Publications

  • 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

  • Sustainable Consumption, Climate Change and Future Generations

    10th October 2011

    Published in: The Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, volume 69, issue -1, pp. 235-252.

  • Shale Gas and the Low Carbon Transition in Europe

    1st September 2011

    Published in The Era of Gas - volume 2

    Carbon Europe Gas

  • Peak Oil and Energy Policy - A Critique

    23rd August 2011

    Published in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 27, Number 1, 2011, pp. 68–91 Abstract:Energy policy has frequently been based upon assumptions about future oil prices. At the end of the 1970s it was assumed oil prices would continue to rise. Now a similar assumption pervades policy design. This article critiques the peak oil hypotheses which lie behind these forecasts and policy beliefs, and considers that, from a climate change perspective, the challenge is too much, not too...

    Energy

  • Green Growth: Opportunities, Challenges and Costs IN The Delphic Oracle on Europe – Is there a Future for the European Union edited by Loukas Tsoukalis and Janis A. Emmanouilidis

    17th May 2011

    ORDER HERE The Delphic Oracle on Europe brings together leading thinkers and policy-makers from different academic disciplines and policy-oriented backgrounds from all over Europe. The chapters reflect on ways forward for the European Union (EU) in a time of global crisis and profound change. Contributors debate the institutional and political consequences of the Lisbon Treaty, the reform of economic governance in light of the economic and financial crisis, and Europe's global role in a...

  • Green Growth - Infrastructure and National Accounts

    12th May 2011

    Article from InsideTrack Issue 28 Spring 2011A Better Route: Mainstreaming the Green Economy We aspire to a low carbon economy, but we don’t really know what it looks like. As a result there’s a mismatch between the narrative and economic policy. As the contributors to this edition of Inside Track demonstrate, the debate is not settled, but there are some strong arguments and compelling options available to policy-makers if they want to make green a driver of growth....

    Infrastructure

  • Look to gas for the future

    24th March 2011

    Peak oil—the idea that we have passed or are about to pass the physical peak of oil production—is again in fashion. It has been lent impetus by events in the Middle East and North Africa. Predictions abound of imminent price shocks, $200 dollars-a-barrel oil, and an oil-induced Armageddon. We have been here efore: it is all very reminiscent of the reactions to the Iranian revolution and the oil price shock in 1979 when oil prices hit $39 a barrel (about $130 in current money)....

  • Infrastructure and infrastructure finance: the role of the government and the private sector

    20th January 2011

    IN: EIB Papers, Volume 15 Number 2, 2010 pages 8-27

  • Rethinking the Economic Borders of the State

    18th November 2010

    How should the shape of the state change to confront the twin challenges of economic growth and environmental sustainability? In this essay, Dieter Helm argues that a new direction is needed which owes more to the rules-based order of Hayek than the short-run demand management of Keynes. New thinking about how the state should invest in economic and social infrastructure to create growth while preventing the depletion of resources is required, with a national  balance sheet and investment...

    Europe Infrastructure Regulation

  • POLICY PAPER: Market reform: rationale, options and implementation

    18th October 2010

    As a result of Ofgem’s Project Discovery and the DECC Market Assessment, and with the Climate Change Committee’s Fourth Climate Change Budget due in December 2010, the government is embarked on a market reform process, first through a consultation paper and then through legislation. This short paper summarises the rationale for electricity market reform, considers three related options, and sets out the case for a long-term capacity auction mechanism.

    Energy Europe