The real story at the G20
The press coverage of the G20 summit over the weekend was, understandably, dominated by the row over a so-called Tobin tax on financial transactions. Understandable, I say, because it had a bit of...
View ArticleBritish Gas's 'listening panel': just hot air?
Britain’s biggest energy supplier is inviting business owners to apply to join a new “listening panel”. The lucky hand-picked few will have “unprecedented access” to British Gas and its executives, we...
View ArticleCopenhagen: soaring carbon prices – but does it matter to anyone yet?
Confused delegates at the Copenhagen climate change summit have been pondering why the price of European Union carbon allowances has jumped 17pc in the last nine days. Is it optimism that there will be...
View ArticleTwo cheers for British Gas!
Here are five words you won’t see often: “Two cheers for British Gas!” Yes, the company which so many people seem to love to hate has finally got its act together and taken an axe to its complex maze...
View ArticleCaroline Lucas, the Brighton hippies' MP, gets into a muddle over energy...
Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for the hippies of Brighton, has written an open letter to David Cameron outlining what is needed to make this a green and pleasant land. It's over here at The...
View ArticleYes, climate change is a problem and yes, we do have to do something: but in...
Perhaps we can sit down and discuss this climate change thing like the adults we are? Put the Delingpoles over here, the vilenesses that are Greenpeace, FoE and the rest of the...
View ArticleThe real climate change conspiracy – or is it a cock-up?
Viewing the ghastly mess that politics makes of anything, it can be difficult to decide between cock-up and conspiracy theories. Are politicians simply too dim to perceive the effects of what they do,...
View ArticleClimate change will mean new and larger tropical forests
We're told, endlessly, that climate change will mean the end of the Amazon, of the tropical forests, and the Earth will lose its lungs. It appears that this is not wholly and completely true. Actually,...
View ArticleGovernments aren't taking climate change seriously. Otherwise they'd...
This might come as something of a surprise given the way that governments of all stripes seem happy enough to splurge our money on useless birdchoppers and ineffective greenery. But I contend that...
View ArticleProblems like climate change are just too important not to use markets to...
The Coalition's green policies are "incoherent and failing to achieve objectives", says the manufacturers' trade body, because the bureaucracy involved in complying with the regulations was...
View ArticleWe can adapt to climate change, or we can try to mitigate it. Not both
In response to my recent article arguing that, since we have failed to prevent climate change, we shall have to adapt to it, a number of commenters offered a familiar response. "Adapation is, of...
View ArticleClimate change: the debate is about to change radically
The latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is due out next week. If the leaked draft is reflected in the published report, it will constitute the formal moving on...
View ArticleNoah – the first recorded climate adaptationist?
So Noah had a problem. He foresaw a highly material change in the global climate coming, but what should he do about it? One strategy would be to attempt to prevent, or at least mitigate, the Flood. He...
View ArticleLord Lawson, the climate and the BBC: who's the real expert?
Lord Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, is now the head of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. So when global warming policy is debated, he has sometimes been invited to debate the issue...
View ArticleWe can terraform Mars for the same cost as mitigating climate change. Which...
One frequently quoted study of the global costs of mitigating climate change put them at around $3 trillion by 2100, with the main benefits being felt between 2100 and 2200. Here is alternative way to...
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