DEMOCRACY, LAW AND THE ENVIRONMENT – UKELA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2021

This is a speech I gave at the UKELA annual conference 2021. In summary, I argue that the rule of law will not long survive a failure to maintain the ecological foundations of the economy. The climate is the foundation in the most imminent danger. The ecological foundations of the […]

Climate change threatens food, energy and water security – LBC

Climate Policy failure is what David Attenborough was talking about. If we fail to keep the increase in temperature below 2 degrees centigrade, then what we are threatening is food, energy and water security, and if you can’t maintain food, energy and water security then you can’t maintain internal stability, […]

Is this the end of fracking? – LBC

I did an interview for LBC on Sunday 13th October with Ian Payne. The discussion was “Is this the end of fracking?” Here are some excerpts from the interview: I wouldn’t claim fracking is over, it’s probably over for Cuadrilla, but there are other people seeking to do fracking in […]

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 […]

ON THE BREAKING OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROMISES

  There are a great many champions of the environment in Britain. Between them, our environmental bodies have several times the membership of all the political parties in Britain combined. They probably know rather more about the will of the people than the political leaders who somehow managed not to […]

What does Brexit mean for Environmental Legislation in the UK – Guardian Podcast

    One of the things that you get out of our membership of the EU is an enormous amount of regulatory stability. It takes a very long time to create environmental legislation, but then it is very difficult for governments, in a whimsical way, to change it. Now from […]

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? […]

Al Jazeera – Earth Overshoot Day marks unprecedented environmental damages – 2 Aug 17

    Al Jazeera: I am joined now by Tom Burke, he is chairman of the environmental think tank E3G, and has advised a number of senior British politicians, thanks so much for being with us. How surprising is it that we have reached this overshoot day as early as […]

Will flood exercises better prepare us? – Sky News – 12 Sep 16

            Sky News: The Environment agency is beginning to prepare for the winter months ahead, they are training with new barriers, pumps, vehicles and drones to test their flood responses. Well, joining me now is the Chairman of Third Generation Environmentalism, Tom Burke […..] Will flood […]