News and Updates

  • Comparative Disadvantage

    I read that the government's Department of Zero Energy and No Security [DOZENS] is thinking about slapping UK import taxes on Chinese battery EVs.  It seems that they are thought to be far too cheap because of subsidies.  Fresh from...

  • Put it in the Chat

    Once upon a time, when there was a seminar you got up very early, spent a large amount of money on a train fare, and a few hours later you arrived having in the meanwhile tried mostly unsuccessfully to do...

  • An Uphill Struggle

    Harold Williamson was a TV journalist well known for his interviews with children.  One day he asked a young girl who she was painting, and she said, “God”.  Williamson gently protested that no one knew what God looked like. “Well",...

  • What's a Green Job?

    The International Labour Organization's pretty broad definition of green jobs is “decent jobs in any economic sector which contribute to preserving, restoring and enhancing environmental quality", so there should be lots of them around.  But where are they? It's an...

  • The £28bn Question

    Whilst I’ve not been obsessing about the £28bn that the Labour Party promised to borrow to invest in green matters every year in the next parliament, I’ve been trying to keep track of it; just as I’ve been wondering what...

  • Social Consent and Cognitive Dissonance

    I hope that whoever is in charge of ensuring that the UK's climate change policy is both technologically sound and socially feasible is paying attention to what’s going on in Germany, France, Poland, Romania, The Netherlands and elsewhere where social...

  • A Poverty Premium on the Journey to Net Zero

    I've been reading a new report [ Our Journey to Net Zero: understanding household and community participation in the UK’s transition to a greener future ] from the Institute for Community Studies and others, on the preparedness of UK households...

  • Catching the Eye

    Here are a few of the stories that came across my desk(top) this week: Yanis Varoufakis explains in UnHerd why poor farmers across the EU are revolting, and what cannot be done about it.  It begins: Manos, a sixth-generation farmer...

  • All models are wrong, but some are useful

    I attended the I-SEE Sustainable Energy & the Environment Webinar, ‘The Science Behind Climate Models’, yesterday.  It was given by Bill Collins, Professor of Climate Processes, Atmospheric Chemistry and Earth System Modelling at the University of Reading. Here's his blurb: We...

  • Common Sense breaks out in Wiltshire

    I'm fortunate enough to live in Wiltshire and so was pleased to see that James Dyson won an 18 month-long battle with Wiltshire Council [WC] and the DfE and now can make a £6m school donation to the primary school...