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On David Attenborough’s 89th birthday this May, he somehow found himself in conversation with Barack Obama. And a rather strange conversation it was too, with the President of the United States somehow more in awe of David Attenborough than the other way round! For an old population hand (and…

Today sees the publication of the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report. As a long-term and very engaged participant in the nuclear debate, I’ve absorbed each WNISR with careful attention – and huge admiration. The quality of the research and the level of detail is astonishing, and because…

It gets weirder and weirder sitting here in the UK watching our Government systematically destroy the UK renewables industry, knowing that in almost every other country all the signals for the alternative renewables / efficiency / storage model are stronger than ever. Indeed, the world is awash…

Things go from bad to worse on the renewable energy front. 1.  Even those who are accustomed to George Osborne’s hostility to the renewables industry were astonished by his announcement in the Budget on Wednesday that renewable energy would no longer be exempt from the Climate Change Levy – this…

Cracking discussion on Monday at a seminar organised by the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment UCL – ‘Practising Ethics in Built Environment Research’. Our topic was ‘Engaging with the Fossil Fuel Companies: Risks and Opportunities’. This was obviously right up my street, given the ongoing…

Last week, after nearly a year’s work, the High Carbon Stock Steering Committee (of which I’m the Co-Chair) issued its Draft Synthesis Report for consultation. At one level, our Report is all about a simple tale of trying to reconcile two conflicting imperatives: IMPERATIVE 1 Minimise (and, where…