It is hard to be both the world’s largest importer of gas and oil and the loudest critic of fossil fuels, but Europe has managed to do it. Despite its cool green parties and ambitious wind and solar agendas, Europe remains by far the world’s largest importer of oil and natural gas. Oil output in […]

If any investments are likely to be stranded, it is those such as wind and solar, not fossil fuels Mark Carney is using his final days as governor of the Bank of England to intimidate institutional financial managers by suggesting that investments in conventional energy are high-risk adventures requiring special justification. However, consideration of the […]

It has been widely claimed that Distributed (or embedded) Generation, such as solar and wind connected to the low voltage distribution network, reinforces electricity system stability. The final reports into the widespread blackout of the 9th of August last year by the UK electricity regulator, Ofgem, and the British government’s Energy Emergency Executive Committee, E3C […]

In a classic example of econo-political psy-ops, Mark Carney is using his final days in the Bank of England to intimidate institutional financial managers, in pension funds for example, by suggesting that investments in conventional energy are high risk adventures requiring special justification. However, consideration of the state of the global energy supply over the […]

The price of benchmark Brent oil has averaged $79 a barrel over the last decade. The financial crisis, an unforeseen surge in US shale production and a combustible Middle East defined the period for oil markets. The next 10 years could be even more volatile for the world’s most important fossil fuel. Despite the dramas […]

The Indian government has adopted a fossil-fuel-first attitude and has made clear it will not compromise on India’s developmental goals. The Paris Agreement is the United Nation’s flagship climate treaty aimed at reducing global CO2 emissions. India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), the country’s official commitment to Paris agreement, states that the total preliminary estimated cost […]

Falling energy consumption in the United Kingdom is not receiving the attention it deserves. While similar to the norm prevailing in the EU 28, the UK pattern is very strongly at variance with the global trends, which see significant increases in all sectors. There is a clear possibility that this fundamental difference is a leading […]

The Centre for European Studies found that the Russian government has invested $95 million in NGOs campaigning against shale gas.  The first coffee house in Marseilles opened in 1671, prompting the city’s vintners to recruit a couple of professors at the University of Aix to blacken their new competitor’s reputation. They duly got one of […]