Renewable energy: a prize for the Minister who actually answers questions

Last week in Parliament the Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change was asked how the £5.8 billion that the Government would spend on renewable energy over the three years ended April 2011 was broken down. 
It was a good question, asked by Greg Clark for two reasons;

Counting emissions made for you in other places

One of the problems that will face the negotiators in Copenhagen at the end of this year is the problem of a nation creating its emissions elsewhere. If you permit emissions from a nation like the United States to be at a certain level, this begs the question of emissions created for the United States [...]

The Emissions Trading Scheme (or Cap and Trade) will never work

Civil servants administer the policies of politicians. They break the policies down into what they regard to be a correct series of tasks and then work through the tasks, ticking boxes from their task check list. This way they   achieve their objective through a series of small tasks and the series of tasks are a [...]

Climate change scepticism

There is plenty of disbelief in the theory of human made climate change in the United Kingdom according to a survey by the University of Cardiff in Wales. It is not hard to understand the reasons for climate change scepticism.

Ten things that will make no difference to climate change

Ten things that will make no difference to climate change
 1. Carbon offsetting
Keep your money in your pocket.
2. Carbon Trading
You cannot use the principles of the casino to help the climate unless the house wins every time
3. The Clean Development Mechanism
No more than a good opportunity for free money for large corporations
4. Biomass burning
Keep the trees in [...]

Putting the planet on course to avoid climate change

If you put the words “carbon trading” into the blog search engine you will see that I have been consistently critical of carbon trading in this blog since December 2007. I have critically written about carbon trading many times since I started these posts. I have taken the view that it is a waste of [...]

We will face a bad encounter with the two degrees of climate change

The risks of burning coal and biomass are simply too great; we must stop the burning.

The Clean Development Mechanism seems on its way out

Why the numbers of projects financed under the CDM are declining

The European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive

After some years in negotiation and in development, the European Union has finally got its act together in making a renewable energy law by which all member states must abide. The law will come into effect when it is published in the European Union Journal.

A lack of imagination hampers climate change policy

It is one thing to lend your hose to your neighbour when his house is on fire, but what if your own house is also just starting to catch alight?