Ben Cooke

@ben-cooke.bsky.social

Environment correspondent at the Times. Always on the lookout for stories about the mess we're in and how to get out of it. DMs open or drop me a line at benjamin.cooke(at)thetimes.co.uk or on signal at Ben_Cooke.40

Today’s GFS 18Z for 11 July showing max temperatures in England reaching 41°C Not to be taken as a deterministic forecast. However, this suggests that yet more extreme heat is possible in the next few weeks, which is made more likely and intense by climate change driven by burning fossil fuels.

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The more we experience fossil fuel volatility, the clearer the case becomes: "The war has certainly accelerated clean tech adoption." This is what I told The Times for their piece on how the energy crisis drives adoption of solar, EVs and heat pumps. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Britons embrace green technology to dodge rising fuel costs

Households are increasingly turning to heat pumps, EVs and solar panels to avoid big rises in the price of fossil fuels triggered by the Iran war

thetimes.com

Hard to know which is more shocking - the dire warnings of the potential collapse of our food system in the UK or the fact that governments have tried to cover it up. Their complacency is off the scale. We urgently need to switch to growing more food domestically & to restore nature now

Britain’s food supply ‘at risk of catastrophic failure by 2030’

A report written before the 2024 election says climate change, habitat loss and geopolitical instability are a danger to food security — and it has been ignored

thetimes.com

Breaking: ministers ignored a report warning that Britain’s food supply is on course to collapse. Climate change, habitat loss and geopolitical instability are undermining food security so much that it could be “at strategic risk of catastrophic failure” by 2030. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Britain’s food supply ‘at risk of catastrophic failure by 2030’

A report written before the 2024 election says climate change, habitat loss and geopolitical instability are a danger to food security — and it has been ignored

thetimes.com

Joint second in the notoriously difficult @carbonbrief.org quiz! Major bragging rights for our @newscientist.com team with Sam Wong, @alecluhn.com, me, Michael Holder of @businessgreen.bsky.social and @ben-cooke.bsky.social

Carbon Brief@carbonbrief.org · 5mo ago

And the 🏆 winners 🏆 of the #CBQuiz 2026 are.... CEEW (Council on Energy, Environment and Water) from India Congratulations, and thank you all for playing. You can take a look at the full leaderboard below. See you next year!

The story was broken by @bertiehb.bsky.social and @ben-cooke.bsky.social in @thetimes.com, and uncovered UK Foreign Office grants from 2016-2018 to support Xinjiang's regional government in developing carbon capture technologies. 2/7

Bertie Harrison-Broninski@bertiehb.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Read my latest investigation with @thetimes.com @landclimate.bsky.social & @ben-cooke.bsky.social We found that UK climate aid funds have been spent on tech that boosts Chinese fossil fuel extraction, including in Xinjiang while Uyghurs were facing mass internment www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

As Norway closes in on its goal of 100% EV sales, I wrote about the lesson it offers for the UK's own shift to electric cars. Spoiler: it's not just "have an enormous oil-based sovereign wealth fund to spend on buying everyone a Tesla." www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

What we can learn from Norway’s electric car revolution

Easy charging, driver perks and clear politics transformed driving habits in a decade. Following that path may be easier for the UK than many expect

thetimes.com

Back in the Autumn, No.10 blocked the publication of a report into the risks the UK could face if climate change causes ecosystems around the world to collapse. On Tuesday, after an FOI request, it published the report. But it turns out, that wasn't the full version. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Suppressed climate report warned of mass migration and nuclear war

Unabridged document said disappearing forests and rivers drying up could drive people to Europe and lead to conflict in Asia

thetimes.com

Hello environment / climate peeps of Bluesky! I'm just doing some planning for what to write about in 2026. Do drop me a DM if you'd like to chat about anything you'd like to see the Times environment section cover this year.

Pick up a copy of today's Times for 12 pages of in-depth coverage of the Cop30 talks, and the wider state of play for climate change and clean energy. It's got some brilliant stuff in it.

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The US and China both have ambitions for energy dominance. But they're betting on very different visions of the global energy future. With China pumping out solar panels and batteries, and the US doubling down on gas, only one can be right. www.thetimes.com/world/asia/a...

Trump wants energy dominance — is he just drilling US into a hole?

The president is betting on fossil fuels while his superpower rival China is racing ahead on renewables

thetimes.com

my takeaway from climate week nyc is that "climate storytelling" is a little too much "we must reimagine our deepest souls in relationship to mother nature and the moral abyss of the polycrisis into which we must now stare" and not enough "ok but get a heat pump"

Every day Britain loses 3 billion litres of water through leaky pipes - a big problem as Britain's summers become more arid. But water companies have some new tech with which to find them, including satellites that can spot leaks from space. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Can satellites help these leaky pipe hunters end hosepipe bans?

A start-up is helping water companies to pinpoint leaks, saving millions of litres a day as the country faces more severe droughts

thetimes.com

It is remarkable that the west is committing to spending 5% of GDP on defence, and almost no one has made the case that the most pressing threat to our security this century is climate change and we should be spending more on tackling that.

Electricity is the power source of decarbonisation. But in Germany it's expensive, hindering industries's efforts to go green. As Germany prepares to discount its steelmakers' bills, can it subsidise its way to a green future? Or is steelmaking going to move to places with more abundant renewables?

How Germany’s steel titans are powering ahead in push to go green

Ministers have handed out huge subsidies to give companies a headstart in the race to electrify the industry. Will the same work for Britain?

thetimes.com

In recent years London has been hit repeatedly by flash flooding. This has been due to climate change, but also due to its 32 boroughs trying to plan their flood defences separately. I spoke to Elizabeth Rapoport about a new strategy to change that. www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

London ‘needs £2 billion to save it from surface water flooding’

The Thames Barrier provides welcome respite from storm surges, but infrastructure to deal with heavy rain is lacking

thetimes.com