New homes and buildings such as supermarkets and workplaces, as well as those undergoing major renovation, will be required to install electric vehicle charge points from next year, under new legislation announced by prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday.

Sir Robert McAlpine will cease buying diesel for all of its activities by April next year, as it becomes the latest business to switch to running machines on vegetable oil.

Only one fifth of large consultancy clients (19%) and a quarter (24%) of SME clients ask for net zero compatible design, despite a growing focus on cutting carbon emissions in the UK as COP26 continues.

Architect and TV presenter George Clarke has called on the government to spark a “global retrofit revolution” by abolishing VAT on the restoration and conversion of existing buildings.

Camping out in central London or gluing yourself to the M25 is not the only way to save the planet. Ahead of cop26, Kristina Smith meets construction’s own climate change warriors to find out about their roles in reducing carbon emissions.

Live discussion with views from experts promises to make an exciting event

Housebuilder Barratt has built a zero-carbon ‘house of the future’ that will be occupied and monitored by academics before the results are shared with the industry.

The government will incentivise consumers to replace their gas boilers in favour of heat pumps by offering £5,000 grants over the next three years.

A newly formed group of MPs has urged the government to move more quickly to meet carbon reduction targets but scaling up the existing timber sector and employing modern methods of construction (MMC).

A university professor and an MP have called for new ways of thinking about construction, warning that high-carbon buildings are “morally indefensible” and could even be considered “racist” given the impacts likely to be felt in the global south.

As Glasgow gears up to host the UN Conference on Climate Change, Neil Gerrard examines how well prepared construction is to deliver the heat pumps the government hopes will form a key plank of its net zero emissions strategy.

Construction professionals should prepare for green hydrogen energy becoming prominent as a ‘drop in’ option for powering projects. But what, specifically, do they need to aware of with this exciting technology?

Nearly two thirds of construction businesses don’t believe the sector is ready to meet its net zero targets.

Turner & Townsend’s Richard McWilliams looks at how funding can be unlocked to upgrade existing housing in the fight against climate change.

Jo Bamford, chairman of bus firm Wrightbus and grandson of JCB founder Joseph Bamford, is hoping to raise £1bn to invest in the hydrogen energy sector, with the launch of a new fund.

Business and construction groups have mounted a new lobbying campaign this week to wrestle £4bn funding from government to tackle energy efficiency in the UK’s ‘leaky homes’.

Highways England is to encourage contractors to switch to lower-carbon warm mix asphalts (WMAs) more quickly, in a drive to save 61,000 tonnes of carbon a year.

The government has set out its ambition for 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030 – the equivalent of replacing natural gas in powering around three million UK homes each year.