Anyone interested in learning more about what is happening in both the UK and Poland with different forms of renewable energy (biomass, wind, waste-to-energy and so on) should get on down to the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel at 22 Portman Square. London W1 next Wednesday (26 January), for a brisk seminar organised by the British Polish Chamber of Commerce and the Conservative Friends of Poland.

It’s an afternoon event – register online here. Programme here.

Poland is a most interesting case from a European energy point of view. There are plenty of communist-era legacy systems still around (and lots of coal) but with scope for making great strides towards high-end efficiency in different areas, and the ever-fascinating but not straightforward strategic aim of reducing energy dependency on Russia.

I’d like to be there but alas have another fixture at the same time – lecturing to mass’d post-graduate students at SOAS on Foreign Policy Analysis. A tricky job but someone has to do it. At least now there are gazillions of Wikileaks US diplomatic cables to use as real-life examples of what works and what doesn’t.