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Simon Pirani

Researcher, lecturer and writer + + + Honorary Professor, University of Durham

Thursday, 6 October 2022

Europe Is Trying to Solve Its Energy Crisis With Fossil Fuel Projects in Africa

In response to the Russian gas supply squeeze and rising food and fuel prices, European governments are paving the way to massive investments in fossil fuels from non-Russian sources that imperil efforts to tackle climate change. Published by Truthout

Posted by Simon Pirani at 09:43 No comments:

The EU's plan for Ukraine hydrogen exports is colonialist greenwash

Plan to pipe huge amounts of resource-intensive “green” hydrogen to Europe would undermine Ukraine’s recovery. A comment article in OpenDemocracy

Posted by Simon Pirani at 09:40 No comments:

Durham and Ukraine miners: historic links of friendship

Durham miners have sent aid to Ukrainian mining communities near the front lines. Their friendship goes back to the early 1990s, and built on links made over decades before that. A feature article published in the programme for the Durham Miners Gala on Saturday 9 July.

Posted by Simon Pirani at 09:37 No comments:

Why is Ukrainian resistance invisible to you?

An appeal to supporters of the Stop the War Coalition. These are notes I made for a meeting I was invited to, to discuss UK labour movement attitude to the war in Ukraine. 

Posted by Simon Pirani at 09:33 No comments:

Monday, 30 May 2022

Goodbye Russian gas, hello rapid decarbonisation

A European embargo on imports of Russian fossil fuels could, combined with the right energy conservation policies, also help to tackle dangerous climate change. Open Democracy,  20 May.

Posted by Simon Pirani at 20:57 No comments:

Supporting the Ukrainian resistance: six questions

My attempt to analyse the character of the Ukrainian resistance, of the Russian state it is standing up to, and of the meaning of national liberation in the 21st century (19 April).
Posted by Simon Pirani at 20:54 No comments:

Putin has sacrificed Russia's economy for this war on Ukraine's people

With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin has also wrecked the Russian economy for years to come, by provoking unprecedented economic sanctions. My article in Truthout (21 March)

Posted by Simon Pirani at 20:52 No comments:

Ukraine: the sources of danger of a wider war

A blog post (21 March) in which I argued against the focus on NATO expansion, since politically it deflects from Kremlin's responsibility, and analytically, it obscures interrelated crises of capital system and neoliberalism that have brought us to war

Posted by Simon Pirani at 20:49 No comments:

Friday, 11 March 2022

The Russian statelets in the Donbas are no "people's republics"

The Kremlin-controlled territories are dominated by military rule and the repression of organised labour and civil society. Published by Jacobin, 3 March

Posted by Simon Pirani at 21:18 No comments:

Russia sacrifices economic goals for military aggression

Germany’s decision to halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline may cause long-term damage to Russia – but Putin doesn’t care. From Open Democracy, 25 February

Posted by Simon Pirani at 21:15 No comments:

Roads to an energy commons

 A discussion between Larry Lohmann, David Schwartzman and me on the role of fossil fuels in capitalist society, and the meaning of “energy” and related concepts. The discussion covered issues about the transition away from fossil fuels, and away from capitalism. From the People & Nature blog.

Posted by Simon Pirani at 21:13 No comments:

Ukraine's energy policy and prospects for the gas sector

An Energy Insight, published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, that surveys the energy sector and prospects for the energy transition

Posted by Simon Pirani at 21:11 No comments:
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Welcome

I am a researcher, writer and lecturer, and author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption (Pluto Press, 2018). My main area of research is the transition away from fossil fuels, with a focus on how technological, social and economic systems change. I write a blog at peoplenature.org. Bluesky: @simonpirani.bsky.social.

My earlier work as a historian and energy researcher was focused on Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet countries. My book The Russian Revolution in Retreat 1920-24: Soviet workers and the new communist elite (Routledge, 2008) was a study of working-class political history. I published some relevant documents in Communist Dissidents in Early Soviet Russia (Troubadour, 2023). Another book, Change in Putin’s Russia: Power, Money and People (Pluto Press, 2010) was based on my work as a journalist.

I am Honorary Professor in the School of Modern Languages & Cultures at the University of Durham. From 2007 to 2021 I was Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, working on the Natural Gas Research Programme.


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