This is a comprehensive list of my sources of income, and any hospitality or gifts I receive (except from family and friends), beginning in September 2011.

I have opened this registry because I believe that journalists should live by the standards they demand of others, among which are accountability and transparency. One of the most important questions in public life, which is asked less often than it should be, is “who pays?”.

Until members of parliament were obliged to reveal their external earnings, we had no means of knowing whether the positions they took were influenced by the money they made: whether, in other words, they were acting on our behalf or acting on behalf of hidden sponsors. Many of the thinktanks and campaign groups which claim to be independent often sound uncannily like corporate lobbyists. When they refuse to reveal the sources of their funding, the public has good reason to be suspicious. Several journalists have been exposed for what, in the United States, are called payola scandals. It would not be surprising to discover that others were taking undisclosed payments for championing certain interests.

I believe that everyone who steps into public life should be obliged to show on whose behalf they are speaking: in other words who is paying them, and how much. I would like to see journalists, like MPs, become subject to a mandatory register of interests. But until that time I hope to encourage other journalists to declare the sources of their income voluntarily – by declaring mine.

Current state of play:

I have two live contracts.

One is with the Guardian, to supply columns, blog posts and other material, from 1st February 2012 until 31st January 2013, for which I am paid an annual fee of £62,007.

The other is with Penguin, to write a book about rewilding, for which I will be paid £40,000, for work across 3-4 years.

I have one other regular source of income: the rent paid by my two lodgers, which currently amounts to £5,400 a year.

Please note: these figures, as well as the additional income cited below cited below, are gross earnings, not net income. I am a freelance journalist, and a good deal of this money is put back into my work. I employ an assistant, run my own office and must also make my own provision for research, travel, pension, tax and other expenses. My total taxable income last year was £43,708.

I will post up any other payments, gifts, hospitality and investments during the first week of every month.

….

Monthly earnings, gifts and hospitality in addition to regular income (which is detailed above):

January 2012

Royalties
Guardian: Syndication fee £120.00
Grove Atlantic: Bring on the Apocalypse £19.10
Guardian: Syndication fee £48.00
Green Books: No Man’s Land & Poisoned Arrows £113.90

Other income
BBC: Contributor’s fee £139.80
No Pressure to be Festive: fee £30
The Fifth Column: article £180

Books sent by publishers / authors
Climate Wars: What People Will Be Killed For in the 21st Century (uncorrected proof) Polity Press
Open Dialogue Demos
Vida The Merlin Press
Thinking, Fast and Slow Farrar, Straus & Giroux
The Bedside Guardian 2011 Guardian Books
My Son, My Son (uncorrected proof) Harvill Secker
Occupy World Street: A Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Reform (uncorrected proof) Green Books

December 2011

Royalties
PLR (Public Lending Rights) £5.84

Other income
The Co-operative: membership dividend £2.54
BBC: contributor’s fee £72.00
Corporate Knights Magazine: debate article about irrational attacks on environmentalism £1,211.32

Books sent by publishers / authors
Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil (duplicate) Verso
Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously About the Planet (duplicate) Atlantic Books
From Dictatorship to Democracy Serpent’s Tail (Profile Books)
The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars Columbia University Press

November 2011

Royalties
Guardian: Syndication fee £60
Grove Atlantic: Bring on the Apocalypse £84.04
Random House: HEAT £103.39

Books sent by publishers / authors
The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality Clairview Books
Where Does Money Come From? A Guide to the UK Monetary and Banking System New Economics Foundation
Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science Princeton University Press
Amazon Sky Rainforest Rescue
The Impact of China on Global Commodity Prices: The Global Reshaping of the Resource Sector Routledge
Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil Verso
Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously About the Planet Atlantic Books
Nuclear Roulette: The Case Against a ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ The International Forum on Globalization

October 2011

Royalties
Guardian: Syndication fee £48
Macmillan: Captive State £196.30
Open University: Bring on the Apocalypse £108

Train ticket
Panorama £126

Books sent by publishers / authors
Tipping Point: The End of Oil (DVD) Clearwater
Wood: A History (Uncorrected Proof) Polity Press
1493: How Europe’s Discovery of the Americas Revolutionized Trade, Ecology and Life on Earth Granta
Who Speaks for the Climate: Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change Cambridge University Press
The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work Verso
Targeting Israeli Apartheid: A Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Handbook Corporate Watch

23rd-30th September 2011

Royalties
HarperCollins: Age of Consent £365.86

Books sent by publishers / authors
The World We Want to Live In: 14th Annual Forum 200 Conference (Conference report) Forum 2000 Foundation
Testing Times: The Effectiveness of Five International Biodiversity-related Conventions Wolf Legal Publishers
Naked Fashion: The New Sustainable Fashion Revolution New Internationalist Publications
The Great Disruption: How the Climate Crisis Will Transform the Global Economy Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Duels and Duets: Why Men and Women Talk So Differently Cambridge University Press
The Politics of Climate Change (second edition, uncorrected proof) Polity Press
Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science (uncorrected proof) Princeton University Press
23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism Penguin Group
Energy, the Subtle Concept: The discovery of Feynman’s blocks from Leibniz to Einstein Oxford University Press
Barbarians of Oil: How the world’s oil addiction threatens global prosperity and four investments to protect your wealth John Wiley and Sons

Current investments, last updated 23rd September 2011:

A savings account with Smile, which currently contains £12,971.

A savings account with Alliance and Leicester (now Santander), which currently contains £1,200.

Until recently I had more savings, but I spent them eco-fitting my house. In view of what has now happened to the market, that might not have been the wisest of investments.

I have no shareholdings or investment in any other company. Apart from the house in which I live, I have no other properties.