Paul Wilding
@pwilding.bsky.social
Local government lifer trying to solve systemic problems related to housing, social justice and the cost of living. Here for climate justice, books, football and tennis.
We already have a windfall tax on oil and gas. The fight now is over what replaces it. Ministers are designing a successor where the extra rate only bites above $90 a barrel. Set the trigger high enough and it never fires. Don't let it be watered down. www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/no...
Spring Statement: North Sea windfall tax remains
Rachel Reeves has announced the UK government will not bring forward the end date of the windfall tax.
energyvoice.com
My column on how capital becomes a death cult. Faced with a choice between profit and human life, the radical right chooses profit. Then it tries to persuade us that mass death is what we want. It's the new phase of climate denial: accept your fate, earthlings. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Murderous heat, an endangered food supply, decimated landscapes: embrace the Mediterranean life | George Monbiot
As climate disaster stares us in the face, the radical right says ‘Embrace the Mediterranean life’. Embrace death, more like it, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
Half of England is officially in drought. Nine hosepipe bans. Driest July on record. Meanwhile the pipes leak about a fifth of everything they carry. Thames Water alone loses 600 million litres a week. Scotland's water is publicly owned. England's is a shareholder cash machine.
Heat deaths aren't random. They cluster in poorly insulated homes, in deprived areas, among people who can't afford to cool where they live. The same homes that kill in January kill in July. Different mechanism, same neglect.
The RCPCH's State of Child Health 2026 is out today. Across all 12 health indicators for UK children, outcomes have either stalled or worsened over a decade. Their own doctors call it a "national embarrassment." #ChildHealth #Poverty #UKPolitics
Extreme heat is a "silent killer", MPs' words, this week, as records break again. The climate committee says UK is electrifying far too slowly, leaving us hostage to gas prices. The technology and workers exist. But there is no will to challenge fossil capital. www.parliament.uk/business/new...
Energy and environment
Energy and environment news from UK Parliament
parliament.uk
Driest July since 1885. Thousands of Londoners without water in a heatwave. 1,100 leaks fixed a week on a network privatisation bled dry for decades of dividends. Thames Water isn't failing, it's working exactly as designed. Take water back into public hands. www.ibtimes.co.uk/thames-water...
Thousands Left Without Water As Thames Water Crisis Hits London In Blistering Heat
Thames Water faces infrastructure issues during Britain's third heatwave, affecting water supply in London and Home Counties. Residents experience no water or low pressure as temperatures soar.
ibtimes.co.uk
War closes the Strait of Hormuz, your energy bills climb, and Exxon doubles its profits to $14.5bn in three months. Chevron nearly quadruples. Every fossil-fuelled crisis is their payday. Public ownership of energy isn't radical, letting this continue is.
Half of England is officially in drought. Since 1989, water companies leaked 41 trillion litres and paid out £52.7bn in dividends. You're being asked to fix that with shorter showers. The heatwave is climate breakdown. The hosepipe ban is capitalism. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/greengia...
You're banned from watering your tomatoes. Thames Water leaks 600 million litres a day. Data centres drink what's left. Three decades of privatised water: dividends out, sewage and leaks in. Drought is the weather, this scarcity is a business model. Public ownership now.
War closed the Strait of Hormuz, oil hit $100, and Exxon doubled its profits to $14.5bn in three months. Our bills fund their bonanza. The UK's windfall tax expires in 2030 and is riddled with investment allowances, make it permanent, close the loopholes, fund public energy.
England and Wales just had their driest July in 190 years. Half of England is in drought. This isn't freak weather, it's the climate crisis arriving on our doorstep while ministers still hand out oil and gas approvals. Adaptation without ending fossil fuels is bailing out a sinking boat.
2,877 people died in the UK's May and June heatwaves. Heat deaths aren't natural disasters, they're policy choices: cold homes in winter, deadly ones in summer, and £26bn in energy industry profits this year alone. Insulate homes, cool cities, tax the profiteers.
Big Oil's profits are set to DOUBLE this quarter, to $45bn, while the heatwaves their emissions fuel kill thousands, here and abroad. Britain's windfall levy hasn't dented it: Shell still banks billions for buybacks. Close the loopholes. Make polluters fund the transition.
Shell made £3.36 million an hour last quarter while your energy bill went up 13%. A third of that £7.37bn goes to share buybacks, not the transition. This isn't a broken market, it's the market working exactly as designed. Public energy, publicly owned.
Six oil majors are set to pocket almost $3,000 EVERY SECOND in 2026, while families ration energy through heatwaves. Oxfam's numbers, out ahead of the first global conference on quitting fossil fuels. Tax the windfalls. Take energy into public hands.
Over 300,000 people evacuated as wildfires tear through France and Spain; France's biggest peacetime evacuation since WWII. This isn't bad luck. It's the fossil fuel economy working as designed, and the bill lands on ordinary people.
McDonald's workers in Italy walked out over deadly heat. US factory workers describe "life-threatening" shifts under a heat dome that's killed 44 people. The climate crisis is a workplace crisis and workers organising is climate action.
Big Oil reports Q2 earnings this week: near record profits, built on a war that sent your energy bills soaring. $3,000 a second while families ration heating. Crisis for us, bonanza for them. Windfall tax is the floor not the ceiling; public ownership is the answer.
I just signed a @foxglovelegal.bsky.social petition: Health Secretary Yvette Cooper: Trigger the break clause and get Palantir out of the NHS. Sign here: www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/yv...
New health secretary Yvette Cooper: trigger the break clause and kick Palantir out of our NHS.
ADD YOUR NAME NOW!
foxglove.org.uk
10,000+ dead in June's European heatwave confirmed this week. That same month, the G7 met and committed to expanding oil and gas. These aren't separate stories. New essay on heat as social murder, and who's fighting back: open.substack.com/pub/greengia...
Ten Thousand Deaths Is a Policy
Europe just counted the bodies from June's heatwave. The G7's answer, in the same month, was more oil and gas
open.substack.com
A hedge fund manager experiences a heatwave as an inconvenience between air-conditioned spaces. A roadworker outside Lyon experiences it as an occupational hazard with no legal protection. Heat is the most class-stratified disaster. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/greengia...
Ten Thousand Deaths Is a Policy
Europe just counted the bodies from June's heatwave. The G7's answer, in the same month, was more oil and gas
open.substack.com
111°F records in Montana. Autoworkers kept on the line with no air conditioning, some disciplined for staying home. Heat doesn't injure workers by itself. Decisions do: bosses who won't cool a factory, and an economy that treats workers as disposable.
The UN says the renewable transition is "unstoppable", cheapest, fastest-growing energy in history. So why are our bills still chained to gas prices? Because the market runs the transition for profit, not people. Speed it up: publicly owned clean power.
The top 100 oil and gas firms made $30 million AN HOUR in excess profits during the Iran war!!!! War, crisis, heatwave; every disaster is a payday for fossil capital. A windfall tax is the bare minimum. Public ownership of energy is the actual answer.
Red heat alerts across England. 37°C in the shade. And still no legal maximum working temperature in the UK. Bosses aren't required to stop work at any heat, the TUC wants a 30°C limit (27°C for heavy work). Climate protection at work is a union demand. Back it.
Missiles fly between the US and Iran, and oil stocks rally. Brent tops $80 and energy shares lead the market. Every conflict is a payday for fossil capital, and a bill landing on your energy meter. Public ownership breaks that cycle.
Campaigners just told ministers the UK is "built for a climate that no longer exists." 7,000 heat deaths a year predicted by 2050. Adaptation isn't a luxury, it's insulation, cooling, and public infrastructure for everyone, not just those who can afford air con.
Workplace heat bill: There's a legal minimum temperature for UK workplaces but no maximum. Builders and bakery staff are working in 40C+, and 2,700 people died in the May–June heatwaves. Unions and a new bill in Parliament want that fixed. Heat protection is a workers' rights fight.
