Paul Wilding

The increases in our energy bills are funnelled, by government, directly to private capital. This week I have set out out how this done and what the alternatives are. greengiant74.substack.com/p/the-proble...

Can you take 2 mins to respond to Ofwat's consultation to demand they BLOCK the water bill hike. If water companies can't survive without hiking our bills, let them go bust and bring them into public ownership. Deadline: midnight Thurs 24th Sept weownit.org.uk/NoBillHike

Britain burned coal for two centuries and is one of the largest historical emitters on earth. More than 6,600 people are still missing in Nepal after a glacier collapse scientists have linked to record heat. Climate finance isn't charity. It's a bill we ran up. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/...

UK medium-sized businesses pay around 90% more for electricity than the typical EU country. That gap isn't there because we built wind farms. It's there because gas sets the price of our electricity. The way out is to get off gas faster, not slower. www.energylivenews.com/2026/09/18/b...

Over 400 large energy users were asked whether the Clean Power 2030 target should slip to 2035. One in ten said yes. You'll still see this reported as business turning against net zero. It isn't. www.energylivenews.com/2026/09/18/b...

You'll hear that taking Thames Water into public hands would cost a fortune. It's already facing over £900m in fines over five years, and MPs say writing those off would reward failure. We pay either way. The only question is who owns it at the end. committees.parliament.uk/committee/52...

India has added 77GW of solar in two years. Clean power covered all of the extra electricity the country needed, so coal generation didn't grow at all. Where there is a will there is a way! www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-ind...

Data centre proposals in Scotland could need as much as 6GW of power. Scotland's entire peak electricity demand is about two thirds of that. Scotland now wants an environmental assessment for anything over 50MW. That's the least you'd expect. www.energylivenews.com/2026/09/17/s...

England's reservoirs were 56.9% full in early September. They should be nearly 20 points higher this time of year. The Environment Agency says it'd take 120% of normal rainfall between now and March to get every region out of drought. This is a new normal. www.energylivenews.com/2026/09/17/e...

MPs have told the government to reject the takeover bid for Thames Water from a consortium of 100+ hedge funds, nor should it be let off the fines it's facing. The people who ran it into the ground don't get to choose who runs it next. committees.parliament.uk/committee/52...

Global emissions from burning fossil fuels are set to fall about 0.5% this year. That isn't climate policy working. It's a war pushing oil prices so high that people are using less. Cutting emissions by making energy unaffordable is the worst way to do it. www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-glo...

MPs report that 75% of households want to make their home more energy efficient. Most of them don't, because they can't find the money upfront. The demand is there. The cash isn't. That's a gap the government could close. www.energylivenews.com/2026/09/17/p...

British growers are facing losses of up to £169m from this summer's potato crop. Anyone telling farmers that climate action is the real threat to their livelihood has it the wrong way round. The drought did this. www.farminguk.com/news/british... ·

Britain's potato harvest came in 11% below its five-year average after the summer drought. Processing potatoes have gone from £180 a tonne in February to over £300. Climate change is putting the price of food up. It's happening now, not in 2050. eciu.net/media/press-...

Around half the population of England doesn't take an international flight in a given year. The Climate Change Committee says people who don't fly shouldn't pay to clean up after the ones who do. That's the bit missing from the case for a third runway. www.theccc.org.uk/2026/09/16/g...

The government's own climate advisers have looked at Heathrow expansion and found no credible way to square it with the emissions targets in law. That's not a protest group. It's Parliament's Climate Change Committee. Ministers asked for advice. They got it. www.theccc.org.uk/2026/09/16/g...

Aviation emissions have more than doubled since 1990. The rest of the UK economy has halved its emissions. Flying hasn't done its share, and a third Heathrow runway would make that worse. www.theccc.org.uk/2026/09/16/g...

There's no legal maximum temperature for UK workplaces. The TUC have backed a teachers' union motion calling for one. Days over 30°C in London are 4x as common as they were in 1961–90. Nobody should be made to work in that. A legal limit is common sense. leftfootforward.org/2026/09/tuc-...

The North Sea oil lobby wants the windfall tax on its profits scrapped three years early. It's due to end in 2030. They want 2027. That tax exists because they made a fortune from our bills in 2022. Ending it early is a handout to oil companies. Nothing more. www.rigzone.com/news/wire/oe...

Ofgem has changed what counts as a "typical household" this year, because we now use 17% less gas than at the last review. One of the reasons Ofgem gives for that drop is higher prices. Cutting back because you can't afford it isn't efficiency. www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-releas...

The National Audit Office says Britain's electricity grid needs £70bn of work. Most of it was built between the 1950s and 70s, around power stations that are now closing. Forty years of private ownership, and nobody did the job. We're paying for that now. www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/70bn-...

Unions at TUC Congress voted this week to bring energy, water and transport into public ownership. Every one of those is something you cannot choose not to buy, sold to you by a firm with no competition. Taking them back isn't radical. It's overdue. leftfootforward.org/2026/09/tuc-...

We're told Jackdaw is about energy security. But the gas belongs to Shell and Equinor, and they sell it at the world price, the same price pushing your bill up this winter. More British gas doesn't mean cheaper British gas. dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2026/09/burn...

has provisionally approved another £3.4bn for water companies. Customers of five firms pay up to £43 more by 2030. £477m of that is for "growth", new housing and data centres. Households pay for the capacity. Data centres get to use it. www.ofwat.gov.uk/funding-set-...

Household energy debt is around £6bn. More than 3 million people are behind, owing about £1,800 each. That gets clawed back through standing charges, roughly £50 a year on everyone's bill. Debt people can't pay doesn't disappear. It just gets shared out. www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-energy-pr...

Energy bills rise 4% on 1 October, £1,723 for a typical household. Ofgem's own breakdown says gas is doing nearly all of it. Gas bills up 8%. Homes without gas, under 1%. Get off gas and the bills stop doing this. www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-releas...

MPs last Weds questioned the Climate Change Committee on the UK's reduction of emissions. The answer, same as in June: electrify faster, or households stay at the mercy of gas prices set elsewhere. The advice hasn't changed in years. Neither has the pace. committees.parliament.uk/event/28096

Tesco could pay every worker an extra £10,000 and still make a profit. British Gas could pay every worker an extra £35,000 and still make a profit. Shell could pay every worker an extra £300,000 and still make a profit. It's the billionaires who are ripping you off.

The October price cap is confirmed at £1,723 a year for a typical household, up from £1,663. Forecasts for January are higher again, and the reason hasn't changed since 2022. It's gas. Bills won't come down until we stop running the country on gas. www.ofgem.gov.uk/news/changes...

Part of the £3.4bn Ofwat has just waved through for water firms is to help the network cope with new data centres. Households in England and Wales pick that up in their bills. Data centres need to pay these costs, not us. www.the-gazette.co.uk/news/nationa...

More than 1,000 NHS operations were cancelled this year because operating theatres got too hot. 59 trusts, across 17 days. Hospital ventilation can be upgraded but it hasn't been funded. Heat is now cancelling cancer operations in Britain. www.carbonbrief.org/revealed-mor...

Ofwat has signed off £477m for water "growth pressures" housebuilding, and servicing new data centres. Part of that comes back on household bills from 2027. If a data centre needs the water, the data centre should pay for the water. www.watermagazine.co.uk/2026/08/13/o...

Ofwat has provisionally agreed £3.39bn more spending for water companies. Five of them can add up to £43 a year to bills from 2027. Much of it is to fix assets the last round of bill rises was meant to cover. We're paying twice for the same work. www.ofwat.gov.uk/funding-set-...

A woman died after heatstroke in a care home in June's record heatwave. Her family are asking how it happened. There is no legal maximum indoor temperature in this country, not for a workplace, not for a care home. That's a gap in the law that should be closed. www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

The Bank of England's governor says war in Iran and extreme weather could trigger another burst of inflation. Those are the same two things pushing up your food shop and your gas bill. It gets reported as bad luck. It's the cost of running on fossil fuels. www.carbonbrief.org/daily-briefi...

Oil is back near $100 because of the war around the Strait of Hormuz. This week the oil and gas lobby asked the Chancellor to end the windfall tax three years early. They want it gone while the windfall is still coming in. www.rigzone.com/news/oeuk_sa...

Gatwick, Stansted and Luton expansions have already been approved. Now Heathrow. Nobody has published a plan showing how all four fit inside the UK's legal carbon limits. They're approving them one at a time and hoping nobody adds it up. www.lbc.co.uk/article/thir...

The Chancellor has given Heathrow a third runway, because "the economic case stacks up". The Tyndall Centre says every aviation plan ministers have published break the carbon budget Parliament voted for, before the runway itself. independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

COP31 is in Antalya this November. The presidency's list of headline priorities doesn't mention phasing out fossil fuels. It's still on the formal agenda. Nobody is leading on it. The UK could. What happens with Rosebank first will tell you whether it will. cop31.co.uk

Amazon deforestation in the first half of 2026 was the lowest in a decade, down 38% on last year. Where the forest is standing best is on Indigenous land. Enforcement and secure land rights work better than pledges. That goes for our rivers too. queenoftheforest.org/news/amazon-...

Ofwat's consultation on the water bill rises closes at 5pm on 24 September. Final decisions land in December. Most people won't know it's open. If you think customers shouldn't pay more to fund huge salaries and shareholder profits. Source: www.ofwat.gov.uk/funding-set-...

Water firms asked Ofwat for £4.3bn extra. They've provisionally got £3.4bn, paid for by customers from 2027. You're being billed again to fix pipes that shareholders were already paid to maintain. That's not investment. That's a bailout. www.ofwat.gov.uk/funding-set-...

At least 1,200 people have died in the Nepal flash floods. Thousands are still missing. Nepal is asking the big historic emitters to help pay for the damage. Britain got rich burning coal. We owe a share of that bill. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Spain wants an EU-wide tax on oil and gas profits to pay for coping with heat, drought and fires. Britain already has a version of this, the Energy Profits Levy. Ours is due to end in 2030 and needs to be replaced by something permanent. www.edie.net/spain-calls-...

The UN now says the world will warm by at least 1.8°C, even in the best case. Its report is blunt: there are no good outcomes above 1.5°C. That isn't a reason to give up. It's a reason to cut emissions faster than we planned to. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Summer 2026 was the UK's hottest on record. More than 2,700 people are estimated to have died in the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales. Most of those deaths were preventable. www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Ministers are expected to approve the Jackdaw gas field within days. It's a private gas field. The gas is sold at the international market price, the same as imported gas. It won't take a penny off your bill. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ofwat has provisionally approved another £3.39bn on water bills in England and Wales. Southern Water customers will pay an extra £80 over 3 years, on top of a rise already agreed to 2030. We're paying for repairs that should have come out of profits years ago. www.ofwat.gov.uk/funding-set-...

Ofwat has provisionally approved £3.4bn of extra water company spending, and it goes onto customer bills. Some of it is new capacity for data centres. That's your water bill paying to connect up somebody else's server farm. www.ofwat.gov.uk/funding-set-...

Jackdaw was approved in 2022. A Scottish court quashed it in 2025 because nobody had counted the emissions from burning the gas. They've now been counted. Ministers look set to approve it anyway. Counting the harm and then doing it anyway isn't a safeguard. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ministers are about to wave through the Jackdaw gas field. We're told it'll heat 1.4 million homes. It won't, Shell sells that gas on the open market, at market prices. Gas is what pushed your bill up this year. Drilling more of it won't bring it down. www.theguardian.com/environment/...