The leading advocates for going faster down the road to net zero assure us it will be good for growth. They tell us about all the new jobs that will be created to make batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars and heat pumps. They stress how much investment must be put into energy transition.
All this is true, but we need to know how many of these jobs are likely to come to the Uk and how many of these items will be imported. So far the West has let China build a huge lead in making batteries, securing the supplies of minerals for battery making, in wind turbines and electric cars. How will we get better at doing these things to create the well,paid jobs here?
We need to know how we will replace all the large tax revenues that come from taxing extraction of our own oil and gas, from using petrol and diesel in our vehicles, and taxes on domestic gas? What taxes need to be imposed on the electrical alternatives?
We need to know how much capital has to be written off prematurely as we close car factories, petrol stations, refineries and oil fields? We need to know how much public subsidy will be available to compete with the US and the EU in attracting green investment and getting many reluctant consumers to switch transport and Ā heating systems.
A proper costed programme with options and assessment of cost benefits would make for better decisions and more popular buy in to the programme.
There would also need to be honest assessments of which measures did serve to lower world CO 2 rather than just diverting it abroad and making us import dependent.
August 16, 2023
“Why are there no good official figures on the costs and benefits of net zero?”
Because the calculations are too difficult for the people at HM Treasury and at the OBR ?
August 16, 2023
Net zero is good for growth in Chine. There’s no way making batteries and heat pumps will create skilled well paid jobs.
Anyway it isn’t meant to create growth, just impoverish us.
August 16, 2023
Global Wealth published by UBS reports that the collective west, USA and Europe is 10.9 trillion USA poorer this year than last.
So it working.
August 16, 2023
Probably – there are more than seven variables involved. A more skeptical type might think that they they don’t try because they would not like the result…
August 16, 2023
Good morning.
Yes, for their bank balances one would imagine, otherwise they would not be promoting such nonsense.
The tragedy is we, the ‘Little People’ can see this is all nonsense and, I am sure, so too can many MP’s. But like so much else very few are willing to talk about it and to point out the obvious that, The Emperor Net Stupid has no clothes.
How does one get out of this loony-bin ?
August 16, 2023
+1 Mark B. That’s the big question. How do we get out of it? In Germany support for the net zero- sceptical AfD has rapidly grown to 20%. The mainstream parties, rather than adopting policies more like the AfD, are talking about banning it as a political party.
August 16, 2023
Succinct & to the point. Totally agree.
August 16, 2023
The way out of the loony-bin.
Have just read something which has put some hope in my heart.
We are awash with pseudoscience which is a dangerous situation.
A panel to address the issue called the International Panel on Information Environment has been formed by
The Nobel Foundation .
August 16, 2023
Costs massive and still not even remotely achievable and the benefits are negative anyway. This as a little more CO2 (tree plant and crop food) is a net benefit anyway and vital for life. If we really went for net zero and abandoned fossil fuels many millions will die of starvation.
Yet despite this lack of any benefits and the huge costs nearly all our virtue signalling (and largely totally scientifically ignorant) MPs voted for the Climate Change Act (not JR) and nodded through May’s moronic Net Zero law.
August 16, 2023
@”lifelogic”
Absolute bollocks from you as usual
Europe’s top space official yesterday urged wavering politicians not to abandon European leadership in combating climate change, saying record heatwaves and vegetation fires provide “really alarming” evidence of the pace of global warming.
“It is clear that climate change is very visible and is really causing enormous changes to our planet,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency and a leading expert on environmental observation
August 16, 2023
SG
I do hope youāve done your bit?
If you have you should be standing in the middle of a blasted heath stark ( your word ā¦b****k) naked.
No clothes, no shoes, no haircut, no bread, no car, no house, no deodorant, no cup of coffeeā¦no nuffink.
(No matches, no heatwave!)
And especially no internet!
No windmills either!
August 16, 2023
From a fearful Sakara Gold!
August 16, 2023
An EU Space Official/environment observationist is a propagandist ….. not a scientist.
Dr John Clauser, Nobel Laureate – Physics – is a Scientist and has recently signed the World Climate Declaration statement that there is no climate emergency …. “the WCD has been ignored by mainstream politicians and media. But since last August, it has attracted another 500 signatories, and the current list numbers 1,609 scientists and professionals. Over 300 academics at professorial levels have signed the list, while Clauser is the second Nobel physics laureate to lend support.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/08/15/last-years-nobel-physics-laureate-signs-world-climate-declaration-stating-there-is-no-climate-emergency/
August 16, 2023
Not easy to persuade with people who have a religious belief they are wrong as reason does not cut it. Try reading some sensible books and studying some physics, economics, climate history and energy engineering.
āTaxPayers’ Alliance research has found that council tax in England has more than doubled in the last 20 years. Rates increased by 60 per cent during the first decade of the 2000s, and increased by 32 per cent in the last ten years. Since the tax was first introduced in 1993, it has more than trebled.ā
But still they are dire at fixing potholes or removing the rubbish. Still they mug motorists, stop you changing your windows without planning and block the roads often quite efficiently!
August 16, 2023
LL: We tend to ignore that councils / the taxpayer are also funding purchase of properties specifically for the resettlement of invited / legal incomers, not from council tax obviously but surely there is an impact. Have seen reports this week, just two examples, where Peterborough council has agreed to buy 25 homes for this purpose ( Peterborough Telegraph 12/8 ) and also reports of the same happening in Yorkshire last year & this year.
August 16, 2023
Why could councils not do that before for the English homeless or military vets? Disgraceful uni party needs to be ousted. Vote Reform or nothing.
JR has the answer in his own hands by getting shot of Sunak and Hunt. They choose Not to. If the public are that stupid not to change their voting habit they can expect more impoverishment, more cultural decay and the ruination of our country at the hands of these horrible unpatriotic fools.
August 16, 2023
Reply to Hope below. The government’s main propaganda outlet only recognises the big 2Ā½ parties. Reform will get no publicity from the BBC. Another reason why the BBC should be made subscription only. Or shut down.
August 16, 2023
Indeed so higher taxes, higher hotels bills, higher rents and more inflation for everyone else.
Similar with the shoplifting epidemic encouraged by almost total police inaction.
August 16, 2023
And have halved bin collection such that most commercial establishments have had to go private. There is a rat infestation problem in most towns and cities. Yes the layers of government are worth their weight in something heavy.
August 16, 2023
@Lynn Atkinson
“There is a rat infestation problem in most towns and cities”
Absolute rubbish. There are no rats in Berkshire. I suggest that you clean up your property and get a couple of terrier dogs
August 16, 2023
+1
August 17, 2023
The more water there is around, including rivers , flood waters, ponds etc there will be rats and they want easy food which is thrown out and not collected in the bins by councils. As many try to grow their own food there is also a danger from rats chewing at tomatoes, cucumbers strawberries ad infinitum.. there are very few rat free places.
August 16, 2023
LL :
Agreed.
I often find that those with a CAGB/Net Zero religious belief often donāt know any climate facts or climate history at all and, as with all religions, cannot be reasoned with and don’t want to hear the facts.
That is why the BBC does not allow any discussion to take place on climate change.
Then there are those of course whose salary depends upon not understanding that CAGB/Net Zero is nonsense.
August 16, 2023
Indeed the real believers invariably have zero science above GCSE or O level. So they just accept what the BBC think āexpertsā tell them to.
August 16, 2023
A beautifully crafted and restrained response LL. Just what you would expect coming from an adult replying to an infantile.
August 16, 2023
You buy into the output of any organisation based in 55 Tufton St? More fool you.
Council tax is only a part of local government funding for most local authorities. You should look at the wider impact of the changes in central government support combined with the costs of delivering statutory obligations such as social care. If the cost of delivery of statutory obligations goes up while central government support goes down, guess what needs to happen to plug the gap.
August 16, 2023
You are just trying to divert attention from the wind output this morning , 0.63% of demand at 09.40 GMT
August 16, 2023
Plus the requirement to have the gas back up for this intermittent wind will makes the gas power plants less efficient by far more than this 0.6% so effectively zero net production. Plus wind os far from low carbon when properly computed with back up, connections, concrete, ships to install and serviceā¦
No wind today so perhaps 500+ migrants escorted over the channel from France today, by the French Navy, Border Force and the RNLI one assumes?
August 16, 2023
Indeed its a total farce and near the point where the people will have to act as the Government is to scared to upset the French/EU/illegals. Our Country is drowning with immigrants (legal as well) and all they do is talk about a barge that houses less than a days worth of these illegal chancers. Stop taxing me to pay for it. All MP’s should take a 25% pay cut until this is solved. Get back to work and come up with proper actions, not words. Enough is enough. Return to France via the tunnel n the same day and tell them to stop sending us their migrants. Stop their fishing rights pro rata costs for every boat/person landed.
August 16, 2023
Correct LL. Just early this morning 8 boats carrying 500 people arrived. All young men. Farage said probably more would arrive this evening. How can this be allowed to go on and when are we going to grow some and start pushing these boats back as other countries in the EU do?
August 16, 2023
In comparison with the total investment in wind, what is that energy actually costing per KWh?
August 16, 2023
Circa cost of the gas per KWH/0.6. But is on demand so the power is worth far more, also far cheaper to wire up than 200 wind turbines in the sea.
August 16, 2023
SG :
On the other hand the co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Physics prize, Dr. John Clauser, has described the āclimate emergencyā narrative, āa dangerous corruption of science that threatens the worldās economy and the well-being of billions of peopleā.
Also, āvegetation firesā, aka wildfires, which are not increasing globally, have far more to do with land management, such as rewilding, and arson than climate change. For instance the recent wildfires in Hawaii have been caused by the cessation of sugar and pineapple growing meaning that former cropped beds are now unmanaged parched wild vegetation.
Anyway, according to Al Gore and the UN the oceans and planet are boiling, not burning.
PS : As I write I see that 28 GW of installed wind power is providing just 0.2 GW of power (09:38 hrs).
August 16, 2023
+1 Dr John Clauser is surely quite right. Also if dry wood and tinder is left lying around then sooner or later it will burn set alight either by someone, lightning, electrical faults or something. If windy the fire will travel rapidly, it is hardly rocket science. Nothing to do with climate some insects have evolved over millions/billions of years to exploit the after effects of the fire and the the. lack of predators!
August 16, 2023
Wild fires happen every year in some parts of the world. California/Australia always get them and has been historically managed by controlled burns.
August 16, 2023
Timeaction indeed.
August 16, 2023
So my fire alarm goes off and I jump out of an upstairs window and kill myself SG. How did that help?
Stop running around shouting “Fire, Fire” and start thinking how (in practical terms) we can live with potential fire risks and actaully survive them. We are in the hands of others in terms of global CO2 emmissions and we should be thinking more about how we manage this issue rather than trying to be the little dutch boy with his finger in the Dyke. Forget trying to set a “good example” and let’s start protecting our own interests nearer home – energy & food independance and a viable economy would be very good places to start.
August 16, 2023
SG
Why do you need to be so abusive?
Where is the evidence to back up your claims?
Thereās rock-solid evidence to dispute your claims, you lend nothing to the debate, what is the point of you?
Youāre rude to Lynn Atkinson, by all means debate in a polite manner but you donāt seem to have mastered that skill, instead you try and shout people down, always the sign of someone who knows that their arguments donāt stand up to scrutiny ā¦. politeness costs nothing
August 16, 2023
S G
Some sensible rplies to your comment. I look forward to your answers?
August 16, 2023
Hysteria is not science, however much you and those you admire keep ramping it up.
August 16, 2023
I take it they have ruled out the impact of weather, arson and non-indigenous plants then?
August 16, 2023
And
I take it that these are the people who advocate sending great big rockets with all their belching CO2, and other nasty stuff, into the atmosphere they wish to preserve.
They have as much self-awareness as you do.
August 16, 2023
As an old man who has lived through all weather for over 78 years I see no difference in our present weather Goldie, we even had the fools who lit BBQās up on the moors.
You need to stop the the private planes and choppers, along with the politicians buying beach houses, then a few will believe the nonsense!
August 16, 2023
and what do you expect us Brits to do to get China, USA, India etc to cut their massive causation to the planet burning?
Our Government is leading us to medieval economy, techno waste-land and living standards heading back to pre-1800.
At least you could lead the protest rent a mob to blockade outside the Embassies?
August 17, 2023
Is that true or did you hear it on the BBC?
As Charles Moore pointed out the other day, the BBC have been grossly exaggerating the impacts of climate change for many years now. They never report with proper balance, comparing with the past, and jump on any claim of disaster and blame climate change for it regardless.
August 17, 2023
“record heatwaves and vegetation fires provide āreally alarmingā evidence of the pace of global warming”
NO! There are not record heat waves and not record levels of fires. There is record levels of data tampering, data misrepresentation and media sensationalism yes. But presentation of truth and fact – no! Nothing in atmospheric or ocean circulation, heat patterns, weather patterns etc that is measured is extreme or worrying, nothing is abnormal or outside of historical up and down natural cycles. No it is not governed by concentrations of methane, CO2 or NOx. The amount of those gases are themselves also not controlled by human emissions. Further most emissions come from China and India making the so called renewable infrastructure from the west as they seek to mine and refine ever more minerals and metals…. the Net Zero policy creates more CO2 emissions over there; pushes up costs of energy production over here, erodes our national wealth with the only jobs created surviving on tax payer’s and energy bill payer’s money… it doesn’t add to GDP. So we are all getting poorer as a nation. Net Zero is unnecessary for the ‘climate’, harmful to the environment, destructive of jobs and the economy at large. It is a political gambit of those who want to see the end of democracy and free-market capitalism, working in cahoots with anti-human environmental extremists.
August 16, 2023
Starvation and freezing to death.
August 16, 2023
Quite right. JR poses the questions the expose the lunacy, and he NEVER votes like the lunatics around him. You can be driven mad of course, but JR seems to be strangely insulated.
August 16, 2023
The only feasible way to make rapid progress towards net zero is the swift adoption of SMRs. Solar and wind are too unreliable and hydro opportunities too limited. Solar and wind are also costly to distribute because they require a big investment in the grid but only use it intermittently. In Rolls Royce we already have the technology and engineering skills to produce SMRs so the transition should provide a boost to the U.K. engineering sector.
August 16, 2023
I do not want mad net zero.
I am not a climate hero.
I just want my freedoms back.
Coal and oil and shale to frack.
Chicken, beef and all things nice.
I will NOT eat mealworms and lice!
August 16, 2023
Get my vote
August 16, 2023
Hw about ‘nor eat lice’?
August 16, 2023
+1
Oh jolly good !
August 16, 2023
SMR go a long way to getting to net zero, but:
a) They do not solve heating everyone’s homes as electricity will still be more expensive than gas. Air-source heat pumps are not the solution, as they only work in a few houses and will stretch the grid in cold weather.
b) Electric cars are still unsuitable for many drivers and are environmentally unfriendly.
c) There are still problems with producing carbon-neutral concrete.
August 16, 2023
James Freeman :
I do not believe that CO2 is a pollutant and needs net zeroing, in fact I believe CO2 levels need to be increasedā¦.but if I wanted to go towards net zero CO2 I would :
1) Invest in nuclear ā SMRs and larger ā and in further nuclear research. It is the only low CO2 emitting energy source which is affordable, reliable, abundant and secure. And use gas to stabilise the grid.
1) Convert all ices to use natural gas/methane. This can even be done relatively easily even to existing ice vehicles and natural gas is less polluting than petrol/diesel and is still a hydrocarbon fuel and hence outperforms bevs.
2) Continue to use natural gas for heating. So no gas or electrical grid upgrade costs and no boiler or heat pump costs.
3) When nuclear energy is sufficiently cheap produce green methane via hydrogen from electrolysis followed by the Sabatier process. In the meantime some green methane can be supplied to the gas grid using anaerobic digestors.
I did suggest this to BEIS (now DESNZ) via my MP but never received a reply.
August 17, 2023
I suspect it would be possible to utilise SMR “waste heat” for district heating. Efficiency would depend on how close to population centres you are prepared to site the reactors, but there is no real reason to site them a long way away. It could make a useful contribution.
August 16, 2023
Today there is very little wind so the coal fired power is opening up with nearly 2% of our electricity coming from there. India, Indonesia and China, of course, are burning coal like never before. Even the direct oil burners (OCGT) are turned on today.
It really is time to take a close look at all this totally undiscussed, un-argued nonsense.
(How do you harvest wheat without oil?)
August 16, 2023
Currently:
Gas: 15.9 gw
Solar: 3.1 gw
Wind: 0.3 gw
The conclusion the Eco Nutters reach? We need more windmills.
August 16, 2023
….and they want to cancel all fossil fuels, they’re nutters alright
August 16, 2023
Correct Mike and next year that coal fired station won’t be available
A winter of power outages is for sure which should effectively kill of any pretence of reaching net zero.
Out of more than 35,000 megawatt oj installed wind power we are generating just 210 mw.if the government triples the installed capacity we would have 100,000mw we would be producing just 630mw.
Insane.
August 16, 2023
Come a Winter of power cuts and people freezing, the party that advocates opening up the coal mines will be voted into office.
August 16, 2023
The people won’t be freezing, the planet is burning – get with the programme….
Unless our usual weather events continue, but this time with unaffordable power for a growing majority, food shortages, and being told it will only get worse with ‘the other lot in power’.
August 16, 2023
How can you cost something that is totally unachievable and unsustainable.
The social impact on life will be disastrous and we all know who ultimately picks up the tab for all of that fallout. Ever since the fall of the Russian threat the globalists needed some to install fear and full control of the Western World. Skilfully turned into a religion and the panic to obey the high alter will break the country. Then you can build back better. Government’s are riddled with these converts. That is why no real costings will ever be submitted to the population. If they were there would be people onthe streets in their tens of thousands.
August 16, 2023
+1
August 16, 2023
turbo
Indeed we still need oil to manufacture insulation all of the cables in the wondrous new fully electric world.
Then we have plastic gas pipes, water pipes, drain pipes, house soil pipes, and electric plugs !
Oil makes plastic, think of everything that is made of plastic in your house, your car, at work, outside, and then think of the possible alternatives, think of inexpensive lubrication that keeps machinery going.
The Zealots of ban everything oil are in a dream world, what is their alternative.?
August 17, 2023
The really big cost is the damage it would do to the economy. GDP per capita somewhere between a third and a half of present levels. Call that an economic loss of Ā£1 trillion a year or more. Add in Ā£5 trillion spent on the destructive measures to achieve economic shutdown. I imagine spending on riot squads would dwarf anything we currently spend on defence. Health care becomes unaffordable. Education gets limited to net zero propaganda for fear that people might learn how to achieve a better economy. Forget being able to spend on improving the environment too. Rewilding and lack of tree and undergrowth management would lead to destructive fires. Hunger would stalk the land, and crime would be everywhere as the last resort for many trying to eke out an existence.
August 16, 2023
The cost is unimportant, only the seizing of POWER to control our economic life and therefore our liberty is important. I’m not sure why this simple fact has to be explained to an intelligent human being.
When the slime fully impose this bigotry upon us then we’ll see govts fall, of that I have no doubt
August 16, 2023
Yes DOM.
Control. Control of money, control of food, control of energy, control of our very lives while the joy of living is sucked out of us.
August 16, 2023
For the same reason there were no good official figures on the likely costs or potential benefits of the Covid Lockdowns:
1. Because the costs/benefits would indicate the futility and negative consequences of the policy
2. Because the “true believers” in the Establishment don’t want to know them
3. Because (as the wonderful Neil Oliver says) “it’s not about what they say it’s about”
Instead all we get are propaganda, threats and the deliberate ramping up of fear. The policies of tyrants throughout history. And the Eco Nutters in the Establishment ARE tyrants.
There is no democratic mandate for Net Zero.
August 16, 2023
The case for NZ and anthropogenic climate change is non existant. There is not a single scientific study to support it, only computer modelling, wrong in every case. One only has to look as every single dire prediction has failed to materialise.
There is no case for controlling man made CO2 emissions and so no case for the vast expenditure for products and services from abroad at the expense of the UK economy and loss of jobs.
August 16, 2023
But letās allow those who do believe in it to set an example. The King, Greta, Gary Linacre, all the high profile ābelieversā. Let them prove their commitment.
August 16, 2023
But the Tory’s want to spend billions capturing a plant food gas, probably using Chinese manufactured goods produced by coal powered stations and shipped thousands of miles here. The lunatics are in charge!
Whilst we’re at it could someone please advise mathematics genius’s and supporters Sounout/Hunt that 25 % of nothing is worse than 12.5% of something as the Irish have discovered with their sensible corporation taxes, encouraging inward investment.
August 16, 2023
Yes, the jobs will be plentiful and everyone will be as rich as Croesus. Who exactly will get the jobs though. Imported talent? Highly likely as we’ll be told people here don’t have the skills and don’t want to do the jobs. The other laugh out loud explanation will be manpower shortages even after importing millions of people.
An article by Matt Goodwin (he can be found on Youtube and various other outlets) notes how the public are fully on board with net zero, that is until the costs to them personally are explained, then the figures supporting each individual element such as ULEZ, gas boilers etc, drops dramatically.
The general public are of course bombarded with fear mongering, there is limited time to save the planet and ourselves, they are told. No one with an alternative point of view is allowed a mainstream public platform, even if they do know more about climate science than many spreading the fear and panic.
Even with the public being held in the grip of climate fear, it is according to Goodwin’s analysis from spending time sitting in on various public consultations, still not up there in the main concerns.
Those are, cost of living, health/ NHS and immigration both legal and illegal.
August 16, 2023
Read Alison Pearson in the DT mainly shredding the appalling Steve Barclay justifying changing the way the NHS is measured on cancer performance which is disgraceful.
āThe last thing obfuscating politicians want is to give clarityā
Quite. That would enable the voter to understand more easily at best, how we are being misled, at worst, lied to and, of course, changing targets, switching to pledges with no targets, makes performance measurement impossible so, in their mind, they cannot be held to account.
So Tory ministers. Welcome to the abyss.
August 16, 2023
+1
August 16, 2023
As I write (07:18 hrs) the 28 GW of installed wind power is providing just 0.1 GW or 0.34% of demand.
The cost to provide sufficient renewable power together with a non- fossil fuel backup is in the many Ā£ trillions even if it is technically feasible, which has yet to be proven and for which there is as yet no plan.
There is no energy security with total electrification and when all our replacement devices (heat pumps, evs, hobs, etc) and all our energy infrastructure (wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, generators, motors, cabling etc) are supplied by China, a state described by our security services as āhostileā.
August 16, 2023
@Original Richard
“all our energy infrastructure (wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, generators, motors, cabling etc) are supplied by China”
This is absolute crap. ALL our wind turbines, blades, towers, generators and solar panels are built or assembled HERE in the UK at the ginormous Humberside and N Linconshire plants operated by Siemens and Oerstead
You don’t know what you are talking about, so why do you bother to post bullshit like that?
August 16, 2023
@SG. You disagree with the bloke. Fair enough, but can’t you remain civil?
August 17, 2023
Wanderer ,as you already know you can’t control the words and actions of another. You can only control your own words and reactions to others. If people like creating trouble by adversely criticising others on every entry then those who are not obtuse can see this for themselves, which is why when we see ring leaders who cannot accept any other than their own views and furthermore are proselytising others we don’t need to react, we shouldn’t give them any more power . Their bufoonery stands out like a sore thumb.
August 16, 2023
SG
Please see my comments above!
Are you MiC? but at least from what I remember, he was polite
August 16, 2023
Much of it does indeed come from China but clearly not all. Assembly is often not a huge part of the total process. Loads of fossil fuels used in the manufacture, assembly, installation, transportation & connections too.
August 16, 2023
Oh – āassembledā. Thatās clarified that then. Are you the ONLY one who does not comprehend what you write?
August 16, 2023
Lynn Atkinson
+one
A total lack of comprehension.
Unbelievable
August 16, 2023
Assembly does not contradict source of supply?
August 16, 2023
It doesnāt matter where they are made if they supply such a tiny amound of demand, intermittently and unreliably.
August 16, 2023
SG :
They may be assembled here, but the important parts are not built here.
BTW, for wind turbines , 1kg of steel and concrete produces 1 watt of power. For nuclear 1 kg of steel and concrete produces 1000 watts of power, and in the case of gas generators, 2000 watts of power. So not only do wind turbines lay to waste vast areas of land and sea they also waste our building materials. And only last 15 years!
As well as providing no power – the 28 GW of installed wind power is providing 0.6 GW as I write (14:27 hrs). And still no sign of any plan for storage backup SG?
August 16, 2023
I think our host would like us to be civil in our use of words on his site. I would like us to be civil in our use of words as well.
August 16, 2023
Atlas
I stopped being civil to him when he attacked Lynn. Sir John deleted my post (probably just as well, for once).
August 16, 2023
and why do you bother to write contradicting, and abusing?
ie..the very essence of a wind-up merchant.
August 18, 2023
How much is manufactured in China though? What %?. Everything now says āassembled in XXXXXX from Chinese componentsā itās a sleight of hand
August 16, 2023
Philip Hammond failed to dissuade Mrs May from Net Zero on the basis of a Ā£1 trillion estimated cost. National Gridās estimated cost is Ā£3 trillion. So an out turn cost is going to be more than that, given that the government has not subjected Net Zero (nor HS2 of course) to thorough economic and financial evaluation, as normally required for major capital investments and programmes in the public sector. There are no net benefits, which is why your questions will not be answered. Net Zero is the destruction of western democracies by politicians – and politicians alone.
August 16, 2023
Correct and for no benefit.
August 16, 2023
MPC
Yes, politicians that we elected, on the basis of manifestos that they had no intention of honouring.
August 16, 2023
“They stress how much investment must be put into energy transition”
The one thing we will not have to worry about is the dreadful problem of having to absorb all the foreign inward investment involved in manufacturing and EXPORTING batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars, heat pumps etc.
Thanks to Sunak, Schraps and Hunt’s anti-green and anti-renewables agenda, the green revolution will pass us by and the foreign majors who will make the major investments necessary will do so in France. Or Italy. Or Spain.
The Taiwan company ProLogium has already broken ground on a new, next generation, long-range solid-state battery megafactory near Dunkirk in France. Macron has also persuaded Chinaās Envision AESC, local startup Verkor and the ACC consortium (including Mercedes and Stellantis) to also set up battery gigafactories in the same area. France is also courting Chinese EV giant BYD and Tesla with tax breaks to build EV gigafactory car plants.
The humungous windfall taxes and additional VAT loaded onto renewable energy producers in the N Sea by Sunak, Schraps and Hunt is now resulting in the cancellation of desperately needed half-built projects. Sadly, nobody is going to make green investments here now.
August 16, 2023
The Green Revolution will pass us by! That’s the best news I have ever heard from you Goldie.
August 16, 2023
‘the green revolution will pass us by’.
The best news I’ve heard for days.
August 17, 2023
Where do they get the batteries from to assemble into battery packs? Where do the materials that go into those batteries come from? China.
August 16, 2023
How crazy that Government has a policy going forward, with few figures, and no one looking at the downside.
John, you must know the situation in Parliament better than any of us out here with regards to other Mp’s thoughts, given the internal chat that normally goes on in tea rooms, bars, restaurants, offices, etc, etc.
Do the majority of those with whom you converse actually believe in this present Net Zero policy/farce as planned, are many/any of them having second thoughts, or do they simply disregard any thoughts/challenges about it.?
Reply Most just accept the net zero soundbites. Most Lab/Lib/SNP are passionately in favour of the whole net zero agenda and press the government to do more. The Conservatives have sizeable minority support for the net zero sceptic group led by Craig Macinlay . The pro net zero group led by Chris Skidmore claims 130 MPs in support. I go to the occasional meeting of theirs and have never seen more than a handful of MPs at a meeting. The group also lets people attend who disagree.
August 16, 2023
Reply-Reply
Thanks for the response.
August 16, 2023
BA
Completely agree
Plus many!
August 16, 2023
As usual your blog today Sir John is reasoned and makes good sense. If we look at the undisputed facts, for instance that the UK is a very minor source of C02 (if we ignore our imports) then it would seem rather pointless to damage ourselves trying to make a change that we clearly cannot impact in any meaningful way. I have no real problem in reducing emmissions as technology and money permits but we clearly have public policies that everyone knows are not going to work in practice.
I asked my heating engineer yesterday if I could install a heat pump, he just laughed and said it wouldn’t work. My house just isn’t suitable and in fact he doubted any house built much more than three years ago would be unless it was “re-built”. When you consider that oil burners are being banned in the near future (2026), what are those who live in more rural parts supposed to do for heat and the only ‘real’ answer currently is to burn wood (or dare I say it) imported coal instead.
The Emperor has no clothes – we can all see it apart from (it seems) the Government. The Lunatics really have taken over the Asylum (or whatever other cliches you prefer to use)
August 16, 2023
an honest response ….but I’d still like to see a free vote in the house to gauge opinion and to test every MP
August 16, 2023
Could it be because the real technology doesn’t exist and net zero advocates are just hoping it will arrive?
August 16, 2023
Please look at the whole climate issue as described by Dr Judith Curry, an experienced climatologist. We are being taken for fools. As with covid, “science” now means going along with the official narrative with any dissenters censored, smeared and ridiculed. If any scientist refuses to debate and put their hypothesis to the scrutiny of others they are not a scientist in my view.
August 16, 2023
@David+L – All Science is only real science when it is peer reviewed. What the UK is enduring is political manipulation to satisfy personal esteem and ego of a handful of bogus indeviduals
August 16, 2023
Ian B
Well said, bang on the money.
Further proof the quality of the vast majority of our MPs are to be found lacking. That with the news the CCHQ have sent out all wrong information election literature it seems the skid chocks have been removed on the ski jump.
August 17, 2023
Well, could you point out what Dr Judith Curry is saying in her 14 August 2023 report āState of the Climate 2023ā (climateetc Judithcurry.com) that makes you say that āwe are taken for foolsā.
Her analysis of top-of-the-atmosphere radiation, surface energy budget and impact on atmospheric and oceanic dynamics looks rather brilliant to me.
August 16, 2023
Given HS2 and forecasting by the BoE would we actually believe anything this Government produced
August 16, 2023
No. But they’re silencing genuine Scientists, such as Sir John Clauser (Nobel Laureate – Physiscs)
who recently signed the World Climate Declaration, who would be able to provide the evidence and therefore might be believed.
Rather like the Catholic Church attempted to silence dissenters in the Middle Ages.
World Climate Declaration: https://clintel.org/
August 16, 2023
And as I had already pointed out a couple of days ago (I didnāt check whether it had finally got Sir Johnās imprimatur) Dr Clauser did not tell us what factors were wrong by a factor 200. Forgetfulness?
brownstone.org, 25/07/2023 āThe crisis of pseudoscienceā.
August 16, 2023
Indeed look at the moronic Covid forecast modelling or all the proven wrong climate forecasts. The vast net harm done by the vaccines especially to younger people. Why would we truest government on anything?
So why on earth did nearly all out MPs vote for this lunacy without any property cost benefit analysis. plenty of good books by Patrick Moore, Bjorn Lomborg, Ross Clarkā¦ exposing the economic, political and scientific insanity of the net zero agenda. It is positively evil and will kill millions too.
August 16, 2023
Health is the major beneficiary of Nett Zero and should be measurable. However the cost to the country and individuals based on the current chosen path to NZ is unsustainable. The goal is fine, but the route should be market led minus the arbitrary mandated targets. My final comment is that if we arrive at NZ without trashing the economy it will not effect the climate one iota. We will still be benefiting from all the Chinese, US, Indonesian and Indian crap, like none smokers in a smoke filled room.
August 16, 2023
Sir John
I would guess to answer the question, it is the Conservative Governments policy of control, cancel and punishment.
All the proposals in the name of Citizen Control do the opposite of the stated aim. Cancelling UK jobs and production to load up the most polluting country on Earth with revenue ā as in channelling UK wealth to them is at odds with the function of a UK Government.
Sending UK Taxpayer money abroad, with no expectation of reciprocal arrangements or accountability – is malicious intent or neglect.
NetZero so-called aims of reducing World pollution under this Conservative Government, as already stated does the opposite and is self defeating when the UK is in a race to the bottom that no other Country would threaten their Citizen’s with.
A lazy Conservative Government
August 16, 2023
@Ian B – whatever this Conservatives Governments purpose and reasoning for maliciously destroying the UK economically and fundamentally they have been rumbled.
August 16, 2023
The rush to impose BEVās on the Country. To get the taxpayer to subsidies those that can afford the extravagance by those that cant, then follow it up with the taxpayer funding the infrastructure so they can get around identifies how left wing and socialist the WEF Conservative Government is. Why do I say that, their Policy significantly increases the World pollution there is no doubt about that, the Science(their own Science) proves it. And because there are better less costly, more efficient and less damaging alternatives to solve the issue they suggest exsists. They have to be WEF disciples and in cahoots with Beijing, thatās not being derogatory it is just the only conclusion resulting from their action. They have placed funding other regimes ahead of managing the UK.
The Conservative Party has a lot to answer for in foisting these charlatans on us all.
August 16, 2023
Exactly. When assessing these things one has to ask Cui bono.
August 16, 2023
Why are the people screaming for Net-Zero so reluctant to spell out the alleged benefits – The answer is because they know that there are NONE!
They are not interested in truthful or rational options, they only demand that we suffer the pitfalls of their evil plans.
As a country we should be able to cost the effects of going abnormally green, but no persuasive attempt has been made — This alone should tell us all we need to know about the feasibility and potentials of committing national suicide!
August 16, 2023
Sir John, the public have never been consulted on Net Zero, not in 2008 and not since. The project and its economic, technical and societal implications have never been put to the people. There should have been a referendum years ago. There is widespread and growing concern across the Country over a range of draconian and unaffordable NZ policies, from Energy generation, ULEZ, Heat Pumps, BEVās and restrictive Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Itās time for a National Referendum Sir John, let the people hear the true facts, the costs, the disruption and decide. We cannot trust this parliament.
August 16, 2023
Humans are the carbon they want to reduce. Once you understand this everything makes sense. Continue voting for the Uniparty comrades.
August 16, 2023
From the Daily Telegraph
Just about sums it up
Ref the US āThe goals of green policy and industrial policy could not be more opposed to one another. The core goal of modern American industrial policy appears to be onshoring manufacturing that has been lost to countries with lower labour costs.ā
āThe reason that the green companies are not viable without cheap loans and subsidies has nothing to do with relative labour costs; rather they are not viable simply because consumer choices dictate that their products are not desired. ā
Ref the UK āThe free marketeers should lead the way by highlighting the terrible record of capital allocation these sorts of subsidies have, while advocates of industrial policy should recognise that the rank cronyism and waste these policies produce will almost certainly discredit industrial policy itself.ā
āThis isnāt about squashing any and all efforts to decarbonise, and there is a role for government in lowering emissions. Itās about ensuring we find the most cost effective way of getting there.ā
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/15/joe-biden-green-new-deal-climate-industry-subsidies/
Everyone knows the Sunak/Hunt Conservative Government is a fraud but the Conservative Party, now without Conservative values keeps its fingers in its ears hoping, just hoping the nightmare they created will be over soon.
August 16, 2023
As at 09:00hrs Europe Interconnectors 14.6% and UK Renewables 14.6% ā¦.draw your own conclusions but note the massive increase in interconnector costs
Is the domestic electricity user ever told that their bill is so expensive due to net-zero and imported energy
August 16, 2023
China has been buying up Africa and everywhere else there are minerals to be had while idiots here and in America are still going on about black enslavement. What about the Native American Indians? They are the ones who are losing out in all of this and we sit back and listen to attacks on colonisation and all that rubbish. What would these countries have been like if we hadn’t gone in there? Some other lot would have taken them over. Perhaps it would have been better and then we could get on with our own lives instead of being mixed up in all this rhetoric whilst the Chinese take over the world, and us.
August 16, 2023
I agree. Africa is bought and can never escape its debt because there will be no write offs from China. There will be no complaints from Africa either – they will have no voice. If they had ever written any history, they could lol back fondly to the British Empire.
My cousin says that the number of āhousewivesā in Johannesburg arriving at the local shops (Sandton, Melrose etc) in Mazaratis, Ferraris, Crossfires, Bentleys, is beyond belief. The Kardashians could not keep up.
August 16, 2023
The answer is simple and blindingly obvious.
They won’t produce the figures because they can’t be made to add up !
The staggering cost cannot be met by taxpayers themselves as there simply aren’t enough rich people to tax in order to pay for it. If HS2 is going to cost every family in the UK Ā£4,000, while less than 5% will every use it, the figures for Net Zero are several orders of magnitude worse. Ignoring the infrastructure costs, let us just look at the largest costs for the average home owner and landlord of switching to an EV and a heat pump :
We have discussed the huge disadvantages and the cost of EVs here before and they are at least 25% more expensive than an IC engined car. They also have serious charging and range issues, especially for caravan and trailer users. None of these have been addressed. After 2030, many, like me, will simply run on their IC-engined cars indefinitely.
Very few home owners can afford the cost of installing a heat pump, especially when the huge cost and disruption of fitting the essential larger radiators and pipes in the house to give them a chance of working effectively.
Almost nobody wants to make this change so how is the government going to force it on us and how is it going to be paid for ?
Nobody has answers for these fundamental questions.
August 16, 2023
‘Working people are worse off’, says Labour
āLabourās shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves responds to this morningās inflation. Labourās plan to build a strong economy will make working people better off by boosting growth, improving living standards and cutting household bills.ā
The Sunak/Hunt Conservative Government plan is to have no economy just tax, cancellation, control and punishment.
If there was a change of direction from the Conservative Government tomorrow everyone would know it would be just dressing thing up for the GE. Once the GE is out of the way we know it would be back to the same old tax and spend Conservatives the next day.
They have proved that over and over in the last 13 years even with one of the biggest majorities they have ever had, with the Country wanting needing traditional Conservative Values. The Electorate has been betrayed, highest taxes in 70 years, the biggest tax giveaways to foreign entities, the destruction of UK Industry and Jobs, the inhalation of the economy and the failure to manage the State, the āBlobā
The excuse and it is an excuse they want to lead the World in the race to the bottom by creating the fear of the non existent so-called NetZero project.
August 16, 2023
“Why are there no good official figures on the costs and benefits of net zero?”
So far as figures are concerned, as Sir John’s article and the preceding discussion shows, the figures all comprise one way traffic on the road to hell, which HMG claims to have paved with good intentions, oblivious to the materials they have acquired for this purpose from the globalists.
The benefits would presumably call more for descriptions than figures. The high priests of the green religion will seek to convince us that we will be cool, healthy and safe, all good things. However, we plebs – as ever, in the sense of the working and lower middle classes – have every reason to believe that we will be cold, poor, hungry, dirty, immobile, bored and controlled. The insult to injury factor is that the elite and their fellow travellers will remain warm, wealthy, well fed, clean, mobile, stimulated and controlling.
In the absence of good figures and descriptions, none ever being likely, there is only one sensible conclusion. Abroganda est Caeli Mutationis Lex: the Climate Change Act must be repealed.
August 16, 2023
NetZero, Pseudo fear creation by this Conservative Government supported by the Conservative Party.
Is the Palace of Westminster, Portcullis House, No10 using the Conservative Government preferred Air Source Heat Pumps? Like wise have all MPās that support the people they have installed to inflict this policy on us all ensure at all times they have Air Source Heat Pumps on all their properties?
Are all Ministerial Vehicles battery EVās, do all MPās that support this religion drive and rely only on BEVās?
If they do, do any of the above will it come out of personal pay?
If their answer is NO to any of the above ā hypocrites! They donāt allow options to fit circumstances for the rest of the Country, so there can be NO excuse for them.
That is one of the fundamental flaws in their enforcement on others – they will not do what they tell others to do.
August 16, 2023
“The leading advocates for going faster down the road to net zero assure us it will be good for growth. They tell us about all the new jobs that will be created to make batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars and heat pumps. They stress how much investment must be put into energy transition.”
Clearly the leading advocates for net zero are totally deluded and ignorant about science, energy, economics, battery technology, energy storage, transport, electrical engineering logic & reason. As are circa 95% of MPs.
August 16, 2023
Probably because there are only huge costs and tiny benefits of following a delusional anti scientific crusade against a gas that feeds all life on planet earth.
August 16, 2023
+1
August 16, 2023
Probably the most important question regarding Nut-zero. Hiding the fact that cost will exceed a trillion pounds and make us poor, is a major strategy by the green cult.
The balance between the imaginary human extinction and the proven costs must be rationally addressed.
August 16, 2023
Like many voters, I am appalled by the lack of properly costed plans for Net Zero. The simple truth is that if there were such plans, Net Zero would be considered unaffordable nonsense. It will cost jobs not create them, starting with the 800,000 jobs dependent on petrol & Diesel cars. How thick are the majority of MPs that they don’t even question this nonsense.
When the blind lead the blind they both fall in the ditch!
August 16, 2023
Sir John,
I didn’t know we were allowed to compete with the EU in attracting green investment, or indeed anything else. When they insisted on a “level playing field” what they actually meant was a no-compete clause.
August 16, 2023
Sir John, as we have agreed to enter the magic kingdom, surely itās cheaper to simply leave our infrastructure as it is an buy āoffsetsā?
Offsets allow rich people to continue pumping their overblown āfootprintā into the air and appease (for some reason I am incapable of comprehending) their conscience.
I mean if you believe that the āplanetā is burning to a cinder, and you are sitting on a couple of hundred million, surely you switch the heating off, trash the cars, sell the excess houses, AND give all you can – well all of it actually, to help the rest of us reduce or eradicate our āfootprintā?
My family is acquainted with many rich, ācelebritiesā who spend time beating their breasts to such an extent that exhausted, they need a number of holidays in the sun on the other side of the world to recover.
Iām sick of the fake and the stupid leading the way. Iām NEVER getting on a bus/train or driving an electric car. In fact Iām buying a rebuilt classic car which is exempt from all taxes. Iām not funding this madness, but I am happy to contribute to the rebuilding of asylums.
August 16, 2023
+1 very sensible! Keeping an old car going make more sense than building a new short lived EV and more fun too!
August 16, 2023
Lynn Atkinson
Youāre well placed to enjoy and appreciate classic cars, Iām a great fan of both Rowan Atkinsonās humour and his skilful conducting of racing cars and I would appreciate it you would pass on my best wishes!
August 16, 2023
Mr Bean crashes McLaren F1 twice it sells for $12.2 million I see! Still he is right on electric cars (he has an electrical engineering degree or similar I think) and right on freedom of speech. A good man even if not such a good driver.
August 16, 2023
Pleasure. He has many more accidents than do I. In fact I have just purchased a mini traveller.
August 16, 2023
Classic as in needing ‘lead in the petrol’?
August 17, 2023
Maybe you should try using transport 90% of the people HAVE to use to function. You know – get to work, doctors, hospitals, school, shopping, leisure?
The experiences would certainly help you form better judgements about the plight of the UK citizens.
August 16, 2023
Maybe you could get the estimate done by the HS2 people?
August 16, 2023
Net Zero?
Today we learn inflation is 240% over target and apparently that a good thing. Maybe we can use the same philosophy on NetZero, oh I forgot no one in this Conservative Government knows what the base line is, let alone where it should be.
August 16, 2023
For the most part the UKās road infrastructure is paid out of taxes and most of that appears to come via Central Government. Technically I suppose that means it is the taxpayer that owns the roads. With the Government controlling the situation on the taxpayers behalf. So how is the Mayor of London able to charge people for using something that others have paid for and own?
The Mayor could of course pay back Central Government, assume ownership then do and charge what he likes.
Although based on the Conservative Governments track record, it appears ULEZ was part of their plan to use taxpayer subsidies and force more Chinese āTattā on the UK.
August 16, 2023
You couldn’t make it up ……..
(1) Some are making Millions from the WOKE Net Zero.
(2) Millions are suffering from their gains
(3) OUR country is suffering from their gains
(4) We are being sacrificed for less than 1%
(5) The world is again laughing at us for destroying our country and it’s people for a comedy of errors. impossible cause.
BUT, OUR government can.
August 16, 2023
@Colin ā should any of these religious prophecies finish up having any truth to them what can the UK do to protect its citizens? Nothing, zilch – the economy was sacrificed on ego.
August 16, 2023
There are no published cost and benefit calculations because the difference between the former and the latter numbers is so large it might make people votes for parties other than the Net Zero Lib/Lab/Con parties.
August 16, 2023
Why? That’s easy – because there are none! It is the same for all confidence tricks and scams whose ultimate plan is to steal our money to fund themselves a sweet life. They cannot and will not provide evidence supporting their theories, or should that be “orders”?
Isn’t there a criminal charge for “deception”?
August 16, 2023
Derek – No there isn’t a criminal charge for deception – not for UK politicians anyhow – in 2016 we were horribly lied to and was anyone held to account? No! – well then why should anyone be surprised with what’s going on. In America for instance they have the first amendment which means they can lie to their hearts content wothout responsibility for anything and now it looks like our crowd have taken a leaf out of their book. They repeat “my right honourable friend” but it means nothing because if should read my right honourable ‘fraud’
August 16, 2023
Apologies for a third posting, but I saw this elsewhere and canāt help but agree (except for the population total, which is way understated):
āA country of over 60 million people, sitting on years of cheap, easily accessible energy, being held hostage by Globalist manipulators, greedy profiteers and the politicians who live in their pockets. What a bloody mess.ā
August 16, 2023
I just don’t get it.
Anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together can see that this net zero malarkey is going to be a social and economic disaster.
Why do our politicians actually WANT to destroy this country.
August 16, 2023
I completely agree with John Redwood here that a very detailed and full costs/benefits analysis is essential to better policy making. That should apply not only in relation to net zero but to all aspects of government expenditure and to all regulations that cost anybody any time or money. (Sunak can begin his campaign for better numeracy with much better numeracy in government and properly calculate the costs in relation to benefits of government actions where so often the costs exceed the benefits)
Though such calculations are needed in relation to net zero, as elsewhere, there are many more imponderables than usual in the case of net zero – such as is some global warming (if it would really occur) such a bad thing overall? Is it cheaper to adapt to it where necessary rather than prevent it? Nor can we now know whether some better and much cheaper yet to be discovered technological options may in due course become available. That said, the blog is right that better and more penetrative cost analysis is needed even if it is only be based on information that is presently available.
August 16, 2023
The green ātransitionā to renewable energy is not happening. Thatās just a fact David Blackmore- Daily Telegraph
āIn 2022, the human race burned more coal, oil and gas than ever before. The world burned more wood for energy in 2022 than ever before.ā
āXi Jinping government has always prioritized energy security above climate goals. China, which retains its nominal status as a ādeveloping nationā in the eyes of the UN and other global organizations despite having the worldās second-biggest economyā
China enjoys the UKās deceit in cancelling UK industry and jobs to support China with this Conservative Governments award of UK Taxpayer subsidising their imports. Where is the mutual trade the reciprocity?
August 16, 2023
A bit O/T: foreignpolicy.com, 15/08/2023 āJapan might have an answer to Chinese Rare Earth threatsā.
Is it possible to imagine a UK response similar to the Japanese one?
August 17, 2023
@hefner, not really O/T as the Japanese solution involved, vision, strategic mindset and long term thinking that is woefully absent from the political and civil service mob we have had entrenched for decades and so necessary for any large scale projects/change.
Personally I would augment the Japanese approach with recycling to recover the valuable minerals etc from the end of life products produced from refined materials so cheaply by China. For example the neodymium recovery process developed at University of Birmingham. But that would need an actual strategy for energy, appreciation of what resources, skills and industries etc are critical.
You’d still have the blinkered, short-sightedness endemic in our political classes and commentariat – none of the righteous “conservatives” on this blog would stomach the support needed by Japanese concern to counter the Chinese price fixing.
August 16, 2023
Consider there are no good benefits in NetZero just grandstanding pushing the UK down the drain for what, China to produce 30% Co2 in comparison with our miniscule ,1%. The rest of the industrial world pay lip service and go on their merry way. We need a Government less concerned with their place in the Woke history books and more with the benefits of this country?
August 16, 2023
I have decided to break cover and finally admit to being the Executive Director of a, formerly secret, Climate Change Think Tank.
The Think Tank is called the Centre for Rebuilding And Protection ( of the Country ) or CRAP for short.
We have chosen Sir John’s prestigeous website to announce our first major contribution to the Climate Debate :
The very first carefully calculated and validated figure for the cost to the UK of Net Zero.
The figure is Ā£5.871 Trillion Pounds.
This has been calculated by taking the basic cost of Ā£1 trillion announced by Philip Hammond on the 6th June 2019. To this figure, we have applied a cost overrun calculation, based on the example of the rising cost of HS2. To this we have applied an accuracy quotient based on the variations between the Bank of England’s forecast for inflation and their actual results. Finally we have applied a WITW fine adjustment, based on the exact high frequency accoustic signature of the combined wind farms across the UK.
I can completely guarantee that our figure is just as accurate as any figure produced by any government department for just about anything.
However, while we have used our brand new, multi-million dollar Cray computer to ensure its accuracy, it really does not matter, because I can also confirm the astounding news that, whatever the final figure, it will be completely unaffordable and will bankrupt the country.
August 16, 2023
If the laws (Immigration & Asylum Act 1971, 1999 and Greater London Authority Act 1999, Section 143 ref ULEZ) are not going to be used, then theyāre an arse and should be removed
And the biggest arse to democracy is the law enacted without any success criteria, waved through the house with a nod and zero debate on the costs ā¦.. but plenty of penal fines, restrictions and alterations to our why of life without full consent of the people ā The Climate Change Act
August 17, 2023
There are no estimates because no-one has yet managed to design a feasible programme for achieving net zero. The work that has been commissioned by the CCC and BEIS/DESNZ and OFGEM and National Grid (as custodians of the Future Energy Scenarios) is entirely in the realms of fantasy, and has never been costed even as a fantasy. You can readily find cogent criticism of these fantasy “plans”: David Turver recently wrote an excellent summary at his Eigenvalues substack site for instance. The best stabs at estimates for parts of the programme have been published by GWPF: Ā£2 trillion to insulate the housing stock, Ā£300bn to recable the streets, Ā£1 trillion on the electricity system, etc. These are eye-watering sums to degrade our standard of living. What we spend on these items cannot be spent on making our lives better: they will make them worse. The damage to our balance of trade will be colossal, and we will not be able to afford much in the way of imports.
The whole programme will collapse, but it will leave us with a non-functional energy system, much as in say Venezuela. We don’t have the benefit of the warmer climate though.
August 17, 2023
In our post Christian society, net zero has become one of a number of trendy new religions to fill the void.
Fanatical adherents to any religion will not count the cost, especially if someone else has to pay the price for it.
August 17, 2023
The Net Zero nonsense is all costs and no benefits, is my short answer. The balanced score card would see no benefits in any quadrant including the environmental one.
Net Zero requires less use of energy, but that is not possible if you wish to maintain our current level of afluence and quality of life across all members of our community. Energy = work and the integral of work over time = wealth. Since all the Net Zero solutions involve more materials and energy in and more pollution out than useful work / energy out, naturally we are being creative with the GDP and loss of national wealth and personal wealth cannot be hidden behind quantitative easing and subsidies paid for jobs in ‘green’ industries for long. Most of the mining and manufacturing work is overseas in China for making EVs, batteries, wind-turbines and solar panels any way. It is all powered by coal, gas and oil as that is the only way to power industrial society effectively, efficiently and cheaply. All our jobs, wealth and ultimately political power is going East. For No benefit, absolutely zero benefit for the local, regional or global environments. Over hear we plaster our countryside with bat, bird and whale killing wind-turbines by felling swathes of forest as well as solar panels that take away farm land from food production and natural habitats for native species. In Africa and South America strip mining with no water or air pollution restrictions means that the environment and local population are being killed by toxic waste and many people work in slave-like conditions some in detention camps with forced labour in China and children in unsafe and toxic mines in Africa. This green industrial complex will impoverish us and destroy our industrial production and food production capabilities as well as ultimately our ability to fund or equip our military; overseas it is doing untold ills around the globe as well.
If you are looking at sector by sector analysis or an agregate view then don’t look to the universities, civil service or industry who are captured and told what to write, what gets included and what doesn’t. You have to look to independent organisations of free and sceptical scientists who consider the realities of the climate change hypothesis rather than making assertions, altering data and pushing model output as fact. Similarly on the energy front, if you want to know the effectiveness of renewables on electricity supply and credibility of claims of engineering effectiveness then please look to the Heartland Institute in the USA, the Global Warming Foundation in the UK etc.
You will find that the GDP of a country or wealth of nations relates to how cheap energy is, as much as the skills of the workforce. Work = money; the inegral of work is energy and the integral of money is wealth. The reason industry and all other production is going overseas is energy costs are rising because of renewables. This reduces our production in all sectors as it goes overseas and as people become poorer and the wealth of the nation bleeds away so the communists we have in power in the UK and everywhere else in the west (hiding under their green mantels) put up taxes, increase subsidies to their friends and bleed the coffers of the country until they are dry.
Of course the mainstream want no dissenting voices and attack these organisations vociferously. But their work is an attempt at analysis of sound science, engineering and economics – something which the corrupted ‘official’ institutions and media no longer do!
https://www.thegwpf.org/gwpf-publications-list/
https://heartland.org/publications/?topic=environment-energy
By contrast if you look to the IPCC reports, look to the work of other institutions then what is seen is a series of assertions, half-analysis and incomplete modelling of science, engineering or economics where the outcomes and findings are determined first and the evidence and materials in reports are derived later.
Most of the media push the narrative that it is Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on natural gas prices and our dependence on gas for energy as the problems of inflation, a stagnating economy and electricity prices. The truth of the matter it is the shortage in other reliable and cheap sources of natural gas due to Net Zero and anti-hydrocarbon policies which are making everything unaffordable and inflation soar. Net Zero is the problem – not the solution.
To reaffirm you won’t get truthful, factual, complete analysis as long as all the money and political power pushes this climate emergency and end all fossil fuels and all nitrous oxides and particulate emissions rubbish. The only thing people are paid to promote is that narrative. Allowing anyone in a scientific, industry or civil service position to say otherwise means loss of revenue and loss of face for that institution so most people keep saying how fine the emperor’s clothes are and don’t speak out. If they do they are cancelled, defamed, insulted and financially ruined. Similarly if you promote this garbage then the ESG funds, the government subsidies and the praise in the media comes thick and fast. So why do you think we are driving ourselves into a ditch over this nonsense?
August 17, 2023
Net zero by 2050 has to be achieved globally. Atmospheric convection currents which determine where CO2 ends up are no respecters of international borders. So what are the most important goals?
(1) Zero population growth at world level. Energy consumption per capita isn’t trending downwards so ZPG is essential. The UK’s policy should be twofold (a) ZPG in the UK and (2) Seal the borders of countries that have high fertility and export nothing but people and control their populations via war, pestilence and famine.
(2) Establish international recognition that what is burned at power stations matters. Then propose measures (via the WTO) to penalise the production of energy using raw coal and LNG, which are the worst CO2 generators by a factor of at least 2. Gas is needed as a transition fuel for at least 10 years, giving nations a chance to phase in nuclear and on shore wind power.
August 18, 2023
Isnāt there a pinch point somewhere? Iām sure I read gas boiler manufacturers will be fined if they donāt stop making them by a certain date. Hammer to crack a walnut. Can anyone confirm this and current situation?
August 18, 2023
A clean environment is a big health gain. Not having to buy energy from evil regimes would be a gain. Fracking in the south is a no no. We rely on aquifers and only one place in the USA can clean up fracking water well enpough to return it to tthe water table.
August 18, 2023
enough cant correct the typo