Ā I find it bizarre that people oppose the UK producing more of our own oil and gas. By doing so, far from cutting world carbon dioxide output they would increase it. I read of opposition to the development of the Ā Rosebank field, which would make us more dependent on CO 2 rich imports. Ā This field has been at the heart of the controversy over newĀ energy investment in the UK for sometime, with green enthusiastsĀ claiming we should not go ahead with a good project. This makes no sense. If we fail to produce oil and gas from Rosebank we will simply import it from somewhere else. If we import liquified natural gas it will generate more than twice as much CO2 in the process of compressing it, shipping it and converting it back to gas than simply piping some more home gas down the West Shetland pipe system . These pipelines are already in place with a shortageĀ of gas to use them.Ā Ā If we import more oil that too will require more energy to carry itĀ further by ship from faraway places.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā All those who are impatient to see carbon dioxide reduced should look at it globally. The absurdities of carbon accounting mean if the UK stops producing its own fossil fuels, and closes down much of its energy intensive industries it will claim to have reduced CO 2 , yet total worldwide CO 2 will go up to cover all our imports and the transport they require. The way to decarbonise is to get more consumers to buy electric vehicles and heat pumps to cut their need for gas and oil. When that happens the oil and gas producers will adjust to the reality of the market place. All the forecasts however show a relatively slow take up of the crucial products of the electrical revolution. The global estimates point to the worldĀ needing at least as much oil and gas in 2030 as today whatever the UK does. We should not be arguing that the UK must import everything whilst still beingĀ indirectly very dependent on fossil fuels.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The net zero policies being urged on government areĀ damaging to UK jobs, incomes, balance of payments and growth. The Rosebank field itself offers 300 million barrels of oil and 39 million cubic feet a day of gas over the lifetime of the field. It will take an Ā£8.1 bn investment to bring it about with four fifths of that investment spent in the UK, boosting other jobs and incomes. The production of oil and gas will be through a subsea completion tied into a refurbished floating production and storage offloading vessel. Re use of a physical asset already fashioned is a further way of keeping CO 2 down.Ā This has been converted to run off electricity when supplies of renewable power are available. Why should we turn down this investment designed to keep a bit more oil and gas production and the skilled well paid jobs that go with it here at home? Why would be want to farm this kind of opportunity out to a foreign land and import from them instead? Turning down such an investment also means foregoing large sums in tax revenues, made all the bigger now there are higher rates of corporation tax and windfall taxes for energy companies to pay. Keep these taxes too high for too long and we will lose the opportunity of oil and gas investment at home, which is presumably the aim of some lobbying on this topic.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The damage of high energy prices, bans on production and penal taxes goes wider into the energy using industries. The UK Emissions Trading Scheme is a tougher version of the EU one, giving the UK the highestĀ carbon taxes of any major country. This again does not cut worldĀ carbon dioxide output, but shifts where industrial activity can take place. All the time we want to buy steel, glass, ceramics, cement, bricks, petrochemicals and other products that need a lot of energy we will end up importing when UK outputĀ becomes too dear. Our industrial landscape is being progressively shrunk by high taxes and regulations against CO 2 outputĀ at home. We are once again the losers from misleading accounting. Some of the most competitive countries in the world at these products have no carbon tax at all. Even closer competitors in the EU or parts of the US have lower carbon taxes than we deploy. Meanwhile the lobbying in the UK is geared to raising the price of carbon further in a drive to close down much of what remains of our high energy using industries.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The world does not owe us a living. There are limits to just how much we can import. If we carry on importing so much more than we export, as we did for some years over trade in goods with the continent we will weaken our currency. We also have to sell more and more of our assets to pay the bills, or run up larger borrowings in foreign currencies.Ā Countries that do too much of that end up in financial trouble and have to cut back their consumption to correct the imbalances. The net zero model for the UK is based around a further large increase in imports. Even the green investments themselves are heavily import dependent, with batteries, wind turbines, steel, lithium, copper and the other sinews of the electrical revolution largely coming from abroad. This is the policy that has launched a thousandĀ large ships to bring in the imports. A moreĀ balanced policy will bring greater prosperity for the UK, more jobs and investment, and lower CO 2 for the world as a whole.
143 Comments
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May 1, 2023
Indeed but so much of the mad technology they push to allegedly reduce CO2 does nothing of the sort. Electric cars, exporting energy intensive industries like steel, concrete…, most so called “renewables”, “green” hydrogen or burning imported wood at Drax for good examples. Even walking rather than taking a car can increase CO2 not decrease it if you do the sums on the extra human food needed.
If they really wanted to save CO2 they would ban private jets, private helicopters and half empty flights in general – but that might inconvenience ministers & the King (of hypocrisy) types like Charles. The bogus war on vital for life CO2 (plant, tree and crop food) is just the ruse.
May 1, 2023
100%
Remember the hole in the ozone layer?
That led to the banishment of certain aerosols.
And of course plenty of dosh was no doubt made manufacturing/marketing whatever the green replacement was.
Oh how they tried to frighten us with tales of deodorants etc enabling radiation to blaze through the clouds.
Worked a bit I think but generally in those days people were busy with their lives. And had not been beaten down by ceaseless propaganda.
And those squirty deodorants were very wet!
May 1, 2023
Remember the big āacid rainā scare during the 1980s
May 1, 2023
Yes I do, now you mention it.
Googled it and it is still a āthingā.
Apparently cured by not burning coal and only using renewables.
They really need to find something that actually works at a price we can afford.
Oh I forgotā¦we donāt figure in the plan!
May 1, 2023
Ashley, good post except for the gratuitous swipe at King Charles. If you believe that rejecting Net Zero is common sense – which it is – we need all the allies we can muster, monarchists, republicans, eccentric US presidents etc. When NZ is rejected we can begin to squabble about minor matters like politics.
JF
May 1, 2023
The BRICS countries will eliminate NZ, woke nonsense & globalism but it will get messy.
May 1, 2023
King Charles is obsessed with Net Zero and the Great Reset, which he announced to the world at the WEF.
May 1, 2023
These green fools think we accept the lies they spout but the majority have seen through their nonsense.
Like you say Sir John, if they really believed the model they push all the individual transport would cease. Last month Biden took Airforce One from Belfast to Dublin, a journey that could be comfortably done there and back by car in two hours with a third of the fuel! Airforce One could have waited on the tarmac!
Their selfishness gives them away.
We all need to dump the SCAM! I certainly have!
May 2, 2023
Yes,
You are right to say that to walk consumes more food than to travel by car. Furthermore, from the food we eat, the human body’s actual energy efficiency rating is around 2%, while the Internal Combustion Engine from the fuel it consumes varies between petrol at 28% and Diesel at 45%.
We unbelievably and unfairly stack the argument against the very machine which has historically conferred on us such enormous benefits.
May 1, 2023
Good morning.
I believe that investment houses have heavily invested in the Far East and Indian Sub-Continent and do not want to lose said investment. To that end it is clear to me that the CO2 scam is being used to move any industrailsation from the UK to the aforementioned regions of the world. Lower wages costs and less regulation mean greater profits and the cost of transporting them can be absorbed by the consumer.
We are slowly buying ourselves into poverty.
May 1, 2023
Re investment, “British microchip designing giant Arm has filed to sell its shares in the US, setting the stage for what could be the biggest stock market listing this year.
The Cambridge-based firm is reportedly aiming to raise up to $10bn (Ā£8bn).
In a blow to the UK, the company said in March that it did not plan to list its shares in London.”
Why ever not, one might reasonably ask?
May 2, 2023
According to the local Cambridge Independent newspaper Arm have indicated they will look at an additional UK listing in the future and stressed they will continue to expand and invest in the UK.
They also said they were planning a new large site in Bristol
The decision to go for a USA listing was made by ARM’s owners SoftBank who have substantial business interests in USA.
ARM have a big base in California and in New York.
It’s a bit more nuanced than your brexit obsession NLH
May 1, 2023
I would hope that Telegraph readers would know a lot of this already, and agree with it (or go further and not believe that human CO2 is going to destroy the planet, so NetZero is unnecessary).
We need to convert Guardian readers and BBC addicts, too, so politicians become willing to change tack.
May 1, 2023
Net zero is the only game in town.
Stop producing oil and gas, build ships abroad, use foreign technologies for SMRs rather than support well paid relevant uk jobs.
Kill off agriculture to stop emissions and import everything.
Nothing has been learned from WW2 and the invasion of Ukraine.
Shysters incharge of the country.
May 1, 2023
Today we are Importing 30% of our electricity.
What happens when there’s none to import.
May 1, 2023
Once you realise how stupid the politicians and their civil servants are, it’s easy to believe. None of them have any qualifications or knowledge on very much yet spout their religious beliefs on us. Who else would believe the bogey gas CO2 that is inconsequential to the atmosphere and overall content (0.04%) follows global temperature change, not in advance of those changes over the millennia, has influence on the climate? It is an essential element that is required by every plant species on Earth without which every living creature would die. Taxing our industry to import the same products with an increased CO2 content tells me they are either insane/stupid or they know it’s a scam to move our combined wealth East under some secret treaty. Bit like mass migration in the opposite direction at taxpayers expense. When will the Tory’s realise we don’t need 1,000,000 a year minimum wage fruit pickers and car washers at the 46%’s subsidised expense and then tell us we have a 7 million waiting list on the NHS, a housing crisis, congestion on our crumbling roads, no school places for our children? Just go fools.
May 1, 2023
Importing 6.800 MW at the moment at about a gross margin of Ā£10 / MWh for the continentals sending it to the UK. Don’t you just love these Brexit (dis)advantages š
May 1, 2023
Did you read Sir John’s article acorn?
Explaining the net benefits?
May 1, 2023
Don’t worry about any of that, we’ll soon have a train that can travel between manchester and close to london …we’re the envy of the world
May 1, 2023
………..an empty train………just saying. The EU will love it as we wasted so much money at their direction on their trans plan. Tory fools.
May 1, 2023
Totally agree though I think this message needs to be hammered home in other media, guardian bbc etc.
Many telegraph reader types will already be aware of this
Reply Guardian and BBC never want my views on economy or energy.They hate diversity of thought or common sense.
May 1, 2023
…………Guardian and BBC never want my views……….. the msm media don’t do news or opinions either. Just GB News and the internet these days.
May 1, 2023
Talk TV has some sensible content.
May 1, 2023
IW – Power crazy followers & unquestioning shysters at that. Good article on Conservative Woman 28/4/23 ( by Paul Homewood ) provides a summary of things often mentioned & discussed on here just as a reminder to us all. ‘The Climate Scaremongers: We’re being told what to Buy’
May 1, 2023
IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer admitted in November 2010, āā¦one has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the worldās wealthā¦ā
May 1, 2023
True up to a point Wanderer, but a lot of Tories have swallowed the net zero story, particularly younger ones, so SJR’s article could have a considerable effect. Even if none of his eco-posturing colleagues would want to debate the matter with him, it still might register somewhere deep in their confused psyche.
May 1, 2023
Hope you are right
May 1, 2023
The problem is those who ābelieveā usually have no scientific understanding they have just fallen for this new religion. In many ways worse than old religion as with this one they believe not only do they have to live in a certain way to save the world, but they have to force everyone else to do the same. Freezing and starving people to death in the process. Not easy to argue and convert devout climate religion believers who have little science or ability to think or reason.
May 1, 2023
Wanderer
Politicians change?
You are having a laugh are you not?
90+% of the existing members of parliament do not understand the word let alone how to implement it on most subjects that are of a real concern. Globalism and political dogma rules OK.
May 1, 2023
As I have said before the war on CO2 policy would only make sense if ALL three of these statements were true:-
1. A little extra atmospheric CO2 is going to cause an imminent climate emergency.
2. We could get Worldwide co-operation on reducing C02 with China, India, Latin America, Africa & Russia all joining hand in hand in this policy.
3 The “solutions” they push (renewables, public transport, electric cars, green hydrogen, walking…) actually saved significant CO2.
None of these are true. Even if all three were true if would still be better to spend the vast sums Net Zero would cost on other things (see How to Spend $75 Billion To Make The World A Better Place by Bjorn Lomborg).
Finally, even if the World needed cooling reducing CO2 is not the best way (of even a practical way) to do it. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations is not some World thermostat. Millions of things affect the climate not just CO2 many of which (such as the solar activity) we have no control over.
May 1, 2023
So at the Coronation, the Archbishop of Canterbury will say: ‘I call upon all persons of goodwill in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of the other Realms and the Territories, to make their homage, in heart and voice, to their undoubted King, defender of all’.
It is rather offensive for Justin Welby to imply that those that do not “make their homage” not are not “persons of goodwill” and those that do are!
Though I support the monarchy as being better than the alternatives I will not be doing this as:-
Almost everything Justin Welby suggests is facile & invariably wrong.
King Charles (and his first born) are not keeping out of politics (as the late Queen sensibly did – other than over the net harm vaccines) particularly with their deluded hypocrisy over net zero and woke lunacies.
Also Charlie aspires to be defender of faiths (both traditional ones and the new climate/woke ones). Many/most faiths are in many ways racist, sexist, totally irrational, often evil and they clearly contradict each other and even themselves.
May 1, 2023
Apart from the role carried out for all those decades of ‘service’ of Queen Elizabeth II, why should the people have any goodwill toward the monarchy? The more we discover about them the less admired and respected they are!
May 1, 2023
When Charles publicly renounces his allegiance to the WEF and the Great Reset I’ll consider pledging allegiance to him …… and not before.
May 1, 2023
Same here, Donna!
Unfortunately, King Charlesā video about the great reset is doing the rounds again on Twitter.
UK Fires have been commissioned by the government, to look into what net zero actually means. Sceptics Daily have two articles with reference to the report.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/04/28/no-bricks-no-glass-no-cement-what-net-zero-2050-demands-according-to-government-funded-report/
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/04/13/no-flying-by-2050-is-the-world-finally-waking-up-to-what-net-zero-really-means/
This shows up the absolute absurdity of it all.
May 1, 2023
I find myself feeling the same way about Charles. Does he think it’s a way to keep the young interested in the monarchy? If he does then he’s wrong. I really don’t need to be lectured by the likes of him on top of the BBC.
May 1, 2023
Tree hugging, vegetable chatting, Aston Martin fueled ‘surplus English white wine, and whey from the cheese process’, throne recycling and diversity champion King Charles III.
Influencer supreme.
May 1, 2023
Climate change is just a scam – CO2 is not a global thermostat. Look at the real data on temperatures (eg UAH satellite data) – there is no correlation between CO2 and temperature. Yes, the world has warmed since the 1800s because it has emerged from the Little Ice Age, not because of any human activity. There have been similar temperature swings is the past – from Roman and Medieval Warm Periods, long before any significant human CO2 production.
Instead of committing huge sums to Net Zero this country should be investing in real secure power generation capacity – gas and nuclear – and supporting local sources through North Sea and on-shore fracking.
The whole Net Zero scam also ignores all of the other aspects of life that oil and gas contribute to beside power – let’s see how the Just Stop Oil nutters cope without anything that has used any kind of fossil fuel input.
May 1, 2023
+1
May 1, 2023
It’s always been a problem for the progress of humanity that a significant proportion of the people believe in nothing more than superstitious mumbo-jumbo, and will continue to do so as long as those preaching it to them make them feel good.
May 1, 2023
been looking in that mirror again Martin?
May 1, 2023
Indeed. It used to be religious nonsense that a significant majority were duped into believing. Now itās the EU and net zero.
May 1, 2023
To the extent that it discouraged them from killing, stealing, lying etc. it was beneficial. Greens lie, steal (look at the appropriation of farms in the Netherlands), are happy to kill wildlife, and soon humans by making them poor, cold and hungry.
I think I’d take the mumbo jumbo.
May 1, 2023
You must be talking about nett zero.
May 1, 2023
Well I don’t walk under ladders NLH – especially when there’s someone working at the top. I’ve not been hit by any falling objects yet (touch wood & fingers crossed!) š
May 1, 2023
Yes, but it’s still worth trying to make Tory MPs give up their superstitious beliefs and understand net zero is an insane self-destructive cult. Your lot never will.
May 1, 2023
Their banners for instance.
May 1, 2023
Will
Secure power generation
Add distribution to the list of concerns.
For years people in Scotland asked about the security of all the undersea cables and pipelines and turbines in remote places. The windfarm snake oil salesmen just laughed at them and told them they were doom-mongers.
With some of the things happening in the North Sea and the ease that undesirables are welcomed to this country, it would be very easy to totally disrupt the power generation and distribution networks. Power Stations are easier to provide security to no matter what fuel they burn. Too much of what we totally rely on is too exposed.
May 1, 2023
I am 100% behind that, All of it Will.
May 1, 2023
+1
May 1, 2023
SJRās article is a solid statement of good sense with full rationale.
May 1, 2023
Apart from the electric vehicle and heat pump stuff. Electric vehicles are insane and heat pumps are impractical ( apart from new builds).
May 1, 2023
+1
Problem is those who control policies and the money, appear not to be listening or acting in a sensible manner.
Similar simple family comparison.
Is it more cost effective and healthy to prepare and cook most if your own food at home, or to simply rely and pay vast amounts for mainly pre cooked home delivered meals.
May 1, 2023
At least Alan, when one prepares and cooks ones own food you know what is in it, unlike the over processed muck available. Sorry for that description but to me its NOT food!
May 3, 2023
MFD
Very expensive “muck” as well, and we wonder as a nation about the growing number of people who appear to have allergies of one sort or another.
Has anyone researched long term, the part chemicals may play in food production.
In years past we used to plant, grow, and harvest food, prepare and cook it ourselves, now we engineer and manufacture much of it, ready for a simple push button heat up !
May 1, 2023
Let’s put Rosebank into perspective. The emissions from burning the oil and gas in the Rosebank would be equal to the combined annual CO2 emissions of ~28 lowest-income countries in the world. This one field would produce as much pollution as ~700 million people do in a year. Rosebank is in one of the most inhospitable parts of the world; the engineering required for safe operation is excessive and development will take at least 20 years. The fossil fuels extracted will be sold at market rates and will bake in high prices; the energy extracted from Rosebank will require a huge subsidy. Nobody will profit from Rosebank except the fossil fuel industry.
Far better to develop onshore solar and wind extracting free energy and develop UK manufactured electric vehicles and a battery megafactory for the same money
Reply Lots of wrong statements here. Subsea completion into a second hand floating platform.No subsidies but plenty of tax revenue.
May 1, 2023
Afraid you are wrong.
Solar energy works beautifully for my family and friends in Queensland AU. Here it simply does not work during the winter. At the moment, it provides a but during sunny noontimes (4GW and rarely up to 8GW). It works nowhere after dusk, and on those long winter nights.
Wind power does not work when there is High Pressure, sometimes for days at a time.
If you want to figures (which nobody is looking at) go to gridwatch.
May 1, 2023
I always think that use of the word “Free” in relation to wind and solar power is very misleading. They both cost a great deal to make and install and they also have a finite productive life. So taking the upfront capital costs, divided by the working life of the investment (20-25 years?) and adding the annual maintenance costs – you will arrive at an approximate annual cost of the installation. If we then work out how much “usable” power is generated (because not all can will be used) – and we can then get some idea of how much all this “Free” power actually costs…. Unfortunately, I don’t think you will often see this calculation done…
We could also discuss the use of the word “Renewable” – because with a working life of just 20 odd years, these investments are going to have be ‘renewed’ quite regularly (and that’s a lot of money to cough up every generation)….but that’s not quite how the word “Renewable” is bandied about.
May 1, 2023
If emissions matter…….
Those emissions will happen anyway, they are not additional emissions. By not producing from Rosebank the fuel required for those emissions needs to be transported, creating more emissions.
It’s not difficult if you just take off the blinkers.
Your target should be the use of not the production of.
May 1, 2023
SG :
Please just stop referring to CO2 as a pollutant. It is a trace gas in our atmosphere and life on earth would not exist without it. Furthermore, the historical records show that CO2 is currently at very low levels, does not control the temperature (no explanation for ice ages and warm periods between) and the science of Happer & Wijngaarden shows there will be negligible warming from increasing levels because of IR saturation. This has never been refuted by the IPCC, just ignored.
Oil and gas in the ground is just as free as wind. Itās the extraction and production of reliable/on demand energy which costs. Note that wind power is very profligate with earthās resources. 1 Kg of material (steel & cement) produces 1 watt of power using wind, 1000 watts using nuclear fission and 2000 watts using oil/gas.
Downloading the demand and wind power data from Gridwatch for 2022 into an Excel spreadsheet I was able to calculate that it is necessary to install 6.75 times the average demand to guarantee reliable power using hydrogen as storage of energy when the wind doesnāt blow. BTW, there were times when the 27 GW of installed wind power was recorded to be zero!
May 2, 2023
@ Original nonsense.
What complete rubbish. Renewable electricity last winter displaced more than a third of the UKās entire annual gas demand for power generation. Without it, the UK would have had to increase net gas imports by more than 22 per cent (including gas imported via pipeline)
Generating the same amount of electricity using CCGT would have required around 95TWh of gas ā equal to 110 tankers of LNG – or the amount more than 10 million UK homes would burn over the winter.
In 2022, UK renewables provided 38 per cent of the countryās electricity generation, nearly as much as gas (at 40 per cent) and we became a NET ELECTRICITY EXPORTER for the first time since 2010. Give up, you have lost the argument
May 1, 2023
@Sakara Gold
You might care to look at the exploitation and safety issues involved in obtaining raw materials for your windmills, solar panels and batteries.
There is also the issue of bats, birds and insects being slaughtered on your āgreenā windmills. I thought insects were especially important to environmentalists because they spend so much time counting them!
May 1, 2023
And soon to be eating them!
May 1, 2023
Sakara Gold clearly does not understand that CO2 is not changing anything. Just like a lot more who do not think for them selves.
May 1, 2023
The only way in which the absurd net Zero targets can be reached is by false accounting. Not producing our own manufacturers reduces our emissions and the replacement imports are some other country’s CO2. What’s not to like?
May 1, 2023
Another good article Sir John. But……
The harms you list must be the desired outcome as no one of sane mind would pursue the current trajectory. The intention is to make us poorer, hungrier and very unhappy.
I must disagree strongly that electric vehicles can replace our highly efficient ice vehicles. They cost more to produce in terms of materials. Rare metals for the batteries and copper cannot be produced in sufficient quantities to remotely serve manufacture so we will see prices rocket. Mining is causing massive environmental harm around the world, never mind children mining cobalt in the Congo.
Once again I would ask why you and the few honest MP’s do not call out the unworkable insanity and name the people and institutions driving and controlling the policies in parliament!
May 1, 2023
Why? Because they want to retain the Tory Whip. They’ve seen what happened to Bridgen when he stepped out of line.
May 1, 2023
Donna
At least Bridgen put his costituents, the people and the country first.
May 1, 2023
Net zero will make our country poorer. It is a total scam and the politicians pushing it need to be investigated for their true motives.
May 1, 2023
+many.
100% agree.
INVESTIGATE x 1000000
WHAT are their interests in wind farms (eh?), WHY are they so keen on following orders? How about that videoā¦WHY such desperation for money??
There is absolutely no justice in this country.
What are a few hotel-style towelling robes (aka the hounding of anyone exhibiting slightly right wing policies?) compared to our total annihilation as a country?
May 1, 2023
Agenda 21/2030 and Net Zero is an example of One World Government and the means by which the UN intends to better equalise the standard of living in nations around the globe.
There are two means of doing it: 1. boost the economies of 2nd and 3rd world nations. 2. reduce/restrict the economies of the 1st world nations.
Our economic opportunities are being deliberately reduced/restricted and the means of production moved to emerging economies. It is a deliberate “level down” process; we are to be made poorer.
Communitarianism = Communism for the 21st century.
May 1, 2023
Donna
+ many
May 1, 2023
and where are our msm and politicians helping to expose this………………………silence.
May 1, 2023
Look.
While good people debate literally angels on pinheads.
The huge hoax continues.
OF COURSE the proponents of all the eco stuff know it is nonsense.
They merely throw a load of diversionary trash into the path of their enemy.
To confuse and controlā¦if it is taken seriously.
The end game? Power and money on a much less crowded worldā¦and NOT for the useful idiots.
May 1, 2023
+1 Cuibono
There will be many useful idiots in for a shock, when they discover that they too, are useless eaters!
May 1, 2023
Electric vehicles, on balance, do not decarbonise. You replace one form of burning carbon with another.
And please stop suggesting heat pumps as a way to decarbonise. They are utterly impractical for the vast majority of domestic properties in this country.
The principal way to decarbonise is less people.
Followed by massive investment in wind, solar and tidal electricity generation and STORAGE.
May 1, 2023
Wind and solar are intermittent, tidal is not advocated by people with an understanding of elementary physics and electricity cannot be stored in any practical way.
May 1, 2023
forthurst. Exactly right.
May 1, 2023
The new CO2 religion requires its believers not to be directly involved in the production of fossil fuels. But OK to use what the non-belivers have produced. The believers are not interested in reducing global CO2 levels only looking good in the eyes of other believers.
If they supported a ban on imported fossil fuel, and use our own locally produced, one might have some understanding of their belief that CO2 alone is causing climate change.
May 1, 2023
John McD, ++++++++
May 1, 2023
Bizarre indeed, but then consider these people are the enemies of the UK and it makes more sense.
If they really were advocates of saving the world, they would be the loudest voices calling for an end to immigration, in order to reduce the number of people in fossil fuel dependent UK. On the contrary, they want more people to come into the UK, burning gas for winter warmth.
The really bizarre question is why do the people of this country vote these traitors into positions of power?
May 1, 2023
+many
Extremely good point!
And eating much meat no doubt, using loads of water ā¦while we have price hike induced rationing and hosepipe bans!
And, my word! Who pays?
Still, letās face it, during a plague you donāt throw open your bordersā¦you just donāt.
Our dear govt. did thoughā¦.
May 1, 2023
Not really bizarre, the answer is that the electorate have been persuaded to sleep through all the serious issues that confront policies for the future. Instead we make assumptions that there will always be cheap labour elsewhere, that we will stay ahead of technology advantage, that our defence and weaponry will be amongst the best, that our small island can contain extra millions year on year and the world will be forever grateful, that our elected representatives will always be intelligent, truthful and patriotic, and that the government, judiciary, health and administration services will always act to our benefit.
May 1, 2023
Last month I told John I would be increasing my pension contributions to Ā£40k to reduce the high tax rate over Ā£100k.
I can now report from this month I have done so. This has reduced my tax burden and had the net effect of taking 4 average tax payers out of the system.
May 1, 2023
The city company my son works for has offered reduced salaries to its higher tax bracket personnel in exchange for considerably increased pension contributions.
Raise taxes too high and people/companies take avoidance action. But that’s beyond the wit of the two goons, Sunak and Hunt.
May 1, 2023
It’s not. The question has to be why are they doing this? They are deliberately wrecking the economy with taxation and net stupid policies.
The brain drain has begun for young professionals. The Corporate world and investors are moving as well. Profits don’t do woke/pc/net zero/diversity, mass immigration rubbish in the investing world, ask Astra and many others. Many of us older, former investors in the UK are looking for opportunities outside our borders whilst the Snake/Hunt are trying to rob us at every turn to pay for the 54% feckless and imported idle. Fiscal drag, personal and corporate tax hikes have consequences. We’re past the “reasonable taxes” share in the UK and people are starting to vote with their feet and brains to avoid them. The tax take is about to plummet. What excuses can your leadership claim?? We didn’t think people would notice our policies and that would bankrupt the tax take and the Country, Guv!
May 1, 2023
do you expect applause?
May 1, 2023
Why do we allow the tail to wag the dog. We tolerate “just stop oil”, an anarchic collection or terrorists to dictate the agenda. They have no mandate they are a mere irritant. The weakness as ever is our government who seem quite incapable of governing. Better they step aside for Reform.
Any sane manager would know that we have to use oil gas and coal until such time as we have reliable atomic energy to produce our electrical needs. My best guess is five to fifteen years. Only idiots would import that which we already have. The snag is that government cannot make a decision on Rolls Royce SMRs or is it the scribes in their usual negative mode bending over for the EU. UK Government is beyond redemption on this subject and many others, I would rather they went and left the country to those who can manage.
May 1, 2023
agricola
Well said and even when they are living in eutopia there are still thousands of daily operations we all take for granted totally relying on oils and grease.
It always surprises them when I mention Turbine gearboxes in the argument
May 1, 2023
+1
All down to money.
CEF which funds Stop Oil and X Rebellion and others has HUGE backers. Though why Stop Oil gets money from the oil business is beyond me.
All charities are involved in The Agenda and govt. relies on them for grants for the arts, education, training etc etcā¦as do Ministers.
And there are always crumbs left on the table!
May 1, 2023
Excellent piece, so why are the netzero zealots so reluctant to see this?
May 1, 2023
Great article but it doesn’t fit in the government/parliaments net-zero green revolution which is drive not by common sense, nor cleaning the envirnoment, but by the woke media and weak politicians …I’ve no doubt that this government would welcome 100% import of all fossil fuels
May 1, 2023
Whats the current governments policy on fracking for shale gas …that cheap abundant UK energy …its there a policy
May 1, 2023
“The way to decarbonise is to get more consumers to buy electric vehicles and heat pumps to cut their need for gas and oil.”
I know someone who has bought, at some expense, the pump. It does not work; it cannot easily be made to work; and when it does work, it does not heat up his house.
Electric cars: at the moment it is hard to recharge them and they are way beyond most people’s budget.
Meanwhile, on Conservative Home is an article by Anthony Brown praising wind power with impressive statistics to back it all up. If you follow (as I do) the daily stats on gridwatch, you can easily see that when the wind blows, he is totally right. Unfortunately for some days, when the wind is still, coal (still a little bit left) and France (and other providers) and even emergency OCGT do the job.
I am in touch with a Middle East Oil Company where they are very interested in fracking. They have recently got advice from the USA on their very efficient fracking. Here? lily livered experts say, “Sorry it causes earthquakes and, who knows, it may even wake the Kraken!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
May 1, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
Has not the EU declared that natural gas is green?
As the EU can do no wrong, Remainer-types and green enthusiasts should love the fact that the UK is following its lead with the Rosebank initiative.
May 1, 2023
Your argument is flawed, because not only can the EU do no wrong, it can arbitrarily apply its laws wherever and whenever it pleases. Thus the Large Combustion Plant Directive that obliged the UK to blow up its coal fired power stations didn’t apply to Germany, Poland and Italy which can carry on using theirs.
Just because the EU has declared natural gas green, doesn’t mean to say it’s OK for the UK to use it. It’s only green for those countries the EU in its infinite wisdom decides.
May 1, 2023
Anyone who thinks that net zero is a good idea should not be let out of the house without reins.
May 1, 2023
Ed
Brill
May 1, 2023
Unfortunately this article being in the Telegraph is merely preaching to the mainly converted.
It needed to be in the Guardian, Times and Mirror.
Net zero will impoverish anyone not involved in renewables and needs to be shouted down from the rooftops.
Very few will speak out against it. Net zero the economics that dare not speak its name.
May 1, 2023
But 99% of Tory MPs are pro net-zero ….the voting public haven’t a chance – well maybe with the reform party
May 1, 2023
So the lunatics really have taken over the asylum. Great…
May 1, 2023
Can’t read, font in very light grey
May 1, 2023
Sir John, the logical conclusion to which you draw your more enlightened readers – evidently most of us – is that the Climate Change Act should be repealed. Theresa May’s former SPAD Nick Timothy once described it as “a monstrous act of self harm”, so we can only despair about what description should be applied to Net Zero.
Plainly there is no majority in the Commons for the Act’s repeal. Are we to conclude in turn that mainstream party leadership is content to condemn the UK to a spiral of green decline and an all out attack on quality of life as we plebs know it, and that we must look outside those mainstream parties if we wish to call a halt to this?
May 1, 2023
āThe net zero policies being urged on government are damaging to UK jobs, incomes, balance of payments and growth.ā
This is the whole purpose of Net Zero and ESG is running it like a Mafia protection racket by withholding finance to companies not signed up to being āgreenā.
The giveaway was when our PM, then Chancellor, said at COP 26 :
āSo our third action is to rewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero.ā
Our unilateral Net Zero is entirely pointless.
Firstly because increasing levels of CO2 will not increase average global temperature because of IR saturation as shown by the work of Happer & Wijngaarden and the historical record. The current small (0.13 degrees C per DECADE) of warming is beneficial and increasing CO2 promotes food growth.
Secondly because our 1% contribution to anthropogenic CO2 emissions is dwarfed by those from China and India and many others who have no intention of following our self-destructive path to expensive, intermittent āgreenā energy and expensive, inferior electrical devices leading to industrial, agricultural, financial, social disaster and consequently military insecurity.
May 1, 2023
Unable to read
May 1, 2023
Of course we should exploit and use whatever natural resources we have ; economically it makes no sense not to do so . Protests there may be but we cannot heed the wishes of those who do not understand the consequences .
May 1, 2023
Our PM is a very intelligent man and if he has any desire to when the next election and reduce inflation he needs to implement the entire content of you article Sir John.
I would urge you not to rely on Rishi reading the Telegraph but get a copy directly to him which won’t be easy, with all those filling trays in No10 to be avoided.
May 1, 2023
Perhaps he really doesn’t care whether he wins the next election? Does that thought come from left-field thinking?
Hope I didn’t shock you.
May 1, 2023
Tiny Blair & Hunt were selected to maximise UK destruction before 2024 to discredit Brexit. Planned destruction of SNP will ensure Starmer has the numbers to re-join the EU.
May 1, 2023
Why the hell are we bothering with all this crap?
Chinese provinces approved more new coal power plants in the first three months of this year than in all of 2021, as Beijing continues a rapid expansion of fossil fuel generation capacity in an effort to guarantee reliable electricity supplies.
Provincial governments gave the green light to at least 20.5 gigawatts of new coal in the first quarter, topping the 18.5 gigawatts for all of 2021, Greenpeace said in a new research report. Approvals began to soar last year, to at least 90.7 gigawatts, after a series of economy-crippling power shortages, according to the study.
Greenpeaceās report is the latest in a series of research findings and industry comments highlighting Beijingās plan to rely on its mainstay fuel as a backstop for reliable and affordable power amid rising global fuel prices and the development of intermittent renewable generation. The government is also leaning on miners to boost coal output to record levels to avoid a reliance on foreign supplies.
āThe 2022 coal boom has clearly continued into this year,ā said Xie Wenwen, Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner. Reasons given by governments in approval documents included ensuring safe energy supply, meeting heating demand and stimulating local economic development, Xie said.
https://netzerowatch.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c920274f2a364603849bbb505&id=b60ce6686b&e=4961da7cb1
May 1, 2023
Those that started the netzero scam, and those that continue to pursue aims to wipe us out as a country will tell you that in the scheme of things that Britain is totally unimportant.
They couldn’t care less if we rot away or starve, as long as we continue to follow their indoctrination and don’t fight back against their treachery.
May 1, 2023
All very laudable and logical but where the brains and common sense of the people who make the decisions are concerned, you cannot put it where it won’t go.
May 1, 2023
I do hope whoever is in charge of policy sees sense one day.
May 1, 2023
@TROD. At 13 years of being deaf, or overseaing UK destruction it’s hard to see how
May 1, 2023
Sir John
I am supersized the PM, the Conservative Government have not suspended you from the Party or at least removed the whip. You just cant keep going around talking common sense. Particularly when that same logic stops them corrupting and maliciously destroying the UK.
Keep it up!, you alone have more supporters than this Conservative Government.
May 1, 2023
Ian B
Also from the Telegraph – Tax on North Sea profits has risen from 40pc to 65pc and now 75pc ā thanks to then Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his successor Jeremy Hunt.
The tax on imports? Who does this Conservative Government think they are kidding, besides themselves.
May 1, 2023
Ian B
Gulf states are poised to help bankroll Britainās efforts to build new nuclear power stations to keep the lights on, the energy security secretary has indicated. The UK doesn’t have any more money of its own? Not enough tax collected? This Conservative Government has given it all away. Instead it relies on the Gulf States for Funding then pays the French Taxpayer to supply.
How messed up can this Conservative Government get?
How about a Government that is prepared to invest UK TaxPayer money in to the UK, to provide resilience and self-reliance for today’s and the future people of the Country.
NO ā that’s no longer the Conservative Way. Conservative Party please wake up! Smell the coffee, these people that are wreaking everyone’s future are your choice you the Conservative Party have made them our Rulers.
How could Labour or the Liberals be worse? I can just see the Unions letting the Labour Party trash UK employment this way.
May 1, 2023
@Ian B
Surprised the PM
May 1, 2023
Sir John,
On a separate subject, I wish to say I am thankful for you stand against the attempt by the WHO to grab power they are not entitled too.
They must remain a talking shop, not a world power!
May 1, 2023
Net Zero will either send us back to a peasants and elites society or give rise to a new party that will be more realistic and pragmatic about climate change. This is what happened with Brexit so it quite on the cards once the public see they are being pushed back into poverty.
May 1, 2023
Sir John,
What you write is so true. I find the argument that ‘we must show a lead’ as being unconvincing since we are showing the lead to economic madness as you correctly outline.
Following the dictum ‘follow the money’ when it comes to decisions I can only assume that too many folk are making a ‘nice little earner’ out of the green fanaticism.
May 1, 2023
Of course you are right that the UK should be extracting its own hydrocarbons to replace imported hydrocarbons .
I do get the impression that all but a few extremists now realise that the time frame for Net Zero is impossible and major oil and gas companies also seem to be getting braver and not so easily blown off course by these extremists. At the same time we do need to press ahead with developing nuclear power, particularly via SMRs , and improving the efficiency of our national grid distribution system which is old and inefficient and leaks power.
May 1, 2023
“I find it bizarre that people oppose the UK producing more of our own oil and gas. By doing so, far from cutting world carbon dioxide output they would increase it. I read of opposition to the development of the Rosebank field, which would make us more dependent on CO 2 rich imports.”
The wording above suggests that development of the Rosebank field would make us more dependent on CO2 imports.
The DT editors must have been asleep as well of course (so few publications employ anyone who can write English these days). However, I hope you won’t mind a critical comment, intended to be helpful. I often find that the wording of your sentences leaves the reader with the wrong impression. It’s only because I know your views in general that I re-read it and gather (what I believe to be) the correct interpretation.
May 1, 2023
The government has lost the plot over this issue and so many more. Can someone tell me what’s the point in voting for them?
May 1, 2023
answer: Whats the point in voting for them!
May 1, 2023
Empty house when Andrew Bridgen raised the topic of health consideration which the House should heed and discuss and a general willingness and haste to concede so much to unaccountable bodies in europe, so, yes, what’s the point? There is no point.
May 1, 2023
Are the policies being introduced by the Conservative Government leading the ‘World’ to NetZero or as evidence suggests just malicious destruction of the UK?
The project is clearly aimed at the latter
May 1, 2023
Of course the U.K. should look after itself first and foremost. Of course that means using our own fossil fuels, not importing other country’s. Of course we need to reduce imports in general and try to increase exports. Has no one in power heard of the balance of trade? Of course encouraging investment in utilising our own fossil fuels would be beneficial to U.K. jobs.
Etc ….. etc.
I agree with most of what you say Sir John.
I take exception to you apparently championing E.V.s and heat pumps because they have huge problems of their own.
Overall though Sir John I wish you were able to challenge this myth that anyone or any country needs to produce less Carbon Dioxide!
Less carbon yes, i.e. soot, and other particulates, which you have mentioned before. But carbon dioxide is a harmless, beneficial gas which helps plants grow (including food plants and animal fodder).
There is no global warming. Even if there was it would not be caused by carbon dioxide.
Mind you, there is a limit to what you dare say, if you want to get published in the media. In fact we have all lost freedom of speech haven’t we.
Reply I am not championing EVs and heat pumps. I have often said they need to be improved so people want to buy them inlarge numbers .
May 1, 2023
Right to Reply
Let the people and consumer decide, allow market forces and inventive competition to improve products and service ā¦.stop banning alternatives; thatās Marxism
May 2, 2023
Yes Pauline, Sir John has to be careful what he says or else he might end up being thrown out like Andrew Bridgen.
May 1, 2023
If everyone read Nigel Lawson “An Appeal to Reason ” a cool look at global warming, we could build a strong lobby demanding the cancellation of net zero policy then maybe we would witness some common sense from our ministers.
May 1, 2023
In total agreement Sir J, sadly there are so few of us and the majority in power & opposition are just as you state, bonkers to import spot priced fossil fuels rather than utilise our own indigenous resources and refuse to seriously incentivise EVs & less polluting energy solutions generally.
It’s as if they want us all in penury by design, God grant me strength!
May 2, 2023
Listening to Prof Laffer on YT Wealthion dot com, if we have a carbon problem (climate change), then we should tax the carbon consumption, NOT the producers, with a corresponding AND balancing reduction in payroll and income taxes.
May 1, 2023
Home Office ā 30 April 2023
Illegal Immigrants ā 147
Boats ā 3
Theyāll only stop when we return them same-day
May 1, 2023
Deported? Nil.
May 1, 2023
Very well summarised. As we head into warmer weather we have sufficient supply from our own and Norwegian pipeline gas. Wholesale gas prices are now 3p/kWh, compared with over 4 times as much at the winter peak in December when we were relying on LNG imports, and more still last August when fear of the effects of cutting Nordstream supply (before it was subsequently blown up) were at their peak. That should be giving us electricity at around 6p/kWh, but green taxes and the link to the Continent mean we are seeing 10p/kWh for wholesale power.
Cutting our domestic supply will leave us exposed to needing costly LNG imports year round. That will lead to higher gas prices. On the Continent they are paying 4p/kWh at wholesale: a third more than we are. If we all need to import gas, the price will go up on that account.
May 1, 2023
In the summer months you dig-up and stockpile coal for those winter months ā¦.In China
May 1, 2023
Mark, ++++ The Germans scoffed at Donald Trump, and our elected members of the House scoff at the common sense on display here. Facts will force the issue, as the Germans are now seeing and acting on.
May 1, 2023
Are the policies being introduced by the Conservative Government leading the ‘World’ to NetZero or as evidence suggests just malicious destruction of the UK?
The project is clearly aimed at the lat
May 1, 2023
Great Britain leads the world in the green future, and can demonstrate its credentials with the highest carbon taxes, lowest CO2 emissions and highest uptake of green technologies!
Translation: we outsource manufacturing ability and technological expertise to foreign countries, become an importer and end consumer of everything and eventually produce nothing.
Jesus wept…
May 1, 2023
A very famous washing up liquid manufacturer is now suggesting washing up in cold water.
I imagine that laundry will followā¦and no doubt our daily showers/baths?
May 1, 2023
so the M1 near Sheffield all dropped to 60 mph speed limit, proudly announced as “for air quality reasons” on the signs. I thought John you had assured us that the whips had told you this was going to be stopped? Seems there is no real democracy in this country and the public sector has just decided to enforce low speed limits all the time regardless of what the politicians say. how and why are they allowed to permanently reduce limits like this? who voted for this nonsense?
May 1, 2023
I understand that India has bought more oil from Russia than any other country. It refines the oil and then sells it, with a markup, to the EU, in fact it is the biggest supplier of oil to the EU – Russian oil of course. Preferable obviously to Rosebank!
May 1, 2023
At the behest of the World Economic Forum, to ‘own nothing and be happy’ whether we like it or not. – we have decimated our, Steel, Ceramics, Glass, Aluminium, industries and are totally de-industrialising, effectively to bolster the totalitarian Chinese Communist Party.
Since its inception, Mankind – unlike all other animal species, has always struggled with the Planet.
We didn’t make it, – and should stop even behaving and thinking as though we did.
We are equally deluded if we presume we can control its weather systems – far less its Climate.
We must ditch the nonsense, – go back to properly powering our economies, – by exploring for our Coal, Oil & Gas and eventually Nuclear, and beat the CCP. at its own game leaving their manufacturing plants as Mark Carney of the W.E.F. would say as….”Stranded Assets”. If we don’t, we’ll simply end up being ruled by Xi Jinping.
Currently today’s politicians however, Civil Servants, and University professors possess knowledge aplenty, but without any trace of Wisdom.