Does Japan need nuclear to deal with climate change? – Al Jazeera

I think it was a great tragedy for the people of Japan, that has cost them an enormous amount of money, as well as left consequences that they are finding increasingly difficult to deal with. Ten years on the still have no strategy for cleaning the mess up. It’s quite […]

REMARKS BY TOM BURKE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE WORLD NUCLEAR INDUSTRY REPORT 2019 – CHATHAM HOUSE

At a time when truth is under systematic political attack and digital technologies are collapsing the public attention span, the publication of long data series such as the Nuclear Industry Status Report becomes increasingly important. The real world is not a headline; it does not have a half-life of 24 […]

Greta Thunberg is not being overly pessimistic about the urgency of climate change – Sky News

Here are some excerpts of the interview with Sky News about whether Greta Thurnberg’s speech about climate change was overly pessimistic: The reality is that climate change is nastier, and is happening faster than we thought it would, the dangers that everybody on the planet are facing are worse than […]

Do we need some base provision from nuclear power if we are to keep the lights on? – Sky News

We don’t need nuclear power to keep the lights on, which is fortunate as nuclear power stations are unplanned offline about 25% of the time. They are also intermittent, as indeed is all generation, so it is fortunate that we don’t actually need base load power. It’s about five years […]

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 […]

Financing Decarbonisation of the Global Energy System

Energy and Systemic Risk There will soon be eight billion of us sharing this planet. All of us looking to live prosperous and secure lives in which to enjoy the extraordinary benefits that knowledge and technology are already making possible and could do so even more in the future. We […]

Nuclear costs have always been unmeetable – ITV – Border TV

Nuclear costs have always been unmeetable, in comparison with renewables, in comparison with energy efficiency, and other ways to meet energy services, so the whole prospect for this program has never been sound.

SMALL BITES NO.3

  On November 23rd, Financial Times Energy Editor, Andrew Ward, wrote, ‘energy consumers face paying £30bn above market prices for electricity for Hinkley over the 35-year life of the contract’. He was in error. The actual additional cost to consumers is £59bn. In his defence, Mr Ward can fairly claim […]

ON THE BREAKING OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROMISES

  There are a great many champions of the environment in Britain. Between them, our environmental bodies have several times the membership of all the political parties in Britain combined. They probably know rather more about the will of the people than the political leaders who somehow managed not to […]

The Environmental politics of Brexit – Speech at UK Environmental Law Association Conference

              The Environmental politics of Brexit – Speech by Tom Burke UK Environmental Law Association Conference October 13th, 2017 39 Essex Chambers, London Let me begin by thanking you for inviting me to speak today. This conference connects two issues that, more than most, […]