21st October 2013 Paris, France
This week is a very important moment for our two countries in terms of our commercial cooperation. We’re going to be making an agreement in principle between the government in London, EDF and Areva for the construction of a new nuclear power station site at Hinkley point in Somerset.
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4th July 2013
It was a delight, as always to be in Visby this week for Almedalen. I spoke at a seminar on the “Swedish super-model” and attended several interesting discussions on Europe, defence policy, Swedish politics and economics. Energy policy and climate change were also themes, as they are for the UK government. Like all EU partners, […]
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20th June 2013 Ottawa, Canada
The nuclear renaissance The detrimental impact of the coal industry on the environment, concerns over depleting fossil fuel reserves, and difficulty in keeping carbon emissions at bay has landed nuclear power back on top of the UK’s political agenda. Currently, the 16 reactors in the UK contribute 19% of electricity to the energy mix, and […]
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16th April 2013
Today, an important vote is taking place in the European Parliament. The British Government has asked all British MEPs to vote for a more competitive EU by supporting a higher price on carbon emissions. A well-functioning market, where it is more expensive to produce carbon emissions is crucial for green growth, and for the UK, […]
27th March 2013 Dublin, Ireland
It has been a busy time for both me and the wider Embassy team. A recent Tuesday found me trying not to confuse the financing of energy investment in Poland with a trilateral Afghan, Polish, British roundtable on progress and next steps in Afghanistan. Both are really important. Poland and the UK both need to […]
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25th March 2013 San Francisco, USA
It’s something we depend on every day – when we power up our phones and laptops, use a domestic hot water tank, or turn on a flashlight – but energy storage technology also has a role to play at a much larger scale. As I found out recently, the ability to store energy in the […]
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22nd March 2013
20 March, as well as being the Spring Equinox, was budget day in the UK. As in other European countries, the UK economy has been affected by the chill of the eurozone’s problem and the long winter of the international financial crisis. Against this backdrop, our government has announced several new measures to stimulate recovery. […]
7th March 2013 Boston, USA
The anticipation is building in New England as two Bostonians were nominated for key positions within the new Obama administration. On Monday, President Obama named Ernest Moniz as energy secretary and Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Moniz, a professor of physics and engineering at MIT, is a leading energy researcher that […]
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4th February 2013
Last week, two notable “green” events came to my attention. First, the UK government launched The Green Deal. This encourages property owners to make energy-saving improvements by allowing them to off-set costs against reductions in their bills. In other words, you can now pay for the the improvements over time on your electricity bill, rather […]
25th January 2013 Toronto, Canada
Earlier this week, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts gave a speech at the Policy Exchange on “eight great technologies” which will help the UK grow and prosper over the next decade. You can read the speech here, the BIS press release here and the Policy Exchange pamphlet here. Let’s look at each technology […]