How the climate fight is coming into your home
Something has changed dramatically in your home in a way you won’t have even noticed.
The electricity in your plug socket no longer comes from coal, the workhorse of the industrial revolution that powered our economy for decades but which is also the most polluting fossil fuel.
Now it is generated by cleaner gas, renewable and nuclear power.
That shift has helped the UK cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% since 1990 – a world-leading feat – and you won’t have batted an eyelid.
That’s about to change.
The country’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), say in new advice today that emissions of greenhouse gases need to fall 87% by 2040.
Emissions need to fall by 87% by 2040, during the period covered by the ‘seventh carbon budget’, published today by the CCC
One third of those emissions cuts will come from decisions made by households.
While the first stage of the country’s national climate action has “gone largely unnoticed”, the next phase will be “a lot more difficult”, said Adam Berman from Energy UK, which represents energy suppliers.
“It’s going to be technically more difficult, it is going to be much more visceral and tangible to people in their everyday lives. It affects how they get to work, what they use to heat their homes and even diet.”
Experts say if we get it right, it will make our lives better with cleaner air and better public transport.
It would also shave hundreds of pounds off annual household bills.
But it depends on what the government does next to help people.
The way we travel
The two “most impactful” things households can do are replacing their car with an electric one and a gas boiler with a heat pump (only when they pack up, and not before), the advice said.
By 2040, the share of electric cars on the road needs to jump from 2.8% in 2023 to 80% in order to meet net zero, according to the recommendations, which the government is not obliged to accept.
They are already cheaper to run than petrol or diesel cars, while the falling cost of batteries means EVs should finally cost the same upfront in the next three years.
The committee’s chief executive Emma Pinchbeck said: “Frankly, by the time a lot of people are going to be choosing a new car, the electric vehicle is just going to be the cheapest [option].”
The share of heat pumps must jump to 52%, while electric cars need to reach 80% by 2040, the CCC said
How we heat our homes
But while the switch to electric vehicles is powering ahead, the move to greener home heating has barely left the starting blocks.
Homes are currently the second highest-emitting sector in the UK economy, and much of that comes from the way we heat them.
The CCC today put to bed calls to keep gas boilers but run them on hydrogen, recommending there be “no role for hydrogen heating in residential buildings”.
Hydrogen is hard to produce in a green way, and so would be reserved for other sectors that have no other viable alternatives.
The government is yet to confirm this decision, which would dismay the gas networks and boiler manufacturers.
Instead, the advisers said people should eventually replace boilers with heat pumps, which run on electricity and work a bit like a fridge in reverse: grabbing and compressing warmth from the outside air and using it to heat your home.
Amid a political row over the costs of net zero, the analysis concluded these two switches could save households around £700 a year on heating bills and a further £700 on motoring costs.
Cutting down on meat and on excessive flying will also play an important, but smaller role they said.
The upfront investment will cost the equivalent of 0.2% of GDP, most of which would come from the private sector.
Overcoming the costs
But at the moment the benefits of these green switches are not spread fairly, and some people can’t access them at all.
The upfront costs of a heat pump – and home upgrades needed alongside – are “sizeable” and price out poorer households, even with current government subsidies, campaigners and the CCC said.
Zachary Leather, an economist at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, said: “While politicians fret and argue about the cost of net zero, today’s report shows that there are long-term benefits for consumers and the environment.”
But the government needs to “get serious” about helping lower-income households to adopt heat pumps and EVs so they can save money too, he said.
Meanwhile, it is still cheaper for someone with a driveway to charge their EV than someone who charges theirs on the street – and electricity prices overall should be made cheaper to help people reap the benefits.
Mr Berman from Energy UK said: “All through the energy system there are these small examples that tend to mean working class households find it more expensive to take up low carbon alternatives.”
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Climate protesters confront Bill Gates
The energy transition is ‘not fair yet’
It also comes at a time of wavering support for climate action. While Labour was elected on a mandate to go faster on climate action, the Conservatives have retreated from green issues, and Reform UK wants to dismantle net zero altogether.
Mr Berman said a way to “resolve that question of public consent is to ensure we’re rolling out that infrastructure in a really, really fair and inclusive way. And we’re not there yet”.
The public are also confused about if, when and how to switch to these green technologies, and which government should tackle this with clearer guidance, the CCC said.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This advice is independent of government policy, and we will now consider it and respond in due course.
“It is clear that the best route to making Britain energy secure, bringing down bills and creating jobs is by embracing the clean energy transition. This government’s clean energy superpower mission is about doing so in a way that grows our economy and makes working people better off.
“We owe it to current generations to seize the opportunities for energy security and lower bills, and we owe it to future generations to tackle the existential climate crisis.”
United States Senator Jon Ossoff expressed support for impeaching President Donald Trump during an April 25 town hall, citing the President’s plan to host a private dinner for top Official Trump memecoin holders.
“I mean, I saw just 48 hours ago, he is granting audiences to people who buy his meme coin,” said Ossoff, a Democrat, according to a report by NBC News.
“When the sitting president of the United States is selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him. There is no question that that rises to the level of an impeachable offense.”
Senator Ossoff said he “strongly” supports impeachment proceedings during a town hall in the state of Georgia, where he is running for reelection to the Senate.
The Senator added that an impeachment is unlikely unless the Democratic Party gains control of Congress during the US midterm elections in 2026. Trump’s own Republican Party currently has a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Related: US lawmaker says TRUMP coin could risk national security
Conflicts of interest
On April 23, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin’s website announced plans for Trump to host an exclusive dinner at his Washington, DC golf club with the top 220 TRUMP holders.
The website subsequently posted a leaderboard tracking top TRUMP wallets and a link to register for the event. The TRUMP token’s price has gained more than 50% since the announcement, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The specific guest list is unclear, but the memecoin’s website states that applicants must pass a background check, “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country,” and cannot bring any additional guests.
On April 25, the team behind TRUMP denied social media rumors that TRUMP holders need at least $300,000 to participate in an upcoming dinner with the president.
“People have been incorrectly quoting #220 on the block explorer as the cutoff. That’s wrong because it includes things like locked tokens, exchanges, market makers, and those who are not participating. Instead, you should only be going off the leaderboard,” they wrote.
Legal experts told Cointelegraph that Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, including the TRUMP memecoin and Trump-affiliated decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol World Liberty Financial, raise significant concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
“Within just a couple of days of him taking office, he’s signed a number of executive orders that are significantly going to affect the way that our crypto and digital assets industry works,” Charlyn Ho of law firm Rikka told Cointelegraph in February.
“So if he has a personal pecuniary benefit arising from his own policies, that’s a conflict of interest.”
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
Crypto investor sentiment has seen a significant recovery from global tariff concerns, but analysts warn that the market’s structural weaknesses may still result in downside momentum during periods of weekend illiquidity.
Risk appetite appeared to return among crypto investors this week after US President Donald Trump adopted a softer tone, saying that import tariffs on Chinese goods may “come down substantially.”
However, the improved investor sentiment “does not guarantee that Bitcoin will avoid volatility over the weekend,” analysts from Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph:
“Sentiment improvements reduce fragility, but they do not eliminate structural risks like thin weekend liquidity.”
“Historically, weekends remain vulnerable to sharp moves — especially when open interest is high and market depth is low,” the analysts said, adding that unexpected macroeconomic news can still increase volatility during low liquidity periods.
Related: Trump fought the bond market, the bond market won: Saifedean Ammous
Bitcoin (BTC) staged a near 11% recovery during the past week, but its rally has previously been limited by Sunday liquidity dynamics.
Bitcoin fell below $75,000 on Sunday, April 6, despite initially decoupling from the US stock market’s $3.5 trillion drop on April 4 after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs may affect the economy and raise inflation.
The correction was exacerbated by the lack of weekend liquidity and the fact that Bitcoin was the only large liquid asset available for de-risking, industry watchers told Cointelegraph.
Related: US banks are ‘free to begin supporting Bitcoin’ — Michael Saylor
“While improved sentiment creates a more stable foundation, cryptocurrency markets are still susceptible to rapid movements during periods of reduced trading volume,” according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer of RedStone blockchain oracle firm.
“The sentiment recovery provides some cushioning, but traders should remain cautious as weekend liquidity constraints can still amplify price movements regardless of the current market mood,” he told Cointelegraph.
Crypto investors may have “maxed out on tariff-related fears”
Cryptocurrency markets may have priced in the full extent of tariff-related concerns, according to Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
“It feels like we’ve maxed out on tariff-related fear,” she told Cointelegraph, adding:
“While many remain uncertain about where things are headed over the next month or so, it also seems like markets were just waiting for the slightest signal that we’re back in the game.”
“Whether the rally is sustainable depends on whether we can break through previous resistance levels, at least in isolation. It could have legs, as markets now seem to believe there’s a ‘Trump put’ under equities, the US dollar and US Treasurys,” Barthere added, warning of more potential volatility amid the upcoming negotiations.
Nansen previously predicted a 70% chance that crypto markets will bottom and start a recovery by June, but highlighted that the timing will depend on the outcome of tariff negotiations.
The tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach a trade agreement with China, which may be the “big prize” for Trump’s administration, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s odds of June highs, SOL’s $485M outflows, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 2 – 8
Over $4 trillion worth of real estate could be tokenized on blockchain networks during the next decade, potentially offering investors greater access to property ownership opportunities, according to a new report.
The Deloitte Center for Financial Services predicts that over $4 trillion worth of real estate may be tokenized by 2035, up from less than $300 billion in 2024. The report, published April 24, estimates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 27%.
The $4 trillion of tokenized property is predicted to stem from the benefits of blockchain-based assets, as well as a structural shift across real estate and property ownership.
“Real estate itself is undergoing transformation. Post-pandemic work-from-home trends, climate risk, and digitization have reshaped property fundamentals,” according to Chris Yin, co-founder of Plume Network, a blockchain built for real-world assets (RWAs).
“Office buildings are being repurposed into AI data centers, logistics hubs and energy-efficient residential communities,” Yin told Cointelegraph.
“Investors want targeted access to these modern use cases, and tokenization enables programmable, customizable exposure to such evolving asset profiles,” he said.
Related: Blockchain needs regulation, scalability to close AI hiring gap
The uncertainty triggered by US President Donald Trump’s import tariffs has boosted investor interest in the RWA tokenization sector, which involves minting financial products and tangible assets on a blockchain.
Both stablecoins and RWAs have attracted significant capital as safe-haven assets amid the global trade concerns, Juan Pellicer, senior research analyst at IntoTheBlock, told Cointelegraph.
The tariff concerns also led tokenized gold volume to surpass $1 billion in trading volume on April 10, its highest level since March 2023 when a US banking crisis saw the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the voluntary liquidation of Silvergate Bank
Related: US banks are ‘free to begin supporting Bitcoin’ — Michael Saylor
Blockchain innovation could drive regulatory clarity
Growing RWA adoption may inspire a more welcoming stance from global regulators, Yin said.
“While regulation is a hurdle, regulation follows usage,” he explained, likening tokenization to Uber’s growth before widespread regulatory acceptance:
“Tokenization is similar — as demand increases, regulatory clarity will follow.”
He added that making tokenized products compliant with a wide range of international regulations is key to unlocking broader market access.
However, some industry watchers are skeptical about the benefits introduced by tokenized real estate.
“I don’t think tokenization should have its eyes directly set on real estate,” said Securitize chief operating officer Michael Sonnenshein at Paris Blockchain Week 2025.
“I’m sure there are all kinds of efficiencies that can be unlocked using blockchain technology to eliminate middlemen, escrow, and all kinds of things in real estate. But I think today, what the onchain economy is demanding are more liquid assets,” he added.
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