Andrew Sissons

It seemed like a small-ish car - so can only imagine it was speeding. But it’s such a narrow road you’d never think of putting speed restrictions on it

One another day, Arthur and I could easily have been walking along the bit of pavement where it landed. As could any number of people

Yesterday evening a car overturned on my road - a very narrow residential road that you can only just about squeeze an SUV down.

As far as I can tell, no one was seriously hurt, thankfully. But I’m honestly at a loss to understand how this could happen

But getting paid for those more “public good” activities is hard, and requires government to step in.
The risk is that you leave farmers caught between clinging to a difficult activity (sheep) without support, and unsure about whether the new environmental subsidy regime is enough to make a living

The truth is that declining sheep numbers would probably be a good thing, as long as we can help sheep farmers make a better living by diversifying.

It’s a pretty low value and precarious activity, and some of the land could be better used for recreation, nature and managing the flow of water

Chart showing total UK sheep numbers since 1985. There was a big drop after foot-and-mouth in 2001, and a very slight decline more recently

And over the last 50 years there has been a significant fall in lamb and mutton consumption across Britain according to Becky Smith, a senior analyst at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), which represents farmers. In 1980 the average UK household purchased 128g of sheep meat (lamb and mutton) per person, per week. In 2024 that same measure was down to 23g per person, per week.

Though I’m not sure the headline really fits the data to be honest - the total number of sheep has changed very little since foot-and-mouth, and I’m not sure this is consistent yet with “disappearing”

(Though the stats on falling lamb/mutton consumption are much more striking)

Sheep are disappearing from the UK's hills - and its dinner plates Have we have passed

This is an interesting feature on sheep farming in the UK, asking whether sheep farming has a future here…

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW ANALYSIS: UK emissions fell 2.4% in 2025 as coal fell to a 400-year low. Incredibly, we used less coal last year than than in 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing Hamlet.

All the details in our article: www.carbonbrief.org/...

That’s an interesting idea! Quite hard to do, but would be conceptually cool to visualise the breakdown of sources of growth

This is a very nice chart concept, casting new light on a familiar issue.
But also, I am shocked to learn that people born in 2007 are now allowed to vote

Good points - hope they’re used wisely!

There are two things that didn’t change after 2022, despite a lot of people conveniently forgetting them:
1. The price of gas has remained significantly higher
2. Our gas supplies have been at risk from a volatile geopolitical landscape.

We should always have been electrifying as fast as we could…

In August 2022, I did a viral post about what the Prime Minister should say in response to a record high energy price cap.
That was 6 months after the invasion of Ukraine. Even in very severe crises, it can take time for price rises to land on consumer bills. But once they do, they can stick around…

I’m pulling together my thoughts this morning on what the Iran war might mean for energy bills - hope to publish something early next week.

But one thing I’d say is: we should be cautious about rushing to judgement too quickly. We could have another 2022-style crisis in store, but we don’t know yet

Is gas still the reason energy bills are so high? Despite rising non-commodity costs on energy bills, high gas prices remain the primary reason for expensive energy for most British households, making the switch to homegrown energy a top priority

Kemi Badenoch on #r4today saying the gov should prioritise energy security in the current Middle East crisis - Nick Robinson should have asked what her plan is for getting the UK off foreign gas and onto renewables! Gas is the issue as @acjsissons.bsky.social details www.nesta.org.uk/blog/is-gas-...

Why the UK economy is broken, and where clean energy can help (with Andrew Sissons, NESTA) Spotify video

I’m on a podcast!
Enjoyed nerding out about energy and economic growth with Sulaiman on his Energy Revolutions show…

Iran attacks show the perils of following America’s economic lead A growth plan of renewable energy and diversified trade is far better than guzzling fossil fuels and aligning with the US

"From the US you get forced into trade deals promising a future of burning fossil fuels whose price is subject to wildly destructive US adventurism. From China you get reliably cheap EVs and green tech to generate renewables"- giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @alanbeattie.bsky.social

Omg.
Also love the idea it would cost £130bn

UK bets £40mn on frontier AI research lab in push for tech independence New state-backed body seeks AI breakthroughs in science, healthcare and transport

Very interesting - and I think positive - to see the UK govt emphasising tech independence from the US…

This was recorded before the invasion of Iran, but hopefully the energy security messages were still on point…

Why the UK economy is broken, and where clean energy can help (with Andrew Sissons, NESTA) Spotify video

I’m on a podcast!
Enjoyed nerding out about energy and economic growth with Sulaiman on his Energy Revolutions show…

Chart of rising US natural gas prices in the last few days, with the text: Henry Hub prices - the US equivalent of our National Balancing Point - have been up through the day, albeit much less than UK volatility. As we grow closer to November - and especially if we are in a world that more resembles Scenario 2 - Trump may be tempted to ban LNG exports to hold down American consumer prices. If this happens, and if Hormuz is still largely closed, then all bets are off and prices go to the moon.

V interesting nugget from @adambell.bsky.social's rapid response to the Iran invasion.

In the near future, we may be desperately scrambling to reduce our reliance on Trump, not Putin...

unbalancingmechanism.substack.com/p/operation-...

💪 every wind turbine reduces our reliance on US LNG 💪

Exactly.
I may well find myself posting a lot about this over the coming months 😡

Chart showing the UK consumer price index level for goods and services since 2008. Services inflation has run consistently ahead of goods inflation, despite a spike in goods inflation in 2022 and 2023

Chart showing how communication, transport and utilities inflation has had a tendency to spike in April each year since 2022 - reflecting rising costs of contracts

One thing we can and should do in the short term, though, is sort out our persistent problem with services inflation.
Services don't cause cost of living shocks directly, but they can lock the inflation in, via inflation-busting increases in bills...

See section 4 of getting-out-of-the-hole.uk

Building renewables, installing heat pumps, selling electric vehicles are all good ways to insulate yourself from fossil fuel shocks.
They will all help if we have another energy crisis, but not enough to avert it. We are still early in the transition, and rely heavily on oil and gas...

What can governments do about the cost of living? The cost of living has become a defining political issue. But there is little governments can do once cost of living crises have begun…

It's far too early to say what's going to happen to oil and gas prices, but there is at least a chance we will be in for another cost of living shock.
So here is my old piece on what governments can do about cost of living crises. The answer is depressing I'm afraid: not very much in the short term

There will.
And it probably won’t make very much difference (certainly not to energy prices), apart from undermining climate action

They’re not opposing in the long run. But the long run here could be 20+ years - while we’re still reliant on fossil fuels, we get walloped every time their price spikes

Good piece.

I think pro-renewables governments will face two opposing forces if higher oil and gas prices persist:
1. Their policies - reducing reliance on gas - are clearly the right ones
2. Higher energy bills make people angry and hurt their fiscal position

There's a good chance 2 overwhelms 1