Hi! Welcome to my blog.

This is a place to escape from the doom and gloom that often goes with any discussion on climate change, and look ahead to positive solutions that have multiple benefits.

This is strictly not a place to discuss whether or not climate change is a real problem. That debate has taken up far too much of our time already. My argument is that it makes little difference what you believe about climate change, because we need to do almost all the same stuff anyway. It makes sense to stop wasting energy and resources, halt destruction of the rainforests, switch to clean, renewable energy sources and adopt more sustainable farming practices.

If we do all this, we can gain many benefits – cleaner air and water, safer and more secure energy supplies, healthier lifestyles and a stronger economy. These ‘co-benefits’ can more than pay for the cost of investing in clean technologies.

Of course there are also cases where climate-friendly solutions have drawbacks or trade-offs, such as the accident risks and waste disposal problems of nuclear power, and the visual impacts of wind turbines. Rather than just choosing the cheapest technologies or those that save the most carbon, policy makers need to look at the big picture and consider all the pros and cons of each option, so that they can minimise the conflicts and maximise the co-benefits.

This blog is linked to my website at http://www.theclimatebonus.org/ and builds on my book The Climate Bonus: co-benefits of climate policy.

Please join in the debate – all comments are welcome so long as you are polite and open to reasoned discussion!