Professor Sir Dieter Helm

Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. From 2012 to 2020, he was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital. 

Dieter specialises in three key areas: Energy & Climate; Regulation, Utilities & Infrastructure; and Natural Capital & the Environment. He provides extensive expert advice to UK and European governments, regulators and companies across all three areas.

On Energy & Climate, in 2017 he wrote The Cost of Energy Review, commissioned by the government, in which he set out a framework for transitioning the UK energy sector to net zero while maintaining energy security. In 2005, he co-founded Aurora Energy, provider of energy market analysis. His book, Energy, the State and the Market: British Energy Policy since 1979 (OUP, 2003), covers the early days of energy privatisation, including the creation of the RPI-X price regulation model that persists to this day, while Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels (Yale, 2017) offered analysis and advice on what governments and businesses can and should do to prepare for a radically different energy future.

On Regulation, Utilities and Infrastructure, he has been advising government, regulators and companies since the early days of privatisation, when the utilities were first establishing their costs of capital, and now as they face significant challenges across the water, energy, communications and transport networks.

On Natural Capital and the Environment, Dieter emphasises the importance of natural capital and biodiversity and their contribution to sequestrating carbon to achieve net zero. He works with governments, financial institutions, environmentalists and landowners to help them plan for the future. His most recent publication Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change (William Collins, 2020), addresses the actions we all need to take to achieve net zero. His other books in this area include: Green & Prosperous Land (William Collins, 2019) and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet (Yale, 2016).

In his latest book, Legacy: How to Build the Sustainable Economy, Dieter addresses the question: what would the sustainable economy look like? What would it take to live within our environmental means? Legacy answers these sets out the key features of the sustainable economy. It explains what it would take to properly maintain different types of capital, why polluters would have to pay, why the current generation would have to fund the necessary maintenance of our natural assets, and why we would have to save to invest. The message is a tough one: we are way off course in terms of meeting these conditions and we cannot escape the consequences. Available from Cambridge University Press, from November 2023, available via Open Access. For more details: LINK.

Dieter is a Vice President of the Exmoor Society, a Vice President of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, and Honorary Fellow, Brasenose College, Oxford.