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Here are this week’s most compelling and exclusive stories from the UK and Europe.

BIG PICTURE

Lord Mayor's mission

Michael Mainelli, the 695th Lord Mayor of London, has conceded the UK has lost its trailblazing sheen in pursuit of Net Zero as he heads to the UAE to highlight how finance has pounced on the climate agenda.

Not only did Prime Minister Rishi Sunak change tack on the changeover to electric vehicles, but Labour leader Keir Starmer essentially scrapped a pledge to invest £28 billion ($34.86 billion) a year in the green economy.

"Now the UK is definitely not leading the pack – not behind by any means, just not at the forefront," Mr Mainelli told The National. "So the bragging rights are gone."

Forecasting a switchback before the general election is not easy but from the vantage point of Mansion House, where he talked to me about his own long involvement in research about our changing Earth, it is clear the City wants to be the market that helps to fix the carbon challenges driving rising temperatures.

Numerous reports, including those from leading Conservatives, have tried to illustrate the need to embrace the climate agenda and those findings cannot be wished away.

"You're going to be dragged kicking and screaming into this if you don't do anything, or you're just going to be middle of the pack, but actually if we're really ahead we can make money out of this," Mr Mainelli said.

The Lord Mayor is headed to the UAE soon to follow up on his visit to Cop28, and talk to leaders and official bodies on AI, space and that long-trailed GCC-UAE trade deal.

I mention a report that illustrated just how important investment is to meet the needs of the new green economy.

In Electric Dreams, the Resolution Foundation calculated that by 2035, about 40 per cent of the energy used in our homes and road transport will need to be electricity (up from 22 and 4 per cent today), before rising to almost 100 per cent by 2050.

"At the same time, spending on power networks needs to increase by a factor of four to cope with this surge in the volume of electricity," the report said.

There has been mounting uncertainty over the cost of capital, as interest rates have gone from 0.25 per cent to 5.25 per cent over the past two and a half years in response to rising inflation.

Such conditions mean the cost of building a wind farm in the UK has risen by about 31 per cent in recent times.

As such, for the UK economy to decarbonise and meet rising demand, "quite a bit of money" will be needed, Resolution Foundation's senior economist Jonathan Marshall said.

"We have been able to ramp up investment before. In the 2010s, we managed to double what we were investing in electricity in the previous decade."

As the Lord Mayor pointed out, the increased cost of capital should lengthen payback times and there are plenty of types of capital that are looking for solid investments like the UK grid.

Here he says the government is "pretty serious" – strong words from a man who grew up on the US west coast.

Chris Blackhurst writes that Mr Sunak has made a very public display in a succession of U-turns to reinforce the impression of a change of heart.

He is nowhere near as devoted to combatting a hotter planet as the previous occupants of No 10.

This culminated in Chris Stark, head of the UK Climate Change Committee, the government watchdog that advises ministers and assesses progress on targets, telling Laura Kuenssberg at the weekend that Mr Sunak has “set us back” on climate change and left the UK at risk of falling behind other countries.

Mr Stark said Mr Sunak had “clearly not” prioritised the issue as much as his predecessors. He accused him of telling the world that the UK is now “less ambitious” than it once was.

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Psephologists closing in

People disenchanted with the Conservatives' 14 years in power are poised to vote against their first choice by opting for Labour or Liberal Democrat councillors to ensure a Tory candidate does not win.

This will have significant ramifications for the future of Mr Sunak, who could face a vote of no confidence in his leadership if his party loses more than 550 local government seats, said Prof Tony Travers, a leading political commentator at the London School of Economics.

Websites have sprung up with localised advice for the anti-Tory vote. The local elections will give these the evidence needed to persuade waverers.

Come the general election, probably this autumn, the Conservatives would be on track to lose heavily, with Labour forming the next government.

Prof Sara Hobolt, also of the LSE, has concluded: “Most voters have decided this government is just not competent to govern the country.

“They don’t necessarily love Labour, it’s just that Rishi Sunak has not managed to turn things around. The Conservatives are being squeezed from both sides.”

Pain, painted

A unique exhibition of work by migrant children who have arrived on their own in south-eastern England is going on display at a time when sensitivities are running high in the area.

Osama Sharkia, of the Kent Refugee Action Network, said the children had used art to "express complex emotions about their journeys to the UK in a way that words may not have been able to express".

"There were workshops that empowered our youths to explore their creativity, express themselves and build confidence," said Mr Sharkia, a former refugee from Syria.

"Through art, we nurtured their voices and inspired them to shape their futures with resilience and imagination."

Artist Jose Campos, a former refugee from El Salvador now living in the UK, worked with some of the youngsters on the Margate exhibition, which is called Leave to Remain, a UK government term for people with partial residency rights.

Mr Campos said he "hopes this artwork shines a light on these young people’s lives in Kent".

Quality doctors

Patients treated by female doctors have a reduced risk of dying, with female patients benefiting more than ailing men, new research has found.

Researchers also found a lower hospital readmissions rate among those treated by women.

The mortality rate for female patients was 8.15 per cent when treated by female physicians compared to 8.38 per cent when a male doctor was involved.

While the difference for male patients was smaller, female doctors had a 10.15 per cent mortality rate compared with male medics’ 10.23 per cent rate.

The study, published on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found the same pattern for hospital readmission rates.

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