Climate

  • Emissions reductions are misleading, says government's new science adviser

    1st October 2009

    Britain's reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases are misleading, according to the government's new chief scientist. Professor David MacKay told the BBC that greenhouse gas emissions created by Britons are probably twice as bad as official figures suggest. The figures are distorted because developing countries now made the goods that Britain buys, he said. "Our energy footprint has decreased over the last few decades and that's largely because we've exported our industry," MacKay said. "...

    Carbon Climate Environment

  • Britons creating 'more emissions'

    30th September 2009

    From the BBC website: Greenhouse gas emissions created by Britons are probably twice as bad as figures suggest, says the government's new chief energy scientist. Professor David MacKay told the BBC that reductions in carbon dioxide emissions since 1990 are "an illusion". "Our energy footprint has decreased over the last few decades and that's largely because we've exported our industry," he said. Developing countries now made the goods that Britain buys, he added. He was speaking unofficially...

    Climate Energy

  • Trust me – we have a serious carbon credibility problem

    26th September 2009

    By Tim Harford in the FT: My daughters (average age: four) have a serious credibility problem. “Daddy, if you read just one more story, then we’ll go to sleep.” “Mummy, if you give me a snack now, I promise I’ll eat up all my dinner.” You know what, my darlings? We just don’t believe you, so there’ll be no extra story and no snack. Such troubles are not solely the preserve of little girls. Managers promise performance bonuses, workers do not...

    Carbon Climate Energy

  • Publications by Dieter Helm

    EU climate-change policy—a critique

    20th September 2009

    Climates of Change: Sustainability Challenges for Enterprise Smith School Working Paper Series Professor Dieter Helm From The Economics and Politics of Climate Change, edited by Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn, OUP, October 2009. IntroductionEnvironmental issues in general, and climate change in particular, lend themselves to EU rather than national policy: many of the effects (such as acid rain and later pollution) are regional, and climate change is global. To date, the EU has had some...

    Climate Energy Europe

  • Taming the carbonivores

    17th September 2009

    From The Economist: FRANCE’S president, Nicolas Sarkozy, does not like to do things by halves. In characteristically grandiose fashion he described his plan to introduce a carbon tax as “the only choice that could guarantee…the future of our planet”. If it goes ahead, France would be the first big country to adopt such a tax, which exists in Scandinavia. But the proposal has already run into fierce hostility, from consumers, opposition parties—and even greens. Mr...

    Carbon Climate Europe

  • Economist slams EU climate policy as ineffective

    7th September 2009

    From Euractive.com: The EU's climate legislation risks turning into a "grossly distorting and expensive policy" unless it is seriously revamped, a leading British academic has warned. In a paper released on 3 September by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, Professor Dieter Helm argued that the EU's climate change and energy package is little more than "a politically neat but economically inefficient set of...

    Climate Energy Europe

  • Interview: Dieter Helm

    4th September 2009

    From Nature: Oxford economist Dieter Helm co-edits a new book, The Economics and Politics of Climate Change, due out next month. Anna Barnett caught up with him in London to get his take on a long-term strategy for reducing emissions. There have been a slew of climate policy books out lately — what's new about this one? We're trying to stand back and take a colder and harder look at the challenge. The question is not so much what we should do as why we've achieved so little so far. Why...

    Climate Energy Europe

  • Media articles by Dieter Helm

    Don't blow our £100 billion on wind power

    16th July 2009

    Article in The Times - may also be found HERE. Instead of pouring money into renewable energy, we should invest in technology that will really tackle climate change. Climate change is an existential threat. It presents huge challenges to governments and, inevitably, we will have to pay a significant price to keep the temperature from rising by more than two degrees. Politicians across the world increasingly understand this. This is in itself a big step forward in the build-up to the Copenhagen...

    Climate Energy Environment Renewables

  • Media articles by Dieter Helm

    It’s now or later

    1st October 2008

    Review of A QUESTION OF BALANCE: WEIGHING THE OPTIONS ON GLOBAL WARMING POLICIESBy William Nordhaus Yale University Press: 2008. 256pp. US$28 Is a slow, measured approach to reducing emissions more cost-effective than taking immediate action?

    Climate Environment

  • Media articles by Dieter Helm

    Sins of emission

    16th March 2008

    From the Wall Street Journal Europe: EU leaders will gather today and tomorrow in Brussels to sign off on the European Commission's proposals to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 -- with the added bait of a 30% reduction if the U.S. and other countries make meaningful commitments. For the U.S., it appears that the question is no longer about whether it will adopt targets, but rather about how and what.

    Climate Energy Europe