News and Updates

Last Saturday the power station on my roof (Semington A) generated 22.3 kWh of electrical power.  It would have been larger had the temperature been a bit lower, say 21 rather than 35 degrees, and the sun a bit higher...

Kemi Badenoch MP wrote in the Sunday Times recently of her experiences with civil servants when she was a minister.  It turned out that these well-meaning, expensively-educated, dedicated servants of the people would rather she had thought little and then...

I see that recent remarks by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has caused the shares in the Drax Group to plunge.  All he said was that it made no sense to him to transport wood chips across the Atlantic to burn in...

Philip Larkin was born 100 years ago this week.  It's said that he had a difficult childhood (who didn't).  But, as Alan Bennett once remarked, poets should be grateful for tricky beginnings as it gave them something to write about....

To mark the recent death of the brilliant James Lovelock, here is an edited version of the text on Gaia that Paul Vare and I wrote for our book: The World we'll Leave Behind: grasping the sustainability challenge Gaia In ancient...

Is any school focused and committed enough to talk about ESG – environmental, social, and governance issues – with its students?   Probably not.  Many universities will, of course, especially business / management departments.  I wondered about this as I...

I noticed in this week's NAEE weekly update that Manchester University’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures had organised a competition for UK school students to write a speech or letter, addressed to the UN, on the climate emergency. It...

If you click here you can watch a 16 minute talk by Stuart Kirk (HSBC's Head of Responsible Investment / Head of Research & Insights) at an FT Moral Money symposium in May.  He was suspended by HSBC for his...

Unless you've been hibernating you're probably aware that there is a competition for a replacement prime minister.  I've been trying to hear what the contenders have to say about their policies towards energy, climate and biodiversity issues (etc).  Not much...

Tendering for the DfE's über high profile climate leaders award and its nature park scheme would not seem to have been the roaring success that the department hoped.  At the deadline, there was only one bid.  There were nearly two...