Investors in the energy and environmental space know that, for better or worse, policy matters. Some examples are obvious, like direct government subsidies for renewable power generation. Others are equally recognisable but have a more indirect impact, like landfill tax. And then there is a large number of ‘micro’policies such as industry- and product-specific standards…
Music festivals have come a long way since the days of Woodstock and the Isle of Wight when, if they didn’t start free, they often became so half way through. These days they are a big business not just in the UK but also in Europe, America and further afield. Perhaps the best illustration of…
The challenge being to look at the chart above. I am all for celebrating successes, of which I can think of many in the renewable energy industry. But while the lowest, dark blue line is moving upwards, I cannot help but notice the red lines above are moving upwards also! Perhaps the only advantage, from…
Some of my colleagues have lived in China and one is fluent in Mandarin, but my recent 10 day trip to meet companies and investors was my first experience of the country. I knew that China was a big market, but this did not prepare me for the vast scale I encountered. In the UK,…
Backing automotive technologies is undoubtedly risky but has huge potential upside given the very large volumes involved. Investors looking at making venture capital investments in this sector will quickly find themselves faced with a choice between 3 types of innovation which can be simplified as: (1) the “evolutionary” process of making the internal combustion engine…
Suffice it to say, initially, that I believe the world’s present-day managed and semi-natural forest areas can sustainably produce a much greater biomass yield than they do, at present, and thus provide reliable energy, with some degree of carbon savings, while incurring no land use change at all. This is what the consultants’ reports tell…
From its origins in the coffee houses of London during the late seventeenth century until now, the modern insurance industry has always been affected by the vagaries of the weather. The Lutine Bell traditionally rang out in the Lloyd’s Building in London to alert underwriters to impending bad news like the sinking of a merchantman…
Climate-driven divestment is all the rage. Recent high-profile announcements by large investors, such as the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, that they are considering selling out of companies whose business relies on the production or consumption of coal has set the cat among the pigeons in the fossil fuels world. The coal lobby has denounced the…
Not being an experienced observer of the political machine at work hasn’t deterred me from mulling over what the first few weeks of a new Government mean for energy. Amber Rudd MP, our new Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, blogged on 27 May 2015; what did she say? It might be more…
Often, giving people a reason to think or act in a certain way is one of the most powerful tools one can employ. The hope of those concerned about climate change is that these reasons can be mutually communicated and agreed at the Conference of the Parties (to the UNFCCC) in Paris later this year.…