This site is a call to action

Climate change: Could we do more? Yes!

Ballots speak louder than words. If you care about climate change, help make it the number one election issue:

• Global warming now exceeds the 1.5° target. Will you do anything to stop it reaching 2°?
• Fossil fuels cost the UK £150 billion a year, they’re killing the planet, and UK reserves have gone.
• Decarbonisation will be cheaper , and will greatly improve our lives. It is doable, well within reach, and it could be made cost-effective.

Only government can effect real change, to electrify road transport, clean our energy supply, roll out heat pumps and home efficiency. But government needs a clear mandate, a clear message from voters. We need to tell our politicians that we want net zero, we know it's doable, and that it's their fault if it isn't done.

Time has run out - now is the time to act: TALK ABOUT THE PLAN.

And that's where we come in. Talk about what needs to be done, and what doesn’t. Read more about solutions, and learn to sort the wheat from the chaff. Decarbonisation conversations are stuck on culture wars and misinformation . Instead, we could be talking about and looking out for the many exciting technologies on the horizon that are set to make our lives cleaner, quieter, warmer and cheaper. Get people excited: change is possible, sensible, cost effective, and the political will is in voters hands. We know where we’re going. Understand the arguments. Fight the myths and disinformation. Be part of the debate, and take the debate out to people around you, so that when we come to vote, we elect someone that will lead change.

Improving lifestyles

People will not have to give up flying, driving, and eating meat… it just won’t happen

Campaigns for change have to be realistic. Shouting at drivers or lecturing people only polarises and hardens opposition. Net-zero has to invite people to share the benefits, not force them to make sacrifices. People don’t want to lose jet travel and modern convenience to become vegan cyclists in hair shirts. It has to make our lives better, not worse. And it can: Electric cars are quieter, cleaner and cheaper to run; Efficient homes are warmer and cheaper; renewables are cheaper and cleaner… we have all the technology we need to stop burning 90% of all oil and gas. We don’t have to compromise our lifestyles, just move away from dirty, noisy, inefficient and costly combustion technology.

Decarbonising the world is simple ... just stop burning stuff:

1. Don't burn stuff - it produces carbon dioxide.

2. Use only clean energy - wind and solar provide the cheapest electricity today.

3. Save energy, then we won't need to make as much.

4. Store energy - prepare for affordable long-term grid-scale energy storage from 2030

5. Stop burning stuff - petrol, gas, wood - it all turns to CO₂.

This website might not have all the answers, but asking the questions is a start

The pathways to clean energy are entangled with spin, politics and misinformation skewed by political prejudices and vested commercial interests. Voters have a responsibility to see through it, to understand the technology and options that will get us to net zero and beyond. And that includes non-scientists. Our politicians need to know that voters follow the issues and will judge them on their policies. This website is dedicated to exploring solutions, shining a light on nascent technologies and exposing false promises.

About me

I'm a TV documentary maker with a degree in electrical engineering. As a communicator with a science background, I often take issue with the way media handle science content. I like my science with the same passion, art, analysis and opinion as my football, politics, economics, art and music. But all too often it feels like I get science stories with the science taken out, from journalists that breezily disown any science knowledge, as if science content is too repellant for an audience of normal people. Imagine a football commentator saying "I was terrible at football at school, so I don’t understand any of this... but is it like … he’s offside?” This is how I feel science sometimes goes in the media.

This media allergy to science might seem harmless, but when it gets in the way of political analysis, then we have a problem. The tipping point for me - that inspired me to research and write this website - came in 2020, with Boris Johnson's "10-point plan for a green revolution” . Media normally critical to the then-PM seemed dazzled by the futuristic prospect of hydrogen tech and carbon capture hubs and failed to expose the many deep flaws (that have since been proved right). Dissenting voices seemed only to come second-hand, from the usual critics and pressure groups that said what was expected of them. I want reporters that understand their story, pull it apart, criticise and take ownership of opinions, well supported by the brilliant work of those same critics and pressure groups.

So what motivated me to write? Read on...

What motivated me to write about energy?

After making all the energy efficiency measures I could afford, the carbon emissions from my home hardly decreased at all. But I figured that the problem isn't that I use energy, it's that the energy itself is dirty. One way we could all really cut household emissions would be to get electricity decarbonised. However, that's for governments, not individuals. How could I help put pressure on the government?

Street protests are ineffective, or even counter-productive. The public doesn't like being the target of protesters. (I’ve taken time to meet a few climate protesters. I was shocked to discover how poorly they understood their cause, let alone the role of energy in climate change.) I had to think of something else. A successful campaign reaches out and canvasses, works hard to win hearts and minds, gets out to talk to people, to listen, and to canvass. If I wanted to reach out, what would I say?

In 2020, Boris Johnson published his blustery 10-point-plan for a green revolution, his landmark statement on how the UK would lead the world. Instead of real policies, it looked more like a collection of greenwash and harmful white elephants to me. I expected the press to rip it apart, but instead, the hydrogen hype really took off. Nobody seemed to see the real story here, that this plan was riddled with fatal flaws . Was I mistaken, or did journalists simply not understand the issues?

I didn’t have to look hard to find the evidence I expected and more. I felt that the UK’s journalists, collectively, were not up to the job of critical analysis of simple science, most likely because so few have studied science. But I had, and as a documentary maker, I should be a capable journalist. And as for Boris Johnson, this man was not going to decarbonise Britain, but with a slender majority of just 7,000, he was vulnerable. Decarbonisation could be made into an election issue with a campaign focused just on his constituency. So what could we say to the people of Uxbridge?

As I pulled apart the 10-point-plan, the Johnson government fell apart by itself, but the stuff I had learned and the material I had found still warranted an audience. I had also stumbled across an incredibly powerful way to estimate and model the renewable resources that the UK would need to decarbonise, and ballpark costs. Fortunately I had the skills to turn it from an Excel spreadsheet with 130,000 lines of data into a web tool that shows results as moving graphs. There is no other tool like it on the internet.

I decided that I had skills I could use, an opportunity to do something useful, to try to engage people in a different way, using my knowledge, skills and experience in electricity and communication. The best way I could help cut carbon emissions would be to use my skills to create a website that aims to change our approach to energy. I want to equip people to understand and be inspired by the improvements in all our lives that decarbonisation will bring, and the economic burden of not decarbonising.

If you have skills that might be useful, whether it's coding, writing, marketing or technical, please do get in touch!