Politicians Declared a Climate Emergency – Here’s What They’re Really Doing

. Parliament declared a climate change crisis in May, but experts worry that it’s just PR-friendly sloganeering. . By Simon Roach | 11 June 2019, 12:14pm . Take the example of the SNP leader of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon. Speaking at her party’s conference in April, the first minister told the […]

What have the Extinction Rebellion protests achieved? – LBC – 20 APR 19

. This is a transcript of an interview I did for LBC with Matt Frei, discussing what has been achieved by the Extinction Rebellion protests. ‘ These protests have already achieved something, which is to change the public conversation. They have transformed it. The protests have made a real difference […]

Remarks By Tom Burke at The Prospect Trade Union Energy Summit

. Remarks by Tom Burke at The Prospect Energy Summit, Birdcage Walk, London On April 4th 2019. . Thank you for inviting me to contribute to this panel. As has already become clear, and will become even more so, climate change is one of the most serious threats to the […]

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 […]

Climate justice and development – The Oxford Forum on International Development

There are three key points I want to make about climate justice and development. The first is that climate change presents humanity with a unique challenge. We have never before faced a problem like this. There is no other problem that will impact on the security and prosperity of literally […]

Financing Decarbonisation of the Global Energy System

Energy and Systemic Risk There will soon be eight billion of us sharing this planet. All of us looking to live prosperous and secure lives in which to enjoy the extraordinary benefits that knowledge and technology are already making possible and could do so even more in the future. We […]

Warning that climate change could cause the collapse of civilisation – Sky News

There’s no doubt at all that we have the technology, and if we wanted to, we could deploy it in time to avoid the kind of outcomes that David Attenborough was talking about today. So it is within our technological capacity to do it, and there is no doubt at […]

Speech to The Global Engineering Congress at the Institute of Civil Engineers – 24 October 18

REMARKS BY TOM BURKE CBE TO THE GLOBAL ENGINEERING CONGRESS INSTITUTE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, LONDON WEDNESDAY 24TH OCTOBER 2018 Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today at such an important and timely event. I am particularly pleased to be asked to speak about financing decarbonisation. When I […]

No Need for Nuclear. The renewables are here – Conway Hall, London 17 June 2017

    There is a very broad National consensus about what we want our energy policy to do, what the goal of British Energy Policy should be. It should be affordable, it should be secure and it should be low-carbon, in delivering the service that people want. I don’t know […]

Sky News – Discussing Al Gore’s new film on climate change “An Inconvenient Sequel” – 11 Aug 17

    Sky news: With me now in the studio is Tom Burke, a former senior adviser to the foreign secretary’s special representative on climate change, and now the chairman of third generation environmentalism, which encourages sustainable development. First of all, Mr Burke, what do you make of this documentary? […]