A newspaper headline featuring the words ‘climate change’ Picture: Shutterstock/Arda Savasciogullari
The UK’s national press published more articles in 2025 opposing action to mitigate climate change than supporting it for the first time since analysis began.
Nearly 100 UK newspaper editorials opposed an increase in climate action, more than double the number that supported it, according to analysis shared with Press Gazette by climate science website Carbon Brief.
This marks the first time newspaper editorials opposing climate action have overtaken those supporting it in the 15 years since Carbon Brief began its analysis, and was also the highest recorded level of anti-action articles.
Some 166 editorials – articles considered to represent the newspaper’s formal “voice” – that discussed potential action to mitigate the impact of human-caused climate change were analysed in 2025.
Of the nine newspapers Carbon Brief analysed, it classified five of the newspapers as right-leaning ( The Sun , the Daily Mail , the Daily Telegraph , The Times and the Daily Express and their Sunday counterparts), three as left-leaning ( The Guardian , The Observer and The Independent ) and one as centrist (the Financial Times ).
None of the editorials opposing climate action in 2025 denied the existence of climate change, similar to 2024’s findings , but voiced “response scepticism” meaning they criticised policies that address climate change.
The results from 2025 mirror the shift seen in the UK press across the last few years after a record number of UK newspaper editorials opposed climate action more than in any other year in both 2023 and 2024).
The new analysis found that 2025 marked the fourth record-breaking year in a row for criticism of climate action in newspaper editorials.
Supportive coverage of climate action peaked in 2021 when 163 articles were published. By 2025, this number had dropped to 46, while 98 articles were found to oppose climate action.
Carbon Brief drew links between the decreasing support for climate action and 2025 events including the Conservative Party rejecting both the “net zero by 2050” target and the Climate Change Act. It also noted the right-wing party Reform UK has been rising in the polls, while pledging to “ditch net zero”.
This is mirrored in the findings that 81% of climate-related editorials published by right-leaning newspapers in 2025 rejected climate action.
Some 46 out of 48 editorials found to be supportive of more climate action were published by either The Guardian or the Financial Times.
Calls for climate action among right-leaning papers were at their peak in 2020, when 81% published articles in support. The same proportion of right-leaning newspaper articles backed less climate action in 2025.
The analysis also examined 86 editorials that mentioned at least one of these energy sources: renewables, nuclear or fracking (although some were neutral so do not feature in the below figures). Some of these were the same editorials that discussed climate action, meaning 207 articles were analysed overall.
The research found that 2025 was the first time anti-renewables editorials outnumbered publication of pro-renewable articles in more than a decade (since 2014).
The Times was the only right-leaning newspaper that published any editorials supporting renewables. The most common reason for papers opposing renewable energy was found to be high cost.
The research referenced The Sun writing about “chucking billions at unreliable renewables” , while the Daily Telegraph warned of an “expensive and intermittent renewables grid” .
The Guardian was found to have used cost as an argument in support of renewables, referencing an “affordable clean energy system” .
No right-leaning papers were found to oppose nuclear power or fracking in 2025.
The research also found many papers did not mention the word climate, but held a negative stance towards the term net zero.
Similarly, research commissioned by the non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit found that a growing proportion of articles are decoupling net zero from climate change. The research, published in December , was carried out across nine newspapers between 2018 and 2024 by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Dr James Painter found more than 300 articles published in 2024 mentioned the term “net zero” at least three times, including in the headline, without also mentioning “climate change” or a similar term.
He said: “Our findings show a growing proportion of articles are decoupling net zero from climate change. Many articles where net zero is both salient and dominant have failed to include any climate context at all.
“Given the levels of public confusion around net zero, there is a clear case to argue that good journalistic practice would include a reminder, explanation or link on how it relates to the need to reduce emissions to halt climate change, or at the very least a simple statement outlining that scientists say reaching net zero is essential for stopping climate change.”
Carbon Brief found that many media outlets are framing net-zero policies as too costly for UK readers, with 87% of articles opposing climate action citing economic factors as the reason.
The research also found that in 2025 twice as many articles criticised energy secretary Ed Miliband than in the year before.
Around 58% of the editorials that opposed action used criticism of climate advocates as a justification, with nearly all of these mentioning Miliband.
The research referenced the Daily Mail calling Miliband “pompous and patronising”, with an “air of moral and intellectual superiority”.
Email [email protected] to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog