‘IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID’

                    When the debate on the Fourth Carbon Budget began in Whitehall in 2012 the Treasury had a clear view. No. Meeting its requirements would be too damaging to Britain’s economy. How did they know this? Their model of the economy […]

Tusk – not as bad for climate as it first appears?

  This piece first appeared on the E3G website                     The appointment of Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, to replace Van Rompuy as President of the European Council has provoked jitters within Europe’s environment community. No-one would ever have described Poland […]

THE FRAGILE CITY AND THE RISK NEXUS

                          This is a new short book I have written with leading urbanist Charles Landry. It brings together for the first time two disconnected narratives. The first is about the future of the cities in which half the […]

NO-ONE HOME

  This piece first appeared in BusinessGreen     There is no-one at home in Britain’s political parties. Increasingly they are empty shells with ever fewer members. On a good day less than 400,000 people belong to all our political parties combined. That is about 0.5% per cent of the […]

SPEECH AT E3G TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION – THE DECK AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE – JULY 2ND 2014.

  REMARKS BY MR TOM BURKE CBE AT THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FOR E3G, THE DECK AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE, JULY 2ND 2014.                         First of all, let me thank you all for coming this evening. We are celebrating […]

CHINA NIGHTMARE

  This piece first appeared in Business Green                   The prospect of the Chinese becoming owners, managers and even constructors of nuclear power stations in Britain has caused anxiety in some unexpected places. Both the right and the left, united in their […]

THE FUTURE IS COMING READY OR NOT

  The following speech talks about the looming collision between $6 trillion of investment in oil and gas over the next ten years and the agreement by governments to keep the rise in global temperature below 2°C. This collision will transform the human prospect. It poses a dilemma for governments […]

Why Europe matters and why the European elections matter – E3G

Cities lead the energy transition

This article first appeared in Revolve Magazine on April 29, 2014 The message at Energy Cities’ annual rendez-vous was clear: cities are the interface with citizens and by default (since cities are growing exponentially around the world) they are the mandatory motors of innovative change to realize the urban energy […]

After you Claude

                    Britons only generate 1.42% of the world’s carbon emissions. No-one else is doing much to reduce their emissions. We are doing a lot and should not do more until everyone else joins in. This is the facile, Treasury inspired, argument […]