The only meaningful way to understand climate change and wider environmental harm is to begin with the facts. We need an honest assessment of what is working and what is not. The challenges are significant: carbon levels in the atmosphere are still rising, a genuine energy transition has yet to begin, and global energy demand is expected to rise sharply. Renewables remain expensive, nuclear power is costly, and carbon offsets are often little more than modern indulgences. Simultaneously, there is no clear route to sustainable growth. Some place their faith in technology or use offsets to ease their consciences, but this is wishful thinking. Written by one of the UK’s leading commentators on energy policy and climate change, Climate Realism offers a radical reassessment of our current position. It argues that we must face the real cost of pollution we create and shows how to avoid wasting the years ahead.
“Dieter Helm wants us to challenge our settled views on what it will take to set the economy on a sustainable path. In Climate Realism he argues for testing policies that aim to reduce carbon consumption, which, inevitably, requires us all to pay more for our use of nature. Uncomfortable as this will be, the alternative is worse.”
Professor Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Climate Realism: Facing the Facts about Energy – published by Cambridge University Press October 2026; available in paperback.
