Author Archives: Matthew Lockwood

Last Sunday, Joss Garman of Greenpeace UK offered a gripping analysis of the shifting geopolitics behind the positions of the US, India and what he describes as a “relaxed and confident” China at the recent UNFCCC Ministerial.  As we have argued recently, hyping the  outcome of Cancun is not a good idea, but it is certainly true that the emerging powers came to Mexico in a constructive mood.  Joss argues that: Continue reading →

A thought-provoking piece from Michael Shellenberger at the Breakthough Institute in the US landed in my inbox this morning, which I thought was worth reproducing in full here, not least because it expresses very well some of the dilemmas that the UK faces as it struggles to catch up with the rest of Europe in investments in renewable energy:

“For forty years, presidents and policymakers have promised and planned for a new energy future just over the horizon. Continue reading →

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Like a lot of other European governments, Britain’s still relatively new coalition leaders are keen on fiscal austerity, and this week will see a spending review that is expected to lay out cuts of over £65 billion over the next 6 years. The ostensible reason for all this slashing is the UK’s national debt, which has reached £1,000 billion (over 70% of GDP). Against this background, it may sound mad to argue for more public borrowing in order to pay for investments in low carbon technologies and infrastructure, but that is what I am going to do in this post. Continue reading →

Blogging from the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, Political Climate has picked up on some new polling by YouGov for Policy Network. This  survey was aimed at getting the Labour Party to understand how voters see it, but it also has some interesting insights for the politics of climate change. Continue reading →

I’ve got a rather provocatively titled piece coming out in the next issue of Political Quarterly, about two different ways of approaching climate change politics put forward by the two Miliband brothers, currently locked in a struggle for the leadership of Britain’s Labour Party. Continue reading →

I have been reading Michael Sandel’s recent book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? Sandel is currently hot property on the centre left in the UK. He gave the prestigious Reith Lectures in 2009, and his argument for a ‘politics of the common good’ has hit a chord amongst politicians like Ed Miliband.

At the heart of Sandel’s philosophy Continue reading →