The day that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was shut down was one of the strangest days of my professional life. It was July 14, 2016, four weeks after the Brexit referendum. Theresa May had just become Prime Minister, after the sudden withdrawal from the leadership race…

Reports today that one idea the Government is considering to deal with the winter energy crisis is allowing GPs to ‘prescribe’ vulnerable patients help with their energy bills. Cue universal condemnation. A short piece on why I think this might be a good idea… Some context. Even without the current…

Professor Sir Dieter Helm gave a barnstorming performance at Policy Exchange recently. He tore, with typical ferocity and fearlessness, into the failures of UK energy policy over the past two decades. It is well worth a watch (or the accompanying paper is here). I agree with much of his analysis…

The next phase of decarbonisation in the UK will likely have two characteristics: it will need to be much more consumer-friendly, and it will need to be much more sensitive to local contexts. We have made tremendous progress in electricity decarbonisation over the past 10 years, but those changes have…

I spend a lot of time with systems engineers. They are an annoying bunch, by and large. Always telling me (or anyone else who dares venture an opinion, for that matter), that we have not considered all the elements of a problem. That we need to think about the whole…

Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Speech: A NEW DIRECTION FOR UK ENERGY POLICY Venue: Institution of Civil Engineers, London Date: 18 November 2015, 10.30am AS DELIVERED INTRODUCTION There’s a picture from the Government art collection that hangs in the Department of Energy…

Five steps to ‘Net Zero’ levels of innovation The Government’s commitment to a ‘net zero’ economy will mean profound changes to the British economy. Changes to the way we move around, to how we heat our homes, to what we eat, to how we grow our food, to our landscape…