Last month on Earth Day representatives of 170 countries rolled into New York to sign the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Change. All in all 60 heads of State were there, from François Hollande (the first to sign) to Robert Mugabe. Undersecretary for Climate Change Lord Bourne signed for the UK, US Secretary of State […]
Back in 2013 a German discovered that there was something dodgy with Volkswagen’s vehicle emission claims. Quite right, I hear you say, that the scandal should be uncovered by a German. Sadly it was uncovered by John German, a self-confessed ‘simple engineer from Michigan,’ working for the San Francisco-based International Council for Clean Transport (ICCT). […]
It is said that when Metternich, sometime Austrian Foreign Minister, heard of the death of his French counterpart, Talleyrand, he opined, ‘I wonder what he meant by that?’ The quote passed through my mind when I learned of the death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A central figure in so many of the […]
Sunday morning I found myself zonked out on the sofa. I was just back from Paris, where the previous evening, against the odds, 195 nations had pledged to halt global warming at ‘well below’ 2oC, (with a nod to 1.5oC), and committed wealthy countries to cough up $100 billion a year every year from 2020 […]
As the festive lights are strung up across Europe – Rudolph flashing merrily alongside slightly wizened pumpkin lanterns – it is a timely reminder that there are only 42 shopping days ’til Christmas. What gifts will lie below the tree this year, I wonder? Will there be a Climate Change agreement nestled alongside the discarded […]
The chances are strong that you are reading this article on a phone. If indeed that is the case, then studies show that you are likely to be walking, waiting or pooing, apparently in that order. That’s the digital revolution for you. Never knowingly off-line, we have never been more interconnected. Elemently speaking If you […]
The Scottish Government has decided to ban all genetically modified crops from Scotland. Invoking recently adopted EU powers which allow devolved administrations to opt out of the more relaxed EU regime, Scottish Agriculture Minister, Richard Lochhead, declared that he was “concerned that allowing GM crops to be grown in Scotland would damage our clean and […]
