More than two-thirds of Defra staff moved to Brexit-related roles

. Staff redeployed as ex-government adviser says Brexit is bad for environment . More than two-thirds of all staff employed directly by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are working on delivering Brexit, according to official figures released by the government. The response to a freedom of […]

A CLIMATE OF TRUST

The core argument of this lecture is that failure of climate change policy represents an existential threat to civilisation that will destroy the foundations of trust on which democracy depends. Climate change is a unique problem in human history. Climate policy success demands the local, national and geo-political cooperation that […]

Warning that climate change could cause the collapse of civilisation – Sky News

There’s no doubt at all that we have the technology, and if we wanted to, we could deploy it in time to avoid the kind of outcomes that David Attenborough was talking about today. So it is within our technological capacity to do it, and there is no doubt at […]

The future of nuclear power in Britain

Thank you for inviting me to contribute to this conference. Phil and Andy have done something very important in picking up an overlooked aspect of the public conversation on the future of nuclear power in this country. British Governments have become skilled in recent years at concealing their policy intent […]

Inheritance: Give it up or pass it on? – Radio 4

Bronwen Maddox meets the environmentalist Tom Burke, who plans to pass on the majority of his legacy to his passion: supporting bird life. Tom was brought up on a council estate in Plymouth, and didn’t inherit any money from his parents. He says hard work, luck and the property price […]

Speech to The Global Engineering Congress at the Institute of Civil Engineers – 24 October 18

REMARKS BY TOM BURKE CBE TO THE GLOBAL ENGINEERING CONGRESS INSTITUTE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, LONDON WEDNESDAY 24TH OCTOBER 2018 Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today at such an important and timely event. I am particularly pleased to be asked to speak about financing decarbonisation. When I […]

Record Heat; is global warming advancing? – TRTWorld Roundtable discussion

The news that more than 50 people have died in Greek wildfires is just one part of a very much bigger story. There have been near record temperatures across the northern hemisphere. Japan is calling it a natural disaster. Is this the new norm – is global warming hotting up? […]

Prosperity, Security, Stability

  These are anxious times. Much that we take for granted in the way the world is ordered is in flux. The brief moment when scholars talked confidently of the ‘End of History’ has passed. Change is no longer an option, to be welcomed or resisted, as a matter of […]

SMALL BITES NO.2

  Matt Ridley is almost always wrong about the environment. His regular column in the Times is a mishmash of misinformation and malice. He dislikes environmentalists and hates their influence on public policy. His criticism, in yesterday’s column, of Michael Gove’s proposed new ‘independent’ body to ensure a post-Brexit Government […]