Insights

Notes on the green and blue economy

Written when there is something worth saying about water, energy, waste, and the places with most need of them.

EnergyJune 2026

Energy that stays on

Holding an island grid at frequency is now a question of how fast inverters agree among themselves, and of what must never wait for a radio.

A fallen tree sending new limbs up from a single trunk.

WasteApril 2026

Waste as a balance-sheet item

Biochar has two buyers for the same tonne: one for the material, one for the carbon inside it. Appraised as a by-product, it often decides the financing.

A mountain river running over mossy boulders.

WaterJanuary 2026

Water, the unpriced constraint

Rain that runs to the sea is the resource an island already has. Putting it back underground is a filtration problem well before it is a pumping one.

CommoditiesApril 2025

Sustainable aviation fuel and the price discovery problem

SAF pricing has come loose from crude. What sets it now is mandate and scarcity, and policy-set prices have a poor record of lasting.

Aerial view of the Saltstraumen maelstrom.

EnergyMarch 2025

The energy balance of uranium from seawater

The oceans hold roughly 500 times more uranium than every deposit on land, and it replenishes. The question is what it costs in energy to extract.

A financial district at dusk, out of focus.

ImpactJanuary 2025

Abolishing the green premium

Much of what an ESG portfolio earns comes from demand for the label rather than from the asset. Efficiency and verified numbers are the way out.