Whilst regulators have resisted the concept of the split cost of capital, financial markets have been applying its logic with enthusiasm. The recent takeover of Norweb with a reported 45% premium to the regulated capital value (RCV) takes the...
At first glance Britain has one of the best records in Europe on climate change; greenhouse gas emissions fell in the 1990s and it has already surpassed its 2012 Kyoto target. This paper examines whether the claimed superiority of Britain's approach is so
2007 will go down in economic history as a roller-coaster – it’s not often that we see a global credit crunch which requires over half a trillion dollars to stabilise, and a run on a major London bank. The former occurs roughly every quarter of a century,
A striking feature of Europe's energy mix is its growing dependency on imported gas, and in particular its dependency on Russia as a source of supply. For some, this trend poses few new and special difficulties... For others, oil dependency is not quite s
What drives markets in the end are fundamentals, and few variables are as important as the real interest rate—the return, after inflation, on relatively risk-less assets. It determines one part of the return on savings, and it feeds through into the relat
The current debate about the future of airport regulation in the UK has arisen for a variety of reasons, which have together built up a substantive case for reform. In addition to the customer and airline complaints on the quality of service, the takeover
The energy sector has a habit of creating surprises. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when oil prices touched $10 a barrel, and there was excess capacity in most European countries, nobody worried much about security of supply, and bothered even less about cl
Published by openDemocracy, January 2007. The European Commission's new energy plan falls far short of the integrated, long-term strategy that the continent needs, says Dieter Helm.
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
Recent corporate activity and the emergence of highly geared companies in the utility and infrastructure sectors have raised fundamental questions about risk, returns and the appropriate responses from investors and regulators. A gradual revolution has be
This memorandum focuses on three issues: the supply/demand balance in the energy sector; the linkage between security of supply, investment and the climate change objectives; and the energy policy framework required to promote low carbon technologies. In
How far is the world down the road of energy transition? "Gas in Transition" Natural Gas World.… https://t.co/zQwafOochF
PublicationClimate Change The coal question July 12, 2022
There is no route to decarbonisation without getting rid of coal, but coal remains a main energy source worldwide. What are the implications...
PublicationClimate Change The retreat from net zero July 4, 2022
As governments around the world rush to secure their energy supplies, this paper looks at the implications for plans to transition to net ze...
Recent Publications
The longer-term consequences of the energy crisis require a permanent cost solution to be ...
Keynote speech at the Policy Exchange
With energy bills set to increase from 1st April, and just 13 years for the electricity se...