The record number of fires in the Amazon Rainforest is an international crisis – LBC

Here are some short excerpts from the interview I did with LBC: I think it is important to bear in mind that sooner or later this will lead to conflict, the rest of the world cannot afford to have the Amazon completely burned down, because it will be damaging to […]

What do the wildfires in the Amazon say about the well-being of the planet? – Sky News

Why does the Amazon Rainforest matter so much to us? It matters most immediately because of the impact on climate change which affects every single person on the planet. That’s because as the rainforest burns it puts enormous amounts of additional carbon into the atmosphere. That’s the first impact. But […]

How feasible is the 2050 emissions target set by the UK government? – BBC News

. . The fastest thing that we can do to get emissions down is to improve the efficiency with which we use energy, and in particular the way in which we provide heat in buildings. So that’s not really a question of people having to change their lifestyles so much […]

Are we able to meet the UK emissions target set for 2050?

How do we achieve the emissions target the UK government has set for 2050? We do it by putting our money where our mouth is, and by following through on this commitment to get the law in the right place by investing in the right things, and most importantly, above […]

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 […]

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 […]

Climate change is reaching a tipping point – Sky News

Think of climate change as a disease like diabetes, if you don’t do anything about it, it gets progressively worse. If we don’t do anything to stop the climate from reaching these tipping points, we will find ourselves in a world in which large parts are uninhabitable.

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 […]

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, […]