Simon Pirani is author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption (Pluto Press, 2018) .
Goodbye Russian gas, hello rapid decarbonisation
While business lobbyists hope to slow down the European Commission’s plans to cut Russian imports and reduce gas consumption, climate policy campaigners want to speed up these efforts.
May 25, 2022
Socialism, Capitalism and the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels
This essay reflects on these questions, firstly by considering how fossil fuel use has grown to unsustainable levels through history; then, by highlighting the disastrous failure of the international climate talks process; and, finally, by arguing that a transition away from fossil fuels means changing not only the technological systems that use them, but also the social and economic systems in which they are embedded.
January 29, 2020
The Road Away from Fossil Fuels
President Andrzej Duda’s authoritarian government can expect a rough political ride in December, when politicians, diplomats and campaigners stream into Katowice, Poland, for the next UN summit on climate change.
August 29, 2018