The Double Jeopardy of the Environment & Democracy – Byline Times

Environmentalist Tom Burke considers why undermining the democratic rule of law would be destructive for the environment and all who want to protect it. Joni Mitchell wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ in 1970, the year the first Earth Day launched the modern environment movement. The song’s refrain – Don’t it always […]

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 […]

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 […]

HFC deal signed – Channel 4 News – 15 Oct 16

      Tom Burke: What we are seeing (with HFCs) is exactly what happened with CFCs with the ozone hole, which is when the big countries got in and developed the alternatives, and began to develop them in large quantities, that drove the price down, and made it easier […]

Conservative government facing heavy criticism for cutting green subsidies and investment – Sky News – 13 Dec 15

      Sky News: The government’s energy policy has come under fire and has been described as illegal, just a day after world leaders agreed a historic plan to tackle climate change. David Cameron was among many who praised the deal made in Paris as a huge step forward in […]

What can we expect from COP21? – BBC World Service – Newshour

                    It’s just under a month before the start of COP21, the Paris climate change conference, at which global powers will try to achieve a universal and legally binding treaty to limit Green House Gas emissions. What can realistically be achieved? […]

REMARKS ON CLIMATE AND SECURITY AT THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL – WASHINGTON DC – JUNE 17TH 2015

          This is the address I gave at the Atlantic Council event Climate Security: The Next ‘Battle Ground’? on June 17, 2015 in Washington DC.                     Security professionals often distinguish between human security issues and national security issues. Of course […]

Why Europe matters and why the European elections matter – E3G