26 May 2020
Abstract The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has resulted in global lockdowns, sharply curtailing economic activity. It is a unique experiment with substantial impacts that will form the agenda for research. There are five sets of questions: the short-term impacts on emissions, the natural environment and environmental policy, including regulations and COP26; longer-term consequences from the deployment […]
02 Jul 2019
As the awareness of plastic pollution in the ocean gyres has increased one solution has been gathering momentum – the Ocean Cleanup and boom solution proposed by Boyan Slat. The unease about this technology and its effect on floating marine life has been developing more recently. This blog sets out five reasons why this technology […]
30 Jan 2019
The Natural Capital Committee published their State of Natural Capital Annual Report: The report asks the government to: Put the 25 year environment plan on a meaningful statutory basis using the Environment Bill Develop legally enforceable milestones for the 25 YEP Create a lead delivery body for the 25 YEP Support cross departmental use of […]
30 Oct 2017
This is a review with serious implications for renewables and the marine environment, but the timing is difficult to resolve with the Clean Growth Plan (too late) and with many long term contracts already signed the Government are already on lots of hooks. This is Helm’s personal view. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Take your […]
05 Oct 2017
NCC ‘The Secretary of State for Defra asked the Natural Capital Committee (NCC) to advise on what the 25 Year Environment Plan should aim to achieve, how it should seek to do so and what the necessary conditions for success are. This note sets out the NCC’s advice and recommendations on what the government should […]
14 Aug 2017
This quick and dirty piece of work is critically important for UK’s short term policy decision making on energy. Think Hinckley, Swansea tidal barrage, solar, offshore and onshore wind and fracking. These two commentaries provide the backdrop to the review and what is at stake. One wonders how much the scale of damage climate change […]