Abby Wallace

Abby Wallace reports on the intersection of energy, climate and politics, focusing on how decisions on net zero, power markets and extreme weather play out for people and institutions in the U.K. She is an energy and climate reporter at POLITICO, covering U.K. energy policy, climate targets and the implications of the transition away from fossil fuels. Her beat sits where climate impacts, voter sentiment and government strategy meet, with stories that track both the technical detail and the political stakes of the energy transition.

Net zero politics and U.K. energy policy

Wallace’s core patch is U.K. energy and climate policy, with a particular focus on net zero commitments and how they are contested across government and opposition. Her role includes reporting for POLITICO’s Morning Energy and Climate U.K. coverage, where she follows debates over decarbonization, support schemes and the pace of the transition.

She covers party conference discussions and ministerial positioning on energy and climate, bringing out the political trade-offs behind targets, infrastructure and public spending.

Her work traces how climate policy interacts with wider economic and trade questions, such as an EU tax on carbon‑intensive imports that could raise business costs and threaten jobs in Northern Ireland. In that coverage she links technical instruments like border carbon measures to on‑the‑ground concerns about competitiveness and employment, making abstract policy choices tangible. Wallace’s stories in this area tend to foreground direct consequences for regions and sectors, rather than treating climate legislation as a purely symbolic issue.

Extreme weather, public opinion and climate adaptation

Wallace frequently uses episodes of extreme weather as a lens on public attitudes to climate change and the capacity of government to respond. In her piece on heat waves confronting Andy Burnham, she reports on polling showing that recent record‑breaking temperatures have pushed a significant share of voters to worry more about climate change and to support expanding clean energy projects such as wind and solar.

The same reporting highlights that a majority of respondents now expect hotter summers to be the new norm, underscoring how climate impacts are shifting from hypothetical to lived experience.

In that story she frames heat not just as a meteorological problem but as an administrative and political test, noting that voters judge governments on their ability to protect people and public services that are not equipped for sustained high temperatures.

Her coverage of climate adaptation focuses on practical competence: cooling infrastructure, resilience of transport and health systems, and the funding mechanisms that enable or delay upgrades. Wallace’s approach in these pieces is data‑driven, combining polling, expert voices and political analysis to show how climate impacts shape electoral pressures and governing priorities.

Energy companies, consumer bills and accountability

Wallace also reports on the conduct of energy companies and the way political decisions affect household bills and corporate accountability. One of her recent stories examines ministers defending a government‑backed energy company against forced labor claims, placing human‑rights concerns alongside questions of state support and due diligence.

Another covers proposals from the Greens for a universal energy bills bailout for British consumers, linking party platforms to the lived reality of high costs and the design of relief schemes.

Across these articles she treats corporate behavior, regulatory oversight and affordability as a single field, rather than separate beats. Her reporting often highlights where government backing or policy frameworks intersect with allegations about supply chains, labor standards or pricing, making clear the responsibilities that follow public support for energy firms. This strand of her work complements her climate‑policy coverage by showing how decisions about decarbonization and market structure land on both companies and households.

Background in business reporting and climate beat breadth

Before joining POLITICO’s energy and climate team, Wallace worked on the companies desk at the Financial Times and earlier on the business news desk at Insider.

That background in corporate and financial reporting informs her energy coverage, which is attentive to market dynamics, investment decisions and the business implications of climate policy. It also underpins her interest in how large firms respond to regulatory pressure on emissions, labor practices and supply chains, and how those responses are judged by politicians and the public.

Her broader portfolio includes freelance work for major national outlets on politics, business and climate‑related issues, giving her a wide view of how different audiences engage with energy stories.

Across formats - straight news stories, policy explainers and contributions flagged through POLITICO’s political newsletters - Wallace’s reporting is consistent in linking climate and energy to concrete impacts on jobs, bills and public services. Her coverage is suited to stories that sit at the junction of policy detail and everyday consequences, particularly where climate, energy markets and domestic politics collide.