Publications

  • The Global Financial Crisis and the Prospects for "Green Growth"

    5th October 2012

    From the Policy Network website: The global financial crisis offers a big opportunity for progressive politicians to reenergise the green agenda. Dieter Helm assesses why we have failed to tackle the issue of global warming in the past and considers whether ‘Green Growth’ is likely to be a part of global economic recovery. POLICY NETWORK LINK

    Climate

  • The economic analysis of biodiversity: an assessment

    5th October 2012

    Abstract: Biodiversity is complex, difficult to define, difficult to measure, and often involves international and intergenerational considerations. Biodiversity loss presents significant economic challenges. A great deal of economics is required to understand the issues, but a simple and important observation is that most species and ecosystems are not traded in markets, so prices are often absent and biodiversity is under-provided. Despite the formidable obstacles to high-...

    Environment

  • What to do about the roads

    22nd September 2012

    Transport

  • Mr Davey's "Myths"

    20th September 2012

    Following the publication of the Draft Energy Bill, there has been considerable debate about the merits of the proposed legislation. In response to some of the criticisms raised, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, has written an article in which he claims the "there are five myths that need to be knocked down" (DECC website). As he sees it, the "myths" about the Energy Bill that need to be "knocked down" are: It's too complicated It's too statist It's a nuclear...

  • The Draft Water Bill—a critique

    10th September 2012

    Such a mix of concerns provides the backdrop to the focus of the Draft Bill, and this critique starts off by considering what the aims and objectives of the proposed legislation are, before turning to its central contention that competition is the primary answer to them. The different kinds of competition will be considered, alongside the merits of the regulated asset base (RAB) model and the critical role of the cost of capital.   It will be argued that the Draft Bill: Does not address...

    Water

  • The Carbon Crunch: How We're Getting Climate Change Wrong - and How to Fix it

    23rd August 2012

    Despite commitments to renewable energy and two decades of international negotiations, global emissions continue to rise. Coal, the most damaging of all fossil fuels, has actually risen from 25% to almost 30% of world energy use. And while European countries have congratulated themselves on reducing emissions, they have increased their carbon imports from China and other developing nations, who continue to expand their coal use. As standards of...

  • EMR and The Energy Bill: A Critique

    28th June 2012

    This short paper provides a critique of the mass of policy initiatives and interventions that have emerged and sets out first the serious problems embedded in EMR and the Gas Review and then how progress might be made towards a more robust and efficient policy framework.

  • Trade, climate change and the political game theory of border carbon adjustments

    10th May 2012

    Dieter Helm, Cameron Hepburn and Giovanni Ruta May 2012 Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy Working Paper No. 92 Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper No. 80

    Carbon Climate Energy Environment Europe Gas

  • The Sustainable Borders of the State

    27th February 2012

    Published in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy Winter 2011, Volume 27 Issue 4.

    Carbon Energy Infrastructure Regulation

  • The peak oil brigade is leading us into bad policymaking on energy

    18th October 2011

    One can't assume energy prices are going ever upwards. The real problem is there may be too much fossil fuel, not too little. The Guardian October 18th 2011

    Energy