The Telegraph amended this and added a headline without my consent.The vast ambition of the net zero policies envisages most people switching their heating to electricity, their travel to bicycles and electric cars, and their diets to vegetarian options. It certainly needs the wholesale conversion of electricity generation from coal,oil and gas to renewables, and a solution to what to do when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.Ā We need to ask are consumers ready for changes of this magnitude?Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā So far governments have concentrated on doing what should be the easier bits of the change over. They have considerable influence and control over energy markets and have increased their interventions in them. They have ordered more renewables and pressed for closures of coal based generation. They have used subsidies, tax breaks, windfall taxes, regulations, managed prices and bans to tip electricity generation more strongly towards wind and solar power away from fossil fuel. They have got supportĀ or acquiescence from the industry to this pathway. Industry actively promotes renewable power as a good. At home itĀ is forced to roll out smart meters to an increasingly sceptical group of consumers who have resisted them so far. It has come forward with many new windfarms and solar arrays.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Even this transition in the UK has hit some buffers. More renewables means more grid to handle the great variability of output and to transfer the power from offshore and from the north to onshore and in the south where most of the customers are. The industry is behind on increasing grid capacity, and plans for it are delayed by planning processes that reveal the opposition to pylons in local landscapes. It is all more cost for consumers and taxpayers.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The digital revolution sweeps on because people like its products and services. We have seen a near universal adoption of mobile phones. The majority have signed up readily to the internet, have liked downloading entertainment of their choice when they want it, have turned to social media and on line meetings to keep in touch with friends and family, have undertaken many a google search, let their photos and memos be stored on an Amazon web server and usually use Microsoft software. A handful of leading US companies have swept the globe with their new products and services without government subsidy, tax break or exhortation.Ā Ā Ā Ā So far the green revolution has not fired the same enthusiasms. Battery electric cars are still a hard sell. Heat pumps with a Ā£7500 subsidy do not fly off the shelves. Whilst many people do say global warming is a problem and something should be done about it, few think it sufficient of a problem that they need toĀ change their travel, heating and diet. There are determined minorities on both sides of the argument. One group say it is essential people are made to change to stop the rise in temperatures. They want tougher tax rises,Ā more restrictions on driversĀ and bans on fossil fuels. One group says it is all nonsense, with a variable climate affected by many things in addition to human carbon dioxide. They do not want the government interfering and think adaptation much cheaper than prevention if temperatures do rise.Ā The majority inĀ the middle would like policy to be gently pointing in a less carbon direction, but not in a way which would worsen their living standards and put up their costs.Ā Ā Ā Ā The all electric battery car is mainly bought by fleet buyers who benefit from a tax break and have to show their shareholders they are taking net zero seriously. Hertz car rentals has recently announced it bought too many electric cars and is unable to rent them all out, so it is selling some of its fleet. In the UK most individual car buyers think battery cars too dear, worry about their range and how you would be able to recharge them. Some think it would be better to develop synthetic fuels which can already be produced in small quantities. TheseĀ work in conventional engines and be supplied through existing filling stations.Ā Ā Ā Ā The heat pump is an even more difficult sell. If like manyĀ you have an older house you first need to spend a lot with disruptiveĀ works to properly insulate the whole building. You then face an installation and supply cost of around Ā£15,000 before subsidy with moreĀ works. You may need to put in bigger pipes and radiators to get it hot enough. Whilst the heat pump does cut the amount of energy needed to heat the home, given the much higher cost of electricity per unit of energy the running costs can still come out higher than a gas boiler.Ā Ā Ā Some think it better to keep a modern gas boiler and change the gas fuel used to fire it. Increasing volumes of hydrogen or its derivatives made from renewable electricity and water could be fed into the gas supply as the power becomes available. There is little point people buying a heat pump system all the time we depend on gas fired power stations for the extra demand. Why burn the gas in a remote power station, losing energy in transmission, when you could burn it at home?Ā Ā Ā Ā More people are turning to vegetarian diets but no political party is going to ban meat or impose a special meat tax anytime soon. When the Dutch tried to cut back animal numbersĀ on local farms as part of a net zero strategy there was a political earthquake with a new Farmers party andĀ the Wilders party helping evict the government that did it. The best way to wean people off methane intensive animal products is by producing better alternatives.Ā Ā Ā Ā The world cannot get to net zero without major changes of consumer behaviour. The digital revolution shows people are willing to make big changes in the way they work, enjoy entertainment and talk to each other if you produce great new products and services. The Green revolution designed by global civil servants and forced upon us by governments still has to find the iconic products that would fire the imaginations of families. People do not want a landscape covered in pylons, a car that cannot make it easily to the next working charging point and a heating system that is a lot dearer than the one they have got. They do not want to be stuck in more traffic jams as highways authorities make it ever more difficult to get about in a van or car.Ā More do now worry about what happens to everything electric when the wind does not blow and when evening darkness has closed down the solar.
149 Comments
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April 4, 2024
Good morning.
” . . . anytime soon.”
https://www.farmersguide.co.uk/business/politics/rishi-sunak-scraps-new-boiler-ban-and-meat-tax-proposals/
Not now, but ‘anytime soon.’
It’s in the wording š
April 4, 2024
Mark B
The sale of factory produced meat has been banned in Italy. An excellenr move.
April 4, 2024
People in Italy understand the superior quality and taste of real food. Only 5% of the diet is ultra-processed pap. It’s >50% here.
The US organic & regenerative farmer Joel Salatin, who also produces real food, wrote a book ‘Everything I want to do is illegal’, i.e. due to top-down meddling by USDA and state governments. It now approaches the tyranny of the USSR in a country whose constitution once cited ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.
The UK isn’t far behind. The Sec. of State, DEFRA recently made an announcement that didn’t mention food and could have been drafted by the CEOs of Cargill, Bayer et al. The WEF wants to discourage home food growing.
April 4, 2024
Sir John – this is another Norman – not the one who occasionally writes from a biblical Christian perspective, and extensive livestock farming knowledge. It’s important to me that i am not misrepresented on such serious matters. As to food policy, beware! We are heading towards self-inflicted famine. There will then be no such thing as ‘pap’ food.
April 4, 2024
What does “anytime soon” actually mean?
It means “it is our intention to do it but not this side of a general election.”
They have no mandate for any of this tyranny.
April 4, 2024
Donna,
It means French farmers protested in the EU against it. Therefore delayed. We are out of the cap, many promises made to farmers but govt has not acted on their promises and instead went for EU wilding and other rot!!
April 4, 2024
It’s a sad indictment of the state of our politicians and political parties that I make this suggestion;
Each Party seeking election must produce a legally binding ‘Manifesto’ prior to the election, and the successful party is obliged to carryout that Manifesto and ONLY that Manifesto, subject to any national emergency. Timetable to be debated and inserted before becoming Law.
A contract with the electorate if you prefer. I think we’d see some radically different ‘promises’.
April 4, 2024
What would happen in a coalition? Then, all parties seem not to have to suit anyone or follow manifesto commitments.
April 4, 2024
See the BDI (1999) – a contract between individual MPs and their electorates.
April 4, 2024
I think it means “We know the other half of the Uniparty will impose this when they are in power after the election, but please don’t blame us, even though we won’t legislate against it e.g. by cancelling net zero.”
April 4, 2024
EU governments are doing their best to stop dairy and cattle farming. The so called vegan foods are highly processed and bad for your health. It’s strange how the government demonises McDonald’s etc yet promotes processed dairy products. A bit like Drax power station churning out GOOD CO2. You couldn’t make it up.
Shysters the lot of you.
April 4, 2024
Dairy Global,16/11/23:”Russian dairy industry challenges European exporters.”
“Russia is pumping billions from the state treasury into efforts to become one of the world’s largest dairy exporters and take over a share of European suppliers and businesses in emerging markets in Asia,Middle East and Africa.The Russian dairy industry is switching from an import-replacement to an export-oriented development model.”
They already have the largest raw milk producer in Europe(EkoNiva) and have recently nationalised Danone’s Russian subsidiary.In addition,PepsiCo’s Russian dairy business is about to be sold-at a heavily knocked down price!
April 4, 2024
Indeed nothing wrong at all with a nice burger. Burning imported wood from forests chopped down in America is bonkers. Get fracking now please.
April 4, 2024
Highly processed Vegan food =. cancer. this is being demonstrated. by the increase in cancer via increased takeaway food ( junk )!
April 4, 2024
Deer John. Did you by any chance mention the utter futilty of Net Zero, our one per cent of CO2, Chinaās 31%, the unstoppable rise in atmospheric CO2; the disconnect between CO2 . and temperature; that we are in an Ice Age with ice on both poles? Oh dear
April 4, 2024
+1
April 4, 2024
+1
April 4, 2024
The obvious solution to most of the problems outlined is a huge increase in nuclear power. But, even now, with all the issues outlined in the article, the government is missing in action. SMRs! When? Make a decision and get on with it.
April 4, 2024
Well nuclear is not such a good solution as very expensive and not too good at ramping up and down as is required if we have more ārenewablesā. if we switch to heat pumps electricity demand in cold winter days will be 10-20+ times winter demand. So generator capacity and the grid will need vast investment and this investment will then be largely unused and wasted for most of the year.
JR says āYou may need to put in bigger pipes and radiators to get it hot enoughā the reason you need this is the heat pumps only work efficiently if pumping the heat to lower temps so bigger rads with lower temps are needed. Also v. slow to heat up if building allowed to go cold. So tends to get left on wasting energy at weekends in offices or during the day at home. You also need space for large hot water tanks.
April 4, 2024
EVs do not even save CO2 and as more people try them more people reject them as impractical, not environmental and very expensive. Walking and cycling not that efficient either as human food like steak and chips is a rather inefficient fuel when you do the sums.
April 4, 2024
Oh yes!
The recent fun and games of a big shot acquaintance.
Top of the range EV. Home charger wonāt work.
Nearest charging place miles away.
Some faulty part literally months to wait.
And put on heater in cold and no can go!
Coal and oil please!
April 4, 2024
Govt. Wants EU inter dependence on energy to prevent diverging and leaving EU. EU Energy linked to EU having our fishing waters which comes up next year. Tory govt. Determined not to diverge from EU, this is Sunakās purpose for being PM.
Yesterday we had EU environment laws, regs hindering our ability to build reservoirs. Time to leave the EU.
April 4, 2024
Hope
On REALLY leaving the EU
Wuddenit be luvverly!
No more rules that we must obey
No more fines and dues to pay
Weād get our country back one day!
Oh wuddenit be luvverly!
April 4, 2024
Wait until they need a new circa Ā£30,000 battery or they try to sell it to someone who knows they have this bill waiting for them in a year or two. Or they have a minor bump and it is written off as damage to battery section.
April 4, 2024
Ambulance āexplodesā after dropping off 91 year old. Must have been a diesel šš¤£
Meantime Russia releases the Zircon inter-ballistic hypersonic missile. Launched from the Black Sea (thatās the one south of Russia and nowhere near Lithuania in case Truss reads this) it reached Kiev is less than 6 minutes, taking out ādecision centresā with millimetre precision strikes.
Ukraine fills a plane with bombs and crashes it into an āexchange hostelā in Russia full of African students, claims itās a drone factory.
We have to stop talking about irrelevant stuff and direct our best brains – JRās for instance – at the pressing subjects that we have neglected while we wrestled with the Angel aka āglobal warming, woke, feminism, multiculturalism, hundreds of invented sexesā and the rest of the detritus spewed out by sick and drugged minds.
April 4, 2024
It was actually a diesel it burned slowly from the front engine bay. The later “explosion” was prob. an oxygen cylinder or similar that was in the back when the fire reached the back.
April 4, 2024
Edward Luttwak,the veteran US military historian,strategist and State Department adviser,has just written that “NATO will soon have to send soldiers to Ukraine or else accept catastrophic defeat.”
The French Defence minister has just phoned his Russian counterpart-first contact for almost two years.
The US is admitting the Houthis cannot be beaten-US envoy to Yemen,Tim Lenderking,said on Wednesday that the US is seeking a diplomatic solution for the Yemen Armed Forces blockade of the Red Sea:”We favour a diplomatic solution,we know there is no military solution.”I hear that there might be a reconciliation of the Yemeni factions and a pathway to joining BRICS following a meeting in Oman recently.
The “globalists” are being crushed on multiple fronts-no wonder Israel is trying to spark WWIII with it’s attacks on Iran.
April 4, 2024
Volvo Research trialled two similar models from its range, one ICE and one Plug-in EV. Each vehicle started with the CO2 overhead of its manufacture and component sourcing.
The breakeven on CO2 of the EV came at between 52,000 and 92,000 miles according to the costs of energy in a Country. The EV numbers did not include a replacement battery.
April 4, 2024
Even that study is incorrect. The reason being, they use the AVERAGE mix of electricity source when calculating how much CO2 is emitted per km.
As things stand this is wrong, because the only way of supplying ADDITIONAL appliances plugged into the grid is to turn up the gas turbines (or sometimes coal stations).
An EV is therefore entirely powered by fossil fuel, and NOT by the average mix of electricity source.
April 4, 2024
Indeed compare keeping your old car petrol or diesel to buying a new EV the former is far, far better in CO2 terms, far cheaper, better range, lighter. less tyre wear and can be refilled in three minutes rather than hours. Anyway we have not space low carbon electricity to charge them with!
April 4, 2024
āwhen the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.ā
The main problem with solar panels in the UK is you get the electricity mainly in summer and around midday but it is mainly needed on cold, dark winter days and nights (even more so if we use more heat pumps). Cold frosty winter days can often be rather windless too. Grid scale storage is absurdly expensive and impractical too. To store electricity a pile of coal or a store of natural gas are the best and cheapest solutions by far.
April 4, 2024
They know all of this, LL.
The whole point of the “green” (rather the red) revolution is to impoverish the West by transitioning us from cheap, abundant, reliable and secure hydrocarbon energy to expensive, meagre, unreliable, chaotically intermittent renewables with no ability to store electricity economically at grid-scale and furthermore to control us through electrification and smart meters.
The evidence that this is not done to save the planet is that the climate activists have no issue with CO2 emissions from China, India et al and always fight against the development of nuclear energy.
In fact they know that not only is some slight warming coming out of the Little Ice Age and an increase in atmospheric CO2 beneficial for food production they also know that crop yields would be decimated if they managed to ban fertilisers as they are now trying to do.
April 4, 2024
I work in an old stone building which is “heated” by two heat pumps. On Mondays and on colder days, several electric fan heaters are also used to boost the temperature because the heat pumps are simply not up to the job.
April 4, 2024
Donna
A friend living in a large, new-build living at the top of a hill (lovely views!) in Aberdeenshire, had his heat pump underfloor heating on 24/7 all year round!
When he died in 2015, his heating bill was Ā£3,000 per year!
April 4, 2024
So probably Ā£6000 a year now, if he was alive to pay it.
April 4, 2024
So probably less efficient than using gas, oil, wood or solid fuel heating.
April 4, 2024
Second paragraph, spot on. I read the Energy Secretary is considering the green levy applied to electricity, nothing to do with more electoral panic I presume.
Actually this wonāt be a cut, it will be transferred to gas/general taxation.
Apparently she has been told that this is a major cause for the lack of take up in EVs/Heat pumps etc.
Once again they are in total denial. Apparently the Ā£148 p.a I might save will get me to spend upwards of Ā£30 k on the rads/pipes etc you mention.
Sir JR. Please tell the unworldly/no life experience children advising the Minister to read your article. We are not buying them because they are egregiously expensive and not fit for purpose just like said advisers.
April 4, 2024
It’s not just life experience or qualifications. It’s the wrong qualifications and a religion based on NO evidence. Please ask any of these fools to show the scientific facts that CO2, the plant food, bogy gas, has anything whatsoever that it acts as a control knob on heating the planet. Historical temperature changes on the Earth have shown that CO2 content follows not leads that change by about 100 years. Cloud cover and the Sun has a much bigger influence, but why let facts get in the way of the flat earthers!
April 4, 2024
+1
April 4, 2024
+1
April 4, 2024
Next generation heat pumps will run hotter (85C) so “maybe” will work with current piping and radiators. But there is no free lunch, so higher temperatures but more input energy to achieve this I would guess…
April 4, 2024
Correct Carnot efficiency rules the more degrees you pump the heat up from A to B the more electricity it uses and the worse the CoP (heat out over electricity in) you get. Plus electricity is far more expensive than gas per KWH
April 4, 2024
Swimming pool good for summer heating but piping hot water in freezing winters rather less so. I wonder if Sunak had a heat pump for his Yorkshire Pad when his electricity grid connection capacity was increased. But then I guess he is up north “swimming” so very little it is hardly worth the large capital expenditure anyway.
April 4, 2024
Higher temperature, lower flow so bigger units
As you say, no free lunch.
April 4, 2024
There is no single solution to energy supply because there are different kinds of demands for which different sources are better. Oil will remain very hard to beat for transport. Gas is excellent for the flexibility it offers to handle demand peaks both for heat and power. Coal and nuclear are well suited to supplying baseliad power. With the right choice of technology and sensible regulation there is no reason why nuclear shouldn’t be cost competitive with HELE coal while offering good security of supply and extremely compact energy storage.
April 4, 2024
LL : āWell nuclear is not such a good solution as very expensive and not too good at ramping up and down as is required if we have more ārenewablesāā.
Whilst I have absolutely no objection to using hydrocarbon fuels to generate electricity :
The price quoted by RR SMR to a recent HoC ES&NZ Select Committee meeting was Ā£50-Ā£70/MWhr (depends on funding type) and the same EDF EPR technology used at Hinkley Point C is currently providing electricity in Finland at Ā£50/MWhr. These prices should be compared with the upcoming prices at the next renewables auction (AR6) of Ā£100/MWhr for fixed offshore wind and Ā£242/MWhr for floating offshore wind. The price of our gas generated electricity before the green (actually red) revolution and the Ukraine war was around $40 – Ā£50/Mwhr for several decades.
Now although it is more costly (because of increased maintenance) to āramp up and downā nuclear power it is feasible as shown by both France (70% nuclear) and with nuclear powered ships including our own submarines and in fact RR say their SMRs are capable of this function. Not that all nuclear plants would be required to do this and becomes fewer the less renewables are on the grid making the grid unstable.
April 4, 2024
If you had nuclear power, the intermittency of wind and solar would be rendered useless.
April 4, 2024
Nuclear is not that cheap, especially as the planning, safely, political and legal processes are so slow & difficult in the UK. In you have to build a facility that can produce X megawatts peak but only on average ends up producing on average 1/10 of this over the year then the Capital Costs per MWH become huge.
April 4, 2024
@Mike Wilson – +1 ‘a government missing in action’ This Conservative Government is ensuring the UK remains dependent on the political whims of a foreign government for its nuclear power. The preference is to use a foreign nationalized industry as the UK supplier, nationalized means state owned taxpayer funded. As Sir John has outlined that is a bad thing(nationalized) when it has UK connotations.
In the North East of the UK a private initiative to roll out a fleet of SMR’s has yet to get this Conservative Government to approve the license to build. Is it because it is private funded and that doesn’t chime well with this extreme Socialist Government. If it had bee the French or the Chinese the build would already be on the way.
We have to recognize this is an anti-UK Government
April 4, 2024
āWhy burn the gas in a remote power station, losing energy in transmission, when you could burn it at home?ā
Why indeed about 60% of the energy is wasted at the power station and in transmission and voltage conversions. Would often make rather more sense to burn it in the home and generate a little electricity at home, perhaps ditching the Ā£350PA rip of standing charge for electricity. Combined heat and power.
The idea of replacing methane with other synthetic gasses like H2 makes virtually no sense in economic or environmental terms either. Just get fracking please, plenty of nice and cheap methane for many years to come. Plus a bit more CO2 plant food is a good thing – we live in a relative dearth in historic terms.
April 4, 2024
@Lifelogic – Sterling Engine Boilers for domestic installation have been around for decades and do just that. Heat the home, the water and create electricity all for a similar cost of a heat pump that then needs electricity to run. Most domestic boilers now run on hydrogen, hydrogen is a way of storing excess power in quiet times. Every one concentrates on generating hydrogen as a task, failing to recognize it is naturally occurring in a similar way to natural gas. They also forget that a UK wide pipework is already installed – the clever one recently is to mix hydrogen with natural gas, use the existing pipe network to deliver hydrogen to petrol stations, for auto transport, were the 2 different gases can quite natural be split and go their different ways.
April 4, 2024
The newer boilers can perhaps run on H2 but almost never do. Producing green hydrogen is very expensive and wastes circa half the energy, best just to burn plentiful Methane. Get fracking please. Electricity costs about 3 times as much as gas per KWH why on earth convert it back to gas wasting half the energy in the process. Hugely inefficient and very expensive. Perhaps makes sense in a few specialist areas at best.
April 4, 2024
The problem with domestic generation is that at the level of the individual household demand is very peaky. A 3kW kettle takes less than a minute to boil for a mug of tea, and 3-4 minutes for a pot. An electric shower for a few minutes may consume up to 9.5kW. Leave for work, and the fridge will cut in occasionally against a background of a few Watts to power your router and standby power for other devices. It doesn’t match the steady output of a few hundred Watts from a domestic generator, even though the average is similar. You either have to have an oversize generator operating inefficiently, or a costly battery system that would still struggle with your shower. That’s why these systems are not popular: you need at least a district scheme to start to average demand across a few hundred households.
April 4, 2024
Well you need a gas (not electric) kettle far cheaper too, gas cooking, gas heating and hot water and petrol/diesel cars. Then you need very little electricity for the whole house. LED lighting, a central heating pump & boiler, TV, Computer, fridge freezer, washing machine (& they do not use much if fed on warm water or run cold).
April 5, 2024
My gas alternative would be bottled propane.
April 4, 2024
āhydrogen is a way of storing excess power in quiet timesā – well yes but a very expensive and very energy wasteful way to store electric energy. Electricity back to electricity you might get 30% of the energy back at best. Electricity is far better stored as a pile of coal or stored methane and the electricity then only produced when actually needed.
April 4, 2024
A comprehensive resume of the situation. The choice is straightforward. Top down dictats that lack the conviction of Mose’s trip up the mountain and moreover involve considerable financial penalty while settling for goods that are not fit for market. Alternatively using science and engineering to develope marketable solutions.
It is by no means set in stone that CO2 is a real problem. It’s erradication has become a new religion of very dubious foundation. It’s followers have the same fanatical conviction of those who gave us the Inquisition. Just one example, government and our flat earth civil service have contrived to block Rolls Royce SMRs by a long grass slight of putting the whole question out to an HMG enquiry and tender. This overlooks two obvious points.
1. There is not the technical or scientific talent in HMG or the civil service to make such a judgement, and neither could run a corner shop.
2. SMRs already work in our submarine fleet. If there was a serious problem we would be aware of it by now.
This opposition and delay convinces me that it is inspired by diciples of the new CO2 religion, and current government lacks the cohones to deal with it. The plus side of RR, SMRs is that 15 adjacent areas of use would obviate the need for marching columns of pylons. They would also produce constant clean power.
If you want power for heating forget expensive, inefficeint heat pumps and start thinking big. Drill deep for geothermal heat, pass water through it, and heat towerblocks and housing estates from one source.
Use hydrogen for vehicle propulsion, obviating all the downsides of EVs at a stroke. Avoid yet another elephant trap of dependency on China, while ending the payola stream for China advocacy enjoyed by some of our senior politicians. Ask MI6 for a list. Use intermittent offshore wind power produced electricity to make hydrogen on the coast. No pylons required.
We need a government that ends the inquisition and figuratively burns its advocates. We won’t get one by returning the majority of green bench polishers we currently endure, or the parties they belong to.
April 4, 2024
Exactly
Geothermal sources are constant and non-polluting. Cornwall’s project is likely to be in production this year.
https://geothermalengineering.co.uk/united-downs/
We just need government with the capability of seeing this huge potential.
April 4, 2024
Rather expensive in capital terms though other than in a few special situations. Technically not renewable as the heat is mainly from nuclear reactions in the earths core but then wind, solar and tidal are not really renewable either – just long lasting.
April 4, 2024
I looked at the site – couldnāt find the estimated cost of geothermal electricity.
April 5, 2024
They have a CFD currently worth Ā£165.59/MWh.
April 4, 2024
Tory govt has been used to implementing what it is told to do by EU, it is not use to strategy, conservative ideology, decisions or anything. Managing paper clips or minor issues, speeches to pretend they are different from Labour. Can anyone name five key strategic policies the Tory govt have improved our lives or enhanced the nation standing in the world?
I think we can discard gay marriage, ban smoking and net stupid which was not put to the people.
April 4, 2024
I decided to purchase a new petrol vehicle about two years ago now, based on price, performance and need. I am still quite happy with that choice. For some years now, we have been a ‘one’ car family and so require a solution that meets all of our travel needs – a general solution rather than a specialised one.
My neighbours are younger and a ‘two’ car family, running a large diesel SUV and a smaller EV. Casual observation suggests that Mum solely uses the SUV and Dad uses the EV during the week. They can charge at home having installed an outside charge point. It may well be that the EV is a company vehicle. The SUV is the one used for holidays and trips to see (distant) Grandparents. This makes good sense, as the EV gets used just for local trips and will be tax-efficient (an artificial advantage I might add).
My son has a hybrid company car (that he never plugs in) but his wife drives a large diesel SUV. At weekends and on holiday, it’s the SUV that gets used, as it takes all the buggy and other stuff they need and has no range issues – especially for motorway cruising.
So, I’ve no deep objection to EVs per se but they do not meet every need in practice and are being forced on folk before the required infrastructure is in place. I’m sure they will gradually become more popular, if only becuse we won’t be given any other choice. However, my lovely new petrol car will hopefully last me many years to come with a little care and lot’s of love (which I’m sure She will appreciate) š
April 4, 2024
“Iām sure they will gradually become more popular,” The more people try EVs the more they seem to dislike them. Hence:- Hertz recently announced that it is selling 20,000 EVs, about one-third of the company’s electric vehicle fleet. According to reporting from Bloomberg, Hertz has decided to cut back on EV rental cars because of high repair costs and weak demand from its customers.
They try them once perhaps then decided they are more hassle than a normal car. More expensive too. Who want to sit around for hours at a service station while they charge?
April 4, 2024
The government doesn’t want RR SMRS because their production will produce CO2. They would rather give the skilled highly paid jobs to the Americans or French as part of their eco fascism.
We are ruled by idiots of the first order.
April 4, 2024
Ian Wragg,
I was obviously being too polite.
April 4, 2024
You are too kind and generous to use the word ‘idiots’.
They should be described as dangerous and national betrayers.
April 4, 2024
agricola:
Drilling for geothermal heat would create many holes. The Swiss are fine engineers but living on brittle land peppered like Emmentaler cheese may be risky. If the drill didnāt melt, conduction may be hot enough for Welsh minersā rarebit.
Single source heating for tower blocks makes sense. Some in Labour Hackney have that; imposed with all residents charged equally. It resulted in virtually everyone grabbing maximum heat for the money they were forced to pay, walking around in frozen winters in Hawaiian shorts with all windows wide open: increasing waste to keep the temperature down!
Payment by use would have been the Conservative way.
April 4, 2024
Geothermal is costly. Even with companies able to choose the most favourable locations they are being given pricey CFDs.
April 4, 2024
An interesting line in the article ‘the green revolution designed by global civil servants and forced upon us by governments’
The fact that the public are bludgeoned repeatedly with the climate alarmist stick by government, mainstream media and all its other tentacles, does make the word ‘forced’ very relevant and telling.
Add to that the fact that the mainstream political sphere and all its little helpers, silence any dissenting voices from those well qualified to dissent, also makes the word ‘forced’ very apt.
I was reading an interesting article on the Daily Sceptic a while ago about an underwater volcano and its affect on temperatures. All with input from real scientists and not just a journalist with a geography A Level.
The science was way above my head, but it gives another angle to consider and the knowledge that other events could be at play. Even more thought provoking is the fact that such dissenting scientists have absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose from not going along fully with the ‘man made’ apocalypse scenario.
Unless you are inquisitive and look for another side of the story, then like millions of others you will be sitting in your living room being convinced by those earnest looking bods on such as the BBC that the science is settled, and man has signed his own death warrant.
There is no breadth to this argument, no real honest debate with experienced and qualified doubters, and that is alarming to me.
April 4, 2024
Michelle
The Icelandic volcano in January is thought to be the cause of the extra rainfall!
Climate, The Movie documentary is a real must if anyone cares to watch it! It concludes with how the politics of the net zero/climate emergency is creating the dissenting view’s censorship and loss of our freedoms.
April 4, 2024
An excellent documentary. I keep telling people to watch it but it mainly falls on deaf ears, unfortunately.
April 4, 2024
Indeed. The BBC is endless in its one sided propaganda on climate alarmism and on ignoring the vast damage done. by Covid vaccines, lockdowns, hugely high taxes, QEā¦
April 4, 2024
Michelle :
That Parliament/Ofcom are allowing the Marxists masquerading as journalists at the BBC to spout their CAGW propaganda without allowing any alternative views such as those of the Nobel prize winning physicist Dr. John Clauser, in a country that believes itself to be a democracy, is shameful and consequently a national disgrace.
The reason why the BBC are so fearful of a Trump return to the Presidency is that by his ending of the $trillions spent on searching for only anthropogenic reasons for climate change and ignoring any other reasons and past history the whole CAGW scam will collapse and this will completely destroy the BBCās credibility and raison dāetre.
PS : I believe the extra rainfall and some additional warming has been caused by the submarine volcanic explosion of Hunga Tonga which sent so much water into the atmosphere that the amount of water in the stratosphere increased by 10% :
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/08/17/hunga-tonga-its-role-in-rising-global-temperatures/
April 6, 2024
Clauser might be a Nobel Prize winner but for his work on entangled photons. Can you please tell me what that has to do with weather and climate. He became interested in climate when he joined the CO2 Coalition in 2023 at the tender age of 81.
What about another winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021, Prof Syukuro Manabe, a meteorologist who had worked on climate from 1965 onwards? Ever read anything from him?
April 4, 2024
I saw something recently – an excerpt of some sort of panel show. Brian Cox shouted down someone who expressed scepticism and said there was, and I quote, āabsolute consensusā about man- made global warming. He even threw a graph at the sceptic. It makes you wonder when a scientist of his alleged intelligence canāt, or wonāt, look at the data objectively.
April 4, 2024
I’d love a debate with him!
April 4, 2024
‘essential people are made to change’. Forced not made. This is the end goal of Net Zero. Total State control. End of. Keep voting for it and at some point your vote will be our undoing
April 4, 2024
If the world had not been captured and forced down this diversionary greencr*p path, just think of the improvements there might have been in peopleās lives.
We might even have a Health Service!
The very first in line for recompense regarding the first Industrial Revolution should be the folk of the U.K.
They were dispossessed and horribly ill-treated.
To make profit for others.
As ever.
April 4, 2024
Spot on Dom
April 4, 2024
SJR: Some people want this, you say, and some want that. And some people have watched ‘Climate – the Movie’ and understand that the government are trying to con them. They vote too.
Reply YeS and i included them in the article
April 4, 2024
CLIMATE – THE MOVIE
This excellent film should be streamed in Parliament until every MP has seen it.
April 4, 2024
+1
April 4, 2024
Everyone should see that film.
April 4, 2024
Agree (but you wont see it on the BBC nor Sky)
April 4, 2024
I have decided that, at the next general election, I will not vote for any party or candidate who believes in or supports Net Zero. In the unlikely event a candidate with such views knocks on my door, they will get an earful. Voters need to wake up to the dire future planned for them by the established political parties and to reject it – as we have seen in Holland.
April 4, 2024
David,
I completely agree with you. I will not be voting for any politician that believes Net Zero is a good thing.
I will go beyond that and say I will not vote for any politician that advanced gender blending views being taught in our primary and secondary schools.
That limits the options a bit.
April 4, 2024
Only Reform then. The Uni Party believe in nut zero, woke, mass immigration, high taxes, non Equality anti English laws and on and on…
April 4, 2024
David Andrews +1
April 4, 2024
My sentiments exactly. Any candidate captured by the cult of net zero (and they are easy to spot because of the dead look in their eyes) will not get even ten seconds of my time. How anyone ever believed in it totally defeats me.
April 4, 2024
I was honestly surprised at the sheer incompetence of the Telegraph sub-editor who re-wrote your article, Sir John. He or she evidently doesn’t know how to structure a piece of writing, inserting the sentence ‘Not all technological revolutions are popular’ to begin the paragraph where you say the digital revolution etc. IS popular. The discussion of why the ‘Green revolution’ ISN’T popular is left to another paragraph. I wonder how someone who doesn’t know how to write properly can become a sub-editor at a national newspaper.
April 4, 2024
Wellā¦are jobs dished out on the basis of DEI?
Or ā¦hang onā¦is it DIE?
Never quite sure!
April 4, 2024
Many newspapers lack care. The inaccurate Guardian was known as āthe Grauniadā even when they employed full-time human proofreaders.
April 4, 2024
Hi Philip, I think the re-write goes beyond the normal editing process for publication.āhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/02/green-energy-net-zero-heat-pumps-national-grid/ is about 580 words, ignoring the headline and subheading whereas Sir John’s text above is 1,110 words.āSo half the words have been dropped.āI then used a standard computer program to highlight the long stretches of what’s common between the two and what differs.āThere’s little in common.āTake the Telegraph’s ‘If green prosperity is simply a convenient slogan’, the original doesn’t mention ‘prosperity’, ‘convenient’, or ‘slogan’.āThe newspaper has also brought in facts like ‘a seven-country YouGov poll’.
I don’t see how The Telegraph can claim that article was written by ‘John Redwood’.āJust think, all their articles by known faces may be butchered by in-house hacks in this way.
April 4, 2024
“We need to ask are consumers ready for changes of this magnitude?”
We’re PEOPLE, Sir John; not consumers.
And no, we’re not ready for this change because we were never asked; never gave our consent and do not see why we should be reduced to the living standard of a pre-industrial peasantry just because some global bureaucrats got together and decided that’s what THEY want.
As well as being PEOPLE, most of us are also voters. And the Reform Party has just promised to hold a Referendum on the Net Zero Tyranny.
April 4, 2024
It has also got rid of several candidates for āwrong speakā
And other thingsā¦..
Red flagsā¦much as I would like a party to vote for!
April 4, 2024
Donna +1
April 4, 2024
In a historic move, yesterday gold futures surged past the $2300/oz mark for the first time in history. The precious metal’s recent rally has shown no signs of slowing down, with the June 2024 contract currently fixed at $2319.10/oz after factoring in yesterday’s gain of $37.30 (or 1.63%) marking the seventh consecutive trading day of gains. This equates to Ā£1832/oz or Ā£58,412 a kilo
Market participants and investors are seeking refuge amid economic uncertainties, global debt levels, major wars and high inflation. The yellow metal’s status as a reliable store of value has once again been demonstrated with the breach of the $2300 barrier.
Unfortunately for the British taxpayer, Sunak sold the last of our gold when he was Chancellor. If he was not paying attention to the gold price before, he probably is now
April 4, 2024
Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, sold half of our gold reserves at a knock down price in 1999, having told the Markets beforehand what he intended doing and when.
He had/has the “deal-making skills” of a two-year-old.
April 4, 2024
But, but, but, Sakara the price of Bitcoin is up nearly Ā£1,300 today, almost two and a half percent.
The price of any commodity is what people will pay for it and not an indication of its inherent value.
April 4, 2024
An excellent article John.
Pleased you managed to get it published, albeit in a slightly modified form, but that is the way media works nowadays.
April 4, 2024
A second Domesday Book.
A herding in and recording of all resources, including usā¦for purposes of taxation.
The first one also saw an upending of the country, redistribution of land, a change in the language and architecture and a replacement of leaders.
Resulting in feudalism.
Is greencr*p a sort of āscorched earthā tactic?
Certainly feels like it!
April 4, 2024
The virtue signallers are desperate for the rest of the world to look at them and repeat the folly they have engaged in. Thankfully most of us are not interested in such flim flam and concentrate on rational behaviour and rational engagement with reality.
The sooner we remove pointless so called celebrities from the front pages of energy opinion the better it will be for everyone.
Leo DiCaprio and Emma Thompson being two examples of hypocrites lecturing the rest of the world on being frugal with energy while they fly and sail around the globe as their whim takes them.
April 4, 2024
Totally agree with every word.
Net Zero is currently an undeliverable scam. It’s more about controlling people rather than creating a better world.Thr reduction in CO2 is simple…plant more trees & shrubs worldwide. Reduce birth rate in overpopulated countries. Stop mass migration across the globe.
April 4, 2024
A newspaper using its own headline is normal, so long as it is not misleadingly presented as SJRās and the article below it is properly shown and attributed. A third party editing a contributed article is censorship, and much of censorship is tantamount to lies. Readers expect truth, and SJR is the more reputable source.
April 4, 2024
And in other news, please tell Sunak to stop spouting rubbish about leaving the ECHR. We donāt believe you. He couldnāt even get it through his own party, captured by the One Nation group, let alone the Lords.
When in a hole. Stop digging.
April 4, 2024
At this stage in the proceedings, he’ll say anything if he thinks it’ll move the polls even a smidgen in his favour.
April 4, 2024
Once again, Sir John..the wisdom (more common sense?) flows from you. Not your fault. You are – like all of us in some way – the conduit of some Expression and that Expression speaks to us loud and clear in your gifted attention to detail and the gathering of the pertinent facts into a coherent passage. Very few mention the ‘climate change’ (oo) which happened lots of millennia ago and changed the face of the land which became an island: the UK (+ the little islands dotted around it). It also changed history, of course. (Catastrophic things do on all levels..be it wars of all magnitudes, even battles..but I digress). At the time: 10-12000 years ago – depending on which textbook you have in front of you – there was, of course, no Big Industry churning out what Big Industry does etc, no ‘gases’ of any kind from many machines whatever they are doing. However – whoosh (in historical terms) the waters rose as the ‘Ice Age’ came to an end. Give this some thought. Plenty thought. None of us control history. It ‘happens’. And if the Creator (ok, let’s call Him Fate for agnostics/atheists: It’s useful.)..if Fate decides something..then My God (oops) ‘My Fate’, it’ll happen matey. I could bang on about stupid politicians Sir John has as ‘colleagues’ (Ugh!) and their poor mental and logical states of mind (Not their fault). Their attitude towards their constituents and the wider Public is often cretinous. Their lack of business acumen disastrous. (Who votes these people in?). Common sense must be or we have ‘The Great Downfall’. Are we on that slide already? (Fate..I did say Fate..Help us, please. I did say ‘please’).
April 4, 2024
āThe Green revolution designed by global civil servants and forced upon us by governmentsā – none more than the UK Government. The UK at worst is only 1% contributor to the situation, but this Conservative Government has forced through laws to make the UK Citizen pay and be punished for the whole Worlds situation. 95% of the Worlds population is not held back by any punitive restriction let alone this Conservative Governments restrictions. This Conservative Government is happy, it contrives to encourage the importation of goods and services from the Worlds largest polluters all at the expense of UK Industry.
China, is not alone, but using them as an illustration their government has pumped Ā£57Billion in subsidies into their Auto industry so that it can undercut all other Worlds production facilities destroying those industries in the process. The Chinese have also bought up most of the Worlds much needed resources so that it can dominate and dictate. In the meantime, they are opening 2 new coal fired power plants a week and have some 1,142 such plants in operation. How much cutting back does this Conservative Government (or even Labour) think the UK needs to compensate for just the Chineseās putting their Country first? The hypocrisy coming from our government and the HoC, is they are subsidising the Chinese, their industry has un-fettered access to the UK market so destroy our ability of our industry to cope with what the World might throw at us.
If we had a UK Government capable of understanding the need to work first for the UK and then adhere to the premise of keeping its people safe and secure ā it would be a whole different ball game. Instead, we have a Political Class that is so wound up with the virtue signal and being subordinate to unelected unaccountable individuals elsewhere that they have all become party to the complete and utter destruction of the UK
April 4, 2024
Ian B :
Agreed, except it goes even higher than our political class, in fact to the very top. But then what can be more important than saving the planet, for as PM Johnson said at the UN 22/09/2021 āWe were the first to send the great puffs of acrid smoke to the heavens on a scale to derange the natural orderā?
Our political class despise our country so much for the Industrial Revolution and consequently the āacrid smokeā that they are prepared to not only impoverish us but also change the people and the culture of the country.
April 4, 2024
David Turver writing in the Daily Sceptic today has shown that using official figures from the ONS, Ofgem and the LCCC that each renewable energy job is subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of Ā£250,000 each and every year.
The green, or rather, red, revolution to ābuild back betterā is designed to find more ways to produce less energy more expensively and less securely.
April 4, 2024
Plenty more green jobs soon when the offshore turbines need to be renewed after 15 to 20 years operation. Half of them are already 10 years old and performance goes down after this.
April 4, 2024
Stred :
Yes, in fact the more people in “green” jobs working on providing energy the poorer we all become as these “green” jobs take workers away from more productive or necessary jobs. In fact, it can be shown that one of the tremendous benefits of coal power and the Industrial Revolution was not simply the invetion of mechanical devices to replace manpower and speed up production but the enormous diminuation in the number of people soley employed to produce energy. from wood.
Also, BTW, coal generated energy saved our forests from further destruction.
April 4, 2024
I liked the article when I first read it yesterday ….I like it even more today
Net-zero isn’t consumer led; its led by the social-engineering communist state
April 4, 2024
The green (or rather red) revolution is not simply designed to give us expensive, chaotically intermittent energy and hence impoverishment and economic insecurity but also national insecurity.
In addition to the obvious case of our military being unable to operate using electrified armaments to everyone except the fifth column communists in our uniparty Parliament and the āglobal civil aervantsā as described by Sir JR :
There is no security when there is no plan for grid-scale electricity storage. To continue to transition to renewable electricity without at the same time building up the necessary grid-scale storage is insane.
There is no security in putting all our energy eggs in the one electrification basket. If the grid goes down, either through malicious acts, such as hacking, or even from natural causes, such as a solar flare, absolutely nothing will be working within a very short space of time.
There is no security in relying upon China, a state described by our security services as āhostileā, for all our energy infrastructure (windmills, solar panels and now even steel) and the critical minerals for batteries, motors, generators and cabling (copper).
There is no way our depleted military can defend thousands of miles of undersea cables connecting us to all the windmills in the North Sea and those connecting with mainland Europe or can protect the hundreds of thousands of square miles of windmills in the North Sea or vast solar panel estates on land. All easily destroyed by cheap, simple aerial drones or under water robotic drones. We saw how easily Nord Stream 2 was destroyed.
Even natural causes can destroy renewables, storms at sea can destroy floating windmills and vast arrays of solar panels have already been completely destroyed in a hailstorm.
April 4, 2024
There is no plan because there can be no plan. Grid scale storage is absolutely and completely impractical and impossible. Do some sums.
April 4, 2024
There is no CAGW. The IPCC calculates that doubling CO2, which would take 200 years at the current rate of CO2 increase, would cause just a 1 degree C rise in atmospheric temperature (Happer & Wijngaarden say 0.7 degrees C). Any additional warming is just politics and guesswork on the possible feedback amplification from water vapour, the biggest greenhouse gas by far and which does not appear to be happening because there is no evidence of increasing humidity in the troposphere, particularly at the higher altitudes which matter for the greenhouse warming effect.
Neither is there any historical evidence for ārunaway warmingā caused by CO2 or any GHG and if anything the Le Chatelier Principle applies to produce a negative feedback mechanism. In fact the historical evidence shows CO2 following temperature in the Antarctic Vostok and Greenland ice core data and higher temperatures than today in the Roman warm period when vines were grown up by Hadrianās Wall and in the Middle Ages when barley was grown in Greenland.
The IPCCās WG1 (āthe scienceā) Table 12 in Chapter 12 shows that the IPCC has concluded that a signal of climate change has not yet emerged beyond natural variability for the following phenomena : River floods, heavy precipitation and pluvial floods, landslides drought (all types), severe wind storms, tropical cyclones (includes hurricanes), sand and dust storms, heavy snowfall and, ice storms, hail, snow avalanche and coastal flooding. The IPCC can only find some slight warming leading some melting of ice and snow.
CAGW and the Net Zero āsolutionā is a Marxist device to impoverish the West. The activists have no issue with Chinaās CO2 emissions because China already has an authoritarian Communist government. If CO2 really was a problem then the activists would be advocating cheap, abundant, reliable nuclear power and not expensive, unreliable, chaotically intermittent renewables with no feasible way to store electricity at grid-scale.
April 4, 2024
Rationality doesn’t come into it, Sir John.
April 4, 2024
Quite so – It is a religion now.
April 4, 2024
Sir John
Your observations are not alone
The flaw is seen everywhere but not in this e Conservative Government and in the UK’s Political Posturing class…
They have created fear in some that they now don’t know how to backtrack from
‘The International Energy Agency is now just another green activist campaign
Why should we pay twice for a foolish pretence that some kind of āenergy transitionā is happening? ‘
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/03/international-energy-agency-iea-green-un-activist-political/
April 4, 2024
I think it is long overdue that we asked the question ” Who actually governs the UK”. For sure it is not the government in apparent power. Ergo is it;
1. The civil service.
2. The judiciary and legal system.
3. Is it international treaties, working arrangements , and perceived international obligations.
4. The EU and their legacy of law and agreements.
5. Vociferous interest groups, lobbyists, demonstrators, and groups such as the CBI and BBC who work for a more agreeable political climate than the electorate gave them.
6. The Church of England.
7. Trade Unions.
Of one thing I am sure, none of the above accept the outcomes of democratic elections or referendums. What do you think SJR.
April 4, 2024
@agricola –
The judiciary have just decreed that if āthey thinkā you are disadvantaged they will change how the law is administered.
āJudges have been told to consider more lenient sentences for offenders from ādeprivedā or ādifficultā backgrounds.ā From the Sentencing Council
So, in essence the Judges decreeing new sort of Law, – we are no longer all equal under the āLawā.
It would appear once again the Home Secretary and this Conservative Government have deserted those they serve and the Country. Bonkers
April 5, 2024
IB: Yes, bonkers and unacceptable. That push for Equality working nicely it seems. Maybe we should by now be getting used to the progression towards 2-tier everything.
April 4, 2024
Agricola – The globalist UK Establishment run the UK and have for centuries. The government do what they are told to do and “it aint for the people”. Forget voting as nothing will change until our whole system of government is changed but remember Nothing can stop what is coming NOTHING and the enormity of what IS coming will shock the world.
April 4, 2024
Indeed, the indoctrination of this myth has been running at a high level for too long and still attempts to deceives us.
But we’ve never needed netzero to ‘save the planet’. If we immediately stopped all of the irrational things being done in the name of global warming the weather would still vary from day to day, based on its own pattern – we’d still get variable conditions because weather is a natural phenomena, and it is still ridiculous to imagine a tiny amount of a gas required for life could ever alter weather patterns. There is still no scientific link from the weather we get and how much Co2 sits above our heads.
As regards the move to vegetarian food – it’s time this subject was looked into a bit more closely. I’ve been one for years, mainly because I don’t enjoy the taste of meat, but I would never deny people wanting meat in their diet, for several reasons.
Just a few years ago prepared vegetarian food was becoming better, healthier, to a higher quality and more nutritious.
That was before certain well known figures decided to corner the market. They produce their vegetarian meat-substitutes through a highly chemically processed method, which mostly taste vile. This is no substitute for real food, but supermarket shelves are full of alleged ‘plant’ concoctions, happily not selling well.
Crushed bugs have already been introduced into our food supply.
There would be no shortage of real food if farms weren’t being ‘encouraged’ off their farms – a lot less real food is produced thanks to netzero.
Just like boilers and transport we are being channelled down a path that will eventually mean we will only be able to eat vile substitutes for food, never real meat, and never anything that will make us grow strong and fit.
April 4, 2024
Been vegetarian/sometimes vegan since 1984. Couldnāt agree more re. recent introduction by ābig foodā of highly processed meat substitutes. One of the people I follow says āDonāt eat anything produced on a factory with a barcode on itā. Iām trying to stick to only eating āreal foodā.
April 5, 2024
The displacement of fresh “real” food by highly processed, factory manufactured edibles is nothing to do with net zero.
It is everything to do with corporate greed and ignorant, gullible consumers.
April 4, 2024
We are being forced into things that we donāt want. China is making what we do unimportant, its responsibility is far greater. We donāt want electric cars, theyāre unreliable and dangerous, lithium batteries are extremely dangerous. We should have a choice and not be forced into buying unreliable, expensive and dangerous cars that we donāt want, we elect a government to work for us, not against us, this a democracy not a dictatorship.
April 4, 2024
āWhilst many people do say global warming is a problem and something should be done about itā
Ask why this is. Is it because they study the data? No, it isnāt. Itās because governments and the media ram it down their throats at every opportunity and with enough effort lies stick.
There is no climate emergency and the more people wake up to the biggest scam ever the better. CO2 is a good gas. If it gets much lower everything on the planet dies including humans. We are still coming out of the last mini-ice age and havenāt yet returned to Earthās normal temperature. CO2 is currently low and needs to rise.
April 4, 2024
@Christine – “many people do say global warming ” 95% of the Worlds population don’t even think about it, they don’t have laws to punish and penalize. They spend their time polluting the World so that the UK can still get the commodities it desperately needs. The UK is one of only 6 countries out the 197 that its Government has chosen retribution
April 4, 2024
āshow their shareholders they are taking net zero seriously.ā
I doubt many shareholders are interested in net zero. The majority are interested in profit and a well-run company. Car rental companies are forced to buy EVs that few want, and then they have to offload them at a loss. I just rented a car in Florida and I asked if it was petrol. The girl looked at me strangely and said all their cars were petrol. Only Europe seems to be going down this suicidal route.
April 4, 2024
Electric cars, Heat Pumps and many other things, including the āupgradedā telephone system, only work with electricity. Wind and solar never will provide an adequate electricity supply regardless of the number installed because, surprisingly, they depend on wind and sun!
If we donāt regain control from the Carbon Cultists then our future will be a 1940s lifestyle. Everything will be rationed, there will be no central heating, very few private cars and we will need large stocks of candles.
I will manage without a car rather than buy electric. Range anxiety, the trip hazard of the charging cable, high insurance cost, rapid depreciation, potentially expensive battery repairs if you hit a pothole, anecdotal stories of the cars taking their owners for an unwanted ride and their tendency to spontaneously combust are some of my reasons for not wanting one.
Heat pumps, as you point out, will be ineffective for most of the housing stock in this country. Heat pumps are just reverse air conditioners and will likely have the same downsides of high maintenance costs and noise.
It is amusing to see Carbon Cult politicians on television telling us that their climate policies were in their manifesto and everyone voted for it, well didnāt! I didnāt vote at the last election because every party standing had the carbon scam in their manifesto. I hope that the coming election will provide a choice on the Carbon lunacy and enable me to vote.
April 4, 2024
Dear Sir John,
The whole net zero and climate change business is a hoax, a scam and a fraud. Please watch ‘Climate The Movie: The Cold truth’.
https://www.climatethemovie.net
The do something to cancel net zero and repeal the Climate Change Act.
Reply I have watched it
April 4, 2024
It is not surprising that conspiracy theories flourish when there is so much evidence as to the harms our current energy policies will inflict on UK citizens. While it is clear that our civil servants and media are not good with numbers, they seem to have a ‘narrative’ that demands total fealty. This government has given it with nary a discussion, they seem to fear the BBC more than the voters. Fourteen years on your column here still reads like the Tories are in opposition. Britain is clearly a technocracy with Lawyers holding a whip hand over parliament.
April 4, 2024
12% of smart meters are not working and require a visit to check readings. Many require 3G and will have to be replaced. My wife’s bills were estimated and for 6 months she has paid nothing after a manual reading. 9 billion down the drain and put on the bill. Mine are now 60% standing charge, as I insulated my houses and have low usage. This is increasing next year as grid costs and compensation for Scottish over production and shutdowns increases.
Electricity costs have quadrupled in 20 years since the UK decided to copy Germany. Both countries are shutting down heavy industry and becoming dependent on China and India. The next PM will be an ex civil servant who will protect their jobs and follow their previous advice.
April 4, 2024
Surely, if they have amended your article, they really cannot claim you wrote it? Unless you concur and approve. Now we should now have to worry about our broadsheets.
If they do this now, without the author’s permission, what will they get up to if they are taken over by foreigners? Provide fairy tales instead of real, accurate news?
April 4, 2024
All very sensible and accurate but no political party currently represented in Westminster is interested, and they certainly are not listening to what you and a majority of the voters are saying about the so-called path to net zero.
Ditto Immigration, both legal and illegal.
How have we got to a situation where, in an election year, no political party, other than Reform is taking a lead from what voters want ? Democracy in the UK is simply not working as it should.
April 4, 2024
I have an EV; I like it; it works well for me, great charging up at night, no more trips to the fuel station, lower cost on fuel and as I use it mainly in a 50-mile radius, it is not a problem as it only gets charged twice per week. Would I have one if I had to make regular long-distance trips – no.
I have a smart meter. It still hasn’t read the electricity yet and doesn’t appear to be working. British Gas just says on the app that we haven’t received data from your smart meter for the month of April or March. They need to get their act together.
I replaced my boiler, I would not have a heat pump, they are too big, too expensive and too noisy.
I have thought about solar panels.
April 4, 2024
Slightly O/T
I would have loved to have been at that railway meeting.
The biggest threat to the railway is
(Shuffles paper)
– Brexit?
(Shuffles paper)
– White Supremacy?
(Shuffle)
Institutional Racism?
(Shuffle)
Hurty Words?
(Shuffle)
Climate Change….yeah let’s go with that
April 4, 2024
Hello Sir John, I read the article in the Telegraph and thought it was OK. I have read the original version today and don’t think the editing did much damage. You are right in what you say that Net Zero is a top-down action and people are beginning to realise the cost to them. What your article missed is that Net Zero is a complete Hoax and some research clearly shows that. There are plenty of highly qualified scientists who know it is a scam.
What we need now is for someone brave enough, with a high public profile, to say so, loudly and constantly!
You can talk about the effect as much as you like, but until you face up to the cause, you will get nowhere.
Why are the majority of our MPs not challenging this nonsense and demanding action to challenge it. It seems the Conservative Party has not learnt the lesson of Uxbridge!
April 4, 2024
Personally I would like to see more use of hydrogen. Instead of paying companies not to generate electricity turn it into hydrogen or find a way to store it
April 4, 2024
Universities call it plagiarism.
April 4, 2024
Once again Sunak suggesting that we’d leave the ECHRs …..we don’t believe you
April 4, 2024
Headlines make a lot of trouble for writers and always did. A strange Fleet Street custom which should have gone by now. Subediting likewise. If a certain number of words is granted, the paper should honour that and not monkey about with the author’s carefully considered text.
That headline she never wrote made a lot of trouble for Mrs Braverman. The whole article was damned on the back of it. The critics and smearers probably never read any further than that headline. Most people have no idea papers do this and think all headlines are written by the author of the article.
April 5, 2024
“The Telegraph amended this and added a headline without my consent.”
I thought a politician of your experience would seek guarantees that anything you put forward would be published unamended.
Reply Of course that was my understanding and I have complained
April 5, 2024
Perhaps one day you could give the country your view as to why successive UK governments under many leaders have continued with this.
After all, you have been in and around the HoC while all this was being discussed, both in the chamber and in the environs . So why has it been pushed through in your opinion?
The experiences of someone who has been sitting in the thick of it should be able to shed some light on why our “leaders” are incapable of seeing what can be seen by someone who sits in their midst and points it out to them repeatedly. Please tell us why you think this is happening.
Reply The world of international summits, Treaties and world quangos pushes all this and they want to fit in to that. The civil service constantly presents it as essential and many Ministers will not challenge the advice. All Opposition parties with MPs demand more of it.
April 5, 2024
I have never seen any science that supports the idea the climate is going to be harmful.
Please point me at the evidence so I can debunk it for you?
Your only evidence appears to be that āa lot of people are saying itās trueā. Which is not evidence.
Reply I am describing public opinion not giving a view on the science
April 6, 2024
science.nasa.gov āEvidenceā.
I am expecting a proper scientific rebuttal with detailed arguments of the nine points made in the above.
April 5, 2024
“Get a grip on nationalised industry costs”, LOL.
As far as this government is concerned, the words, ‘on’,’nationalised’, ‘industry’ and ‘costs’, are superfluous.
They’ve long-lost the plot.