HOW TO DEAL WITH A CLIMATE EMERGENCY – IN ADMIRATION OF THE CLIMATE STRIKERS.

Revoke Brexit – that is the single most important thing that a British Government could do to tackle climate change as Brexit is both undermining our ability to make our own low carbon transition but also removes one of the strongest and most influential voices within the EU for higher […]

So the country voted blue, did we go green? – Sky News – 5 December 15

        Sky: Tom Burke is the Chairman and founding Director of the Environmental Think Tank E3G, and he joins me in the studio.  So the country voted blue did we go green? Tom Burke: We didn’t go green. I think the coalition was a bit greener that […]

WHAT’S IN A WORD 3

        John Hutton is Chairman of the Nuclear Industries Association. On August 24th he told the Radio 4 Today audience that  “The nuclear programme is going to be built without any state funding at all”. Sitting next to him in the studio I nearly fell off my […]

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 […]

CHANGING THE GAME – A PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT

  E3G is publishing ‘Changing the Game’ a 10 point programme for government that will put the environment to work for the economy.       For too long Britain’s environmentalists have asked British Governments to do more for the environment. It is now time to turn the tables and tell […]

APRES MOI LE DELUGE

                    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. […]

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 […]

THE FOSSIL FUEL PARADOX

  This blog  was first published by BusinessGreen                   A debate over the real value of investment in fossil fuels has raged all summer. September’s climate summit in New York brought it into sharp focus. There, Anthony Hobley of the Carbon Tracker Initiative […]

‘IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID’

                    When the debate on the Fourth Carbon Budget began in Whitehall in 2012 the Treasury had a clear view. No. Meeting its requirements would be too damaging to Britain’s economy. How did they know this? Their model of the economy […]

After you Claude

                    Britons only generate 1.42% of the world’s carbon emissions. No-one else is doing much to reduce their emissions. We are doing a lot and should not do more until everyone else joins in. This is the facile, Treasury inspired, argument […]