Predicting 2008

End-of-year prognostication is a mug's game. Only today, the prospect of a wildcard entry into the US Presidential race, North Korea missing a key nuclear deadline, and violent unrest in Kenya, shows how quickly things can change.

I especially hesitate to offer any environment-related predictions. Brown and Blair have stressed that the biggest challenge of our time is the transition to a low-carbon economy. Yet, we lag behind other countries in our efforts at CHP and decentralised energy. 50 other countries have a feed-in tariff, to encourage renewable energy takeup. Britain, as a first step in 2008, should try to catch-up to other countries (Germany on solar/wind, Denmark on decentralised energy), and then talk about global leadership.