Electric car sales rose by nearly a quarter to a record 473,000, or 23.4% of the overall market, says SMMTA rise in the popularity of Chinese brands pushed total car sales in the UK above the 2m mark last year for the first time since 2019, figures reveal.Chinese companies accounted for 9.7% of the 2m new car registrations in the UK in 2025, or 196,000 vehicles, according to preliminary figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. That was nearly double the 4.9% market share achieved by the country's carmakers in 2024. Continue reading...

Pacific Grove is known as Butterfly Town USA' for its role as an overwintering spot. As the insect's population plummets, residents are coming to its rescueIn the tiny seaside village of Pacific Grove, California, there's no escaping the monarch butterfly.Here, butterfly murals abound: one splashes across the side of a hotel, another adorns a school. As for local businesses, there's the Monarch Pub, the Butterfly Grove Inn, even Monarch Knitting (a local yarn shop). And every fall, the small city hosts a butterfly parade, where local elementary school children dress up in butterfly costumes. The city's municipal code even declares it an unlawful act to molest or interfere" with monarchs in any way, with a possible fine of $1,000. Continue reading...

Exclusive: data reveals hundreds of UK nests have been raided in the past decade amid growing appetite to own prized birds for racing and breedingIn the echoing exhibition halls of Abu Dhabi's International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition, hundreds of falcons sit on perches under bright lights. Decorated hoods fit snugly over their heads, blocking their vision to keep them calm.In a small glass room marked Elite Falcons Hall, four young birds belonging to an undisclosed Emirati sheikh are displayed like expensive jewels. Entry to the room, with its polished glass, controlled lighting and plush seating, is restricted to authorised visitors only. Continue reading...

Emergency managers say the US president has presided over a dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disastersDonald Trump has presided over a dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters, according to emergency management experts.The first year of his second term was marked by crackdowns on climate science that produced world-class weather forecasts and the gutting of frontline federal agencies - policies that have left the country, already struggling to keep pace with severe storms, even more at risk. Continue reading...

Other firms are taking advantage of Tesla's sales slump, while technological advances mean that glitches are being left in the rear-view mirrorIn another era, before Elon Musk bought Twitter, changed its name to X to mark the spot of its descent into barbarism, honed Grok, a generator of far-right propaganda, swung behind Donald Trump and made what appeared to be a Nazi salute, I already knew he was a wrong 'un. The year was 2019, and I was test-driving a Tesla; while I was ambling off the forecourt, the PR told me jauntily that the windscreen was made of a material that would protect the driver from biohazards. I hit the brakes. You what? What kind of biohazard? Like, a war?" She misconstrued me, thinking I intended to go and find some toxic waste site to see if it worked, and said: I'm not sure it's operational in the press fleet."That wasn't my question: rather, what kind of a world was Tesla preparing for? One so unstable that an average (though affluent) private citizen would do well to prepare for a chemical weapons attack? What model of consumption was this, that the rich used their wealth to prepare for the mayhem their resource-capture would unleash, while the less-rich prepared slightly less well? Was Musk trying to bring to market the apocalypse planning that elites had already embarked on? Because if he was, then it was possible that he was not a great guy. And that turned out to be correct. Continue reading...

Erik Irmer has been documenting the spread of invasive plant and animal species that disrupt native ecology across Europe. He focuses on humans' interactions with these plants and animals. Aliens is published by Fotohof Continue reading...

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Sales at Elon Musk's company slump after Donald Trump's withdrawal of EV subsidiesChina's BYD overtook Tesla as the world's largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period. Continue reading...

Europe's biggest offshore wind developer seeking to overturn White House decision to suspend work on a $5bn wind farm projectEurope's biggest offshore wind developer is taking the Trump administration to court over its decision to suspend work on a $5bn project on the north-east US coast.Denmark's Orsted filed a legal challenge on Thursday against the White House's decision 10 days ago to suspend the lease for its Revolution Wind site as part of a sweeping move halting all construction of offshore wind. Continue reading...

Mean temperature for year was 10.09C, surpassing 2022 record, and 1,648.5 hours of sunshine were recorded2025 was the UK's warmest and sunniest year on record, the Met Office has confirmed.The UK's three hottest years on record have now all been in this decade, which meteorologists say is proof of a rapidly changing climate. All of the top 10 warmest years have happened in the past two decades. Continue reading...

Americans are increasingly turning to courts to hold big oil accountable. Here are major trends that emerged last yearAs the Trump administration boosts fossil fuels, Americans are increasingly turning to courts to hold big oil accountable for alleged climate deception. That wave of litigation swelled in 2025, with groundbreaking cases filed and wins notched.But the year also brought setbacks, as Trump attacked the cases and big oil worked to have them thrown out. The industry also worked to secure a shield from current and future climate lawsuits. Continue reading...

Bird organisations say more research on the species needed to control impact on other wildlifeIn the past 20 years, the soundscape in the ancient wild, rolling landscape of Richmond Park has been transformed. Once you would have heard the chirrup of the stonechat, the chirp of the greater spotted woodpecker or the song of the skylark. Today, the auditory power of one bird dominates.The bright green ring-necked parakeet increased 25-fold from 1994-2023 in the UK. They are still mainly based in the skies, parks, and woodlands around London and suburban areas in the south east, but in recent years they have made their way to northern cities including Manchester and Newcastle. Continue reading...

A helpless baby elephant has won the Thai public's sympathy but her case has shed light on the pressures facing herds across AsiaKhao Tom, a two-month-old elephant, plays with a wildlife officer, nudging his face and curling her trunk around his wrist. When she lifts her trunk in the air, signalling that she is hungry, the team at the rescue centre seems relieved - she has not been eating well. A vet prepares a pint-sized bottle of formula, which she gulps down impatiently.Khao Tom has been in the care of Thailand's national parks and wildlife department since September, when rangers rescued her from a farming area inside Lam Khlong Ngu national park. Born with a congenital disorder affecting her knees, she struggled to keep up with the herd. Within days of her birth, her mother had moved on without her. Continue reading...

This week's best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Christine wanted to enjoy her retirement, but then the banks of a local brook burst and turned her and her neighbours' lives upside-downWhen I visited Christine's bungalow in Trowell, Nottinghamshire, and asked if I should take my shoes off, she joked: I wouldn't worry, I'll be getting a new carpet soon enough when it floods again." She's got another good one about the time she, a 70-year-old great-grandmother, had to climb through her conservatory window because her front and back doors had been sealed shut by flood barriers. If you don't laugh, you'll cry," she says. And there is a lot to cry about: mainly the fact that her home is unsellable due to multiple floods.In 2020, the brook that backs on to Christine's home burst its banks and water poured into her house, as well as the homes of her neighbours Jackie, 67, and Rhona, 76. As we sit around a table drinking tea, they tell me about having to rip out their floorboards, skirting boards, kitchen cupboards and entire bathrooms. Doors had to be taken off their hinges and thrown into skips. Fridges, washing machines, furniture, all joined the pile. Continue reading...

New utes, sports cars and hatchbacks will break price records at both ends as traditional brands release electric vehicles in 2026

For 10 years, the scientist and photographer Jeroen Hoekendijk has been observing pinnipeds such as seals and walruses on the fragile North Sea archipelago stretching along the Dutch, German and Danish coastline. A remainder of the now-drowned Doggerland, left behind after the ice age, the low-lying islands are an advance warning sign of the warming and rising seas of the climate crisis

Tim Smit also says extreme political views will fade when people realise good things around the cornerSir Tim Smit says the world is in a better place than it was when he co-founded the Eden Project 25 years ago and he believes people are more attuned to the natural world.Speaking as the project in Cornwall reaches its 25th anniversary, Smit describedextreme political views as the roar" of people fearful that they cannot control the future but he said they would fade when people realised that good things were around the corner. Continue reading...

Legal action has brought important decisions, from the scrapping of fossil fuel plants to revised climate plansThis year marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris agreement. It is also a decade since another key moment in climate justice, when a state was ordered for the first time to cut its carbon emissions faster to protect its citizens from climate change. The Urgenda case, which was upheld by the Netherlands' supreme court in 2019, was one of the first rumblings of a wave of climate litigation around the world that campaigners say has resulted in a new legal architecture for climate protection.Over the past 12 months, there have been many more important rulings and tangible changes on climate driven by legal action. Continue reading...

Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don't always make the headlinesThe past year was another one of record-setting heat and catastrophic storms. But across the US, the climate crisis showed up in smaller, deeply personal ways too.Campfires that once defined summer trips were never lit due to wildfire risks. There were no bites where fish were once abundant, forests turned to meadows after a big burn and childhood memories of winter wonderlands turned to slush. Continue reading...

I've spent six years writing about environmental justice. The uncomfortable truth is that we're not all in it together - but people power is reshaping the fightIt's been another year of climate chaos and inadequate political action. And it's hard not to feel despondent and powerless.I joined the Guardian full time in 2019, as the paper's first environmental justice correspondent, and have reported from across the US and the region over the past six years. It's been painful to see so many families - and entire communities - devastated by fires, floods, extreme heat, sea level rise and food shortages. But what's given me hope during these six years of reporting as both an environmental and climate justice reporter are the people fighting to save our planet from catastrophe - in their communities, on the streets and in courtrooms across the world. Continue reading...

Albanese will face a crucial test on the economy while the Coalition deals with existential questions after an election drubbing

Environmental advocates notched key wins at local and state levels this year despite Trump rollbacksAs 2025 draws to a close, environmental advocates across the US find themselves weighing a year marked by both setbacks and successes.Despite major environmental reversals taken by the Donald Trump administration including loosening fossil fuel rules and weakening endangered-species safeguards, conservationists, lawmakers and researchers still notched key wins at local and state levels. Continue reading...

The challenges and strains have been almost too much to take. But in 2025, words of depth and courage have been an antidote to numbnessI once saw a young glassblower in Istanbul, still new to his craft, shatter a beautiful vase while taking it out of the furnace. The artisan master standing by his side calmly nodded and said something that I still think about. He told him: You put too much pressure on it, you kept it unbalanced and you forgot that it, too, has a heart."The year we are leaving behind has been plagued from the start by a series of social, economic, environmental, technological and institutional challenges, all happening with such speed and intensity that we are yet to fully comprehend their impact on our lives, let alone on future generations. As the overwhelming strain of domestic and geopolitical changes continues to build up, I cannot help but remember the man's words. Too much pressure. Unstable, uncertain and replete with deep inequalities. This could well be the year we forgot that the Earth, too, has a heart. It definitely feels like the year when the world was broken. Continue reading...

From moules mariniere to scallop, bacon and garlic butter rolls, here's how to cast your culinary net wider and embrace more sustainable speciesFor a nation surrounded by water, Britain's seafood tastes are remarkably parochial - we mostly eat cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns. But with a huge range of species out there, making the decision to swap the big five" for more sustainable options could be a good new year resolution to aim for. Here are five species to consider - and if you're worried these won't taste as good as cod and chips, we've rounded up a selection of top chefs to tell you how to make the best of what could be on your plate in 2026. Continue reading...

Bereaved relatives say delays over risks at village churchyards are causing distress and call for council actionFamilies of people buried in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say indecision over how to tackle the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.North Norfolk district council (NNDC) has identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades. Continue reading...

Law's original author points to removal of obligations for downstream traders to verify origin of commoditiesIt was hailed by campaigners around the world as a game-changing piece of legislation that would help stop deforestation.But when a bullet-ridden version of the EU's deforestation regulation, once supposed to be the crown of the Green Deal, finally limped across the legislative line this month, not even its architect was smiling, and one politician said it had been pretty much dismantled". Continue reading...

Meteorological office reports high temperatures across country and record measured at Seyisfjorur in eastRecord temperatures of almost 20C were reached in Iceland on Christmas Eve, the local meteorological office has confirmed.Seyisfjorur, a small town in the east of Iceland, hit 19.8C on 24 December. Average December temperatures in Iceland are between -1C and 4C. Continue reading...

Dry and warm 2025 spring gave glimmer of hope for threatened wild birds but many remain in long-term declineThe warmest and sunniest spring on record this year led to an increase in the breeding of some of Britain's best-loved songbirds, data has shown.Scientists said the dry and warm spring had provided a glimmer of hope for threatened wild birds. In the 2025 breeding season, from May to August, there were higher than average breeding successes for 14 species including the chiffchaff, garden warbler, whitethroat, coal tit, blue tit, great tit and robin. Continue reading...

Since Zack Polanski took over as leader, the party has doubled its membership and its four MPs want to take on Reform's anger and build community spiritSomeone has to be out there making the narrative for social security. Someone has to fight the corrosive attitudes to people on benefits," says Sian Berry, who has just finished her first year as a Green MP in the House of Commons.She is speaking to the Guardian in her Brighton constituency office, formerly occupied by the legendary Caroline Lucas who flew a lone flag as the only member of parliament for the Green party for 14 years. Continue reading...

Species that is critically endangered in Britain is spotted in Mersey, Bollin and Goyt rivers in north-westYoung Atlantic salmon have been seen in three rivers in north-west England for the first time since 2015, marking a significant environmental turnaround".The salmon species was declared critically endangered in Britain in 2023 but fish have been spotted in the Mersey, Bollin and Goyt rivers, meaning they have successfully travelled from the Arctic Circle to spawn. Continue reading...

How do you photograph darkness? A question Sarah Lee considers with her work as the nights draw in: I've always been drawn to photographing the darkness as the winter months draw in after the clocks go back and we head towards the solstice. I wondered why that was given that the world itself seems so dark at the moment. I realised this year that it is not the darkness I'm photographing, but, rather, the light. Always the light.' Continue reading...

Planet's oldest bee species and primary pollinators were under threat from deforestation and competition from killer bees'Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere.It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest's long-overlooked native bees - which, unlike their cousins the European honeybees, have no sting - now have the right to exist and to flourish. Continue reading...

Conservationists and scientists criticise state for backtracking and say alternative non-lethal methods such as netting are more effective

Trump ratcheted up his questionable claims about the environment and how to deal, if at all, with the threats to itIn the past decade at the forefront of US politics, Donald Trump has unleashed a barrage of unusual, misleading or dubious assertions about the climate crisis, which he most famously called a hoax".This year has seen Trump ratchet up his often questionable claims about the environment and how to deal, if at all, with the threats to it. In a year littered with lies and wild declarations, these are the five that stood out as the most startling. Continue reading...

Attenborough, 99, enthuses about tube-riding pigeons, foxes, parakeets and others in Wild London for the BBCFilming the wildlife of London requires an intrepid, agile presenter, willing to lie on damp grass after dark to encounter hedgehogs, scale heights to hold a peregrine falcon chick, and stake out a Tottenham allotment to get within touching distance of wary wild foxes.Step forward Sir David Attenborough, who spent his 100th summer seeking out the hidden nature of his home city for an unusually personal and intimate BBC documentary. Continue reading...

These unfairly maligned animals were nuggets for our ancestors and served for the UK during the second world warIs there something I would figuratively die on a hill for? Yes, there is - and as it happens, I'm sitting on a literal hill right now, feeding them. Pigeons. Why pigeons? Because it's about time they get the respect they deserve.I like pigeons. Because they're like me, working class. You can tell pigeons are working class because every pigeon looks knackered. It's about this point in the conversation that people politely make their excuses and slowly back away (literally) while avoiding eye contact. No doubt, reading this, you are doing the same (figuratively).Toussaint Douglass is a comedian from Lewisham, south London. His show Accessible Pigeon Material will be showing at Soho Theatre, 26-31 January 2026 Continue reading...

In 2014 the Malaysian Airlines jet vanished over the Indian Ocean. Now the team that located Shackleton's Endurance is looking again with the latest undersea robots

West Somerset Lagoon would harness renewable energy for UK's AI boom - and create iconic' arc around Bristol ChannelThe architect of the London Eye wants to build a vast tidal power station in a 14-mile arc off the coast of Somerset that could help Britain meet surging electricity demand to power artificial intelligence - and create a new race track to let cyclists skim over the Bristol Channel.Julia Barfield, who designed the Eye and the i360 observation tower in Brighton, is part of a team that has drawn up the 11bn proposal. It would curve from Minehead to Watchet and use 125 underwater turbines to harness the power of the second-highest tidal range in the world. Continue reading...

From merrily dismissing climate science, to promoting irresponsible health claims, the podcast was an unintentional warning for our timesLooking back on this crazy year, one event, right at the start, seems to me to encapsulate the whole. In January, recording his podcast in a studio in Austin, Texas, the host, Joe Rogan, and the actor Mel Gibson merrily dissed climate science. At the same time, about 1,200 miles away in California, Gibson's $14m home was being incinerated in the Palisades wildfire. In this and other respects, their discussion could be seen as prefiguring the entire 12 months.The loss of his house hadn't been confirmed at the time of the interview, but Gibson said his son had just sent him a video of my neighbourhood, and it's in flames. It looks like an inferno." According to World Weather Attribution, January's fires in California were made significantly more likely by climate breakdown. Factors such as the extreme lack of rainfall and stronger winds made such fires both more likely to happen and more intense than they would have been without human-caused global heating. Continue reading...

With the snow line edging higher, 186 French ski resorts have shut, while global heating threatens dozens moreWhen Ceuze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the workers assumed they would be back the following winter. Maps of the pistes were left stacked beside a stapler; the staff rota pinned to the wall.Six years on, a yellowing newspaper dated 8 March 2018 sits folded on its side, as if someone has just flicked through it during a quiet spell. A half-drunk bottle of water remains on the table. Continue reading...

Beachgoers from the Tweed to Batemans Bay have been asked to be on the lookout - and every nest reported to TurtleWatch NSW will be protected

New polling shows 65% of registered US voters believe global heating is affecting cost of livingMost Americans now connect the worsening climate crisis with their cost of living pressures, with clear majorities also disagreeing with moves by the Trump administration to gut climate research and halt windfarms, new polling has found.About 65% of registered voters in the US think that global heating is affecting the cost of living, according to the polling by Yale University. Continue reading...

As part of the Guardian's Against the tide series, readers aged 18 to 30 share what they love about living in their coastal town, the challenges and why they often choose to leaveMegan, a 24-year-old from the Isle of Wight, is very familiar with saying goodbye. She decided university wasn't for her and remembers how, one by one, she waved off her friends who left the island to study. Many never came back. Continue reading...

We look back over the year's wildlife photographs, and hand out some much-deserved gongs to brilliant and beautiful creatures around the world Continue reading...

Mersey Valley Way takes in Manchester and Stockport on its 13-mile route with other walks to be identified in 2026A new river walk has been announced by the government as ministers try to improve access to nature in England.The 13-mile (21km) walk will go through Greater Manchester and the north-west of England. There will be a river walk in each region of the country by the end of parliament, the government has pledged. Continue reading...

Provisional figures in government mandate's first year show 20% shortfall in levels of SAF supplied for UK flightsThe take-up of sustainable aviation fuels is on course to fall short of the UK government's first annual mandate, official figures suggest.Production data published by the Department for Transport (DfT) covering most of 2025 shows that sustainable fuels (SAF) only accounted for 1.6% of fuel supplied for UK flights - 20% less fuel in volume than the 2% needed to fulfil the requirement. Continue reading...

Now is the time to think of new beginnings Continue reading...

In order to be less scared, I imagine the huge Australian huntsman as a girlie, just chilling and listening to us yap. It sounds dumb, but it worked (a little bit)

Low-cost tech and joined-up funding have reduced illegal logging, mining and poaching in the Darien Gap - it's a success story that could stop deforestation worldwideThere are no roads through the Darien Gap. This vast impenetrable forest spans the width of the land bridge between South and Central America, but there is almost no way through it: hundreds have lost their lives trying to cross it on foot.Its size and hostility have shielded it from development for millennia, protecting hundreds of species - from harpy eagles and giant anteaters to jaguars and red-crested tamarins - in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. But it has also made it incredibly difficult to protect. Looking after 575,000 hectares (1,420,856 acres) of beach, mangrove and rainforest with just 20 rangers often felt impossible, says Segundo Sugasti, the director of Darien national park. Like tropical forests all over the world, it has been steadily shrinking, with at least 15% lost to logging, mining and cattle ranching in two decades. Continue reading...