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Is the transition to Net Zero actually achievable? - Capital.com

Is the #energytransition to #NetZero actually achievable? We already have the technology we need. We don’t have a technology problem. Can we deploy that technology fast enough? I think that is a much more difficult question. @e3g @capitalcom #renewables

Is it achievable technologically? Yes. We already have the technology we need to get to Net Zero, and there is a lot more to come. There is a lot of research going on that has been triggered by the challenge of reaching net zero. So, we are going to have the technology we need. We don’t have a technology problem. Can we deploy that technology fast enough? I think that is a much more difficult…

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Will government payouts to offset green energy bills help us reach net zero? - GB News

Will government payouts to offset green energy bills help us reach net zero? – GB News

The government is under real pressure to do something in advance of the Glasgow COP26 to show that is it walking the talk on climate change. There are an enormous range of things being discussed in Whitehall about how we do that. Obviously one of the key questions is what kind of things we can do that are actually affordable, and will not add unnecessarily to people’s energy bills. There are lots…

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The Double Jeopardy of the Environment & Democracy - Byline Times

The Double Jeopardy of the Environment & Democracy - Environmentalist Tom Burke considers why undermining the democratic rule of law would be destructive for the environment & all who want to protect it. @BylineTimes @e3g #climateaction #environment #law

Environmentalist Tom Burke considers why undermining the democratic rule of law would be destructive for the environment and all who want to protect it. Joni Mitchell wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ in 1970, the year the first Earth Day launched the modern environment movement. The song’s refrain – Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you’ve got/Till it’s gone – became its anthem. When the…

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DEMOCRACY, LAW AND THE ENVIRONMENT - UKELA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2021

DEMOCRACY, LAW AND THE ENVIRONMENT – UKELA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2021

This is a speech I gave at the UKELA annual conference 2021. In summary, I state that the rule of law will not long survive a failure to maintain the ecological foundations of the economy. The climate is the foundation in the most imminent danger. The ecological foundations of the economy cannot be strengthened and preserved if the assault on the rule of law continues. I am repeating the call I…

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Should the government be charging in on climate change commitments? - Times Radio

Should the government be charging in on climate change commitments? – Times Radio

Nobody should be under any illusions about how bad it will be for the lives of everybody if climate policy fails. As we have been told repeatedly in the recent days by people from all over the political spectrum, and from outside politics all together, this is the decade in which, if we don’t get it right, if we allow climate policy to fail, then life will get pretty miserable for absolutely…

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Does Japan need nuclear to deal with climate change? - Al Jazeera

Does Japan need nuclear to deal with climate change? - Al Jazeera - There are lots and lots of viable alternatives to nuclear power. But also, very simple arithmetic shows you that you can’t use nuclear power to deal with #climatechange. #Fukushima

I think it was a great tragedy for the people of Japan, that has cost them an enormous amount of money, as well as left consequences that they are finding increasingly difficult to deal with. Ten years on the still have no strategy for cleaning the mess up. It’s quite clear that the Japanese people don’t agree with their minister. They have continued to resist efforts to open all the other…

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Climate change threatens food, energy and water security - LBC

Climate change threatens food, energy and water security – LBC

Climate Policy failure is what David Attenborough was talking about. If we fail to keep the increase in temperature below 2 degrees centigrade, then what we are threatening is food, energy and water security, and if you can’t maintain food, energy and water security then you can’t maintain internal stability, in any country in the world, and that’s what’s at threat. And in parts of the world we…

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Biden win would see big “US energy policy shift” –analysts (Montel) A win for Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden in Tuesday’s US election would see a “significant shift” in energy policy, with the country re-engaging with the rest of the world…

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We don't need new nuclear to meet our net-zero by 2020 commitment - BBC Radio 4 I believe that we can have one hundred percent of our power generation through renewables by 2050 and so do lots of other people. Let’s be clear, the government hasn’t made a decision, they have made an announcement about a future decision.

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The Prime Minister is right to recognise the vast potential of offshore wind in the UK - BBC World Service

The Prime Minister is right to recognise the vast potential of offshore wind in the UK – BBC World Service

I think the Prime Minister is right to recognise the enormous potential of offshore wind in the UK. It will be very good, not just for climate and for consumers, but also for the economy as a whole. But he does need to be careful not to overpromise. The wind blows everywhere and we are not the leaders in wind technology yet. So we are not about to replace Saudi Arabia.

I think that we are…

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Do we have the kind of commitment that we need to fight climate change? - Al Jazeera

Do we have the kind of commitment that we need to fight climate change? – Al Jazeera

Climate Change is a bit like the virus. If we don’t do enough about it now, we will have to do an awful lot more later, and it will be much more painful. The announcement from China is good, as is the recent announcement from the European Commission, that they are going to raise their commitments to emissions reductions under the Paris agreement. I think that we are going to see the same from…

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CLIMATE, THE COURT AND THE ELECTION

CLIMATE, THE COURT AND THE ELECTION - Trump will now do his utmost to shift the electoral focus away from ground on which he was doing badly, the pandemic, on to ground on which he is much more comfortable, culture wars.

There is a tradition in American presidential elections of an October surprise. This is a real or created event that has the potential to make a significant late shift in voting intentions. The much-lamented death of Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, qualifies despite occurring a couple of weeks early.

The most immediate effect of her death is to shift the electoral focus away from…

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Have BP got it right about the future of oil? - LBC

Have BP got it right about the future of oil? – LBC

I think that BP are right about the future of oil, Amongst the international oil companies, they have put themselves out in front of realising that that change is coming. Big change is coming, and they have positioned themselves very well. I noticed that the other week they got praise from John Sauven of Greenpeace, which is really quite unusual. I think they are leaving the other oil companies…

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Trump has been branded a “Climate Arsonist” - Al Jazeera

Trump has been branded a “Climate Arsonist” – Al Jazeera

Climate change is increasingly making the fires worse. Because in a warmer atmosphere you have more water evaporating from the ocean, and that water gets cycle back, which means the velocity with which the water cycles through the earth’s system increases, and that means that exactly as we are seeing, dry areas get drier, and wet areas get wetter. We have also had extraordinary floods in China…

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We cannot succeed in making the climate safe without democracy. Attacks on democracy are therefore attacks on a safe climate wherever they occur. To stay in power despots must destroy the machinery nations use to learn from their mistakes. There is no mistake free path to a net zero world. So democracy is an imperative for tackling climate change. This email I received is just one such attack on…

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Extinction Rebellion are not attacking the free press - LBC

Extinction Rebellion are not attacking the free press – LBC

I think there has been an enormous over-reaction on the part of the press, who hate anyone trying to hold them to account. What we have is a classic example, in British politics, of a group exercising their right to protest. In this case they are protesting against the actions of the Murdoch media, and I think that they are…

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REMARKS BY MR TOM BURKE CBE TO THE PRASEG WEBINAR ON A NATIONAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY PLAN

REMARKS BY MR TOM BURKE CBE TO THE PRASEG WEBINAR ON A NATIONAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY PLAN

BY ZOOM

THURSDAY JULY 2ND 2020

Thank you for this invitation and good afternoon. I would like to make four key points to support this call for a National Energy Efficiency Plan.

First.

There are two clear priorities for our economic recovery. We must increase people’s purchasing power as much and as rapidly as possible now and we must keep in mind that we will need to greatly increase the…

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