Publications
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Whoquotes in Charge?
3rd October 2005
Published in New Statesman Special Supplement on Energy, October 3rd 2005, pp. xxviii-xxix. Beware putting too much faith in the market. What it needs is a proper policy framework - and that's exactly what we haven't got.
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The Rising Cost of Change
1st September 2005
Published in Oxford Forum, Volume 3, Autumn 2005, pp. 22-23. In the twenty-first century, there are many challenges that threaten our way of life, itself the product of the enormous economic expansion of the twentieth century. International terrorism and flu pandemics are two obvious candidates. Yet none of these is on a par with climate change.
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The Future of Infrastructure Regulation
31st July 2005
Edited by Dieter Helm, published July 2005 by Oxera. Based on the speeches of regulators and companies in the infrastructure and utilities industries, presented at the Oxera conference, The Future of Infrastructure Regulation, on March 1st 2005, this volume contributes to the debate about regulation and regulatory reform, following the completion of the recent periodic reviews for water and the electricity distribution companies. The themes in the book may be common, but the approaches are...
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The Case for Regulatory Reform
31st July 2005
In D. Helm (ed.), The Future of Infrastructure Regulation, published by Oxera, July 2005, pp. 1-9. It is tempting to think that, after two decades of experience, regulation might have moved from the controversial and novel, to the tried and tested, that controversy might have died down, and that the subject matter might have become merely technical. Some, indeed, have been seduced by this idea, but a quick reality check reveals that there remains much controversy and debate, and that the issues...
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House of Lords Select Committee on the BBC Charter Review Evidence
5th July 2005
Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the House of Lords Select Committee on the BBC Charter Review, July 5th 2005.
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Climate-change Policy
5th May 2005
Edited by Dieter Helm, published May 2005 by Oxford University Press. The threat posed by climate change has not yet been matched by international agreements and economic policies that can deliver sharp reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. Although the Kyoto Protocol has now been ratified by Russia and hence come into legal effect, the USA, China, and India are all outside its emissions caps. Few European countries are on course to meet their own national targets, and even if fully...
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Climate Change and Energy Policy
5th May 2005
In D. Helm (ed.), Climate-change Policy, published May 2005 by Oxford University Press, pp. 322-340. Given the link between climate change and greenhouse-gas emissions, and given that carbon emissions are associated with the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity and for transport, it follows that reductions of emissions depends on changes to the energy sector and to the energy policy which provides the framework for the sector's development. Addressing climate change is, then, to a...
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Climate-change Policy: A Survey
5th May 2005
In D. Helm (ed.), Climate-change Policy, published May 2005 by Oxford University Press, pp. 11-30. Climate change presents a challenge to policy-makers of an altogether different kind to the day-to-day business of intervention in the economy to correct market failures. It is characterised by major and multi-dimensional uncertainties (in the science, the economics, and the politics), it is an externality created by almost all production and consumption, and it requires international cooperation...
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Introduction to 'Climate-change Policy'
5th May 2005
In D. Helm (ed.), Climate-change Policy, published May 2005 by Oxford University Press, pp. 1-10. The importance of climate change is now widely accepted. From being a research topic, it has moved to the political stage, and whilst most politicians have yet to see it as a 'greater threat than weapons of mass destruction', the main political parties of almost all developed countries have accepted that emissions of greenhouse gases will have to be curbed to avoid serious climate change.
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Credible Carbon Policy
5th May 2005
By D. Helm, C. Hepburn, and R. Mash, in D. Helm (ed.), Climate-change Policy, published May 2005 by Oxford University Press, pp. 305-321. Most developed countries have adopted targets for the reduction of carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Some of these are aspirational, some are recorded in voluntary international agreements, others have the force of law and are enshrined in national legislation. That CO2 emissions should be reduced is now largely accepted: how such reductions might be achieved...