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 […]

So the country voted blue, did we go green? – Sky News – 5 December 15

        Sky: Tom Burke is the Chairman and founding Director of the Environmental Think Tank E3G, and he joins me in the studio.  So the country voted blue did we go green? Tom Burke: We didn’t go green. I think the coalition was a bit greener that […]

Sky News – Discussing COP21 and progress so far

      Sky News: Let’s talk to Tom Burke an Environmentalist and former Government advisor. Let’s be blunt. People have been droning on about climate change and global warming for so many years now, but nothing ever gets agreed and nothing ever happens, is that why we’re switching off? […]

Nuclear Cost – Letter to The Times, October 19 2015

                  The Times, letters, October 19 2015 To slash and burn renewable investment for the sake of costly support for new nuclear plants is unwise Sir, George Osborne assumes that energy demand will increase (“Nuclear deal with China is threat to UK […]

SQUARING THE CIRCLES

  This piece was first published by the Energy and Carbon Blog     Amber Rudd’s appointment as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate has been welcomed by environmentalists. This is partly out of relief. There was a real risk that DECC would be abolished by an incoming Conservative Government. […]

CHANGING THE GAME – A PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT

  E3G is publishing ‘Changing the Game’ a 10 point programme for government that will put the environment to work for the economy.       For too long Britain’s environmentalists have asked British Governments to do more for the environment. It is now time to turn the tables and tell […]

How to break the political silence on the environment

  This piece was first published in the Guardian       A YouGov poll published last week found that 40% of voters wanted to hear more about the environment. They also wanted to hear more about education, pensions, foreign affairs and Europe. They have been disappointed. It is too […]

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

  This essay argues that the oil industry will lose the battle for the future. The growth it expects will not occur. The key issue is whether the world makes an orderly or disorderly transition to a carbon neutral energy system. An orderly transition preserves both the economy and the […]

‘IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID’

                    When the debate on the Fourth Carbon Budget began in Whitehall in 2012 the Treasury had a clear view. No. Meeting its requirements would be too damaging to Britain’s economy. How did they know this? Their model of the economy […]

MAKERS AND TAKERS

  This article first appeared in Business Green.        The public discourse on climate policy is asymmetric. It has been dominated by the climate makers. These are the fossil fuel industries and their customers. This has led to a badly distorted portrayal of climate policy risk. As a […]