We are only beginning to see what rising temperatures mean for our food system. One thing is clear, WRAP’s director of food system transformation, unless we act now, our ability to feed ourselves affordably and sustainably will come under increasing pressure. 

The extreme temperatures this summer are a warning of what is to come as our climate changes: hotter summers, more frequent flooding and drought and increasingly unpredictable growing conditions. The Met Office recently said that temperatures once considered “extreme” are becoming “the new normal”, with the hottest day of the year now more than 4.5C warmer in parts of south-east England than between 1961 and 1990.

The good news is that one of the most effective solutions is already hiding in plain sight. Better management of the food we already produce, particularly preventing food waste, can make our food system more resilient while reducing emissions, saving money and helping safeguard food supplies in a changing climate. 

Climate change is already affecting every stage of the food system. In July, retail fridges across the UK, designed to operate at temperatures up to 32^oC, struggled as thermometers climbed into the high thirties, resulting in food waste and disruption – while the ecosystems supplying those fridges showed even clearer signs of stress. 

Last year, England experienced its second-worst harvest on record following drought conditions in 2025. Blackberries are ripening a month early. Apple growers are spraying orchards to protect fruit from sunburn. And waters around the UK are now experiencing an extreme marine heatwave that threatens marine species, while milk production is falling and farmers report yields below normal levels. 

Taken individually, these may appear to be isolated incidents. Together, they reveal a food system increasingly exposed to climate-related disruption, from farm to fork – and the consequences stretch far beyond individual crops or farms. The UK Government’s new long-term farming strategy warns that climate change is increasing the risk of food price volatility and shortages, as climate-related disruptions combine with geopolitical instability and supply-chain pressures.

This is not simply about crop losses: it includes reduced forage yields and heat stress for livestock, growing risks to food manufacturers and distributors, and higher import costs for commodities such as coffee, cereals and beef – particular concerns for a country that imports around 38% of its food.

Making better use of what we produce

Even with these stresses, global agriculture still produces more than enough food to feed everyone, with around 3,000 calories available per person per day according to FAO food balance sheet data. The challenge then is not to produce even more food to compensate for the results of climate disruption. It is ensuring that the food we already produce is used as effectively as possible.

Food waste is often viewed as a waste-management problem. In reality, reducing it is one of the biggest opportunities to strengthen food security, reduce emissions and improve economic resilience. 

Were food waste a country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States and China – generating more emissions than global aviation. Yet when we discuss reducing our carbon footprints, we often talk about flying less, driving less or consuming less. Rarely do we talk about wasting less food. 

Reducing food waste directly strengthens resilience: every tonne of food that reaches a plate rather than a bin eases pressure on agricultural systems already struggling with climate impacts, and as harvests grow less predictable, better use of what we produce will only matter more.

Electrification is central to decarbonisation and delivering a resilient energy future for the UK. That is the clear message from the Government as they focus on reducing emissions, lowering energy bills and ensuring energy security.

Yet all the solar panels in the world can’t deflect from the reality that the UK’s electricity grid is not cut out for what we’re asking. In a research report published by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) in February, businesses called for a “massively expanded grid to enable decarbonisation”.

A warning that echoed concerns the business community had already been raising for years: BCC research in 2023 found that over a third of businesses (37%) disagreed that the national electricity grid was meeting their needs on energy supply, connectivity and future-proofing.

Add to that a growing bill in constraint costs when the system has to turn down generation in one place and pay for it elsewhere because the network is unable to take the strain, and the argument against a clean energy future becomes frighteningly reasonable.

Off-grid, multi-technology solutions offer a way to alleviate this growing frustration by effectively circumventing the grid to get energy where it needs to be, whenever it’s needed. While systems combining solar generation, hydrogen power and smart charging aren’t an alternative to supporting grid improvements, we do need them to help protect public confidence in clean energy reliability.

We need a scrappier approach to achieve an affordable industrial decarbonisation

The UK Government has plans to tackle grid reform and reinforcement, but in the interim, many sites need practical, complementary options. Waiting for every depot or plant site to get the connection upgrade it needs puts projects at risk, as investor confidence sinks and operating costs increase.

A more agile approach could use modular clean power and base it on real demand. This avoids expensive permanent retrofit work in places where the demand is temporary or uncertain. Ofgem has recognised that grid connection delays can cost businesses up to tens of millions of pounds in sunk costs and lost revenue. That isn’t a small bill, and it’ll be footed by developers, investors and ultimately consumers.

The faster the UK can provide credible alternatives and complements to grid-dependent power, the faster it can move clean projects from planning into operation. Vitally, it means decarbonisation efforts across different industries aren’t stalled while they wait for a grid connection.

The Royal Air Force’s recently announced contract with GeoPura is exactly the kind of practical innovation the UK needs. By combining hydrogen, solar and battery technologies with EV charging infrastructure (through partnering with Geo Green Power Ltd and Carbon Point Ltd), GeoPura is delivering clean, self-sufficient power across six operational RAF sites.

The model links several technologies into a single system. Each system operates as a solar-led ‘microgrid’, with hydrogen-enabled power providing resilience during periods of low renewable generation. Sustaining the power each site needs during grid disruption means the teams don’t have to rely on diesel generation, cutting back on emissions and improving air quality.

The Armed Forces need secure, consistent power across different operating conditions, and they need to be sure it won’t fail. The RAF’s backing of hydrogen demonstrates that hydrogen can be that reliable, flexible power source in the most demanding of environments.

A competitive energy system ≠ competing technologies

The UK does not need a culture war between energy producers and innovators. Our businesses, industries and communities need reliable energy that balances cost and availability while moving away from fossil fuels. Electrification, hydrogen and renewables all have distinct but complementary roles in a reliable, clean energy system. Combining technologies will get us there faster than forcing them to compete.

David Attenborough has been the voice of nature for more than 70 years. As he celebrates his 100th birthday, how businesses can be the embodiment of a movement that reverses ecological decline.

it is easy to underestimate how influential Britain’s favourite broadcaster has been for our natural world.

Having first appeared on screens in the 1950s, Sir David’s career spans more than 70 years, enlightening and educating the public on the dependencies, importance and wonders of nature.

Sir David has championed nature through a changing entertainment landscape– from television in black and white all the way up to streaming platforms such as Netflix.

As reported by the Financial Times, Attenborough’s titles on Netflix have generated around 320 million hours of viewing. Our Planet, which debuted in 2019, garnered 30 million hours in 2025 alone.

The technology has changed, how media is consumed has changed, but Attenborough’s message across seven decades of broadcast has been largely consistent; nature is wonderful, and it’s at risk.

Attenborough rarely preached climate activism. His most impactful series use storytelling as the hook, a way to make people care, and caring can lead to change.

The so-called “Blue Planet effect” led to a 53% decline in single-use plastic use amongst consumers in 12 months following the renowned BBC documentary series that Attenborough narrated.

The eternal optimist

 At the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee hearing in 2019,

Attenborough spoke of the “big change” shaping economies, and how nature degradation and climate breakdown would “cause social unrest, and great changes in the way that we live, and what we eat”.

And also spoke of why he decided to champion nature from a place of passion, rather than lecturing the public on the risks humanity, urbanisation and climate change pose.

He waited until the facts seemed incontrovertible. We actually know that people depend upon the natural world for their very sanity and that in moments of crisis in their lives, the natural world is the one place and the one climate in which they can get solace.

“I’m not, by nature, a propagandist. I started making natural history programmes because I thought there was nothing I would prefer to see more than the beauty of the natural world. And I would love to just go on doing that. That’s what I enjoy.”

In 2026, the total asset value of ecosystem services in the UK stands at £1.5trn, with nature contributing more than £45bn to the economy each year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed. The Green Finance Institute has previously estimated that environmental deterioration could lead to a 6-12% GDP loss by the 2030s, equivalent to the economic losses incurred as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Building, food systems, and even renewable energy are all dependent on nature.

There are lessons here for business. Nature and climate are not propaganda. They may have been politicised, but they are the bedrock on which all decisions should be made.

It seems the corporate world is finally starting to realise this.

More than 730 businesses, financial institutions, and other organisations have pledged to align their reporting with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is weighing up options to integrate nature and biodiversity into non-financial disclosure frameworks for corporates.

This is a much-needed starting point for businesses to act as the embodiment of nature and align the needs of the planet with strategic plans for resilience and growth. The rise of regenerative agriculture, the continued work on natural capital, and the pioneers who have embedded nature into long-term strategies through ringfenced finance and nature-positive targets are examples that production does not have to be at odds with the planet. Trailblazers such as Faith in Nature have even given nature legal representation and votes in business decisions. 

There is still a long way to go. Less than 1% of the world’s biggest companies mention nature impacts in their annual reporting, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES).

Nearly a truckload of textile waste is generated in the EU every second, and only 1% of this waste currently gets recycled back into new clothing, with the rest either ending up in landfill within Europe, or exported to markets in Africa and Asia.

Investigates need to carried out into how materials break down at end of life to incentivise a truly circular fashion industry.

Fashion’s hidden problem at end of life

Around 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste is generated across the EU each year. That’s an insurmountable number to imagine – roughly equivalent to a truckload every second. 

Many of these truckloads are exported and incinerated in countries in the Global South that played little role in the overproduction that created the waste. The result is a familiar pattern of externalised costs – communities on the receiving end live with polluted waterways, air laced with microplastics, and rising health risks.

And so, a move away from incineration is, by any measure, a step forward. But under new EU rules, this waste will now need to be resold, reused or recycled.

On paper, that sounds like progress. In practice, it rests on an assumption that does not hold up. It assumes that these existing systems can absorb the sheer volume and complexity of what is being produced.

The limits of recycling

Currently, only 1% of textile waste material is recycled into new clothing. And that’s not just because the industry lacks ambition, but because recycling as currently practised is structurally limited when it comes to tackling textile waste.

Polyester, nylon and low-grade blended fabrics –  the staples of fast fashion – are, for the most part, unrecyclable. And what can’t be recycled means landfill in Europe, or export to Africa and Asia. The uncomfortable truth is that no scalable technology exists for fashion’s lowest-grade waste, the category that also happens to be the most toxic. Even with new rules against incineration, we still have a growing category of waste that existing systems are not designed to handle.

A radically different approach

Like nature the natural world doesn’t have a surplus problem. That’s because, thanks to decomposition, ecosystems have always turned what one cycle discards into the raw material for the next.

This could be applied to the fashion industry and drive systems change. Current processes largely overlook the potential of decomposition at the end of the textile’s life. Designed decomposition – where materials are engineered to break down safely and completely at end of use.

How decomposition works in practice

In the Netherlands, Circle Economy is combining biological and thermochemical processes to convert hard-to-recycle textiles into biodegradable plastics and other industrial feedstocks – materials that can be used for packaging, coatings and agricultural applications.

In Berlin, the Beneficial Design Institute is using biotechnology to turn low-quality textile waste into high-quality, biodegradable materials. These could be used for medical tools or in construction, helping create more sustainable systems for the fashion industry.

Generation from wind power in Great Britain reach record levels for the first quarter of 2026, with almost 30 Terrawatt-hours (TWh) produced.

Montel EnAppSys’ Q1 2026 electricity market report found that the first three months of 2026 was a record breaker for wind generation, totalling 29.2 TWh.

Storms Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra elevated wind output levels to both system supply and exports to neighbouring markets.

Overall renewable generation reached 40.3 TWh in Q1 2026, compared to 33.7 TWh in Q1 2025, an increase of 20%.

Increased wind output helped displace other forms of power generation, namely gas, which fell by 16% compared to 2025 levels. Combined Cycle Gas Turbine generation did account for 29% of power generation in total.

Power imports fell from 7.8TWh to 6.1TWh, while nuclear generation fell 7% year on year.

The renewable deployment must continue in order to meet the government’s 2030 clean power targets, the continual curtailment of wind is already pushing the narrative beyond the need for more renewables, focusing more on the effective siting of generation and need for greater grid investment and planning.

 The Climate School has released a new white paper, The Focus of HR Challenges in the UK, shedding light on the growing role of human resources in navigating the green transition. As the UK faces increasing pressure to decarbonise its economy, whilst tackling one of Europe’s most severe skills shortages, the report offers a timely roadmap.

The white paper was designed to help HR professionals in the UK understand the scale of transformation ahead and take action with clarity and purpose. And reveals that HR managers are no longer satisfied with simply supporting change, they are expected to lead it. Whether redefining jobs, upskilling teams or rethinking recruitment, benefits and targets, HR must now become the strategic driver of climate resilience and workforce alignment.

The green transition, like the digital revolution before it, is structurally reshaping organisations. Not only will this have a technological and operational impact, the green transition will also affect the culture, development, and personnel of organisations.

Skills, purpose and climate: the new talent equation

Structured into three core chapters, this white paper aims to equip HR leaders with the insights and tools to act. It explores how working conditions must evolve in response to environmental risks such as extreme heat or resource scarcity.

Additionally, the white paper considers how HR teams can contribute to their organisation’s decarbonisation trajectory and foster collective engagement by embedding ecological values into workplace culture. Throughout, the report draws on current UK-specific data, expert interviews, and emerging best practices.

A key finding of the report is the scale at which labour has already transformed. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the green transition could generate up to 100 million new jobs worldwide by 2030, provided social inclusion is built into the process*. In the UK alone, the government has set a target of two million green jobs by the end of the decade, requiring significant upskilling and new talent strategies across sectors.

The challenge is considerable: four million workers will need to upskill in the UK by 2035 to meet the needs of the green economy.

In addition, workforce expectations are rapidly evolving. Environmental commitments are now a decisive factor in employer appeal – 72% of Gen Z and 71% of millennials in the UK consider environmental credentials important when evaluating job offers. Interestingly, 46% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials report having already changed roles or are planning to do so due to environmental concerns.**

From risk to opportunity: HR as a catalyst for transformation

Given the pressure on the labour force to drastically upskill within the next ten years, the report calls for immediate action. HR professionals are uniquely positioned to help companies move from reactive compliance to proactive adaptation. This includes integrating sustainability into employer branding, designing climate-conscious benefits and wellness programmes, and embedding ecological considerations into organisational culture.

It also underlines the importance of placing training and skills development at the heart of HR strategies, making ESG integration not just the next step but the foundation of tomorrow’s workforce.