Why I cringe when economists claim carbon taxes are the most 'efficient' way...
With gilets jaunes blocking French cities, initially sparked by a carbon tax added to motor fuel taxes, and schoolchildren striking for climate change you would think that politicians were being forced...
View ArticleThree independent-led developments that herald the way towards the...
In the last couple of weeks three developments led by independent companies herald the beginning of the renewables-plus-storage revolution in the UK. Slowly but surely companies using battery...
View ArticleThe real story about the stricken Hunterston B nuclear power station
Incorrect Statements in BBC News “Hunterston B: Pictures show cracks in Ayrshire nuclear reactor” By Dr IAN FAIRLIE, Independent Consultant and Dr DAVID TOKE, Reader in Energy Policy at the University...
View ArticleHammond floats scheme to offer many billions of state handouts to nuclear power
While Philip Hammond was busy offering a few marginal measures for green energy he is busy planning to give nuclear power a massive multibillion state funded boost. Clothed in talk of a new means...
View ArticleHow Wednesday's vote on Brexit postponement mirrors the Tories' catastrophic...
The split in the Conservative Party on Wednesday night when the majority of Tory MPs voted against the Government's proposals to delay Brexit is eerily similar to the catastrophic split the Tory Party...
View ArticleLabour undermines renewable energy pledges with state ownership plan for new...
Labour's energy spokesperson, Rebecca Long-Bailey, having previously pledged to put renewable energy on top of the energy agenda has now relegated it far below nuclear power. They have done this with a...
View ArticleCan scientists also be climate activists? - How there is no such thing as an...
The publishers, Routledge, have just released a free-to-download copy of a chapter from my book 'Low Carbon Politics' which discusses controversies about climate change and the role of scientists in...
View ArticleWhy the UK's capacity mechanism should be scrapped in favour of a...
The UK's capacity mechanism (CM) is supposed to ensure that we have sufficient 'reserve' capacity to supply electricity whenever we need it. Under the system money is given to large power stations in...
View ArticleWhy UK's climate change politics reflect our broken political system
The suggestion that the UK should hold now hold 'citizens assemblies' about how to deal with climate change is an excellent one in my view, and one which parallels the best practice available in...
View ArticleCommittee on Climate Change sinks nuclear power in the UK in favour of...
Few people seem to have noticed how the Committee on Climate Change, in their 'Net Zero' report (net zero carbon emissions for 2050 for the UK), have effectively junked nuclear power in favour of...
View ArticleWhy we may be heading for a Tory 'no deal' General Election
And how the only chance of stopping a Tory 'no dealer' winning that election is for Labour to declare its full, unqualified, support for another referendum on UK EU membershipBarring some miracle and...
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Academics tell Labour that its support for nuclear power prevents it from...
Published below is a memorandum from the 'Red Lion Group' of 12 academics, to the Labour Party Shadow Energy Secretary, which sets out how Labour's support for new nuclear power prevents the...
View ArticleLabour and energy nationalisation. Why power should be given to local...
Labour’s proposals to take the national and regional energy grid back into public ownership may give a boost to workers’ interests over shareholder profits, but the way the proposals are set out...
View ArticleOffshore wind: the power source that could blow all other power sources away...
As offshore wind technology fully blooms as its own distinct mass industrial technology producing power at low prices, and as the prospect of floating wind turbines comes closer, the potential for the...
View ArticleNow EDF want us to pay for nuclear build cost overruns - tens of £billions...
EDF is angling to get the UK Government to commit to pay what could be tens of billions of pounds for cost overruns on the proposed Sizewell C nuclear power project. This is part of the so-called...
View ArticleZero carbon by 2050? Make it 30 by 30!
BY ANDREW WARRENThis month the UK formally becomes the first G7 nation to adopt as a legally binding commitment that we shall be living in a net zero carbon economy in 30 years’ time.It is a clear and...
View ArticleA layman's guide to the 'Regulated Asset Base' that will fund Sizewell C...
The Government's proposed new 'Regulated Asset Base' (RAB) means of funding nuclear has just been published, and it is living as far down to its expectations as could be expected. I've ploughed through...
View ArticleThe bonkers politics (never mind economics) of a no deal Brexit
Much attention has been focussed so far on the extent to which the UK will suffer economically from a no-deal Brexit, but regardless of this to me the most worrysome aspects of this scenario are the...
View ArticleWhy Greens need a Progressive Alliance not a Lib-Dem-Green Alliance
As the UK faces the worst political crisis since WW2, with the political and economic dangers of a no-deal Brexit, the last thing pro-EU parties need to do is to actively split the forces trying to...
View ArticleGovernment in cynical ploy to boost northern election hopes with fanciful smr...
In what must count as one of the most cynical election ploys on record the UK Government has attempted to link a faltering and unlikely 'small modular reactor' (SMR) nuclear programme with target seats...
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