Energy Matters

Energy Matters was the title of a magazine published by students at the University of Cambridge between November 1980 and June 1984. Its objective, outlined in the editorial to the first edition, was to provide facts, details and opinions relating to energy, in a way accessible to interested students.

"Energy Matters" was notable in a number ways. Its dispassionate and technical approach to this controversial topic was possibly unprecedented at a British University, at a time when many student publications were highly partisan on the issue. It was an independent undergraduate student magazine wholly funded (initially) by a University department, an unusual and possibly unique arrangement in the UK. It received endorsement from the British Royal Family, a significant and unusual gesture at the time for a magazine dealing with political matters. It was where a number of subsequently famous journalists and academics showed their first public work.

The magazine was founded at a time of high public interest in energy issues, due to the second oil crisis and the Three Mile Island accident the previous year, and to a wave of public interest in energy conservation stimulated by environmental concerns. The topic had become highly political; for example a debate took place in the Cambridge Union Society (the University's debating club) in November 1980 under the title "This House Believes Britain's Dependence on Nuclear Power will Result in Disaster", opposed by Bernard Jenkin.

In this context, the magazine was founded by two undergraduates at the Cambridge University Engineering Department, Richard Davies and Andrew Bud. They secured funding from the Engineering Department which agreed to supply materials and printing services.