LONDON: A ban on disposable vapes goes into effect across the UK on Sunday in a bid to protect children’s health and tackle a “throwaway” culture.
“For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine,” junior environment minister Mary Creagh said.
She said the government was calling “time on these nasty devices” — a type of e-cigarette which are very popular with young people — and banning sales of single-use vapes or their supply in a crackdown on UK corner shops and supermarkets.
Those caught flouting the ban will face a £200 fine, while repeat offenders risk up to two years in prison.
Young people and children in particular have been attracted to cheap and colorful disposable vapes, which have snazzy flavours such as mint, chocolate, mango or watermelon, since they were introduced in the UK in 2021.
In 2024, nearly five million disposable vapes were thrown away each week, according to Material Focus, an independent UK-based non-profit.
More than 40 tons of lithium, a key metal used in the technology industry, was discarded each year along with single-use vapes — enough to power 5,000 electrical vehicles, the NGO said.
Fire services have also warned about the risk of discarded vapes catching light among household rubbish.
“Every vape has potential to start a fire if incorrectly disposed of,” said Justin Greenaway, commercial manager at electronic waste processing company SWEEEP Kuusakoski.
The new law, first proposed by the previous Conservative government, also aims to stem a rise in vaping.
“This new law is a step toward reducing vaping among children, while ensuring products are available to support people to quit smoking,” said Caroline Cerny, deputy chief executive for health charity Action on Smoking and Health .
A recent ASH survey said 11 percent of adults vape, or about 5.6 million people, and 18 percent of 11 to 17 year olds — about 980,000 under-18s. Among vapers, some 52 percent of young adults aged between 18 to 24 preferred single-use vapes.
The long-term health risks of vaping remain unclear.
E-cigarettes do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most harmful elements in tobacco smoke. But they do still contain highly addictive nicotine.
The upcoming ban has already led to a fall in disposable vapes. According to ASH, the use of disposables by 18-24-year-old vapers fell from 52 percent in 2024 to 40 percent in 2025.
The UK ban follows similar European moves. Belgium and France became the first EU countries to ban sales of disposable vapes.
Ireland is also preparing to introduce new restrictions.
But critics have argued many users will simply switch to refillable or reusable vaping devices, which will limit the impact on nicotine consumption.
And industry experts say the ban could lead to more illegal products entering the UK market.
The bill “only makes it illegal to sell disposable vapes — it does not prohibit their use,” warned Dan Marchant, director of Vape Club, the UK’s largest online vape retailer.
“We risk a surge of illegal and potentially dangerous items flooding the black market.”
UK ban on disposable vapes goes into effect
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UK ban on disposable vapes goes into effect
- Those caught flouting the ban will face a £200 fine
2025 among world’s three hottest years on record, WMO says
- All eight datasets confirmed that the last three years were the planet’s three hottest since records began, the WMO said
- The slight differences in the datasets’ rankings reflect their different methodologies and types of measurements
BRUSSELS: Last year was among the planet’s three warmest on record, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday, as EU scientists also confirmed average temperatures have now exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming for the longest since records began.
The WMO, which consolidates eight climate datasets from around the world, said six of them — including the European Union’s European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the British national weather service — had ranked 2025 as the third warmest, while two placed it as the second warmest in the 176-year record.
All eight datasets confirmed that the last three years were the planet’s three hottest since records began, the WMO said. The warmest year on record was 2024.
THREE-YEAR PERIOD ABOVE 1.5 C AVERAGE WARMING LEVEL
The slight differences in the datasets’ rankings reflect their different methodologies and types of measurements — which include satellite data and readings from weather stations.
ECMWF said 2025 also rounded out the first three-year period in which the average global temperature was 1.5 C above the pre-industrial era — the limit beyond which scientists expect global warming will unleash severe impacts, some of them irreversible.
“1.5 C is not a cliff edge. However, we know that every fraction of a degree matters, particularly for worsening extreme weather events,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at ECMWF.
Burgess said she expected 2026 to be among the planet’s five warmest years.
CHOICE OF HOW TO MANAGE TEMPERATURE OVERSHOOT
Governments pledged under the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to avoid exceeding 1.5 C of global warming, measured as a decades-long average temperature compared with pre-industrial temperatures.
But their failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions means that target could now be breached before 2030 — a decade earlier than had been predicted when the Paris accord was signed in 2015, ECMWF said. “We are bound to pass it,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. “The choice we now have is how to best manage the inevitable overshoot and its consequences on societies and natural systems.”
Currently, the world’s long-term warming level is about 1.4 C above the pre-industrial era, ECMWF said. Measured on a short-term basis, average annual temperatures breached 1.5 C for the first time in 2024.
EXTREME WEATHER
Exceeding the long-term 1.5 C limit would lead to more extreme and widespread impacts, including hotter and longer heatwaves, and more powerful storms and floods. Already in 2025, wildfires in Europe produced the highest total emissions on record, while scientific studies confirmed specific weather events were made worse by climate change, including Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean and monsoon rains in Pakistan which killed more than 1,000 people in floods.
Despite these worsening impacts, climate science is facing political pushback. US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change “the greatest con job,” last week withdrew from dozens of UN entities including the scientific Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The long-established consensus among the world’s scientists is that climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse. Its main cause is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, which trap heat in the atmosphere.
