COP21: Paris climate deal ‘more likely’ after terror attacks

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  By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News, Paris       Nearly 150 global leaders are gathering in Paris amid tight security for a critical UN climate meeting. The conference, known as COP21, starts on Monday and will try to craft a long-term deal to limit carbon emissions. Observers […]

COP21 Paris climate summit: Climate change is much more than an environmental problem – it threatens our financial stability

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  This piece first appeared in CityAM     “Climate change is seen as much more than just another environmental problem”   Next week Paris will again be the focus of world attention. This time in the face of another global threat to us all: climate change. Over 100 world […]

Discussing Syria, conflict and climate change on Sky News

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      Climate Change is a threat multiplier, and when you have an already stressed situation as you had in Syria, and then you add the extra stress caused by climate change, in this case the very prolonged drought that drove about a million and half people out of […]

REMARKS BY MR TOM BURKE CBE – AT THE WORLD ENERGY COUNCIL ENERGY DAY – BERLIN – OCTOBER 1ST 2015

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    The speech on Tuesday by Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of the Financial Stability Board is a game changer for climate change. Whatever you thought about the politics or economics of climate change yesterday is now outdated. The world really did change, […]

Energy Transition Commission – some considerations

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  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 […]

SOMETHING IS HAPPENING HERE

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  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 […]

REMARKS ON CLIMATE AND SECURITY AT THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL – WASHINGTON DC – JUNE 17TH 2015

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          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 […]

NEGOTIATIONS: Warming’s impact on global security a critical issue for Paris talks, experts say

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  Here is another report of the panel I spoke on at the Atlantic Council event Climate Security: The Next ‘Battle Ground’? on June 17, 2015 in Washington DC.         NEGOTIATIONS:  Warming’s impact on global security a critical issue for Paris talks, experts say Brittany Patterson, E&E reporter Published: […]

Climate Security: The Next ‘Battle Ground’? – Atlantic Council event – June 17, 2015

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I will be speaking at the Atlantic Council event Climate Security: The Next ‘Battle Ground’? on June 17, 2015 in Washington DC.             As the international community heads to COP21 in Paris this December, much of the public discourse focuses on the relationship between climate and the environment. […]

APRES MOI LE DELUGE

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                    Louis XV’s mordant phrase aptly captures the legacy of the Coalition government’s electricity policy. The new government, whatever its composition, will inherit a policy that achieved a rare feat. It united investors, generators, customers, commentators and environmentalists on energy policy. […]