ProfCatherineMitchell

Energy policy and politics. Personal views only. Professor Emerita. Now also on @catherinemitchell.bsky.social

[Richard Lowes @heatpolicyrich]

@JohnRentoul My heat pump runs at a sCOP of 3.7 across heating and hot water providing heat for around 7p per unit on a standard tariff (lower than the unit price of gas, ignoring standing charges, and ignoring the efficiency loss in boiler). #factchecked

[Dr Paul Dorfman @dorfman_p]

"The rich find ways to escape climate change. Their emissions have not. The world’s wealthiest people are driving a disproportionate share of global emissions while shielding themselves from the worst effects of climate change, fuelling calls from inequality experts for a rethink of climate policies as world leaders gather for the COP31 summit in Antalya."
https://t.co/xWsMR556by

[ProfCatherineMitchell @ProfCMitchell]

Anyone who knows you Simon knows your journalism is based on rigorous honesty and intellectualism and would never believe the ‘lies’ nonsense said about you

[Simon Evans @DrSimEvans]

Sharing this post from Tais, for those suggesting I was spreading "lies" about the disastrous logistics at COP31

[Geoffrey Lean @GeoffreyLean]

Malaria is spreading around the world, reversing progress against the curse, thanks to climate change and aid cuts, says this medical scientist and expert in monitoring the disease. She expects it to get worse, partly through the super El Niño
.
https://t.co/oUDvKc4Gk5

[Ruth Fox @RuthFox01]

Fantastic if this happens. 15 years ago, @HansardSociety set out ideas to transform the area around Parliament. It should be one of the world’s great civic spaces: welcoming, accessible, alive with education & engagement. But it needs vision and ambition to make it happen. 1/2

[António Guterres @antonioguterres]

Fossil fuels are not only driving the climate crisis. Dependence on them carries a steep economic & security price, as the crisis in the Middle East has shown.

An accelerated transition away from fossil fuels is fundamental to building economies that are cleaner, more secure & less exposed to shocks. 

At #COP31 we must move from discussing the transition to organizing it, financing it & delivering it.

[Simon Evans @DrSimEvans]

COP31 TEXT TRACKER: We've just fired up the Carbon Brief text tracker, to help you stay on top of the latest draft documents at the negotiations in Antalya, Turkey

https://t.co/JWQkDjmGfe

[Dr Paul Dorfman @dorfman_p]

UK Govt Public Accounts Committee (PAC) : #SizewellC, the 3.2GW #nuclear power plant under construction on the Suffolk coast, represents “a terrible deal for the UK taxpayer”, which exposes the public to up to £54bn in costs.

https://t.co/KOTcSW3o71

[Nicholas Stern @lordstern1]

My new article for @prospect_uk: The Stern Review: 20 years on ‘the stakes have never been higher’ https://t.co/FCzuYSseR6

[Fiona Harvey @fionaharvey]

Peasants, rise up! In the UK, at least. And fill in this consultation about your rights to know who owns the land, because otherwise you will not be allowed to know, ever.

https://t.co/EQxWgNOydi

[ProfCatherineMitchell @ProfCMitchell]

This is great but standing charges should also be abolished from electricity bills to add incentives to energy efficiency investment. I have a super-energy efficient home & a v low energy (electricity only) bill. Yet half of it is a standing charge calculated from an average bill

[Miatta Fahnbulleh @Miatsf]

Today, this Labour government is abolishing standing charges on gas bills.

@JohnHealey_MP and I are making energy bills fairer.

Tackling affordability is my first priority and I'll keep doing all I can to protect people from unaffordable bills.

[Bob Ward @ret_ward]

Excellent article by @fionaharvey: The climate crisis will destroy our economies – we learned this 20 years ago. When will we act?
https://t.co/oPoLf67xMV

[ProfCatherineMitchell @ProfCMitchell]

Great article by @fionaharvey Spot on. https://t.co/80GA73pA5a

[Department for Energy Security and Net Zero @energygovuk]

New government-supported loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps without any upfront cost.

Allowing homeowners to install clean energy technology that can bring down energy bills, with repayment terms that works for them.

Find out more 👇

https://t.co/iesKpuPxIV

[Greg Jackson @g__j]

After a terrible flood, you don't say it's too expensive to build new flood defences.

Britain’s vulnerability to gas cost all of us £40bn in the last energy crisis and we're facing another. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme costs just 1% of that - and is key to getting off gas.

[Dr Paul Dorfman @dorfman_p]

Oil Industry Consultant Joins #Climate Denial Group Run by Tory Peer. Kathryn Porter, an “independent” energy expert, has become a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. Kathryn Porter, a consultant to the fossil fuel industry and a prominent critic of emissions reduction policies, has joined the UK’s foremost climate science denial group. Porter appears frequently in the media as an “independent” expert on energy issues and has been interviewed on the BBC, LBC, GB News, and TalkTV, while her research is often covered in conservative media. She also writes a column for The Telegraph, and in recent weeks she spoke on energy panels at both Labour and Conservative party conferences. Porter’s consultancy Watt-Logic advises the oil and gas industry. Its website states that she works for “businesses with projects across the electricity, gas and oil industries”, including “clients with conventional energy assets including gas-fired power stations, gas storage, upstream oil and gas production and [Liquefied Natural Gas]”.

DeSmog 21st Oct 2026
https://t.co/gKWZ965RDI

[Anna Soubry 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦🇪🇺🖤🤍 @Anna_Soubry]

Get back in the #EU, scrap the House of Lords and change the voting system

I agree
@campbellclaret #Today @BBCr4today

[Jostein Hauge @haugejostein]

Economics is fundamentally political. We cannot escape this fact.

The so-called “free market” is constructed by laws, maintained by institutions, and enforced by states.

The choice between austerity and stimulus reflects deeper beliefs about responsibility, fairness, and social obligation.

The mandates of central banks are products of political decisions. The emphasis placed on price stability in Western central banks rather than, say, regulating private finance reflects value judgments as well as political lobbying.

One of the biggest differences between mainstream economics and heterodox economics is that the former often disguises political choices as technical ones.

Economics has never been, and never will be, a value-free science, no matter how much today's mainstream economics tries to present it that way.

At its core, economics is shaped by ideologies, human morality, competing interests, social norms, and political priorities. Pretending otherwise does not make economics more rigorous. It just makes it more dangerous.

[ECIU @ECIU_UK]

Electric vehicle owners can save £300 thanks to home charging rule change

Drivers will no longer need planning permission to fit cross-pavement chargers

https://t.co/NsPH80e0Sw

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

📊 The 2016 Brexit electorate no longer exists.

Peter Kellner has updated the sums using YouGov and ONS data.

Since 2016:

🔹 Around 3.8m Leave voters have died, against 2.1m Remain voters.
🔹 Around 7m new voters have reached voting age, overwhelmingly pro-European.
🔹 Around 5m voters have changed their minds 👉roughly three-quarters of them moving from Leave to Rejoin.

His estimate of how Britain would vote now:

🇪🇺 REJOIN: 20.0m 👉 63%
🇬🇧 STAY OUT: 11.8m 👉 37%

A majority of almost 9 million.

Brexit happened. Britain has lived with it for a decade.

But democracy does not freeze the electorate in 2016 forever.

The question is what Britain wants now not what it indicated in 2016.