What Are the Priorities for Environmental Law Following Brexit – PIEL UK 2021

It is fifty years since I joined a local group of Friends of the Earth. I started as an environmentalist. What I am going to do is step back a bit and look at both some of the failures and the tensions in a wider context of the development of […]

There’s no doubt about government green intentions, but what about its ability to follow through? – Green Alliance

Fifty years ago, extending the rule of law over the then wild frontier of the British environment was the main challenge facing environmental campaigners. Post-Brexit, the challenge we now face is protecting the rule of EU environmental law from populist politicians. Environmental law is the tool we use to balance […]

Hitachi to Halt Work on Wales Nuclear Plant – BBC World Service

Japan’s Hitachi is to halt work on a nuclear plant in Wales amid rising cost concerns. Tom Burke is chairman of the environmental research group E3G, and a former UK government advisor on energy policy, and tells us why the company is pulling out. Also in the programme, ahead of […]

Why Hinkley is a very risky bet – BBC Radio Wales

    This is not where we expected to be this morning, and it is very difficult to imagine what the government will discover in a few weeks time that it doesn’t already know. So I think that it is fortunate that this is giving us a chance to look […]

Hinkley is a big economic problem – Sky News

    The National Infrastructure Commission just pointed out a while ago that with better use of our existing energy generation capacity we could avoid four Hinkleys, and save 8 billion pounds. McKinsey pointed out that if we just took forward the energy efficiency that we are already doing we […]

Our own bad habits have brought Britain to the brink of Brexit – The Guardian

By Martin Kettle This article first appeared in The Guardian   Whether voters decide to leave or remain, we must address failures in our media, culture and politics     Trust the people, that’s what I always say to myself. By and large, over the long term, they will do the […]

Is there really a need for Hinkley Point to be built? – World at One – Radio 4 – 16 Feb 16

    BBC: So Is there a really need for Hinkley Point to be built? Tom Burke: There isn’t actually, there’s lots and lots more things that we can do. There is no need to replace nuclear with nuclear, or indeed with gas. We’ve got so many more options, that […]

Why Hinkley is a very bad deal for Britain – BBC News

    Here at Hinkley Point alongside existing reactors is where George Osborne wants to build a new nuclear power station in Britain. It will be built by EDF, a French state owned electricity company, and will cost 24 and a half billion pounds, that’s more than Crossrail and the […]

WHAT’S IN A WORD 3

        John Hutton is Chairman of the Nuclear Industries Association. On August 24th he told the Radio 4 Today audience that  “The nuclear programme is going to be built without any state funding at all”. Sitting next to him in the studio I nearly fell off my […]

SQUARING THE CIRCLES

  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. […]