How energy was commodified, and how it could be decommodified

This article discusses what "energy" means, how it was commodified in the development of capitalism, and how social movements can resist and reverse that commodification. It is based on a paper presented at the Energising Political Ecology session of the on-line conference of POLLEN (Political Ecology Network) in September 2020

Ukraine 1917: socialism and nationalism in a world turned upside down

My review of The Workers' Movement and the National Question in Ukraine, 1897-1918 by Marko Bojcun: “by far the most comprehensive account of its subject, filling a gap in writing about Ukraine’s revolution – that has most often been seen through lenses focused primarily on Russia”.

Stop the climate-wrecking Silvertown Tunnel

This Briefing, published by the Transport Action Network, answers some of the claims made in support of the £2 billion Silvertown tunnel road-building scheme. I am a supporter of a local campaign against the tunnel project, which is incompatible with London making a fair contribution to climate targets and undermines efforts to move London's transport system away from car dependence

Everyday life and capitalism's ecological crisis

A review of The Imperial Mode of Living: everyday life and the ecological crisis of capitalism, by Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen.  

Unused Tools: How Central Banks are fuelling the climate crisis

Oil Change International's report, to which I contributed research. "While some central bank executives claim that tackling the climate crisis is beyond their mandates, at the same time they have positively reinforced fossil fuel financing, and even directly financed fossil fuel production. [...] Central banks have the tools to catalyze and accelerate the end of financing for fossil fuels — through monetary policy, regulatory action, and excluding fossil fuel assets from their own portfolios. But, with only limited exceptions, they are not using these tools."  

Don’t Expect Real Climate Solutions From COP26. It Functions for Corporations

 My comments on the upcoming climate talks in Glasgow, in Truthout.

Azerbaijan's gas sales strategy at a crossroads

The natural gas sales contract between the Shah Deniz consortium and Botas of Turkey, covering 6.6 bcm/year from the first phase of the project, expired last month and was not renewed. Deliveries stopped. In an Energy Comment for the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, I wrote that this throws a shadow over the future of the Southern Gas Corridor and the timing of Azerbaijan gas development.

Strategies for the new climate war

My review of The New Climate War by Michael Mann, in The Ecologist. “Enemy weapons, Michael Mann argues, include greenwash, illusory technofixes, and deflecting attention to individuals not companies. Agree. But the further Mann goes into the social implications of transition from fossil fuels, the greater problems I had.” 

Ukraine-EU gas market integration: short-term progress, long-term challenges

My colleague Jack Sharples and I wrote a paper, just published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, that surveyed the recent changes in the gas storage market in Ukraine, the use of that storage capacity by European traders, and how this fits into the larger picture of the integration of the Ukrainian and European gas markets.  

Response to Greenwich borough Climate Neutral Plan 2021-2030

I have written a response to the consultation on the Carbon Neutral Plan 2021-2030 for Greenwich borough, where I live. The plan recognises problems with carbon offsetting and negative emissions technologies: I suggested the council go further, and think in terms of a “zero carbon plan”. I urged the council to focus on the carbon budgets in the Tyndall centre Scatter tool, rather than those used by government. I suggested a wide public discussion on combining decarbonisation aims with measures to achieve social justice and resist government austerity policies. I called on the council to reverse its support for the climate-wrecking Silvertown Tunnel, the largest infrastructure project in the borough, which is incompatible with aspirations for cutting transport sector emissions. The council’s stubborn support for the tunnel is eroding local democracy, I argued, and I asked: “why would residents listen to anything the council has to say about the climate emergency, if it continues to support the tunnel project, so damaging for decarbonisation and air pollution policies, and does not even explain why?”  

The Direct Air Capture road to socialism?

I have taken a critical look at "left" support for geoengineering, and at talk of "ecological Leninism", in this review essay of Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency by Andreas Malm. The essay was published by Capitalism Nature Socialism (March 2021). And the final draft of the text (pretty much what ended up being published) is downloadable here.