ClimateCast with Tom Heap

Lough Neagh is the UK’s largest lake – and it’s being poisoned by toxic algae. It’s killing dogs, birds, fish and is dangerous to humans. Campaigners say the “toxic soup” is being used “as a toilet” and although it’s treated, it still provides 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. But without a sitting parliament, where do the people of Northern Ireland turn? On this episode of Sky News Climat...

On this week's ClimateCast, Tom Heap goes wild camping on Dartmoor and discovers why people think it’s so devoid of wildlife. Dubbed 'the place nature goes to die' Dartmoor has been criticised for overgrazing and not enhancing nature. So what is the solution to protecting nature while still enjoying our national parks? With a tent on his back, Tom Heap speaks to the chief executive of Dartmoor Par...

Sky News and Global Fishing Watch have discovered many of the UK's marine conservation zones and marine protected areas are often protected in name only. Since January 2022, tens of thousands of hours of damaging fishing practices like dredging and bottom trawling have taken place in the so-called protected zones. Although damaging to our ocean's havens, the practices aren't illegal. So how can we...

On this week's ClimateCast Tom Heap has exclusive access to Zero Petroleum, a producer of synthetic fuel. He catches a glimpse of a jet engine powered by e-fuel and speaks to the chemists about how they create an almost zero carbon fuel, without any oil and gas, made from only air and water. Tom meets Zero's creator Paddy Lowe, previously a Formula 1 engineer, to understand its possible role in th...

On this week's ClimateCast, Tom Heap is cooking up a storm in the kitchen. The food we eat is responsible for around a third of our emissions, so making diets greener couldn't be more essential to fight climate change. So how can consumers be nudged to make a change? Tom visits Sky's kitchen where they are labelling the carbon intensity of each dish alongside the menu they serve to their 30,000 em...

It's been a week of wild weather around the world, with extreme heat in North America, China and in Southern Europe. Some parts of the US and China have exceeded 50C - while parts of Southern Europe face temperatures in the mid-40s. Temperatures like these are expected to become common during summer months due to our warming climate - but what does 50C heat do to the human body? And can we adapt?...

For people living in Lawrence Weston near Bristol, having England's tallest onshore wind turbine on their doorstep isn't just about the environment. They believe it will bring more than £100,000 a year back into the community and help fight poverty and climate change together. But can community energy bring Britain to net zero? On this week's ClimateCast, host Tom Heap speaks to people in Lawrence...

The biggest fleet of Hydrogen buses in Europe have hit the roads in Crawley as operators bet big on Hydrogen fuel, rather than electric batteries. They're more expensive to produce than electric vehicles and refuelling stations are few and far between, but can Hydrogen transport help us on the road to net zero? On this week's ClimateCast Tom Heap boards a Hydrogen bus to explore how it's improving...

On this week's ClimateCast, Tom Heap sets off on a voyage to find out how artificial intelligence might offer invaluable insights into the lives of vulnerable seabirds, in particular, puffins. He travels to the Isle of May off the coast of Scotland, which is home to 46,000 breeding pairs of puffins, plenty of other sea birds, four human researchers and now two surveillance cameras backed by AI. Th...

Sales of electric vehicles more than doubled worldwide in 2022 and there are now more than 750,000 electric cars on the UK’s roads. But plenty of people still have concerns about making the switch. ClimateCast host Tom Heap has had his electric car for more than a year and wants to know why more people who can afford them, aren’t buying them. He talks to car enthusiast Jason Bird about his reasons...

Campaigners opposed to oil and gas exploration sites in Surrey have taken their fight to court - but what happens next could have much wider impacts on the oil and gas industry. On this week's ClimateCast, host Tom Heap speaks to Sarah Godwin, from Protect Dunsfold, and Lisa Scott-Conte, who lives near a site in Horse Hill. This case is due before Supreme Court judges next week who will decide if...

Ffos-y-Fran in the Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil has been extracting coal for more than 15 years, but it isn’t supposed to be operating now. Its permission to mine ran out last September. So, ClimateCast host Tom Heap and the team travelled there to find out why it’s still in action, what’s happening to the coal, and when operations will stop. On this episode Tom speaks to Chris and Alyson Austin,...

Once in a state of seemingly terminal decline after the explosion of budget flights, Europe’s night trains are having a moment. Fuelled by a demand for greener travel options, new routes are now once again snaking across the continent – including the sleeper from Brussels to Berlin that Sky News ClimateCast presenter Tom Heap finds himself on. In this episode, Tom speaks to Adalbert Jahnz, the Eur...

To mark World Bee Day - Tom Heap puts on his beesuit to visit some of London’s beekeepers. There are more than 250 species of bees in the UK which are crucial to our wildlife, biodiversity and food production. But warnings they might be in peril has triggered a 21st century boom in beekeeping - which now could be causing wild species to decline. On this week’s episode Tom speaks to keepers reducin...

On this episode of ClimateCast Tom Heap is in Cambridgeshire to visit a village that's become an unexpected frontrunner in a new solution for heating homes. Fifteen homes in the village, soon to be 300, have switched from oil heating to a climate friendly district heating network. There, Tom sees the new £12 million energy centre in action. But what is district heating and how much of a role does...

From huge scale marches to disrupting sports events, sitting in the roads or even letting your tyres down... is climate activism getting increasingly effective? Or just increasingly annoying? On this week's ClimateCast, Tom Heap is on the streets of London for "The Big One" - four days of climate demonstrations to mark Earth Day. He speaks to climate activists pledging to "step up" their disruptiv...

On Thursday, the government revealed a flurry of climate and energy announcements dubbed as "Green Day". Nearly 3,000 pages of work outlined their plans to improve energy security and deliver on their net-zero climate commitments. On this episode of ClimateCast, Tom Heap is joined by Sky's climate change and energy correspondent Hannah Thomas-Peter to break down what the plans are and its shortcom...

This week the UN released a comprehensive scientific report offering humanity a ‘final warning’ to avoid climate catastrophe – but it barely got any coverage. So what is it about bleak climate assessments that can cause people to switch off? On this week's episode of Sky News' ClimateCast, Tom Heap asks psychologist Dr Sander van der Linden why our brains struggle to process news that scares peopl...

National Highways, the government agency responsible for England's main roads, has admitted that more than half a million trees beside a single 21-mile stretch of new carriageway have died – with the cost of replanting them now £2.9 million pounds. Many tree experts say this is symptomatic of a focus on tree planting over tree care. On this week’s Sky News ClimateCast, Tom Heap visits the A14 betw...

In a corner of Ellesmere Port, Chester, 2,000 residents received flyers through their door informing them they will be cut off from conventional natural gas and plumbed into hydrogen - in the world’s first trial of its kind. It's part of the UK's efforts to decarbonise the power system by 2035 - but some of the residents aren't happy. On this week's episode of Sky News ClimateCast, Tom Heap visits...

On this week's episode of ClimateCast, Tom Heap heads to Aberdeenshire to enjoy some local peated whisky - but what actually is peat and why are its uses so controversial? Peatlands, also known as bogs, are key in the UK's fight against climate change. Their spongy soil stores vast amounts of carbon and are a haven for biodiversity - but their commercial benefits are endless too from heating homes...

On this week's episode of ClimateCast, Tom Heap gets exclusive access to London's super sewer, the solution to the Thames's poo problem. London's iconic river is one of thousands up and down the country subject to raw sewage flowing into the water whenever there's rain, causing problems for the natural environment as well as the people who enjoy it. Tom visits the riverside to assess just how big...

Car is king in many of our neighbourhoods, but heavy congestion and air pollution has led to some local councils rethinking the layouts of town and city centres, including reducing where cars can go. In Oxford the idea has sparked controversy after the council’s plan to install traffic filters on some roads means some people could be fined for driving into other neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, Ghent in...

Climate-friendly energy sources such as wind and solar rely on the weather playing ball, and when it doesn’t, the UK is forced to fire up costly and polluting gas to prevent blackouts. But in Merseyside, a facility of massive batteries are on a mission to solve that problem. On this week's episode Tom Heap checks out nightlife in Liverpool - not to let loose, but to learn why massive batteries cou...

On this week's episode of ClimateCast with Tom Heap, we're talking about land, and how our demands of it have exploded. We don’t have much spare in the UK – we need to grow food, nurture wildlife, house a growing population, and now, with a focus on climate change, create green energy, including solar farms. This week Tom Heap visits Oxfordshire, to a site that could become the UK's largest solar...