The world economy is slipping into a deflationary trap.  That’s the stark warning of the International Monetary Fund in its forthcoming World Economic Outlook: “Eventually, the economy may end up in a deflation trap—a state of persistent deflation that prevents the real interest rate from decreasing to the level consistent …

A few years ago it was being touted as the future of work.  In part a response to the threat of globilisation to traditional forms of employment, in part an entrepreneurial use of new technologies; the ‘gig economy’ was meant to herald a new round of prosperity across the developed world.  As …

Despite continuing low oil prices having all but bankrupted the fracking industry, North Sea oil and gas production just hit a 15 year high.  According to Emily Gosden in the Telegraph: “Oil and Gas UK said it expected last year’s 10.4pc increase in production – the first rise in 15 …

No, this is not another energy industry-funded claim that climate change isn’t happening.  On the contrary, this is the claim by two eminent climate scientists that the climate science community has routinely toned down its message in order to make it palatable to political and economic elites in the developed …

Earlier this year, scientists in Tasmania recorded atmospheric carbon dioxide levels slightly higher than the symbolic 400 parts per million that we were once warned that we should not exceed.  At the time, it was assumed that this was a blip and that in subsequent months CO2 levels would probably …

Those who take the time to think seriously about our response to climate change understand the enormity of the predicament we are in.  Quite simply, we are not going to solve the problem with unfeasible technologies like solar roadways, energy-generating footpaths or bicycles that promise to power our homes.  Indeed, …

Global temperatures are set to pass a key target set out in the Paris Agreement within ten years.  That’s the stark warning from Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre to a meeting of climate scientists in Oxford. According to Laurie Goering at …

In a glowing article for the Falkirk Herald, Stuart Barber makes some remarkably optimistic claims about the future of the Ineos refinery in Grangemouth: “In five days time a cargo ship the length of two football pitches will dock at the Ineos jetty in Grangemouth to off load nearly one …

The world was momentarily stunned when investigators discovered that software engineers at Volkswagen had rigged on-board software to detect and give false readings for emissions tests.  It soon transpired, however, that all vehicle manufacturers use tricks of one kind or another to generate fuel-efficiency and emissions readings far more flattering …

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is something of a holy grail for an energy industry that has to lower the amount of carbon it pumps into the atmosphere.  And unusually, the problem is not that scientists and engineers do not know how to do it.  As Lynden Archer, a …