UK Bans Disposable BBQ Sales, Deploys Military on Wildfires
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Downing Street announced a temporary GB-wide ban on disposable barbecue sales effective immediately, asking retailers to withdraw single-use grills from stores and online, after the government advised the product "cannot be considered safe" in current conditions
- The military has been deployed to assist with wildfire response as the PM declared "Britain is a tinderbox right now" and said setting any outdoor fire "is a risk to people's homes and other people's lives"
- Stourbridge in the West Midlands saw eight fires rip through multiple homes and hospitalize at least 19 people, one of 37 wildfire incidents burning across Britain
- Andy Burnham announced plans for emergency financial support for fire services and warned that hotter-and-drier-than-normal conditions could persist through September into October, with late-autumn flooding risk as parched ground struggles to absorb rainfall
- The PM said he plans to commission firefighting planes of the type used in Europe and the US, though he has faced criticism for not addressing the climate emergency at his first Cobra meeting on the heatwave
- The UK government is simultaneously weighing approval of new North Sea drilling at the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields — a step green groups call wrong during a climate crisis — with the PM defending a "pragmatic" approach
Why it matters: With 37 simultaneous wildfires, military deployment, and emergency funding pledged for fire services, the government is treating this as an active national emergency, yet ministers are still weighing approval of the Jackdaw and Rosebank North Sea fields — a tension green groups say undermines the climate framing. The PM's own warning that conditions could persist into October signals the response is bracing for weeks of strain on already-overwhelmed fire crews.
Ask SkimNews
