Unpresidented tornados hit America – Al Jazeera

These tornados that we are seeing are not completely unprecedented, but the scale of the impacts that we are seeing is quite unusual. Part of the reason for that is that there seems to be a structural shift going on with the tornados, they seem to be moving further east, […]

Do we have the kind of commitment that we need to fight climate change? – Al Jazeera

Climate Change is a bit like the virus. If we don’t do enough about it now, we will have to do an awful lot more later, and it will be much more painful. The announcement from China is good, as is the recent announcement from the European Commission, that they […]

Will the climate summit fall far short of what is required? – Al Jazeera

I think that what they have got to do at this round of the Summit is to agree the last bits of the rule book by which they are going to implement the agreement, and they are hung up on a couple of fairly technical points to do with the […]

Will flood exercises better prepare us? – Sky News – 12 Sep 16

            Sky News: The Environment agency is beginning to prepare for the winter months ahead, they are training with new barriers, pumps, vehicles and drones to test their flood responses. Well, joining me now is the Chairman of Third Generation Environmentalism, Tom Burke […..] Will flood […]

Remarks by Mr Tom Burke CBE at the ‘Climate Change And The Courts’ Seminar – London – 1 December 2015

  Remarks by Mr Tom Burke CBE at the ‘Climate Change And The Courts’ Seminar, 70 Kingsway, London on December 1st 2015.                     I want to thank Ukela for inviting me to talk to you today though I must admit I […]

PARIS – WHAT REALLY MATTERS?

        Today Paris will again be the focus of world attention. 150 world leaders, including Presidents Obama, Xi, and Putin, Chancellor Merkel and Indian Premier Modi will be there. They will attend the most important meeting on climate change since the Copenhagen summit ended in chaos in […]

COP21 Paris climate summit: Climate change is much more than an environmental problem – it threatens our financial stability

  This piece first appeared in CityAM     “Climate change is seen as much more than just another environmental problem”   Next week Paris will again be the focus of world attention. This time in the face of another global threat to us all: climate change. Over 100 world […]

‘Events, dear boy, events’ have put climate change back on the agenda

  This article piece first appeared in The Guardian on Wednesday 26 March 2014 The decline of climate change on leaders’ agendas has been reversed – not by new analysis, but two years of extreme weather                   British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, […]

Making John Redwood angry – it’s nothing personal

  This article first appeared in Business Green on the 17th February 2014     I recently made John Redwood MP very cross. He was so cross he accused me of making ‘a very unpleasant personal attack’ on him. He was mistaken. I did no such thing. I did, however, […]

Magic and Misdirection

  This article first appeared in the December edition of BusinessGreen magazine                 One of the more stressful moments in Britain’s history occurred in the spring of 1940. Churchill had just become Prime Minister. Rommel’s tanks were at Calais. France was about to […]