Author Archives: Matthew Lockwood
Populism update
Think about the populist anti-politics vote and suddenly it’s everywhere – in the UK, across Europe, and currently very much in France. Not always linked to climate scepticism, but sometimes very strongly so, and not going away soon.
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Why does the UK find it so hard to develop CCS?
Last week the UK Energy Research Council produced a big report on the route to a demonstration of carbon capture and storage (coordinated by my Sussex colleague Jim Watson), informed by past experience of stimulating innovation in similar types of large scale … Continue reading
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Populism and the rise of climate scepticism
Last year I blogged on Walter Russel Mead’s analysis that linked climate denial to a tradition of American populism. At one level it is obvious that there is an association between climate scepticism and populists (such as the lovely Jeremy Clarkson). … Continue reading
Filed under Climate deniers, Environmentalists, Populism, UK politics, US
Of oil and troubled waters
Last week saw a pitched battle outside Indonesia’s parliament building, with water cannons and tear gas deployed on 10,000 protestors. The reason? Proposals from the government to cut
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The politics of the sustainable state
Dieter Helm, centre right economist and newly appointed Chair of the Natural Capital Committee has just produced an interesting new essay (hat tip to Matthew Spencer). His approach draws a lot on the work of people like Kenneth Arrow and Partha Dasgupta who … Continue reading
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Of gas and gasoline
Couple of items tonight: 1. As new boy in DECC, Ed Davey seems to have been ambushed by the gas industry, with a ruling allowing new gas power plants to emit up to 450 gCO2/kWh out to 2045. This move will … Continue reading
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The power of lobbying
Great piece in the Grauniad by Catherine Mitchell today on how renewables are squeezed between the nuclear lobby on the one hand and the Treasury’s bet on cheap gas on the other.
Filed under Nuclear power, UK politics
A question of legacy
There’s been quite a lot of discussion of the intergenerational implications of debt recently. Paul Krugman tries to explain (here, here and here) that borrowing today does not, on the whole, leave a net burden of debt to our children tomorrow,
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Talks about talks
The Durban climate summit produced a surprise (or at least a surprise for natural pessimists like me…). A consensus agreement has been reached to open a new phase of negotiations, to be finished by 2015 at the latest, with targets for all countries kicking … Continue reading
Avoiding the spin
Amongst all the coverage in the build up to Durban last week, I noticed a rather odd-looking story from Fiona Harvey (previously at the Financial Times, now in the green corner at The Guardian) on “government research” claiming that UK … Continue reading
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