I’m just back from Gabon and Liberia – first time I’ve ever been in these countries. I was there to understand better what the idea of ‘sustainable palm oil’ might mean in that part of the world, and came away both excited at the potential for both...
I’m an NGO-person through and through, but sometimes I do find conventional NGO tactics deeply aggravating. Take the Kodaikanal story, and the current campaign against Unilever. A brilliant bit of in-your-face exposé on Youtube puts Unilever’s...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Laudate Si’ has landed! The much-hyped, comprehensively leaked papal encyclical was launched yesterday. I haven’t read it in detail yet, but am absolutely loving all the quotes that people are pulling out to mark this significant moment. (Such...
Kandeh Yumkella is the inspirational leader of the UN’s Sustainable Energy 4 All campaign. On Thursday last week, he gave the keynote speech to the 2015 Ashden Awards. SUSTAINABLE. ENERGY. FOR. ALL. This is perhaps the single most important...
