WHAT NEXT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?

                  One useful piece of analysis has emerged from the media froth post-election. Labour lost because they offered nothing to the ‘aspirational middle class’. This is surely right. An awful lot of people were left out of a narrative that posed the […]

How to break the political silence on the environment

  This piece was first published in the Guardian       A YouGov poll published last week found that 40% of voters wanted to hear more about the environment. They also wanted to hear more about education, pensions, foreign affairs and Europe. They have been disappointed. It is too […]

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 […]

WHAT’S IN A WORD?

    One of the less hysterical criticisms of Ed Miliband’s intention to freeze energy prices for 20 months has been to call it ‘unworkable’. This was the word  used by John Major when he intervened in the debate – ‘a bolt from the grey’ as one journalist called it. […]