I say to all those who write to me wanting to make faster progress to net zero two things. This needs to a world wide movement, as the main producers of CO 2 currently are China, the USA and EU, and the main growth comes from China and India. It can only succeed if it is a popular revolution, as for success it requires everyone in the world with a gas or coal heating system, with an ICE vehicle, with a meat diet, with a wish to travel by plane to change the way we live our lives.
Popular revolutions have been common in my lifetime to date. There was the revolution in advanced country living standards based on the arrival of the phone, the car, the washing machine and the fridge as the commonplace of each household rather than the privileges of the few in the later decades of the last century. This century has seen the digital revolution rush to success on a wave of popular buying and support. So many people have afforded a mobile phone or a home computer or pad, because they wanted the on line services these gadgets can bring. It took no government subsidy, no bans on rival products, no endless exhortation by Ministers to power the revolution. Mighty corporations, mainly American arose and vowed the public, with Amazon’s all conquering on line shopping, Alphabet’s far reaching searches and information, Microsoft’s near universal software, Apple’s dominance in equipment and Facebook/Meta’s ways of people talking to each other by internet.
So the Green revolution will succeed when it has the products and services that fly off the shelves because they serve us better and are affordable. Instead of governments taxing, regulating and lecturing us on what we have to do to get CO 2 down, they should be creating the conditions where companies can emerge that vow us with the new ideas. I would like a heat pump heating system for my London flat but am told there isn’t one that I can buy as I cannot place a box outside my window on the side of the building. If there is a supplier out there that can help me let me know. I have just bought a modern replacement gas boiler for my home because the heat pumps were far too dear to install and to run and would not necessarily heat to the same standard as gas. Where are the electric heating systems that are better and no dearer than the gas ones most of us use? What is the point of a heat pump if you operate it on a cold day when most of our electricity is generated from fossil fuels as it uses a lot of electricity?
The refusal of around half of UK households to readily take up the offer of a “free ” smart meter shows the revolution has a long way to go to be truly popular as the digital one is. Many people fear the new electricity system will mean dearer and less reliable power, and fear the smart meter will come to control or manipulate them in ways they do not want.
May 29, 2023
Good morning.
I think your last sentence is what is going to happen. They will make things both dearer and harder to maintain – Coercion by another name.
Not a good look for a nation that claims to be a free society.
May 29, 2023
+many
Phew!
That claim is getting harder and harder to make!!
May 29, 2023
Indeed dearer to fit, less efficient, more expensive and harder to maintain and often less convenient more expensive to run and shorter lived too.
“How you could get a green revolution” well stop the war on CO2 it is plant, tree and crop food and on balance a net benefit. The “solutions” pushed by government wind, solar, public transport, EV, heat pumps, hydrogen make no sig. difference to CO2 many actually increase CO2. They just give use expensive and unreliable systems and expensive energy too. Plus they destroy and export jobs.
I see that 44% of civil servants call home their main point of work. Is it any wonder that the NHS, passport office, border force, defence, government, LEAs… are all such a sick joke! Tax breaks too in doing this as then you can claim travel to your other work places against tax and for use of home work expenses.
May 29, 2023
Price food caps are a wrongheaded policy says the Telegraph leader today. Indeed they are, to join all the other wrongheaded policies from Rishi and these fake Conservatives.
To join the lockdowns, the coerced net harm (dangerous and ineffective) vaccines, the war on landlords (thus tenants) & motorists, the self employed, small businesses, wage controls, net zero, the pushing of EVs, heat pumps, the open door low skilled immigration, the over regulation of everything, the absurdly high tax levels, the QU currency debasement…
May 29, 2023
You can’t claim tax breaks for expenses of commuting from home to the main office even if you are a designated home worker.
The taxman is not stupid.
May 29, 2023
If home is your âmain place of workâ you can, I am assured, claim for business travel away from your main place of work just as you can in general for travel away from your main place of work elsewhere.
Just as if that were the main office but you travelled to another office on business one day.
.
May 29, 2023
A lot of the employees of the big consultancies are legally contractually based at home. This means that they can get tax free expenses for travel to any of the consultancies offices, or the offices of any of their clients. Of course IR35 stops independent consultants working for themselves from getting such expenses tax free. It’s one of many anti business policies of the current conlab government.
May 29, 2023
HMRC says that the âplace at which an employee works is a permanent workplace if he or she attends it regularly for the performance of the duties of the employment.â http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM32065.htm.
But if your home is your permanent work place then surely occasional travel to other places for work reasons surely qualifies?
May 29, 2023
If your home is your permanent place of work, is it then subject to a special type of house insurance and health and safety at work rules?
May 29, 2023
N S
I would have thought claiming for anything when working from home on PAYE terms would be difficult, especially when you are getting paid a London weighting allowance of many thousands of pounds to cover the so called extra expense of living and travelling to work in a high cos area.etc etc.
But then when has common sense ever come into the equation.
Completely different if you are self employed of course.
May 29, 2023
You can claim for reasonable home office expenses too.
May 29, 2023
Gabe
I wonder, do the lose their Inner and Outer London weighting allowances?
May 29, 2023
”free society” my arse
May 29, 2023
+++
Exactly!
Lol
May 29, 2023
Glen cullen
++Ă++ thousands.
May 30, 2023
Of course, as John rightly says, this needs to be a world-wise movement.
However, his followers start screeching “globalists!” as soon as this simple truth is stated.
Balanced, informed people have been saying exactly this for decades, however, and great progress has been made despite the former.
May 31, 2023
We cannot affect the global temperature. We cannot control the steady rise in CO2, CO2 is not the main driver of global temperature. Our present âpauseâ is nine years and counting, There. is no evidence of a change in the weather for 100 years. Read it up for heavenâs sake before the Labour Party crashes our oil industry
May 29, 2023
We used to buy stuff because we wanted it ( rightly or wrongly).
Or at least we had been gently and pleasantly told that we wanted it.
The old world of advertising was glamorous and aspirational.
How foolish to try to foist and impose inferior goods on us by multiple trickeries.
I also object to the way many tradesmen have been turned into bossy, brainwashed zealots.
Plumbers terrified of using too much water FGS!
Electricians who lie about the power of wall heaters!
May 29, 2023
Do these green enthusiasts who beg for a speedier change realise what net zero will mean?
They will be cold, hungry, lonely, observed 24/7, stationary, penniless and deafened by heat pumps ( as now discovered by DEFRA).
And very soonâŠDEAD.
People can not live like that.
May 29, 2023
The London Mayor if re-elected next year will declare an climate fossil fuel emergency and ban any fossil fuel stations within London ….you’ll buy an EV and be happy and healthier
May 29, 2023
I bet he will get re-elected somehow.
Loads of leccy-less super expensive EVs sitting in driveways etc?
But that wonât matter cos the facial recognition drones will send you back from your 15 minute border.
Theyâll enforce THOSE borders!
May 29, 2023
A decade ago your comments would’ve been considered a joke ….however today what you’ve said is reality
May 29, 2023
Glen
How about the toxic air that has just been outlined inside and within the underground railway system, is it going to be cleaned, filtered, or the owners fined ?
Apparently it is alleged that it is up to 10 times worse than the air outside in general, and exceeds all of the health limits set for elsewhere in general.
May 29, 2023
I know that people say this is all about money.
Profiting from a new industrial revolution.
But the weird thing is that the over-expensive products are not readily available nor do they work.
And advertisers are doing their best to alienate potential customers.
You need heat, water and detergent to wash clothes.
High settings to keep warm and dry.
Transport to keep life going.
Properly flushing loos to keep healthy.
Peace, quiet and freedom to keep sane. etc etc.
All civilisations and eras have had smoothly functioning systems.
Look at Victorian kitchensâŠthey had everything bar the electricity.
All net zero does is destroy a system that worked perfectly.
The aim is for us to have nothing at allâŠNet Zero??
May 29, 2023
Well good old King of hypocrisy Charles has reduced the temperature on one of his swimming pools. What temp does Rishi have his pool at? He had to upgrade the grid up in Yorkshire it seems did he use a heat pump?
Heat pumps for swimming pools work far better than for heating houses in general as you are usually heating them in summer and they do not need to be that hot. So you can get a good “Coefficient of Performance” figure. Unlike when heating a house and hot water in the depths of say a Scottish winter.
May 29, 2023
++many
They need to give up their private jets!
We have the most in Europe, they are more polluting than commercial and it is said that if they were done away with weâd be halfway to meeting our so-called stupid, pointless carbon target.
StillâŠwhat with all thatâs been done to the markets maybe theyâll have to pawn the planes?
May 29, 2023
And first and business class. helicopters and flying half empty planes is hugely inefficient too.
May 29, 2023
Years ago a chap of my acquaintance proposed that heat pumps could be useful for growing crops like tomatoes under glass, but the government responded that it was easier to import tomatoes from Spain. Now suddenly heat pumps represent wonderful new technology which we must all welcome even if we only replaced our gas boiler a few years ago because the government said that our existing gas boiler was old and inefficient and unsafe.
May 29, 2023
Well!!
Expletive x quite a few.
All those beautiful and productive glasshouses ripped down for housing.
My lovely MIL always used to say that when the govt. wanted you to eat potatoes you ate potatoes.
We used to laugh ant the notion that govt. was manipulative but now it wants us to eat bugs đ.
May 29, 2023
Can make a lot of sense, heat pumps work well if you are not pumping the heat through too many degrees up hill.
10C to 20C perhaps x 10 Coefficient of Performance in practice but -10C to 60C for hot water in freezing winter COP not much better then x1.2 or so – and so rather pointless. Esp. as electricity is three times the cost of gas anyway.
See Carnot efficiency.
May 29, 2023
Heat pumps work even better when backed up by a diesel generators powering electric convertor heater and propane gas heater & cookers âŠ.but that only for the elite rich green tories, for everyone else its a woolie hat or the climate police
May 29, 2023
Yes indeed I wish theyâd taken the idea on board! Then we might not have a tomato shortage!
I think Dick Strawbridge did something like it in that TV prog set in Tywardreath.
Heated a greenhouse with an underground âheat sinkâ.
Couldâve built an old-fashioned hot bed and brought on out-of-season stuff too though.
But none of this green cr*p is BETTER than what we had cheaply a couple of years ago. Nor is it better than the pre electric/gas/paraffin solutions.
May 29, 2023
I think Net Zero is a good idea. Net Zero immigration numbers, Net Zero national debt. Even Net Zero carbon works for me, if that means extending our temperate rain forests balances the burning of fossil fuels.
Net Zero immigration means population decline, as girls have the option of taking up a career rather than being obliged to marry and have children, as they would in other cultures. That will mean insufficient old age care, but perhaps in time the country might eventually be able to grow the food it needs to feed the population, without relying on imports.
May 29, 2023
Perhaps not if the county is covered entirely in trees unless we just live off nuts, maple syrup, apples, cherries, plumbs⊠perhaps!
May 29, 2023
Then again that with the odd wild boar and bit of game does not sound too bad a diet.
May 29, 2023
net zero House of Lords?
May 29, 2023
…. and net-zero is self inflected by this tory government ….they could stop it tomorrow
May 29, 2023
Exactly bogus science, hugely damaging and âself inflictedâ by this foolish government. Even more patently bonkers than the lockdowns, the net harm vaccines and Majorâs moronic ERM fiasco!
May 29, 2023
“So the Green revolution will succeed when it has the products and services that fly off the shelves because they serve us better and are affordable.”
Page 19 of the Net Zero Strategy promised us electrical energy that was “abundant, cheap…and always available at the flick of a switch.”
This will never be possible using renewables which is why the Green Revolution will never succeed and we will be left with expensive intermittent energy and the rationing of energy, food, heating and transport with the Government now proposing “behavioural change” as the way to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 (or is it now 2040 as recently proposed by the UN?)
If anthropogenic CO2 emissions were a problem the Government would have started a new nuclear program as soon as the CCA was signed as nuclear is the only low emission CO2 energy which can be abundant, affordable and reliable. We will have just the expensive French/Chinese Hinkley Point C by 2035 capable of suppling just 5% or less of our electrical energy by the 2035 decarboisation date.
May 29, 2023
+1
May 29, 2023
If it works and, at great cost to the consumer if it does.
May 29, 2023
Mark B :
Yes, they should have started immediately the CCA was enacted a program replicating the very successful Sizewell B followed by RR SMRs and research into breeder reactors.
I believe the duff technology of EDF’s EPR together with expensive Chinese funding was selected by the then Secretary of Energy in the coalition government, Sir Ed Davey, BECAUSE it was going to be late and expensive so as to discredit nuclear power and make their preferred option, wind power, look more attractive.
Unfortunately wind power is incapable of providing âcheap, abundant, âalways there at the flick of a switchâ power.
Nuclear is not only abundant and reliable it can be sufficiently inexpensive to waste energy producing green methane via hydrogen (electrolysis) and the Sabatier process. This green methane can then be used for all our existing heating boilers and for all existing ices (petrol or diesel) with minimal conversion.
The big advantage is not only are existing fossil fuel devices still usable but it is no longer necessary to spend vast sums upgrading the local and national grids to cope with all the electricity needed for heat pumps/resistive heating and evs.
Not that I believe that increasing CO2 in the atmosphere is bad for the planet, in fact quite the reverse as it is plant food and there is no increase in the warming effect because of IR saturation.
May 30, 2023
The Chinese Hinckley has already conked out. By 2030 we’ll only have Sizewell left for maybe another 10 years.
May 29, 2023
Agree totally however a main issue is the dissembling by HMG, frankly lies on the cost and effectiveness of heat pumps, I read the other day someone with problems was told they needed an oil boiler back up, how does that work then? Solar/wind need vast arrays of batteries to even flows at egregious expense, electric cars arenât green if you look at end to end, production to scrapping, vast electric needs we cannot provide so potentially ordinary families will suffer reduced supply and probably will not be able to afford and so it goes on.
Why is take up so poor. The public have seen through these âliesâ. We donât believe you.
Donât agree on smart meters, I am almost pathologically attached to it as it has helped/driven me to be as energy efficient lower cost as possible.
And in other news a Tory government is considering price controls. Communist Russia would be proud.
And letâs put hundreds of small shop keepers out of business who need higher margins. Government in thrall to big business once again. Shameful.
May 29, 2023
Indeed.
As you say “electric cars arenât green if you look at end to end, production to scrapping” they do not even save CO2 as keeping your old ICE car is almost always far better in CO2 terms, cost terms and practicality terms. We do not even have spare low carbon CO2 to charge them all with.
May 29, 2023
Vastly more expensive too mainly in depreciation and higher financing costs (interest or loss of investment returns) but also in higher insurance costs, higher tyre wear.
Battery depreciation alone is about ÂŁ40 PW. So if you do a typical 120 miles a week that is 33p per mile just in battery depreciation. Perhaps ÂŁ1 per mile in car financing costs and total car depreciation then you still have the extra insurance costs, extra tyre wear and the electricity to pay for.
May 29, 2023
The Globalists are using propaganda, coercion, taxes and banning the cheaper and better “fossil fuel” options because it has nothing whatsoever to do with the climate and everything to do with CONTROL of “the peasants.”
As the wonderful Neil Oliver regularly says on his GB News show “it’s never about what they say it’s about.”
May 29, 2023
Donna
Thank you for your words of common sense!
The short videos that people such as Neil Oliver show of Gates, Shwaab and others speaking – is proof of what the real reason is for net zero! As you say, control! Nothing to do with the climate at all!
JR
But I do also agree with you – if a product is good, coercion to buy should not be necessary!
May 29, 2023
Neil Oliver is almost invariably spot on.
May 29, 2023
Until the scientists and politicians have an understanding that heating properties is simply replacing the heat that the structure loses and the vast majority of cases nearly all properties built prior to the late 1980s had very poor insulation standards with concrete floors and either solid walls or uninsulated cavities. The internal flooring systems lacked insulation and sound proofing. This all adds up to massive reconstruction works and to keep putting the fear of God into people about saving the world is about as using a big stick to beat the dead horse.
It will happen with the actual replacement of all the old housing stock as they become too expensive to live in but that will take decades. There is a natural cycle for all things and these madcap schemes are being used as the catalyst for the globalists to force upon their beliefs.
Slowly, slowly catchee monkey. The world is not going to end as the green zealots claim and China, India , Russia, USA will continue as they are. They have no choice. But silly old us will voluntarily place ourselves on the alter to be sacrificed for what. The relatively few people to make billions.
May 30, 2023
In my town 80% of housing is solid wall and way below insulation and convection for a heat pumps and conventional insulation won’t be sufficient. It takes six inches off rooms and needs services renewal. Very expensive and impractical. It’s possible to insulate walls, I which are the main heat loss using multifoils, which take up only 60mm, but even these don’t work with heat pumps.
May 29, 2023
Sir John, there will be no Green revolution. Just a Green coup d’etat.
May 29, 2023
Revolution can be achieved by the masses’ will. When only a few want ‘revolution’ which it succeeds in it turns out to be dictatorship.
Dictatorship generally drives the masses to despair prior to a somewhat violent end.
May 29, 2023
correct
May 29, 2023
Agreed Bill.
May 29, 2023
A Conservative Government went to great expense to send us all a letter and booklet to explain why we should not leave the EU. Can it not do the same to justify net-zero? And what is meant by green reveloution ?
We are told that the level of CO2 has increased since the industrial revolution. But so has the Global population. Why only the increase in CO2 be the driver of Climate change and not the other or a combination of both?
The Planet was able to re-cycle CO2 before the industrial period started and in fact still does as only a very very tiny fraction of CO2 form burning fossil fuel adds to the Global amount recycled each year. Again we are told that our tiny fraction of CO2 generation is causing climate change. The green revolution is actually the destruction of the earth’s CO2 recycling system by humankind. How much greenery has been removed since the start of the industrial revolution to support the increased population ? How much waste and pollution generated. How much heat generated in big cities to generate thermal currents in the atmosphere to alter weather patterns? A big list to investigate as to possible causes for Global warming. Just warming up the planet will release more CO2 from natural storage. It is a fact that CO2 will reflect radiated heat. Ten times less than water vapour but it tends to hang around more than water vapour which is short lived as turns into rain.
If the CO2 layer around the earth thickens more radiated heat will be reflected back, but so will the Sun’s rays. Will it get colder?
A lot of the CO2 story is based on computer modeling and we know how accurate this can be.
Not a simple bad CO2 story for Climate Change. But a nice simple scape goat for the Politicians who like to belive the science which furthers Political aims and objectives. Did you know the earth was flat at one time and beware if you said it was not so.
May 29, 2023
Where do you take your âscienceâ from? The Beano?
May 29, 2023
Another great comment Hefner.
You are always on the money on here.
Well done.
May 30, 2023
Why to you take your science from the Beano?
May 29, 2023
John, Yep The population of the World has doubled in 60 years, and Co2 we are told has also increased, so I just wonder if the “Experts” have noticed a simple connection.
More people use and require more power, more housing, more cars, more heating, more food, more water, more sewerage treatment., yet we have the same amount of land, but now put to a different more intensive use !
If so called Global Warming is man made (and nothing to do with the Sun) then surely Governments should be looking at some sort of an incentive to reduce population growth.
But no, all the ponzi schemes they run (State Pension, immigration, etc etc) rely upon increasing the population, to gain more and more tax income.
May 29, 2023
John Mcdonald
Very well said pal.
As was said many years ago when working in a housing development company:
They are backing the wrong horse the biggest threat to our industry is the lack of H2O. We can micro manage energy requirements and system designs but the one thing you need is potable H2O.
With all these extra million bodies camping in over here the water supply capacity has not changed.
Where are the desalination plants the new estates being built with black water storage capacity for bodily functions?
Just the same as the electrical distribution network, too many people peeing before they got their flies open.
May 29, 2023
Proposals for new reservoirs get contested! There should be more sited close to major rivers which have flood problems then they could take the excess flow, and provide water when needed. Vested interests prevent it of course.
May 29, 2023
John McDonald
Remembering too, that 97% of scientists agree with their funders.
May 29, 2023
Would such a leaflet be written by the same unscientific government âexpertâ & morons who still claim on government web sites that cycling and walking produce no direct or indirect CO2 and who think that EV cars are âzero emissionsâ when they are actually more emissions but elsewhere vehicles. No statistically significant warming in circa the lasts 25 years. Even before that no proof it was human caused. We have had it warmer and colder in the past and generally with much more CO2 around.
May 29, 2023
There is little if any additional greenhouse/additional warming effect from increasing current levels of CO2, or any other greenhouse gases, such as methane, because of IR (Infra Red) saturation. Look up the work of Professors Happer (Princeton) and Wijngaarden (York University, Toronto). Their paper was published in 2019 and has never been refuted by the IPCC, just ignored.
May 29, 2023
John
The so called NZ revolution you so complacently describe will be brutally imposed in the most vicious and sinister ways but then you know this and refuse to condemn it
John, your fundamental task is to expose this authoritarian barbarism and defend our most basic of freedoms that millions shed their blood to protect. That is your job. We simply ask you do it.
I for one am sick to the back teeth of Tory halfwits sitting in silence or in many cases complicit while the fascist Left in the guise of Labour, their union thugs, LD and the SNP continue their purge of our institutions and this nation’s historical people. When they take full control I genuinely fear what will happen and what oppressive laws they will pass to demonise certain identities.
May 29, 2023
Dom
Talk TV and GB News are trying to debunk the lies, as are others, but the cult of net zero has a lot of funding behind it; even businesses and organisations have been coerced into considering ESG before making a decision or risk their funding.
For some reason, many politicians have believed the rhetoric – hook, line and sinker.
May 29, 2023
Sharon
You forgot the boat and the jetty.
May 29, 2023
Just read that in France the wind and solar industries are not too pleased as the French demand more nuclear. As far as revolution goes there is plenty of alternative opinion & facts and groups challenging what we are force fed, which should prompt us to question and revolt. Just looking at wind turbines & blades and what is needed to produce them and of course subsequently replace them, due to only a short lifespan is mind boggling. Reading of what damage is thought to be being done offshore & onshore to animals & birds by these things is very concerning. There are very interesting articles on the Stop These Things website with an article worth a read titled: Stop These Killing Fields: – Wind Industry ‘Saves Planet’ by Slaughtering Whales, Dolphins & More
May 29, 2023
I doubt they believe it. But they know where their personal interests lie.
May 29, 2023
+1
May 29, 2023
100%
Watching a vid of a Select Committee ( hope thatâs the correct term) talking about this WHO âtreatyâ I saw no urgency, no anger, no passion. The members were totally relaxed about the prospect of a huge and further loss of sovereignty. Some probably welcomed it!
And already I read that viral sabres are being rattled re further imprisonments.( a new and deadlier virus!,)
Is that what they want?
I swear, that generally, the sheeple believe we are back to normal and if the whole thing happens again they will be crushedâŠutterly.
May 29, 2023
Once Western nations have signed up to this UN treaty there will shortly come another pandemic.
May 29, 2023
Sir John will not do his job because he will not take any action which indicates party disloyalty. He will say all the ‘reasonable’ things like today but he is afraid of becoming an ‘activist’.
He says he can change the leadership and their false Conservatism and dangerous ideologies from within. Doesn’t seem to be very successfull does it? They are not listening and they now think price controls is good Conservative policy. Sir John will remain loyal even as the party continues its ruination of us.
May 29, 2023
The revolutions you list all came because they really were beneficial in ways that benefited peoples lives, gave value for money, more free time and freedom of movement.
This so called green revolution is being imposed with fear. Fear of a fraudulent climate change scam, fear of CO2, a minor trace gas that is essential to life on earth, currently at historically low levels. This ‘green’ revolution is leading to measures that control freedom of movement, freedom of speech, loss of agricultural land and food production.
Nobody seems prepared to discuss the wholesale slaughter of birds and bats by grossly inefficient, subsidised wind turbines.
May 29, 2023
Indeed
May 29, 2023
+1 BOF
Itâs hardly a âgreenâ revolution when the machinery being used, and materials required for construction, are so damaging to the environment.
May 29, 2023
What it needs is a government that listens to the public and STOPS this idiotic road to self destruction of net zero rubbish, ozone /climate chance/net zero they are all but a thick smoke screen to screw every last ÂŁÂŁÂŁâs of our money, put simply if the great British people really believe in this net zero crap then there would be more than one MP in Parliament, whatâs needed right now is a party to be truthful with us and stop all this disaster nonsense of that we will all fry in 30 odd years time , this is a fundamental reason why we are struggling to make ends meet because net zero rubbish as a effect on every aspect of our life and our a hard earned cash, when the weatherman with all the satellites and computers canât get the next dayâs forecast right we should take there views with a pinch of salt, thatâs my rant for the day on net zero rubbish
May 29, 2023
Mick +1
May 29, 2023
Unfortunately there is a majority of the public who, if under 35 have been brainwashed at school and university, or take their news from the propaganda channels owned by a few global corporations and worst of all the forever lying BBC, with it’s ban on any debate or disagreement. The dim blue, red and green politicians rely on these brainwashed votes and believe that they can get away with it. We are following the example Germany, where Greens dominate while being in the minority.
15 years ago the UK had some of the cheapest electricity in Europe. Now we are the most expensive except Germany and Denmark. Both of these countries had followed the renewables route that we have copied. But very few of the public have realised this.
May 29, 2023
Mick
What a good rant it was pal.
May 29, 2023
Well exactly about the economic justification for sustainability but that is being tweaked by regulation isn’t it?
Now your bunch are really getting into the realms of Soviet fantasy by trying to force supermarkets to set prices to those you want. What a joke this Snake is! Perhaps a snake with a jester’s hat and an hammer and sickle on it is the most appropriate image. Do you realise a/ that it’s 2023 not 1973 and b/ that you have an obligatory General Election next year? If Tory MPs have any credibility at all, you need to disengage and start anew elsewhere.
May 29, 2023
Hi john
Smart meters are not free, we all have had cost to our energy bills for some years now to pay for them,
It’s only the power companies making money by not sending meter readers out which also means a loss of employment
having a smart meter was the worst thing I did , I always tell people not to have them, I have been over charged and never got my money returned,
monthly meter charges have risen, if I Didn’t use any power I would still be paying hundreds of pounds a year standing charges
Thank you
May 29, 2023
Nor very smart as many compatibility problems in switching them between providers. Plus they can switch your supply off at will.
May 29, 2023
Question Sir John
What is the % of existing properties with un-suitable wet central heating systems that are installed with mini and microbore piping and undersized radiators?
All this changeover to electric heating for that is what air pump systems are, where is the electrical distribution system to meet the demand?
Still no plan for the safe environmental disposal of all the various components of all the renewable sources.
May 29, 2023
Well not undersized for gas or oil boilers just for tepid and very expensive (and usually noisy) heat pumps. That will need vast grid capacity and generating capacity and vastly improved insulation improvements to actually work at all.
May 29, 2023
TT,
The engineer who looked after my ckmputer needs in Spain spent his early career working for the UK electricity ganerating board as an engineer. He once told me that six Teslas in a street on high speed charge would blow the trips in the local sub station. Our infrastructure is not fit for current needs, never mind when everyone has an EV.
May 29, 2023
why would users take high-speed charge at greater cost than lower overnight and cheaper? High speed in motorway services etc will cater for need, but not for homes.
May 29, 2023
Why would power dependent upon the wind be any cheaper at night? Does the wind blow harder and more consistently during the night?
Will the solar panels be providing any power at night to make the electricity less expensive?
Will the heat pumps which need to run 24/7 because of their low output be switched off at night to provide power for charging evs?
You will only be able to charge your ev when the wind blows and then in strict rotation with your neighbours so as not to blow the local substation’s fuse. Tough buns if they don’t get to you by the following morning or, worse, they drain your battery to keep the lights on in the local hospital’s operating theatres.
May 29, 2023
I have a son-in-law who had solar panels and battery installed which is charged by it. It provides evening lighting etc and EV charging from time to time – not high speed of course and not required. If sun is forecast the next day he can put the remaning charge into the car.
May 30, 2023
A domestic EV AC charger provides up to around 7kW, that’s around 30A.
Boiling a kettle draws 3kW.
Better hope the “street” don’t all try cooking Sunday lunch, let alone Christmas lunch, at the same time then ..
May 29, 2023
Turbo
Recent report sent back to Government from a Plumbing Heating Ventilation Trade magazine, (about 6 months ago) sorry no longer have a copy, but from memory I seem to recall that only 60% of possible property installations that were suitable for a heat pumps, would not require any other modifications to pipework and radiators.
It also reported that the green scheme was failing because not enough “QUALIFIED” trained engineers were available to meet the government targets, and the number of engineers/plumbers training was falling behind expectations.
Report was broken down into much, much more detail, and made very interesting reading, think I actually sent a copy to JR for information at the time.
May 29, 2023
For a comprehensive, positive look on dealing with the climate change threats, why not visit regeneration-dot-org.
At least one revolution is clear already: the ever decreasing costs of solar energy. From the above website:
The growth of solar energy has been consistently underestimated. The manufactured price per watt in 1955 was $1,785; today it is ten cents. Solar-generating capacity in the United States powers one in eleven homes. Renewable energy can and should be 95 to 100 percent of world energy production, ending fossil fuel combustion.
May 29, 2023
And does this country get the same amounts of sunshine as the US, Peter? I don ‘t think so.
May 29, 2023
@Hat man:
Climate change is a worldwide issue, so will be the solutions to manage it.
May 29, 2023
Thank you for this observation, Peter. I’m sure the Chinese and the Indians would be interested to hear it.
May 30, 2023
So there’s no point the British Government bankrupting us when the Chinese, Indians (and many others) are refusing to participate in the lunacy.
May 29, 2023
So-called ârenewable energyâ, which is more accurately described as âintermittent, unreliable energyâ can never provide baseload.
May 29, 2023
@Barbara:
With a bit of ingenuity and further development(storage and transport) I think such a base load is quite possible. The sun always shines somewhere on earth, even when we sleep.
May 29, 2023
Not really. A project to plaster a large area of Australian desert with solar panels and supply the output to Singapore has collapsed on grounds of cost, inconvenience to the Singapore grid (the Australian power would dip long before sunset in Singapore and have to be replaced by local generation), and risk of damage to the interconnectors. Transmission losses would have been quite hefty despite the use of HVDC. It would have consumed prodigious amounts of copper for the cables.
May 29, 2023
I checked a Dutch solar PV advice site. It tells me a 10 panel 4kWp system costs around âŹ7,500 which is âŹ1.875/W – rather more than your claim of 10 cents. It says that solar panel costs have risen by 50% since 2021 because of higher energy and raw material prices. It gives a system payback time of 8 years, which is doubtless helped by high electricity prices, but is subject to many variables about how well sited the system is and whether you are able to use the majority of its output by being at home during the day.
Grids with a high volume of solar installations are running into problems with the need to curtail the solar peak, with storage struggling to be economic. A Tesla powerwall is âŹ9,000 plus âŹ2-3,000 installation. That adds a lot to the cost of solar. Germany still needs to make huge investments in transmission capacity to try to distribute solar surpluses, again a huge extra cost from pursuing solar.
May 29, 2023
@Mark,
Although these “10 cents” is not my personnal claim but a citation, you cannot really calculate as you just did, dividing a 25 or 30 year investment by the power of 10 solar panels. It is all a bit more complicated (and boring).
May a graph by the International Energy Agency will make the point clearer: just google for:
“Evolution of solar PV module cost by data source, 1970-2020” to find that graph.
You are right that there are many problems still to be solved in the energy transition (you mention network capacity and storage as examples). At least for storage I hope that there will be technical innovations (or inventions) coming to our rescue in the coming years.
May 29, 2023
You claimed the manufactured price per watt is 10 cents for solar PV (check what you wrote). I showed it is âŹ1.875 to actually install. Of course, that is not the cost of a kWh of energy: I cited the site’s estimate that it would take 8 years to pay for the cost or the panels at current electricity prices, and pointed out that that actually isn’t that bad, albeit it depends on electricity prices remaining high, and on being able to take advantage of the generous Dutch scheme for net metering that means you get credit for negative value solar surplus (as has been seen across Europe in recent days) at the same rate you pay for peak winter electricity after dark.
May 30, 2023
@Mark: I see your point. But the issue (“revolution”) mentioned in the regeneration dot org quote is, that the price of generating electricity from solar has followed a curve which goes down much more steeply than expected. Maybe not as steeply as in electronics (âMooreâs Lawâ) but still. I would call that a revolution in the making, quite apart from inflation, material and labour costs, storage problems, etc.
Look back 20 years and see how technology has changed the world completely. Nobody can predict innovations in the next 15 years, but Iâm optimistic.
May 30, 2023
The point really is that the cost of solar panels is not the issue. It’s the cost of installation and the cost of dealing with summer midday surpluses and the lack of power when it’s most needed. This was already becoming a problem in the UK when the solar FiT scheme was first made much less generous and then halted altogether. Yesterday industry consultant EnAppSys informed us
GB / NL / BE : NG ESO in GB is currently dumping power into Belgium and Netherlands. Unfortunately Belgium and Netherlands have more power than they need at the moment so NG ESO is paying upto ÂŁ550/MWh to dump power into these countries ^PH
#toosunny
That ÂŁ550/MWh (55p/kWh) of export subsidy will be paid for by UK consumers instead of being charged to solar installations and wind farms that should have been switched off if they had no battery to charge. Solar is deeply impractical in larger doses, and very costly to handle.
May 30, 2023
Better be careful Peter. Dutch farmers and supporters around with pitchforks.
May 30, 2023
@Stred: No worry, I’ve told them to cross the North Sea and help the British to grow more British food! According to this blog that is just what is needed!
In our stamp-size country we just have to many cattle to much artificial fertilizer.
And we export too much agri products for such a small country.
May 30, 2023
Peter
Don’t downplay your country: Delft and Leiden engineers have worked wonders over the decades with the creation of Flevoland thanks to the Afsluitdijk, with the option to fill in more of the IJsselmeer to create more polder land: there really is no need to turf farmers out. Their predecessors did much to help with making the Fens into productive land too.
May 29, 2023
PVL :
There are no “climate change threats”.
The history shows both current temperature and CO2 at very low levels since the start of the Cambrian explosion 500m years ago. Most of the time there has been no ice at the poles and temperature has been up to 15 degrees C higher. CO2 has been 10 times or more higher than today with no correlation between CO2 level and temperature until when the current low levels for both have occurred and then CO2 follows temperature (Antarctic Vostok Ice Core Data). Even the history since the last ice age which ended just 10,000 years ago shows temperatures higher than today and no correlation between CO2 and temperature.
The current satellite global temperature data shows a slow benign warming of 0.13 degrees C per decade and the IR data used by Happer & Wijngaarden shows negligible if any additional warming by increasing levels of any greenhouse gases because of IR saturation. Their 2019 paper has never been refuted by the IPCC just ignored.
Complicated, chaotic many variable systems, such as our climate, cannot have a âtipping pointâ and there is no theoretical or experimental proof that going from 3 molecules of CO2 in the atmosphere to 4 molecules per 10,000 will produce a climate breakdown/emergency/crisis.
The IPCCâs models donât even take water vapour/clouds into account or that the sun is shining all the time. They have no explanation at all for the worst climate change of all, the occurrence of ice ages.
The data shows that extreme weather is not getting either more frequent or more intense. The poles are still covered in ice and the Australian Great Barrier Reef is in the best condition it has been since records began, and anyway corals prefer warmer water. In fact, since temperature changes occur at and towards the poles and very little at the equator increasing average global temperature evens out the temperature difference between the equator and the poles thus reducing the energy available for storms and extreme weather.
We need more CO2 in the atmosphere not less to aid plant growth and reduce famines. So low is our current level of CO2 that 9 times over the last 800,000 years it has dropped to 180 ppm, just 30 ppm above the level below which plants, and hence all life on earth cannot survive.
May 30, 2023
@Original Richard:
In the Netherlands the climate sceptics are a dying breed. No reason not to read your arguments. I however will side with the weight of science as expressed in IPCC reports, climate summits, and current policies.
May 30, 2023
PvL :
What is the position on CAGW/Net Zero of the BBB Party that won the 2023 Dutch Provincial elections?
If WG1 of the IPCC had found convincing and clear evidence of climate “threats” they wouldn’t need 3000 pages of waffle in their “weight of science” reports.
The “threats” turn up with politicians inventing them. Such as Al Gore at the last WEF conference informing us that the “oceans are boiling” and the BBC broadcasting false reports of extreme weather.
May 29, 2023
So our socialist government wants supermarkets to impose food price caps. Have they learned nothing from such experiences that were endured in the 1970âs? Has nothing been learned from the more recent experiences with energy price caps. Their fundamental ignorance of basic economic principles is breathtaking.
May 29, 2023
You seem to suggest that manufacturers have merely to get off their bottoms and produce wonderful economic ‘green energy’ products. We can buy them and then have some new kind of builder visit our houses and point a new magic machine at the walls and quintuple the insulating properties of said walls.
Obviously not, there is no economically feasible way to green our energy needs. Politics has run up against reality and the laws of nature. At some future date fusion power may provide an answer but the problems of enough lithium and copper will remain. Whichever way the cost will still be humungous.
There is a solution you politicians might like to consider – fewer CO2 producing humans. A smallish proportion produce the most CO2 – reduce them and you drastically reduce the CO2 problem. Unfortunately the very people you need to trim back are politically powerful and will definitely kick back, they are you politicians.
To give an idea of scale you would have to trim about 400 million people off the rich world with a plan for regular haircuts. America, Europe, India and China would be good places to start. Not too drastically or you overload the coffin makers. Or a more democratic general trim back to say 4Bn poor plus rich people. Seems a bit unfair on the poor though. Spread the job over say 50 years. Wars and pandemics are as nothing compared with what is needed.
Or as a politician I am sure you would prefer the ‘do nothing’ option. Just sit back and carry on as you are. Sooner or later Nature will find a solution. The process will be slow and politicians can enjoy many long expensive conferences and meetings and expensive but useless studies and reports. Any sensible politician will be buying or sequestering highish ground and putting armed guards on access roads. Gradually a solution will emerge, but we might not like it very much.
May 30, 2023
Or more CO2 improves the prospects of plant life and civilization for a few more years.
May 29, 2023
Come on John , get real: if we shut down power usage in the entire UK, it would make not a jot of difference to global CO2 output. China is commissioning over 600 new coal-fires power stations in the coming years whose CO2 output will dwarf any contribution from UK Net Zero. In any event, there is no credible evidence for the proposition that mankind driven CO2 drives climate change or for the core claim that the planet is warming. In reality, we are at the end of a multi-decadal cooling period.
Please try and induce a scintilla of scientific sense into the absurd virtue-signalling of energy politics.
May 29, 2023
Put in simple easy to understand terms, the means to a greener future must be market driven. People must have a desire to buy into fhem. The days of being dictated to by a bunch of PPEs with no technical or scientific appreciation are over.
May 29, 2023
agricola : “The days of being dictated to by a bunch of PPEs with no technical or scientific appreciation are over.”
Unfortunately I don’t think you’re right. The CAGW scare is to allow a Net Zero implementation to occur which will turn our country into a authoritarian Soviet style state.
There is no other explanation for the Net Zero lunacy.
May 29, 2023
The UK is financially a very poor country reflected by its weak currency which ought to be good for exports but we don’t make much so we import most everyday things like food which contributes strongly to inflation. While the mandate of the Bank of England is to look after maintaining 2% inflation (they don’t seem to understand that putting up interest rates adds to inflation) who is responsible for the Pound Sterling and its strength? Which Government Minster or Select Committee or Quango is responsible for ensuring a strong GBP? Is it supposed to be The Treasury or is no one responsible for our currency? Because the UK is so financially poor we can only make the UK poorer by foolishly “leading the world on climate” by setting an example to the rest of the world as we go “net zero” that the worlds big polluters are just going to ignore. GBP will further weaken which will lead to further asset stripping of the UK, what Osborne called “inward investment”. We are “doomed” on this chosen path of “managed decline”.
May 29, 2023
I was surprised by your well written, informative and interesting piece this morning. For a Conservative MP on the right of the party to express an interest in heat pumps is revolutionary in itself!
To make the green revolution work requires two issues to be solved. Firstly the grid must be upgraded to cope with what will be a major increase in demand for electricity. We will produce much more renewable electricity if the planning restrictions on onshore installions are lifted; the electricity produced will be the cheapest available to us. More offshore installations on the Dogger Bank are planned, as is an additional interconnector, so that we can increase exports of the extra juice to the French
Secondly, we must embrace EV’s. New models from the major vehicle manufacturers are on the way and prices are coming down. Once we have a million or so EV’s on our roads, charging up overnight and with sufficient charging points at the service stations to cope with demand, we have a grid-scale electricity storage system.
All revolutions are disruptive. What we do not need are dinosaur politicians opposing the necessary changes, particularly those overly influenced by the dying fossil fuel industry.
May 29, 2023
From the impression activists like you give, SG, I fear the Green Revolution is fuelled by ‘jam tomorrow’ (and may even come to a sticky end).
I think you’ll find it’s mainly used EV prices that are falling at the moment, SG. They’re on the market already because their previous owners didn’t want them any more thanks to their well-known limitations.
I also see you want planning restrictions on wind farms lifted. That’ll be popular!
May 29, 2023
Do some sums for yourself Sakira , Depreciation of a car battery that can store and release say ÂŁ1 of electricity is circa ÂŁ2 per cycle plus you only get back about 70p of electricity the rest wasted as heat! Also the battery (a car one) will cost about ÂŁ1,300 to store that ÂŁ1 of electricity and will not last very long either.
Plus it will take loads of fossil fuel to manufacture it. Stationary, heavier non car batteries can be rather cheaper but but still offer a very poor return with little electricity stored per ÂŁ1000 invested. It seems you are reading too much propaganda and believing it!
May 29, 2023
SG : “Once we have a million or so EVâs on our roads, charging up overnight and with sufficient charging points at the service stations to cope with demand, we have a grid-scale electricity storage system.”
So the evs will be both charging overnight and acting as a grid-scale storage system at the same time when the wind isn’t blowing. That’s really clever stuff.
BTW, the batteries from 1m evs could only power the grid for about 1 hour at night if the wind isn’t blowing (which does happen) and then all these batteries would be completely flat and no ev car owners could drive anywhere the followng morning. A really great idea and would solve our town congestion and parking problems.
May 29, 2023
Need bends iron.
Products and services that fulfil consumer demand thrive without subsidy.
Those that donât are ignored and dumped, as are errant MPs eventually.
Quality creates loyalty, but a 5-year service contract is too long for defective ones.
Beyond that dud Lifetime Lords tamper with regulations to their death.
May 29, 2023
SWMBO and I talked yesterday that it would be nice if an electric-heating system were practical in an existing typical house so the ‘wet system’ of piping gas-heated hot water around, with the risk of quiet leaks, could be ditched.âBut with electricity here artificially bumped to twice the price of France or Spain’s, who would be mad enough to even consider any alternatives like modern electric storage heaters?
May 29, 2023
Pol Pot had his Year Zero, we have Net Zero, the left do love their Zero policies, their human crushing utopian agendas.
May 29, 2023
IM :
Yes, in the last century the communists in Russia and China starved millions of their people to death.
Now, in this century they have gained sufficient power in Parliament, the Cvil Service, academia, the judiciary and the state broadcaster to hit us with a false CAGW false and their Net Zero Strategy solution so as kill off as many people as possible with expensive and intermittent energy with the rationing of energy, food, heating and transport.
Many (real) climate scientists predict the coming of another ice age (as did the BBC in the 1970s) and the Net Zero Strategy will wipe out billions of people.
May 29, 2023
+1
May 29, 2023
Sir John, you are making a serious thinking error. This Green Revolution is nothing to do with saving the planet. It is all about control of the masses. Some people understand whatâs going on; others are completely oblivious and are caught up in the endless propaganda we are bombarded with every day. Show me one of your so-called green products and I will show you how it is bad for the environment. CO2 is life, without it nothing grows. I am one of those people who refuse to get a smart meter and long may it continue that I have a choice but I very much doubt it.
May 29, 2023
Yep – it is founded on people control.
May 29, 2023
Christine :
I agree completely with your analysis of the real motives for the Net Zero Strategy.
But I am very happy and grateful that Sir John allows us to make our comments on his Diary.
Are there any other MPs who allow such discussion?
June 1, 2023
OK, Christine, show me with detailed comments about the ingredients in these products why the Ecover brand of cleaning products are worse for the environment than the regular ones.
May 29, 2023
As I post here regularly. C02 is 0.045% of the Earths atmosphere. (To which the (dis)UK contributes 1%-2%)
It is simply not possible for such a tiny amount of gas to have the magical destructive abilities credited to it by the Eco zealots.
May 29, 2023
I have just read the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Messianic Religion. The idea is that the coming Apocalypse is going to be so terrible that the enlightened few have all the justification to do outrageous things to warn ignorant people about it. These enlightened few, he says, are mainly students with no job and no foreseeable future. They are led by a handful of charismatic influencers. Those that are convinced are often people who live in overcrowded countries with minimal levels of education. But if the Messianic/Apocalyptic outrage is loud enough, it can often convert the centre too.
In my opinion he forecast exactly what is happening with climate change – and a number of other mad ideas too.
Those who do not believe in God will believe anything.
May 29, 2023
and those who do show they believe in anything too.
May 29, 2023
Brilliant article Sir John, long overdue. Itâs high time those pressing for Net Zero realise there are practical technical obstacles to achieve this artificially set goal. Yes only a worldwide revolution will achieve the desired outcome. But as expert physicists, engineers and economists have wisely advised the current frenetic rush is simply not achievable let alone affordable. Wind and solar will never provide our essential baseload electrical supply and flawed losing choices by governments have resulted in a timely lack of investment in nuclear, the only source of reliable affordable 24/7 clean energy! Similarly heat pumps and BEVâs are impractical and too expensive for the vast majority of the population. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is the complete absence of open honest debate by politicians (with very few exceptions), the media especially the BBC and academia. Professor Steven Koonin (author of âUnsettledâ) and an expert physicist is encouraging these debates as indeed is GWPF in London, but itâs an uphill struggle. Denial of the issue is not the answer as itâs clear some warming by human influence is causing warming, however, the amount of human input cannot be quantified. From my research itâs clear there is no climate emergency, in fact a warming of just over 1 deg C since pre-industrial revolution time, has seen vast improvements in wealth, health, economic, agricultural and technological change, in fact change beyond comprehension. Setting arbitrary targets such as Net Zero by 2050 is a huge insurmountable obstacle especially as the necessary technical change is not in place on an affordable achievable worldwide scale. Our political elites have therefore created a monster, itâs time for a re-think?
May 29, 2023
[…] How you could get a green revolution â John Redwood […]
May 29, 2023
Smart meters is the wrong name they should be called control and exploit meters. They are to get the masses on their knees – cut them off in case of disputes over anything – get the smart information on how they are using energy and then sell that spy info on to third parties for advertising purposes – supposedly the punters will come begging for more and pay up front – how could the energy companies lose?
May 29, 2023
Now we see the headline âNorthern Ireland may have to lose one million cattle and sheep to meet climate targetsâ, and âwork done by the UK Governmentâs climate advisers suggests chicken numbers would also need to be cut by 5 million by 2035 in NI.â
Last month the NI Assembly passed climate change legislation committing the region to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. There is a separate reduction target of 46% for methane emissions which is largely associated with the agricultural sector.
KPMG reported more than 100,00 jobs linked to the sector would be vulnerable and ÂŁ11bn reduction in economic output.
Sir John, this nonsense is getting very serious now and MUST be stopped before we have food shortages. I expect GB has already put similar legislation in place.
May 29, 2023
Iâm sorry but I donât want a âGreen Revolutionâ, I was quite happy with the way things were years ago or so.
The Greens only have one MP so I think that tells you pretty much all you need to know but here we have it being imposed on us by the government who are supposed to be improving our lives.
I donât know anyone who wants one either
May 29, 2023
Agree with every single word
May 29, 2023
As far as I can see the greens have about 500 MPs, most of them hiding under other party labels.
May 29, 2023
+1
May 29, 2023
Your assessment SirJ is spot on ….please recommend a party with an anti net-zero but pro environment policy
May 29, 2023
Carbon dioxide (the gas of life), is not now, never has been and never will be the main driver of climate change.
May 29, 2023
Remember folks that only ONE single green party MP was elected into the HoCs âŠ.the people have spoken, there’s no mandate for a tory green revolution
May 29, 2023
CO2 is actually good for plant life.
I suggest money would be better spent paying alternative academics to look at whether CO2 is actually changing.
You do realise that any predictions made about the weather and climate beyond the next 24 hours are done by computers. These computer models are incredibly complicated and can easily be tipped one way or another by altering the 6th decimal place of one of a hundred different variables. Climate science is mainly the science of predicting complex fluid mechanics on computers.
The same computer programmers write much more predictable astronomical predictions that are off by 20% one way or another all the time. I see the incorrect models being proven wrong by the James Web telescope every week. But we dont have a time machine to prove the climate models wrong, nor do we have academics to call them out on it.
My BS detector is at deafening volumes when I look into the claims by climate scientists that they can predict how the climate will change.
May 29, 2023
Our esteemed host asks us to consider “how you could get a Green revolution”, as is his practice, by inviting and enabling us to work out for ourselves that the products and lifestyle changes currently being offered – mainly via coercion – are not going to bring a Green revolution because they would bring no net benefit to quality of life.
If we then bring in other factors, such as (a) the ostrich approach to nuclear power (b) the relative scarcity and the physical location of rare earth metals and (c) the fact that the law of physics cannot be rewritten to enable the act of charging an EV car to provide a 600 mile range in 5 minutes, we may conclude that they will never be able to bring net benefit to quality of life.
As with “Europe”, we have by now realised that Net Zero is something that happens to us, indeed is inflicted upon us. We naturally resent anything of the kind.
May 29, 2023
Sir John, good morning. Being more-or-less of an age we remember the days when our comics (densely printed with few illustrations) were filled with tales of adventure, exploration, exciting technology and the victory of the good guys (us) over devious enemies (mainly foreigners) who wished to do us down. Heroes were proper heroes, able to endure immense suffering to defend Queen and country, and only once did I see the façade of unconquerable pluck falter: our hero was trapped, no escape possible, bound gagged, trussed like a Sunday chicken with all escape routes closed. But writers in those days were made of stern stuff and knew their readers. The plot had to keep going, right must be victorious. A single line fixed the difficulty.
With one bound he was free.
The UK is trussed, gagged, defeated and betrayed as Net Zero threatens to ruin our economy, smash the living standards of us all and ensure that the UK will never again rise above the status of a second-rate power. There is, however, an escape route that johnny foreigner has failed to block.
First, we frack. A limited number of licenses should be granted in the name of reaching Net Zero without the hairshirts proposed by all the major UK parties. The first communities to accept fracking exploration and exploitation should be bribed with huge discounts to run the experiment, In the name of lowering CO2 emissions the chosen few then will be encouraged to lower their carbon dioxide emissions by eliminating the use of oil, diesel, coal and any other carbon-intensive technologies. Instead, those whole communities will use methane which is a low carbon fuel.
Then the science and measuring can be done. Vehicles will purr along clean and unpolluted streets, and particulates (even tyre particulates from EV juggernauts) will vanish. CO2 emissions will drop as the methane (AKA the Halfway to Hydrogen) economy cuts electricity and heating bills while making us one of the cleanest economies on the planet.
With the data from those clean communities we can then calculate how much we can afford to bring forward the SMR developments which are the only way, if politicians are honest with us, to truly reach Net Zero without starving in the dark. 2040 could be possible.
Frack. With one bound we will be free. Bulldog Drummond would be proud of us.
JF
May 29, 2023
Just been looking at TV with listeners calling in about the Schoffield stuff and discussing whether they are going to watch this programme again or not!
But just who are these people? I have to question have they no jobs to go to instead of sitting around ali day with nothing better to do except watching tv. In my case I am near eighty years of age and can still find work to do around the house or the garden – not watching tv and therein lies the problem for this country – when also I can see early retirees from the academic and public servises world etc in their mid fifties walking the dog around the park daily and that seems to be the accepted way – well then I think there is something seriously wrong with this country.
May 29, 2023
The Times has an article today on “The cost of Brexit: red tape, tensions and lack of labour”.
So can we expect the government to issue rebuttals of any false claims made in this article?
May 29, 2023
@Denis+Cooper:
And when the government is at it, can they also debunk Nigel Farage’s claim that “Brexit has failed” with proof of the contrary?
May 29, 2023
You fail to complete the quote Peter.
I’m not surprised.
Just a little disappointed
May 30, 2023
@Martin in Bristol: Maybe not a literal quote, but I only remember that he proceeded to blame the Tories. And he predicts a new insurgency.
That is rather easy for a man who never was in the H.o.C. or the government.
If I wish him well, that would only be for his attempts to change the electoral system in Britain. Winning 12.6% of the popular vote (2015) which then translated into 1 seat in a 650 H.o.C. shows to me (no offence meant) a defunctional democracy.
May 30, 2023
But Peter, this surely shows our ambivalence in politics and the EU, i.e. we do not want Nigel Farage in our government but were quite happy to send him to Brussels to make a nuisance of himself.
On that basis it is surely no surprise that we voted to leave the EU.
May 29, 2023
Sir John
13 years on and it is the same old, same old situation with the same old answer, we have a Political Structure/System that is not fit for purpose. Today’s problems are the same as when the Conservative Government came to power 13 years ago, we started with an energy shortage crisis, it has grown worse during this period in office by numpties. In essence this Conservative Government is happy to contribute to foreign tax regimes so as to supply UK needs, but penalise any indigenous concern wishing to solve the problem with real benefits to the UK.
This Conservative Governments actions on Net Zero is a continuation of 13 years of wreaking the economy, by ensure the closure of UK Enterprise so we can Import more, then a bit more â they call that sustainability.
Today we learn in the media âRishi Sunak has been warned his plan for â1970s-styleâ price caps will lead to food shortagesâ If you needed confirmation that our PM is a wreaking ball Socialist â there it is. A Conservative Government that is clueless, punishment and control doesnât create – it destroys.
May 29, 2023
Erdogan seen on video giving money to people in queue for election âŠ.and Sunak congratulates him on his win
We identify and welcome asylum seeker from Hong Kong âŠ.and Sunak still promotes and welcomes trade with China
We have one green MP and two green peers âŠ.and Sunak welcomes and adopts all their policies
The UK people voted for brexit âŠ.and Sunak sold out NI
May 29, 2023
[…] How you could get a green revolution â John Redwood […]
May 29, 2023
Programmable electric con vector radiators and super efficient storage heaters are here. And they are probably less expensive than a traditional system with a gas fired boiler and water filled radiators. All we need is sensibly priced electricity and, for a couple of grand, we could all fit electric heating. But when I refurbished my property 4 years ago, electricity was 6 times the price of gas.
To go green we need cheap electricity.
May 29, 2023
‘To go green we need cheap electricity.’ Gosh, that’s a dangerous statement to make, Mike. Cheap electricity indeed. You mean, you didn’t want a war against Russia?
May 29, 2023
No, I didnât want a war with Russia. What I do want is HS2 scrapped and, say, 30 Magnox nuclear power stations built.
May 29, 2023
Gets my vote
May 29, 2023
MW : “All we need is sensibly priced electricity and, for a couple of grand, we could all fit electric heating.”
Unfortunately you’re forgetting the enormous cost to upgrade the local and national grids to take all the additional electrical power. It is often/aways forgotten just how much power flows to households via gas.
A better solution is for us all to keep our gas boilers and ices and use cheap and abundant nuclear power to produce green methane (gas) both for mome heating and ices with a relatively minor conversion.
May 29, 2023
China and India are not simply dragging their feet in being net zero compliant – they see that the West is creating it’s own destruction, and they are looking at how they can take advantage of it all.
They can see through the fake science, and pretend to play ball with the West but they are well aware of where this media induced lemmingism will lead.
Actually I’m still waiting for one of these heat waves they keep promising us – No doubt there will be a headline that tells us ‘London hits record high of 30C’. They won’t tell us that was in one secluded sun trap.
The distortions we hear about our weather caused by alleged global warming are going to make it into a very funny book some day!
What about that man in Leicester who was fined for allegedly denying the hot weather – Some authorities are beyond any degree of rationality.
May 29, 2023
In short, the Government’s crusade for our Nation to become the ‘Top Green Energy Country of the World’, is too early and relies more upon personal vanity and taxpayers money rather than the proven course of development of past innovations. I conclude that these ‘vanity’ projects would not be so ‘personal’ if they did not have the public purse to take from.
Is there anyway the HoC can force the Government of the day to pause THEIR projects in order for a fully audited assessment of the costs versus the rewards to be carried out? This should provide the factual answer to our question, “How and in what way does it benefit us UK taxpayers”.
This should be the democratic way of conducting such projects with the consent of the electorate. I believe such a policy is in practice in Switzerland so it would be nothing new but truly a new innovation for us, the ignored Brits.
May 29, 2023
Rod Bishop đ
@rodbishop15
·
May 28
#KeirStarmer is a đ€Ą. Heâd rather pay through the nose and import his energy from Putin, than pull it out of the #NorthSea and create British jobs for British workers. #EnergyCrisis
I guess that is what the majority of the Country is saying and thinking, unfortunately for us all Rishi Sunak & Jeremy Hunt are onboard with Labour Party group Think
May 29, 2023
People would be prepared to pay a higher price for electricity if they knew they had to in order to avoid catastrophic global warming. But the case for dangerous global warming has not been made. It has not been made because it can’t be made. Most people would probably agree there might be a problem but that would indicate only that more research is required and a certain degree of caution is required so as not to uncessairily emit large quantities of CO2. When the link between refrigerants and the hole in the ozone layer was made regulatory action was taken and the ozone layer has largely healed.
When the UK switched fromn town gas to natural gas the government took the initiative to mandate all homes and businesses to convert every domestic and industrial gas appliance in the country to natural gas. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but my memory is that the conversion was done without charge to consumers. Infrastructure was rebuilt around the different properties of natural gas. Presumably it was all financed by taxes on North Sea gas production. But there were very obvious advantages to people from not using coal to produce gas. There was no public resistance because there was little direct impact on consumers and there were clear advantages. The costs were low and borne by manufacturers and repairers leading to small and widely disbursed increases in prices; arrangements made for disposal of old refrigerators. The problems were minor and the costs small so there was little resistance to the legislative mandate.
It is hard to understand why governements are in such a panic they cannot adopt a more sensible approach. People are not convinced of the need for such urgency. The credibility gap between government policy and consumer perceptions is vast. The government must know something it is not prepared to tell us. Ergo conspiracy theories abound – the great reset, control of the masses, drift into Soviet style government, etc. etc..
The Government needs to tell the public what it knows to explain why it is so convinced while the public are not. Perhaps it is a failure of communications that have been so wildly exaggerated – and been proven wrong – that it is now dismissed out of hand as crying wolf. The Government needs either to come up with a clear evidence based and reasoned case so consumers are willing to pay more or to drop its alarmist policies and instead invest in the research necessary to increase certainty and encourage innovation in alternative sources of energy that are affordable – more pull and less push. There is also the related issue of needing an energy strategy that removes dependence on either Russia or China, eg., – developing UK’s own gas resources for use while affordable alternatives are developed.
May 29, 2023
PG : “It is hard to understand why governements are in such a panic they cannot adopt a more sensible approach.”
The panic to implement Net Zero as fast as possible (UN now calls for 2040 (for the democratic West only of course)) is because they know that the very small warming of 0.13 degrees C per decade could soon change to cooling and then their CAGW scare and the reason to impoverish us with Net Zero policies can no longer exist.
May 30, 2023
I agree. The problem is though, they can’t explain their actions because the excuses they have made make no sense.
May 29, 2023
Absolutely right but we have also got to get the basics right first – sufficient, reliable, cheap and safe electricity to power the change.
The only feasible answer at the moment seems to be SMRs. Rolls Royce is our national contender in this sphere but seems to be having difficulty getting a model approved for use in the UK. Why ? Have they fallen behind in development or is the regulatory process proving a bottleneck ? A number of US companies seem to be stealing a march on us.
Also, the pricing of electricity in the UK seems to be resulting in UK electricity prices being far higher than in the EU. We need to get this revised as soon as possible.
May 29, 2023
Perhaps it is break the UK and return it back to a much more direct form of EU control.
May 30, 2023
Gates backed design uses molten salt and can smooth out the usual extremely variable generation of wind, I which the civil service is very keen on. It’s never tested and very high temperature. The civil engineering services are ignorant as usual. We need engineers in charge.
May 29, 2023
Anybody heard anything about manufacture of âsmall modular reactorâ – nah didnât think so
Anybody heard about the locating of âsea level monitorsâ around our coast â nah didnât think so
Anybody heard about a government enquiry into the finding of âUN IPCC reportsâ â nah didnât think so
May 30, 2023
– Ever read the various documents or presentations put together by Rolls-Royce SMR or the SMR-related documents on the gov.uk website? Nah didnât think so.
– Ever heard about the NTSLF? Nah didnât think so.
(ntslf.org ÂŽThe UK National Tide Gauge Networkâ).
– Ever realised that at the various stages of production of the IPCC reports, British scientists (if not appointed by the British Government, at least authorised by their hierarchy) participate in the writing of these reports, and that in the various COPs there have always been Governmentâs representatives? In the recent COP26 in Glasgow, Alok Sharma was the president. Nah didnât think so.
Ever written anything after checking a minimum of information readily available on the web? Nah didnât think so.
May 29, 2023
I think we are more likely to see a green revolution of the kind that is emerging in the Netherlands, where the BBB, starting out as a farmers’ party, has become an anchor and bastion of common sense policies in opposition to the madcap plans of the Rutte government to carry on shutting down the Dutch economy. It has already become the best polling party there, entitled to have first shot at forming a new government after the next election if it maintains that position.
May 29, 2023
Time for our farmers to start a grass-roots movement, then. Maybe at farmers’ markets. The question “Do you want our products to be still here in future?” could lead on to “So will you vote for us?” It might work.
May 29, 2023
Home Office â 28 May 2023
Illegal Immigrants â 52
Boats â 1
âŠ.just one large hotel required today ?
May 29, 2023
OT: Interesting to see Corbynistas like Richard Burgon and John McDonnell warmly welcoming Sunak’s price controls on food. Does Sunak think they’ll vote for him ? And this was the leader that the majority of Conservative MPs wanted – hope they’re happy.
May 30, 2023
I know, Richard1 of this parish is.
May 29, 2023
All the green fanatics are totally disingenuous when they talk about “energy” when in reality they simply mean electricity. They should be challenged on the clarity of their argument every time.
May 29, 2023
Westminster will get a revolution alright, one they didn’t reckon on.
With the confirmation tonight by Starmer that he if he gets into power will cease all drilling for gas and oil in the North Sea. This could be the final straw for all the British oil companies.
For all the grief what is the point of their organisation being registered here. They may as well pull out their whole financial operations off shore. Cayman Islands even Southern Island. Just leave a few satellite offices if they must. How much at a stroke would the treasury loose? Never mind the windfall taxes and other grief just get the hell out of the UK.
May 29, 2023
Is it the world thatâs gone mad or just our politicians
May 29, 2023
turboterrier :
You’re describing what a majority of current MPs and the Civil Service what to happen.
May 29, 2023
Sir John,
For me there has never been a choice of smart meters. They simply do not work if they cannot get a signal. But I keep getting chased by phone email and text to install one. I go through the same conversation every time : they won’t work in a cellar or a Faraday cage (the last caller knew that himself). They keep promising me they will not contact me again – but six months later – here we go again.
The government has provided perverse financial incentives (using taxpayer money) for something that cannot work in all situations.
People would want them if they were offered a better tariff for using them. But then of course there would be an outcry from those of us who couldn’t ever have them.
May 30, 2023
The Bank of England has hired specialists from ESG consultancy Ricardo to conduct a ÂŁ150,000 study to establish how polluting its polymer notes are. The BoE should stick to managing the economy.
May 30, 2023
Once again, Sir John, you are absolutely right. Some people have earned a huge amount out of subsidy for wind and solar farms which, we now know from recent research, are more carcinogenic than any other energy source through their whole life cycle. We should have been investing in Nuclear, and now New Nuclear, many years ago to ensure energy security and low cost energy. Finland, for example, have lowered their energy cost by 75% in recent years through investment in Nuclear energy. Rolls Royce is a great British company who have now signed deals with Poland, Romania and several other countries to provide them with their British designed and manufactured small modular reactors. Why have we not signed up with them? For the UK there are only two ways forward and these are New Nuclear and Geothermal, but it MUST start NOW. I think that you will know that I don’t say any of this through ignorance because I copy you in on my correspondence with Angela Richardson and I do my research very carefully.
June 1, 2023
Sir John you are quite right, if the technology is available, affordable, and there is demand for it, then the markets will deliver without government intervention, as shown by experience.
There is little point in us chasing net-zero when the major world producers of CO2 aren’t. It only increases our costs to the economic advantage of China and others, from whom we import so much and so undermine our own CO2 aims – as mistaken as they are.
In reality there is more than enough CO2 to absorb all the infra-red radiation there is within it’s absorption bands. CO2 is above saturation level, so adding more CO2 will make negligible difference to temperature.
How warm we are depends on the amount of radiation from the sun, which fluctuates over time, and over which we have no control. (CO2 both absorbs and re-emits IR, and so helps distribute energy throughout the lower atmosphere).
Net-zero is a nonsense, adopted by do-gooders who’ve been conned by eco-extremists, and whatever their agenda is, it effectively reduces living standards.