There is a catastrophic gap between promises to cut carbon emissions and the action need to deliver those cuts – BBC World Service

    There is a catastrophic gap between promises to cut carbon emissions and the actions need to deliver those cuts. That is the verdict today from the United Nations, a new UN Report says amounts pledged in the Paris Agreement amount to just a third of what is needed […]

IEA projection of oil consumption peak goes against what many in the industry believe – Share Radio

                Share Radio:  Let’s take a look at oil, because oil consumption is tipped to peak no sooner than 2040, even if the Paris climate agreement is implemented, that is according to the outlook of the International Energy Agency, the IEA. This projection […]

OF OIL AND STONES

  This blog first appeared in Business Green                                 Sheikh Yamani, a former Saudi oil minister, is famous for having pointed out that the stone age did not end because we ran out of stones. […]

Energy Transition Commission – some considerations

  Shell and McKinsey have just launched a global initiative called the Energy Transition Commission. Doubts have been raised about whether the Commission as currently constructed has the integrity to make a positive contribution to the debate on how to keep the climate safe. There is a risk that this […]

Sky News – Climate change and Obama’s trip to the Arctic

  I think giving people a picture of what’s happening now on the planet is really important, and remember what Obama is talking about is what’s happening in Alaska, but it’s also happening in the glaciers in the Himalayas, in the Alps here in Europe, in Antarctica in Greenland, and […]

Sky News – Obama gives Shell the go ahead for Arctic drilling

      Obama is going to Alaska because Alaska is on the front line of climate change, and it is where we are seeing the impacts of a changing climate on human beings really dramatically already, right now. Obama wants to draw attention to the fact that it is […]

G7 fossil fuel pledge is a diplomatic coup for Germany’s ‘climate chancellor’ – The Guardian

  I was quoted extensively in an article in The Guardian by Karl Mathiesen on why the plan outlined by the G7 on Monday to phase out fossil fuels by the end of the century is, for some member countries, not quite as ambitious as it sounds.       Tom […]

SOMETHING UNDERSTOOD

  This article first appeared in BusinessGreen       The politics of climate change is changing. Astonished listeners at a recent conference in Paris heard the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, announce ‘one of these days we are not going to need fossil fuels’. He went on to make […]

Revealed: BP’s close ties with the UK government – The Guardian

  I was quoted extensively in a piece The Guardian wrote on the extent of BP’s influence on government policy and how their intimate relationship is at odds with UK commitments to reduce carbon emissions.     “About 1.5% of UK pension industry money was invested in BP shares, which […]

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 […]