Business & government - Green economy

There are plenty of loud voices trying to make politicians believe that airport expansion in the South East is what we need to lift the UK out of recession. But is this simply wishful thinking? How much evidence is there that simply building more runways, so that more flights can go to more places, will [...]

Recently, the fight against climate change suffered a serious blow as MEPs in the European Parliament narrowly voted against a plan to shore up the EU’s struggling emissions trading scheme (ETS). The proposals – known as ‘backloading’ – would have pushed up the price of carbon, which had sunk to record lows. In fact, ahead [...]

Twenty-three trillion dollars. That’s a lot of money. It’s also the amount that is invested globally in fossil fuels, including everything from large institutional money to our own individual pensions. Investing in fossil fuels shares (like shares of oil companies) is often considered a safe choice with minimal risk. But is it really that safe [...]

Chiclob is a small community in the north-east corner of the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary (PPWS). During 2012 it was one of four communities in PPWS to be granted its own Community Protected Area (CPA). This legal status gives them rights over a block of forest, in this case of 2,989 hectares, for the next [...]

Last year I was at a Shell-sponsored debate on shale gas when I was startled to be accused by a member of the public of being responsible, along with Greenpeace and the BBC, for rumours that hydraulic fracturing, the ‘fracking’ process used to extract shale gas from deep underground, could trigger a volcano in the [...]

The wisdom of the crowd was particularly evident at our pivotal Net Positive conference. The attendees – 200 sustainability experts – offered many great insights for firms stepping up a gear. Their guide to going net positive is available via Green Mondays. For a company to reach a net positive result, it’ll need to make [...]

We’ve all seen it splashed over the newspapers: Green policies are adding hundreds of pounds to the average energy bill. In the last couple of years there have been claims that we’ll see our bills go up up to £1000 a year; or £300; or £200 ; or 25%. On top of this the Chancellor [...]

“Good at rugby, lousy at renewable energy” Okay, that’s not an adage that many supporters will mutter in the upcoming Six Nations as the opposing team scores a try. But, at the moment, it’s sort of true. The tournament coincides with the build-up to WWF’s Earth Hour (kick off at 8.30pm on Saturday 23 March), [...]

My latest blog at the Huffington Post is about the recent encouraging signs coming from the US that the Obama administration might (just might) finally be planning some serious action to lead the world in tackling climate change. Now we just need David Cameron to live up to his own promises on the subject… “Barack [...]

It’s a technology that might be able to safely remove and store harmful carbon emissions from coal and gas-fired power stations. According to some studies it could create 13,000 new jobs in Scotland by 2020. However, some five years after the UK government first launched its £1 billion funding competition, aimed at helping kick-start the [...]