SQUARING THE CIRCLES

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  This piece was first published by the Energy and Carbon Blog     Amber Rudd’s appointment as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate has been welcomed by environmentalists. This is partly out of relief. There was a real risk that DECC would be abolished by an incoming Conservative Government. […]

WHAT NEXT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?

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                  One useful piece of analysis has emerged from the media froth post-election. Labour lost because they offered nothing to the ‘aspirational middle class’. This is surely right. An awful lot of people were left out of a narrative that posed the […]

CHANGING THE GAME – A PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT

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  E3G is publishing ‘Changing the Game’ a 10 point programme for government that will put the environment to work for the economy.       For too long Britain’s environmentalists have asked British Governments to do more for the environment. It is now time to turn the tables and tell […]

How to break the political silence on the environment

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  This piece was first published in the Guardian       A YouGov poll published last week found that 40% of voters wanted to hear more about the environment. They also wanted to hear more about education, pensions, foreign affairs and Europe. They have been disappointed. It is too […]

APRES MOI LE DELUGE

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                    Louis XV’s mordant phrase aptly captures the legacy of the Coalition government’s electricity policy. The new government, whatever its composition, will inherit a policy that achieved a rare feat. It united investors, generators, customers, commentators and environmentalists on energy policy. […]

CLIMATE CHANGE : WHO TO CHOOSE?

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  This piece was originally published by Greenpeace EnergyDesk       The next government will decide four critical matters that will determine the role it plays in the global effort to keep the climate safe. First, it will choose how to spend £25 billion a year on vital infrastructure. […]

TTIP: Climate Change Catastrophe? – Speech given at PIEL UK 9th Annual Conference – April 2015

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  Here is a video of the speech I gave on TTIP and climate change the PIEL UK 9th Annual Conference.     Speaker: Tom Burke CBE (Chairman, E3G) 26:52 Q&A Moderator: Professor William Howarth (Professor of Environmental Law, Kent Law School)   You can watch the rest of the conference here […]

WHOM THE GODS DESTROY

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      Despite frequent headlines suggesting otherwise, EDF has not yet agreed to buy two nuclear reactors from its sister French state-owned company Areva. The British Government has yet to sign a contract to purchase the electricity the reactors will produce. Without that contract EDF will not make the […]

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

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  This essay argues that the oil industry will lose the battle for the future. The growth it expects will not occur. The key issue is whether the world makes an orderly or disorderly transition to a carbon neutral energy system. An orderly transition preserves both the economy and the […]

Solar is set to transform the global energy market – Podcast – Today Program BBC Radio 07/04/2015

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                We have had a very inconsistent approach to renewables and deploying renewables in Britain. We are really starting to miss out and get left behind because of that inconsistency by government. It’s completely incoherent to complain about subsidies as the government did […]