises on all sides, including a commitment to phase-down the use of coal. Globally, these events took place against a backdrop of record-breaking fires, heatwaves and floods.

The Secretary of State’s foreword to the Levelling Up White Paper starts by praising the redevelopment of Teesside under the guidance of Mayor Ben Houchen. Central to Houchen’s strategy is to revitalise Teesside’s manufacturing industry with new factories building offshore wind turbines, new carbon capture projects, and new hydrogen technologies.

Edward O. Wilson, the famous naturalist who wrote Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, died on Boxing Day at the age of 92. Recognised as an influential if controversial ecologist and the world’s leading expert on the behaviour of ants, Wilson was among the first biologists to argue that human beings have an innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes. The object of this reflection was summarised by a single word, “biophilia”, which served as the title of Wilson’s 1986 book.

Last week (Thursday 13th January), a new electric vehicle charging hub opened in London, replacing an existing petrol station. Ultra-rapid charging hubs like this will be extremely important to support EV drivers who need to charge up quickly on the move.

However, the Government must not overlook the role of “slow” chargepoints (circa 5kW). These chargepoints take several hours to an electric vehicle (EV), but can be installed cheaply in homes and businesses, often without requiring expensive new electricity cables or digging up roads.