If you’ve been out on foot recently, you might have found yourself wishing you had a bit more space. Most pavements in our towns and cities are too narrow for people to pass each other while staying two metres apart, and all too often you’re often forced to step into the road – or hold […]

Jonathon Harker1 May, 2020 France is tackling the travel challenges of the pandemic lockdown directly by offering its citizens €50 to spend getting their bicycles repaired. Members of the public can spend up to €50 at registered mechanics as part of a €20 million scheme. That cash total will also be used for cycle training

Specialist data analysts Global Data claim that the world’s clean energy sector could be hindered by a 10% fall in Chinese battery production capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They say that manufacturing across the global clean energy sector including renewable energy, battery energy storage and electric vehicles could all be affected; and crucially, two

Coronavirus: Mayor Khan wants to lock in post lockdown pollution reductions Air quality in London dramatically improved since the imposition of coronavirus lockdown, with harmful emissions at some of the capital’s busiest roads and junctions falling by almost 50%. Figures released by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan show that anti-pollution measures introduced from 2017

Emily Holden Published on Fri 1 May 2020 13.16 BST US fossil fuel companies have taken at least $50m in taxpayer money they probably won’t have to pay back, according to a review of coronavirus aid meant for struggling small businesses by the investigative research group Documented and the Guardian. A total of $28m is

Jonathon Harker1 May, 2020 As the UK contemplates how the lockdown will ease, it seems highly likely that there will be a level of nervousness around returning to public transport and crowded train carriages. Fears are growing that public transport users will instead opt for the car, pushing an already crowded road infrastructure closer to

Mayors coordinating efforts to support a low-carbon, sustainable path out of lockdowns A cyclist in a new bike lane in Milan. The city has introduced one of Europe’s most ambitious cycling and walking schemes. Photograph: Roberto Finizio/Getty Images Published on Fri 1 May 2020 14.21 BST Cities around the world are already planning for life

It’s nice when we happen on something useful without searching for it and over the weekend, it turned out that the UK has deployed a 30° splayed kerb. Why is this important you ask? Well, in the kerbnerd world, this type of profile is somewhat a holy grail type of artefact – often discussed, sometimes

Miina Porkka April 17, 2020 4.40pm BST When the southern Great Plains of the US were blighted with a series of droughts in the 1930s, it had an unparalled impact on the whole country. Combined with decades of ill-advised farming policy, the result was the Dust Bowl. Massive dust storms began in 1931 and devastated

Wolfgang Knorr April 16, 2020 3.44pm BST Humanity has only recently become accustomed to a stable climate. For most of its history, long ice ages punctuated with hot spells alternated with short warm periods. Transitions from cold to warm climates were especially chaotic. Then, about 10,000 years ago, the Earth suddenly entered into a period