Climate leadership: bridging the politics/policy divide – Creative Bureaucracy Festival

Policy is a map, it’s a route map, it tells you how to get from here to there. There are many different routes, and you can examine them all and try to figure out which ones are the best routes. You use quite sophisticated tool to make a map and […]

A 55% carbon cut by 2030 in the EU, is it historic? – Al Jazeera

A 55% carbon cut over the next decade by 2030 in the EU is historic. What this marks is a real acceleration of the progress going forward, and it sets a real benchmark for other countries to step up and increase their commitment in time for the summit in Glasgow […]

More power in Britain came from renewables than fossil fuels in 2019 – Sky News

Here are some excerpts of the interview I did for Sky News about the announcement from the National Grid that more power came from renewable sources than from fossil fuels for the first time in Britain in 2019. I think that it is a very important milestone. It means that […]

The future will be different – The Gas to Power Forum

REMARKS BY TOM BURKE CBE AT THE GAS TO POWER FORUM, CANARY WHARF, LONDON, APRIL 30TH 2019. The future will be different. We live in an age of disruptions. Not all of them welcome. The disruption accompanying climate change is the most unwelcome of all. This was made very clear […]

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 […]

SMALL BITES NO.3

  On November 23rd, Financial Times Energy Editor, Andrew Ward, wrote, ‘energy consumers face paying £30bn above market prices for electricity for Hinkley over the 35-year life of the contract’. He was in error. The actual additional cost to consumers is £59bn. In his defence, Mr Ward can fairly claim […]

ET TU BRUTE

      Assassination is rare in Britain. But do not doubt that the political knife slipped into Boris Johnson’s back was anything other than a carefully crafted assassination. It began, supposedly, with a leak. Mr Gove’s wife, Daily Mail journalist, Sarah Vine, e-mailed her husband. The e-mail urged him […]

Within the EU, Britain can take the lead on tackling climate change

  This piece first appeared in The Guardian       Letter from John Gummer, Chris Huhne, Adair Turner, Craig Bennett, Tom Burke, Amy Cameron, Michael Jacobs, John Sauven, Matthew Spencer, James Thornton and Crispin Tickell       Britain has shown great diplomatic leadership on climate change and successive […]

Tom Burke talks to LBC about nuclear power, Hinkley Point and EDF – 07 Mar 16

            Clive Bull: A top EDF boss has resigned over the company’s plans to build Britain’s first new nuclear power plant for decades. There is an ongoing row over the 18 billion pound cost, part of which China is paying for. The government wants to […]

Blue Sky Thinking – BBC Radio 5 Live

          I think that government has got far too centralised, it started under Thatcher, was taken further forward by Labour, and the level of centralisation has now really got quite ridiculous. I would want to push a lot more power and authority, certainly over finance, out […]