SOMETHING IS HAPPENING HERE

  This piece first appeared in Business Green.       Environmentalists have long been vulnerable to their own passions. At times this can make us sound shrill and self-righteous. On other occasions it can blind us to political traps. The oil industry is now busy setting a big one […]

Obama’s climate plan on Sky News – 03/08/15

        It is really important that America has now set itself out to lead on climate, and to demonstrate leading by taking action. It has been a laggard, and therefore other countries have been able to hide behind it, that shield has now been removed. I suspect […]

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 […]

CLIMATE CHANGE : WHO TO CHOOSE?

  This piece was originally published by Greenpeace EnergyDesk       The next government will decide four critical matters that will determine the role it plays in the global effort to keep the climate safe. First, it will choose how to spend £25 billion a year on vital infrastructure. […]

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 […]

Tackling climate change is more of an opportunity than a threat

        Here are three pieces I have done this week for the BBC and Sky News. They are about Ban Ki Moon’s climate summit in New York. A key point that I make is that climate change is impacting on people’s lives right now. Another is that […]

Tusk – not as bad for climate as it first appears?

  This piece first appeared on the E3G website                     The appointment of Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, to replace Van Rompuy as President of the European Council has provoked jitters within Europe’s environment community. No-one would ever have described Poland […]

NO-ONE HOME

  This piece first appeared in BusinessGreen     There is no-one at home in Britain’s political parties. Increasingly they are empty shells with ever fewer members. On a good day less than 400,000 people belong to all our political parties combined. That is about 0.5% per cent of the […]

THE FUTURE IS COMING READY OR NOT

  The following speech talks about the looming collision between $6 trillion of investment in oil and gas over the next ten years and the agreement by governments to keep the rise in global temperature below 2°C. This collision will transform the human prospect. It poses a dilemma for governments […]