Net zero is on the ballot paper. Greens have never wanted a referendum on whether we should make the road to net zero the centrepiece of so many of our policies and life choices. Many think there should be a vote , as this mission has become so dominant, affecting so many areas of government activity and of our daily lives . The country was never allowed a proper conversation about the wisdom of this course of action. All the main parties signed up so there was little debate in Parliament.
Greens will find policies to promote net zero increasingly become election issues despite the apparent party consensus as they weigh on people’s minds and the road gets tougher. In the UK there are two major issues confronting the government which the many pro green Opposition parties wish to shrug off. They are the costs of the transition and the issue of whether the public will buy the goods and services it will take.
The question of money has already come to the front pages. The Labour plans were said to need an extra £28bn over the next five years. Labour has had to withdraw this proposal as it does not fit in with the numbers supplied by the OBR about what is affordable. Labour will want to find ways to increase the contribution of private capital, and will be looking to see if there other taxes it can raise to pay the bills. One way or another it has to accept the fact that wanting to get the power sector to net zero by 2030, five years ahead of the government, will require a lot of extra spending which will need subsidy and incentives. I doubt it can be done, but it certainly cannot and will not be done by private money alone. Closing down our fleet of gas fired power stations early means writing them off and substituting dearer ways of generating power when full costs are taken into account. There would need to be government subsidies for the electricity storage and transition costs. I doubt we could build enough new capacity in time and couple renewables with all the ways you would need to keep the lights on when there is no wind or sun.
UK energy customers already carry a net zero burden on their energy bills. Lower costs of buying electricity have been overridden to provide boosts to the use of renewables and nuclear in past bidding rounds. Subsidies have been built into some net zero decisions that are carried as a general charge on bills. A mesh of controlled prices, windfall taxes and preferred fuel choices has kept prices higher recently, with some subsidies providing some offset. Voters do not warm to higher fuel prices, and the government stepped in with large subsidies when the Ukraine war caused a spike in fossil fuel costs with the withdrawal of Russian oil and gas from the market.
Clearly scrapping all fossil fuel power stations and putting in many new renewable generators is costly. There will also need to be substantial storage capacity , with investment in some mixture of batteries, hydrogen production from renewable energy and pump storage to able to cope with interruptible sources of electricity. In the meantime as government thinks about how and who pays for all that extra cost there needs to be back up power stations capable of being switched on when the wind dies and the sun sets.
Today there is considerable opposition to siting new wind farms near settlements, to putting pylons across landscapes, to drilling for onshore oil and gas and to digging up roads and pavements to install larger capacity cables. These can become issues in local elections in particular. If the costs of electricity storage and carbon capture become too high then the cost of energy will be back on the agenda as a running sore for the government that imposed the costs.
The question of consumer acceptance needs more debate than the greens allow. The truth is hardly anyone wants to buy a heat pump to rip out their gas boiler. Most people are put off by the large installation cost. They do not want the double disruption of putting in more insulation followed by heat pump works. They find the overall costs far too high, several times the cost of a new gas boiler. They are concerned that in an older house it may never be possible to get a heat pump to provide higher temperatures given heat loss, and are worried that running costs will still be high as electricity is a much dearer fuel than gas per unit of energy. It is true the heat pump cuts the need for energy in use, but that can be offset by the higher costs of the energy.
Battery electric cars are a minority choice for individual customers. Many are put off by the high prices, by the difficulty in finding recharging places on longer journeys, by range issues and by the time it takes to recharge. Some of these problems will be resolved as and when more fast chargers are put in. Many people are waiting for the roll out of hydrogen as a fuel for trucks, and of synthetic fuel for planes. As this happens why not use those fuels to power a conventional internal combustion engined car or van? Why not keep your home gas boiler in the expectation that clean gases will be added to the gas mix as more are produced.?
The green revolution wants to change the way we heat our homes, the kind of transport we use, the products we buy from industry and the diets we eat. To do this there needs to be far more consumer enthusiasm than there is today. Government and business are working together on this strategy. They need to spend more time working out which new products people will want to own and will be affordable. We still have no idea of what combination of hydrogen based or synthetic fuel based transport and heating we will have and how much will require improved battery vehicles and heat pumps. There is a danger of backing too many competing technologies and failing to get any of them to the scale where they will work better and be more affordable.
Bite sized books have just published John’s updated short book “The $275 trillion Green revolution. Will consumers buy it? ” available through Amazon.
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April 6, 2024
Good morning.
So, is this government prepared to abrogate the Paris Agreement, The Climate Change Act and all the other so called ‘Green’ policies it has enacted over the last 14 years ?
Because if not, then all this is just about as much use as the BREXIT vote was.
You people will not do anything unless we all turn up with our pitchforks at the ready.
April 6, 2024
What’s the point of a vote. We had one for Brexit and you’ve ignored it. Net zero is WEF and UN policy who you prefer to follow.
Until the stables are cleared of the UK hating dross, nothing will change.
Reform is our best chance.
April 6, 2024
@Ian Wragg
We didn’t have a vote for “Brexit”
“Brexit” was not on the ballot paper.
The UK voters were given the choice between “Remain” and “Leave”.
April 6, 2024
old wolf
Yes so many forget that, just two options.
But because the majority in Parliament did not agree with the population and a Democratic Vote we ended up with what we have got, which is a complicated fudge and the worst of both Worlds.
April 6, 2024
I am aware of someone who was given £15,000 of green improvements to his home because he has deferred one of his pensions. I presume we are all paying for this nonsense through our standing charges. Is this correct JR?
A bit like the Welsh govt. extending govt. scheme of minimum living payment, giving illegal criminal boat people £1600 per month! Again, what is your govt. thinking JR?
April 6, 2024
Nonsense. You voted Leave. We have left. You have got EXACTLY what you voted for. Sure, the terms are rubbish but you were warned they would be, because we need the EU market a lot more than they need ours, but you went ahead and voted to leave anyway. So stop complaining, you got what you wanted
April 7, 2024
@hope – “I presume we are all paying for this nonsense through our standing charges. Is this correct JR?”
You want nonsense? – just last week the Telegraph reported “Taxpayers are to pay hundreds of millions of pounds to cover part of the cost of dismantling some of Shell’s dirtiest oil rigs in the North Sea” – that’s likely north of £400m, to clean up the toxic waste from oil platforms in the Brent field.
This on top of the £600m in rebates they have received since 2018. So £1bn in taxpayer funding, at least, which is 5% of their tax bill.
April 6, 2024
So Conservative HQ are ruling out any real tory candidates in favour of limp 2one nation, big government high tax candidates.
You really have a death wish.
Your also giving money to Babcock International for research into SMRS when we have home grown talent in Derby
Anything rather than support British industry
April 6, 2024
+Many
Sunak came to office making many promises ie get fracking etc. He stopped it, applied and continued windfall taxes exploring for gas and oil!
Dopey pro EU woke Hunt said yesterday Wragg was brave and courageous! No, he was stupid and needs his head examined as another Tory MP claimed. Sunak came to office making it clear he would not tolerate sleaze, Hunt supporting and defending despicable behaviour. Will Sunak sack Hunt? Why has Wragg not lost the whip? How about disclosing other MPs private details? I thought Hoyle put everyone on alert about security a couple of weeks ago! Furthermore how about failing the Data Protection Act?
Based on Sunak’s stance on sleaze Hunt and Wragg should walk.
April 6, 2024
Agreed. We now know from the Telegraph investigation that CCHQ won’t allow “conservative” candidates to succeed as they want the One Nation Liberals to ensure a left of centre Tory Party domination going forward following the certain defeat at the next election. Hey ho, it’s off to Reform we must go to get rid of this nut zero religion, non Equality bs and mass immigration policy, where no one ever gets deported. What about English peoples human rights and right to exist in our own homeland? We never voted for any of it. Tory’s must go.
April 6, 2024
+ many
April 6, 2024
‘Reform is our best chance’
– Reform is pretty impotent to make any big changes at all.
The problem with our country is 90% due to the following (not politics): that our country has lost its Conservative values of work ethic, relying on family over state, family values, values towards neighbour, men being men and women being women, patriotism, and so on. We’ve lost so much of this. And which is terrible to our economy and also crippling the tax payer. This can only be reversed by the Tory Party working closer with people in the churches, education, the arts and media to reverse this.
Then taxation (and immigration) will plummet. And our economy will boom with great jobs and great profits for all including the super rich and people in the City.
But to just focus on politics and economic policy, alone – whether under the Tories or Reform – is like trying to restore a rusted-out old Rolls Royce with just a spanner.
April 6, 2024
So Reform then, the only party with conservative values.
April 6, 2024
Exactly – Reform all the way. If the country has lost it’s Conservative values then it won’t get any guidance from the party calling itself Conservative which is anything but,
April 6, 2024
Reform are irrelevant except that they will help the socialists / WOKE brigade get back into power by undermining Tory votes. Great thanks a lot.
There’s no political silver bullet to our country’s woes. Our country’s woes are down to social / cultural dysfunction growing massively daily and which is impacting our economy and tax payers hugely – whilst pushing up immigration and——–whilst ditching our Christian values / heritage is all part of this so the Muslims take over.
Lastly, Mrs Thatcher’s success was down, to an important degree, to her down-to-earth, Methodist background. She would agree with me, I’m sure. And she would have NO time for Reform Party.
April 8, 2024
‘If the country has lost it’s Conservative values’
– Reform do NOT really represent Tory values. Mrs Thatcher did. Her values were down-to-earth / practical. Reform is essentially a gang of posh City boys run by …….Richard Tice and supported by …….Nigel Farage who has no real business experience and by others who just have experience of the City of London but nothing more (not knocking the City of London but there is far more to our economy and how a country works than just how finance works). Reform = MEDIOCRITY pretending to be radical and right-wing (but wrong type of right-wing). The only way we can restore the greatness of country:
1) 90% is about working closely with people in the churches, education, media and the arts to restore traditional Tory values in society / culture overall such as 1) Work Ethic 2) Self-reliance 3) Relying on Family instead of State and family values in general 4) Being neighbourly 4) Men being men and women, women 5) Patriotism 6) Love of arts, sport and healthy competitive spirit in general, and thinking about returning national service for a short while
2) Work hard to TRY and attract higher quality Tory MPs into Parliament with proper business experience
3) Focus more on HELPING entrepreneurs turn the UK, and in particular, Cambridge into the world’s second Silicon Valley
Then taxes and immigration will plummet. And our economy soar.
April 8, 2024
Also, big problem with Conservative Conservative is that they are not very CREATIVE (they’re good at finance but they not creative – generally)!
You need Creative Conservatives if they’re going to turn the Tory Party – and then the country around.
And the most Creative Conservatives are generally to be found in the High Tech Sector – with CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS. Creative entrepreneurs aren’t afraid to rock the boat but in a useful and creative and proactive way. Reform is just OBVIOUS. CLICHED, PREDICTABLE, MEDIOCRE politics by people pretending to be radical. They’re not. It’s just same old, same old.
April 6, 2024
Yes Ian, I will be voting Reform UK and working as long and as hard as I can to get rid of the useless Conservative woman we are limbered with. It helps with Reform UK policy of scrapping the green scam, those with a brain see through the global liars.
April 6, 2024
Yes, quite so. We can be sure that the Tory and Labour parties will change absolutely nothing, the others will do worse damage. There is an alternative, so let’s take it.
Net Zero must be the most expensive policy this nation has embarked upon other than war, let it be thoroughly analysed and discussed.
April 6, 2024
Many wars have cost far less than Net Zero will do. The Falklands’ war cost about £15 Billion in real terms in todays money. Net zero, even just in the UK, is not really possible. But the cost in just trying and failing (just for the UK) will be about £8 Trillion – more than double UK GDP.
It has zero net benefit and will decrease UK GDP significantly by exporting whole industries and their CO2 outputs. Only crony capitalist and crooks will benefit from this fake religious scam.
April 6, 2024
Well said LL, I cannot believe most people cannot see through the lies.
April 7, 2024
Really, hHow many battlefield casualties have there been over access to renewables compared to oil and gas?
Get your head out of your counting house.
April 8, 2024
We emit one per cent of global CO2. China 31%. There is not the slightest chance that the 2ppm a year will be checked. See the Keeling curve. It doesn’t matter because CO2 evidently doesn’t affect the climate
April 6, 2024
Not only that,the conscription idea is constantly being ‘nudged’.David Liddington on LBC today:”You could say to young people:’Right,we’ll knock a bit off your student debt if you come and take part.’ ”
Reading the comments on twitter,it’s -unsurprisingly-going down like the proverbial bucket of cold sick-‘a bit off your student debt’ in return for the probability of being blown to pieces on the Russian steppe in order to save the privileges of the British Establishment from being obliterated by the new Sino-Russian world order.
April 6, 2024
Dear Mark B. The Paris Agreement has achieved nothing and it never will achieve anything. Checked the Keeling Curve recently? Of course not -you are an alarmist and alarmists never check the facts. Sad, really
April 6, 2024
Let’s get real – there is no conceivable route to a decarbonise electricity generation scenario by either 2030 or 2035 that provides sufficient power to sustain any realistic level of activity in the UK. There is insufficient time, resources or money, and the net result of trying will be to bankrupt the country, destroying it as a viable 21st century entity.
The sooner that this is recognized the less damage to our country and all our futures
April 6, 2024
Exactly vast costs to do vast harms and with zero benefits.
April 6, 2024
Exactly. 1% of man made global emissions of a harmless trace gas, essential food for all plant life and therefore all life on the planet. So 1% of 0.04% is so small as to have no effect at all on global temperatures. No debate or funding allowed to ensure we’re bankrupted.
April 6, 2024
We have already forced vast amounts of our manufacturing industry to shut with crazy expensive anti pollution measures and expensive power burdened with expensive anti pollution measures too. All we have done is forced production, the associated pollution, and jobs, abroad. From where we import their output, and push up net world pollution. We have idiots like ed milliband pushing extremist nonsense, as if it’s mainstream, it’s not, and it shows a basic lack of understanding of science.
April 6, 2024
@Will
Absolute rubbish. Clearly, you have been paying too much attention to the deranged and deluded “Lifelogic” insane pro-CO2 posts.
So far this winter roughly 40% of our electricity requirements – for heat pumps, EV’s and domestic and industrial needs have been met by renewables, saving us from having to import about 25 tankers of extremely expensive LNG. This morning it’s 14.8 GW, or 59% – this is a phenomenal amount of free energy that is being extracted by our N Sea windfarms and solar assets
Be aware that the fossil fuel cartel is pumping out a great deal of anti-renewables and particularly anti-EV propaganda as they continue to lose market share
April 6, 2024
It’s not free energy. It’s extremely expensive, heavily subsidised energy which requires a secondary system to back it up ….. so it costs us twice.
We don’t need to import LPG any more than we need to import wood pellets. We could frack for our own gas and use our own coal.
April 6, 2024
Good morning SG. As per usual you use an average to make your case but ignore those many days of little to no wind when those ‘tankers’ became absolutely vital to keeping the lights on.
Oh! the wind may blow for free but the cost of harnessing it is not.
The spouting ‘rubbish’ is not just confined to the pro CO2 mob.
April 6, 2024
59 percent today, 2 percent tomorrow. Yeah, just what a modern economy needs. Free energy? Where is that on my bill? We heard all this in the fifties when electricity was going to be too cheap to meter. That turned out well didn’t it? Why ditch something that works, has no effect on the climate with our miniscule output for a hare brained not developed system that blights the landscape and seascape and will cause unknown problems when they wear out? Why is it all still subsidised if its all to clear and wonderful? It’s lunacy and only the big money people will benefit. Another transfer of wealth from the poor to the already rich.
April 6, 2024
SG :
Will is of course absolutely correct provided the aim is still to provide sufficient, dispatchable power. There is still no plan for the storage of electricity needed to deal with the intermittency of renewables for 2050 let alone 2035 or 2030 so the only way to decarbonise is for the country to accept intermittency as well as insufficient supplies and use smart meters to apply surge pricing and then rolling blackouts to reduce demand as and when necessary.
However, I would not be surprised to see this happen if any of the existing Parliamentary parties are in power after the next GE.
April 6, 2024
SG : “This morning it’s 14.8 GW, or 59% – this is a phenomenal amount of free energy that is being extracted by our N Sea windfarms and solar assets”
Whilst it is true that this morning renewables are providing 59% of demand it is also true that there are times when renewables produce next to zero power and consequently there is always a hidden cost of renewables because they require the existence of a 100% parallel thermal generation system for backup. Unless of course the country accepts the intermittency of supply of a third world country.
All primary energy sources are free, there is no charge for hydrocarbons. The cost is in the extraction, collection, storage and preparation for use which costs.
To give some prices for our future energy :
At the forthcoming renewables auction later this year (AR6) the price for chaotically intermittent wind energy is £100/MWhr for fixed offshore wind and £242/MWhr for floating offshore wind. According to last year’s Royal Society ‘Large-Scale Electricity Storage’ report using hydrogen for storage (with some big optimistic assumptions) will double these prices for dispatchable, reliable power.
For reliable, weather independent nuclear, the price quoted by RR SMR to a recent HoC ES&NZ Select Committee meeting was £50-£70/MWhr (depends on funding type) and the same EDF EPR technology used at Hinkley Point C is currently providing electricity in Finland (no Chinese funding as HPC) at £50/MWhr.
The price of our gas generated electricity before the green (actually red) revolution and the Ukraine war was around £40 – £50/MWhr for several decades and DESN’s price is £60/MWhr without the carbon taxes.
April 6, 2024
The supply of energy from wind farms is far from free. The average direct cost from those operating via CFDs is about £170/MWh with the extra indexation of strike prices that applies since the beginning of April, while the rest running on ROCs attract a subsidy that now with indexation averages about £100/MWh above market price. There is another ~£15/MWh in extra balancing costs to integrate them, and a similar sum in extra grid charges to pay for the extra pylons and cables to connect them. All in, more than 3 times the current gas based market price.
April 6, 2024
I quoted the balancing and grid costs spread over all supply – i.e. the effect on average bills. With just 40% of the supply, the cost per MWh of wind generation should be multiplied by 2.5. That alone is more than the cost of gas generation in 2024 to date.
April 6, 2024
Well, very few people have heat pumps or EV cars if they are forced to do so we will need about 20x as much winter electricity and grid capacity too. Your 40% I suspect includes long established hydro and burning wood at Drax (an insane policy) and perhaps nuclear too low carbon as they claim. The real amount of total human used energy coming from Solar and Wind Worldwide is under 2%. Even if you accept your exaggerated 40% (which does not include the inefficiencies caused by gas back up needed for renewables) it is only 10% of total UK energy needed.
Wind energy is far from “free” as it needs vast subsidies and uses loads of fossil fuels to make, install, connect and maintain these bat and bird killers. It is free in the same way that coal or oil are free. “Free” perhaps. but you have to collect them and this is very costly. Wind energy is more expensive in general and not on demand, so worth far less than on demand coal or gas derived electricity.
April 6, 2024
“the deranged and deluded “Lifelogic” insane pro-CO2 posts” well I have at least studied maths, physics and electronic engineering Cambridge and Manchester Universities and have worked in engineering most of my life. I am in excellent company too as most sensible honest, competent and independent Physicists and Engineers ect. the ones who feel able to freely tell the truth anyway know this:- William Happer, Richard Lidzen, John Clauser, Ivar Giaever, Willie Soon…
April 6, 2024
Free? In the way that the NHS is free I suppose.
April 6, 2024
With Capex and replacement it’s not free!!!
April 6, 2024
Sahara.
I suggest you read Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air by the late Professor MacKay, in particular the chapter on Energy storage in the UK. It is only possible in hours or at most part of a day and at great expense. All types are analysed.
In a freezing wind lull mid winter back up generation for 95% of consumption is necessary and this is not remotely possible using hydrogen because of storage and cost. Gas and nuclear base load is necessary and, as Professor MacKay said, you then may as well run the nukes all the time, just like the French have for the last 50 years. They had the cheapest electricity in Europe and still do.
April 6, 2024
Sorry. My phone re named you, perhaps in association with solar, as we have approved a mad scheme to connect a solar farm there to the UK and to rely on the locals to wipe the sand off.
April 6, 2024
Indeed a good book written by a Cambridge Physicist (albeit one who largely believed in climate alarmism) but he was just pointing out the realities of energy technology and CO2 solutions. The book is free on line.
April 6, 2024
SG
Free energy.
I was with SSE until a Couple of months ago, they promote 100% Britsh clean renewable energy from their own wind farms.
So why is my electricity bill the same as everyone else’s !
It’s a con, you know it, we Know, it the Politicians, or at least some of them know it as well.
Yes if you can harness the wind and solar for less cost, then certainly add it to the mix, but for goodness sake we need continuous power 24 hours a day !
April 6, 2024
then perhaps someone can explain why my electricity cost per KWh are the second highest in the world (after Ireland). This wind electricity is certainly not free to me.
April 6, 2024
I struggle to understand how ANYBODY could ever have believed it could be done.
Maybe the proponents of all this were just keen to destroy everything with no regard to replacements.
Once the entire framework has been destroyed there is no going back. Skills are lost forever.
Then of course ( having cowed politicians through pressure groups and bullying) they hoped to create a kind of fantasy land after Kropotkin….no private property.
Maybe actually More’s Utopia…no private property….no money…
Although I think even Kropotkin wanted to keep on manufacturing and growing food..just collectively.
“Breadpilled”.
April 6, 2024
And why electricity generation only? There’s not a chance that the rise in carbon DIOXIDE measured at Moana Loa can be checked whether you believe it’s natural or Asian massive coal burning. UKs one percent of global carbon DIOXIDE means we have no effects on anything. China 31%. And Lord Gummer’s. ‘Leadership’ pitch is so ignorant, so silly, so out of touch, itmakes one cringe with embarrassment. Oh and dear John do the sums on hydrogen and batteries and wake up. Aviation? Road haulage? Shipping? Construction ? And let me reveal a secret. CO2 has negligible effect on climate. Read it up.
April 6, 2024
Will
If John will allow.
Suggest anyone who wants to see how out of touch Politicians are with their knowledge to:
Google “What percentage of our atmosphere is Co2” Doug La Malfa asks the question to American Senators at a Committee Hearing. On Forbes news dated 12th April 2023
He made them give an answer before he continued, and their answers are amazing, some did not have a clue, others suggest 4% – 8% so he informed them they were wrong, the real answer is 0.04%
Full recording is about 5 mins long but worth a viewing to see that not just in our Country are Politicians so out of touch.
April 6, 2024
And! Why Will would we want to decarbonise anything? Carbon is the basic of our lives and good, its the millionaires who are the evil, I would prefer to end their game!
April 7, 2024
@Will “there is no conceivable route to a decarbonise electricity generation scenario by either 2030 or 2035 that provides sufficient power to sustain any realistic level of activity in the UK.”
This will be surprising news to France who rely almost exclusively on nuclear, wind and hydro for electricity generation.
It may be beyond the oil & gas crowd’s imagination, knowledge or fear of damaging their investments ..
Reply The point is you cannot build nuclear by 2030
April 7, 2024
The point is there are conceivable routes.
You can by 2035. You could have by 2030 if the government had started half way through it’s 14 year reign.
You could build multiple nuclear power stations by 2032, matching the 7 years in the middle east, if there was the intent and gumption.
April 6, 2024
I very much doubt we will be allowed a referendum about net zero. After Brexit politicians will be reluctant to hold votes as they may not produce the result they are after.
Carry on regardless is more likely. There will be protests and China will continue to ignore the policies adopted in the West. Like Covid, it is a useful excuse for government interference in the lives of the population.
April 6, 2024
+1 China and many other countries and they are right to do so.
April 6, 2024
🤙🏻 i agree LL
April 6, 2024
If the government had thought ahead sensibly, forcing Net Zero would not have occurred in the first place.
Errors should be prevented at source, not patched up with great disruption and expense after the damage is done. New, fresh, sensible leadership is what is most needed.
Dump the present misguided wasters.
April 6, 2024
Net zero isn’t a yes/no question. I’d like to see more cycle routes in our area and I think a few trolleybus routes would be fantastic. Does that make me a net zero advocate? I don’t want to rip out our gas boiler and install a heat pump. Does that mean I’m voting no in a referendum.
April 6, 2024
DA: I’m very much with you on that. Am not particularly in favour of a referendum. It can’t be just a Yes/No option. Not meaning to patronise but many will have a very simplistic perception of what NZ might mean & not what it actually means in stark reality. Many will not have had the time or the inclination to read up about the subject, the extent to which the UKG is legally bound & pushing us towards, the maniacal amounts of funding required, the criminal waste of money we are already seeing and what it means for the way we, and I would not say all, of us are expected to live. We just see the daily blandishing, Climate Damage, Climate Crisis, Climate Emergency, Climate Breakdown ….. Most of us will buy into cycle lanes, electric buses on our local & city routes, attempts to heal our rivers and waterways, attempts to reduce our increasing population to reduce those CO2 emissions and more effort & innovation to deal with waste & landfill not least all the awful non-recyclable plastic waste in our general bins, which we all try to avoid being landed with no doubt but not easy to do so. This and the preservation, protection & health of our own earth / land, our own green spaces, support to our farmers & domestic food production. These things and much more, and parochial as they may be, are important to me.
April 6, 2024
I don’t want my council spending money on funding very costly electric buses, especially since the insurance against a depot burnout is going to cost a recurring fortune. They attempted to install more cycle lanes during covid. The result was impassible traffic jams on all the key routes to the major hospital (even with just lockdown traffic), probably resulting in deaths that have not been publicly counted up. The lanes had to be removed.
April 6, 2024
Mark: Good point re bus depot risks / insurance & I agree. It just seems to follow that as the old bus stocks get dumped, an electric alternative will follow. It’s already happened in my area on at least one route. Perhaps I should have said we might just buy into these things at a push, if we have to…. as opposed to all the other ‘stuff’. As for cycle lanes, the costly one in my area was pushed on to us and like yours by the sound of things, some modifications needed after completion as there were parts considered dangerous so a case of another costly rip out / replace. Gets very little use.
April 6, 2024
You might look into why we got rid of all our trolleybuses in the 1960s.
April 6, 2024
I always assumed it was the route limitation.
April 7, 2024
China has not officially enshrined the target into law
https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china/net-zero-targets/
Recent net zero legislation can be found across the world: 6 countries (Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Denmark, Hungary) have adopted legally binding net zero targets
https://netzeroclimate.org/sectors/law/
April 6, 2024
Those who decline a referendum on Nett Zero are just about all those in Parliament. Why you may ask, answer, because a majority of the electorate do not buy into it. Government is terrified of referendums it cannot win, witness Brexit 2016. Basically government hates the onward march of democracy as they lose control of the narative. Ask yourselves why Climate Change – The Movie has not been mainstream viewing. Answer, government and their poodle media plus Ofcom do not want this version of the truth be known. Why, because it throws major doubt at the foundations of their climate change narrative, which on all reasonable analysis is a house of cards.
You frequently mention the word subsidy, giving it a distant, ethereal quality. Get real, subsidy is either taxation of individuals and businesses or it is borrowing money via your frequently discussed bonds, that in turn are paid for by taxing individuals and businesses.
Ergo, your Nett Zero is not only a bum steer, house of cards, but is a direct financial sea anchor on every aspiring individual and business in the United Kingdom, and it does (nothing ed)for the good of the planet. It is all about control and who is in control. You should make this abundently clear via the conservative home information service, the readership of which has already taken remedial action. They are abstaining or switching to Reform UK. Just as government abandoned them in their undemocratic coupe, so they are abandoning this faux conservative government. The word government in this case being fanciful, if you care to look about you.
The detail of what needs to be done has been well covered in this diary by you and your contributors. You will find most of it in the thirty pages of Reform UK a contract with the people. Read, digest, decide and vote. It is your one shot Stinger Missile.
April 6, 2024
Why do you avoid moderating a pre 06.30 post. Is it that you do not want others to agree with it. You manage to moderate multiple posts from other contributors to such an extent that I speculate that at least one may be your nom de plume. Is it the logic or factual truth you shy from. At the very least I expect consistency and an appreciation that time is spent on offering guidance where it is needed.
Reply. Why do you seek to libel me. I do not use a nom de plume to contribute to my own blog. I suggest you apologise. As you can see I publish many views I disagree with and are critical. Keep your pieces shorter to get faster publication.
April 6, 2024
Reply If you wish to post again you need to apologise for your false allegation.
April 6, 2024
Doubtless, many Conservative councillors and indeed, councils will be looking forward to the local elections on the 2nd May, which will be considered as a referendum on net zero and Labour’s green plan. Directions to your local Benefits Office, where you will be able to make a claim for Jobseekers Allowance and/or Universal Credit, may easily be found online. Expect the Party to be seeking a new Leader on 4th or 5th May
Mrs Gold, who has developed an interest in tropical orchids and I shall be travelling in the Far East for most of April.
For those fortunate folk who are able to follow my stimulating, scintillating and informative posts here on Sir John’s blog – rest assured, we are travelling with my new laptop. I shall endeavour to comment when appropriate, bearing in mind the time zone differences.
April 6, 2024
Have a good trip. My wife likes her orchids too.
Nothing to lose by changing leader, might not help very much at this late stage – having failed at almost everything for 13+ years. But Sunak has failed and had & still has all the wrong policies.
He wants net zero, vast tax levels, huge generally low skilled immigration levels, to shadow the EU red tape. a vast incompetent state and totally inept public services (police, criminal justice, transport, housing, energy, health care…) He is also deluded or a blatant liar “the vaccines are unequivocally safe”, “we have cut taxes”, we are stopping the boats, cutting waiting lists, growing the economy, cutting debt… he also caused the 11% inflation but now wants credit for having reduced it somewhat.
April 6, 2024
Thank you SG for reassuring us that we will continue to have the viewpoints of such a stimulating, scintillating and above all, modest, person such as yourself.
April 6, 2024
In the meantime, should Mr Gold fail to deliver we will have to make do with Sir John!
April 6, 2024
Look forward to it SG. I trust you & Mrs SG are travelling by a slow (sailboat) boat to China and not one of those nasty CO2 polluting aeroplanes?
April 6, 2024
In your own private jet then I imagine?
Be wary of Orchidelirium! Much linked to colonialism you know!
And have a great time….no need to hurry back.
April 6, 2024
@ Sakara Gold “…shall be travelling in the Far East for most of April” – making a huge carbon footprint as you go, inviting cancellation?
April 6, 2024
I hope they enjoy their trip and do not feel guilty as a bit more plant food will do no harm. The alarmists like King Charles, Emma Thompson, Sunak, Theresa May, Starmer… could though, at least fly economy and not first class or in private jets and helicopters. Although though CO2 is not a real climate problem (indeed it is a vital gas for all life on earth) but if they honestly believe this CO2 devil gas lunacy then why would they want to look like evil, grade 1 hypocrites?
April 6, 2024
How does foreign travel conform to your eco-lunacy SG?
More hypocrisy from the eco-brigade. Live what you preach please?
April 6, 2024
Not so fast, guys. Surely SG’s plan is to spend the month protesting outside a Chinese government building in Beijing against its coal-fired power stations and wanton destruction of the planet…
April 6, 2024
Go to the Botanical Gardens in Singapore and also Gardens by the Bay to see some truly stunning orchids.
A bit off topic 😔
April 6, 2024
Go and see them growing wild in Colombia, which probably has the greatest range of species on the planet. There are also cultivated collections to see.
April 6, 2024
Have a good trip. I presume you’ll be travelling by wind-powered Tall Ship? To “save the planet.”
April 6, 2024
How many people have to be fed & for how many man years to construct and sail a tall ship. Human food is rather energy intensive to fertilise, grow, farm, butcher, freeze, dry, store, package, cook… A plane is surely better in CO2 terms per person mile. Certainly far quicker, more convenient and rather safer.
April 6, 2024
SG :
I’m afraid Mrs. Gold is travelling to wrong continent for orchids as the widest and best range is to be found in South America, particularly Columbia and Ecuador.
Anyway I wish you and Mrs. Gold a safe and pleasant journey and please give my best wishes to President Xi.
April 6, 2024
Enjoy your holiday. I assume you are trialling on one of those fossil free aeroplanes that I have read are under development?
April 6, 2024
But haven’t all the orchids been destroyed by the bogy gas created by the Chinese coal powered stations??
April 6, 2024
No they thrive on a bit more CO2 and v. slightly warmer.
April 6, 2024
SG, is this trip to the far east one of your lifetime ration of FOUR flights ?
If so, great, enjoy yourself.
However, I have a sneaking suspicion you will have long ago exceeded your lifetime ration of flights.
If so, the furthest east you should be going is Norfolk.
(It is a serious proposal in France, and the majority of young people support a lifetime ration of four flights).
April 6, 2024
Thats unfortunate, lets hope it falls into a river!
April 6, 2024
Well you can have Starmer driving over the cliff at 100mph or Sunak at 90mph. Net zero is not desirable at all nor even possible in this time scales. The cost is totally unaffordable and zero benefits are achieved.
1. A bit more CO2 is not causing any climate emergency even a doubling of CO2 concentration will cause every little extra heating and we currently have rather a dearth of CO2 historically. A bit more is in fact a net good.
2. UK man made CO2 is insignificant less than 1% and many other countries very sensibly will not follow the mad UK policies anyway.
3. The policies pushed wind, solar, batteries, public transport, heat pumps, EVs, walking, cycling… do not really work even in CO2 terms to any significant effect.
4. A UK policy of net zero just exports the CO2 production, wrecks the economy and kills UK jobs and industries often actually increasing CO2 worldwide.
The whole policies is economic, scientific and environmental lunacy. Hugely damaging to our ability to even defend the UK if we had to.
The endless one sided BBC, Government, King (of quack medicine and hypocrisy) Charles… propaganda and lies on the “climate emergency” that we have been indoctrinated with for many years is surely criminal and against impartiality rules. Climate the Movie is pretty much spot on as most sensible and honest physicists (and even Piers Corbyn) will tell you.
But Socialist English Graduates like Gove prefer advice from St Greta school drop outs.
April 6, 2024
I will not vote for anybody who is foolish enough to believe that man made climate change exists. I have a post graduate degree from MIT in AI, which is best scientific university in the l world, and have worked in the front office of investment banks for over 30 years.
I can find ZERO evidence of man made climate change. It does not exist. The only man made anything are the mistakes in the methodologies being used. All the data has been massaged. None of it is real.
So I will be voting for Reform and I will be encouraging everybody I know to vote for Reform.
April 6, 2024
Javelin, +++++++
Piercing to the heart through the carapace of illusory defence of the total absurdity of Net Zero
April 6, 2024
+Many
April 6, 2024
+1 You are not alone as seen in ” Climate change, the movie”. Plenty of real scientists demonstrating the foolishness of this cult.
April 6, 2024
….and the average ‘Joe’ is starting to realise the scam of net-zero, the people are starting to question the policies
April 6, 2024
Climate Change The Movie is a game changer and should be shown on the BBC for balance – oh what, they can’t/wont because our own parliament has declared the science settled ….what a world we live in
April 6, 2024
🤙🏻 Javelin
April 6, 2024
Sir John, you blame higher energy costs on Russian oil and gas being ‘withdrawn from the market’. They were never ‘withdrawn’, they were boycotted by European countries and then the US in their failed campaign to crash the Russian economy. We have paid the price for this, and for the other grossly mistaken policy decision of our rulers, lockdowns. In 2021 energy costs were already rising sharply, attributed by the IEA to rapidly growing international demand after lockdown restrictions were relaxed. British Gas reported pressure on supplies because of maintenance not carried out during the lockdown now having to be done, temporarily reducing production. So higher energy prices resulted fairly directly from decisions taken by Western governments, not from suppliers’ decisions or other market factors.
April 6, 2024
Net Zero has been approach through subterfuge.
For decades the question has been “ Do you really think we should slaughter animals?” Rather than “ Are you happy to eat bugs?”
A later question was “Do you prefer “clean air”?”…. (What’s that? Ozone?)
Questions designed to get the “correct” answers.
So however far we have stumbled down this insane road …it is mostly, so far, based on misunderstandings and quasi religious proselytising.
Remember those sandwich-board men in what was Oxford Street ?
“ The End of the World is Nigh”.
April 6, 2024
The met-office has recently described the weather of March as the worst ever, however their own data from their own website suggests it was average – see https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/04/04/a-mild-march/
We dont believe you
April 6, 2024
And all this totalitarian law stuff is precisely in order to destroy the “special bodies of armed men,” aka the police, prisons, military and courts. An anti capitalist Marxist aim.
No wonder they wanted to get rid of “the turnip Taliban”.
Did no one notice what was happening?
April 6, 2024
“Yellow” tories pulling the strings…not reflecting the grass roots at all!
April 6, 2024
You do not comment on the possible roles for various types of new nuclear power stations?
Reply None of them will be available this decade and several will be needed to replace all the ones we are closing
April 6, 2024
The climate and covid hoaxes are just that – people need to wake up and say NO!
Only Reform will ditch the self destructive NZ madness and institute a public enquiry into excess deaths.
April 6, 2024
We don’t need any of the things you discuss in your final paragraph ‘government and business working on this strategy’. We just need a modicum of informed and balanced debate in the mainstream media which would demonstrate that we’ve already reduced our domestic carbon emissions by 50% on 1990 levels; that far from ‘setting an example to the world’ as the eco zealots say, nobody is copying us to anywhere near the same extent; and we are a tiny spec in the global climate anyway. Debate or no debate, direct action by citizens is surely more and more inevitable now.
April 6, 2024
Possible referenda likely being considered by the Conservatives:
1) The Government should consider delaying Net Zero until 2035
2) The Government should consider reducing legal migration to 100,000 by 2035
3) The Government should consider leaving the ECHR if illegal migration is not below 30,000 by 2035
Which one would be most likely to make you vote for them?
April 6, 2024
mathu
The only Net Zero should be immigration.
We do not have enough houses, hospital, schools, electricity, water, sewerage treatment works, roads, real jobs or benefits for any more.
April 6, 2024
I would vote for:-
1. The Government must ditch all net zero policies now and forever. They are clearly a complete scam and con-trick.
2. The government should deport all non british nationals not paying in more than they and their families take out in benefits, housing, schooling & public services… so about 70% of them. British nations should also have to pay more in than they get back wherever practical & possible.
The government should come clean on the vast net harm Covid Vaccines have done open a proper and honest investigation rather than a vast cover up. Sunak should stop lying on this topic and others.
The government should halve in size and spend no more than 30% of GDP.
April 6, 2024
+1
April 6, 2024
As you don’t seem to be aware there is Covid-19 Inquiry going on (covid19.public-inquiry.uk).
April 6, 2024
As I don’t expect to be here to witness such events – could I request the year be changed to 2026 in all cases?
April 6, 2024
Gets my vote – however please revise that date to 2024, so the new policies are oven-ready for the next election
April 6, 2024
As we aren’t allowed to debate the subject, as we are told the science is settled, what is the point. It doesn’t matter what the public want or think our politicians will continue down this road to ruin until we vote them out of office. Unfortunately, by then, it will be too late. If there was any other sensible country left that I could move to I would be long gone.
April 6, 2024
+1
April 6, 2024
Existing battery cars are prototypes of the Ford Edsel.
Future generations will wonder at their idiocy.
Like the Sinclair C5, their rarity will be worthless.
Just like the value of Net Zero today.
April 6, 2024
Achieving net zero is enshrined in a law introduced by the Conservatives and I believe net zero was in the last Conservative manifesto that you personally campaigned on so I’m not sure why you are moaning about “Greens” who haven’t actuallly been in power ?
Reply I campaigned on the Manifesto I put to my electors which did not pledge anything on net zero
April 6, 2024
What a poor answer: in a country with FPTP, despite all the various omissions in your own manifesto, you are one in the Parliamentary Conservative Party, and very likely despite all your obfuscations to be following the whips’ on all decisions essential to your party’s survival.
April 6, 2024
Any difference in the way things work in other parties you like hefner?
Your bias is plain to see.
April 6, 2024
reply-reply
Indeed John, and that is why I have voted for you in the past, knowing you will follow your own mind on most policies.
April 6, 2024
John just cannot bring himself to unequivocally reject Net Zero. I suppose opposing party policy renders you persona non grata.
It’s very simple. You’re either a Marxist or you’re not. It is my belief that NZ is a Marxist construct designed to destroy the civil space. Environmental protection is the least of its concerns
The fact that they call you a denier is evidence of an ideology that is political in nature.
April 6, 2024
Dom,
Very unfair on New Zealand!
April 6, 2024
So we look forward to Starmer-chosen ministers back-tracking, Miliband resigning in protest and Gen Zers in tears at the betrayal?
April 6, 2024
Oh goodness!
I just remembered. Didn’t Labour hint that to prevent opposition the greencr*p legislation and implementation will be farmed out to quangos?
Just rolled out regardless.
April 6, 2024
It’s called the uni Party Climate Change Committee.
April 6, 2024
Well said Sir Christopher Chope – see the latest Dr John Campbell podcast “Voice of the People” with the excellent Dr Clare Craig.
April 6, 2024
Here’s what any net zero referendum should ask:
Do you wish to continue the destruction of UK industry and the ever increasing cost of energy that will lead to people freezing in their homes, in order to save <0.00045% While China takes up any savings in weeks?
Or do you think the whole idea is a ridiculous load of nonsense driven by Eco-zealots/big business and politicians who have fallen for it.
April 6, 2024
“…the withdrawal of Russian oil and gas from the market.”
It was still for sale wasn’t it? Rather than being withdrawn from the market, our government decided we wouldn’t be allowed to buy it.
As for referendums, we had the Brexit one and ever since a majority of our politicians have done their best to scupper Brexit, which as a result has not substantially happened. They’d do the same with Net Zero. It’s a change of politicians that we need (kind host excluded).
April 6, 2024
They arrogantly think they know best as the wisdom of the honey trap MP’s have shown, with many others recently. Big percentages v general population. Let us pray for Reform, the peoples revolution.
April 6, 2024
Why isn’t Wragg under investigation for Data Protection breaches, Communication Act Offences and sacked for his disgusting behaviour by the Standards Committee?
April 6, 2024
At the global level shortages of oil and gas emerged in 2021 as a consequence of the low demand and low prices during covid lockdowns in 2020 that led to underinvestment in maintaining supply, which was inadequate when demand returned after lockowns were eased. The Russians took advantage of this and cut gas supplies into Europe via various pipelines in a bid to influence European policies. First the Yamal line via Poland to Germany, then reduced supply via EUstream across the Ukraine to Slovakia and Austria (surprisingly, there is still a flow at about 25% of capacity on thus route). Supply via Nordstream was first halved then cancelled altogether several weeks before the lines were bombed. These volumes were only for sale if Europe changed policies. Meanwhile Russia speeded its pipeline building to China for an alternative export route.
The UK did impose a ban on Russian oil and LNG, which still flows into Europe. We ended up having to buy in LNG from as far away as Peru because of dwindling domestic supply. Sourcing diesel – our main Russian oil import, accounting for 25% of our diesel consumption – involved buying supply that previously went to India from Arabian Gulf countries, while India got extra Russian oil. Since the Suez route has become dangerous we have switched to importing from Rotterdam and Antwerp which can handle VLCCs of diesel. Where their supply comes from is a question whose answer is only known to the gatepost.
April 6, 2024
I find it amazing that you actually need to write this article John, are your Party MPs so dim that they have not actually understood properly the road on which they voted us to travel and self destruct.
We have already lost much manufacturing here because it is too expensive, and deemed an unfit industry by many of the University elite, who seem frightened of getting their hands dirty.
Want to purchase a car, most made abroad and imported
Want to purchase a fridge, freezer, cooker, dishwasher, most made abroad and imported
Want to go on holiday and get away from out winter weather, then go abroad and spend your money there.
Want to go on a cruise, most are foreign owned.
Want to sit at home and view the TV, a percentage of power imported.
Want to enjoy a nice warm bath, many water supply companies foreign owned.
Want to enjoy good food, about 40% now imported.
Just think how much worse it will all get when we continue to think net zero and others do not bother !
Our Parliament is stuffed with clueless idiots !
April 6, 2024
O/T: Average increase in car insurance: UK 34%, Germany 13%, Italy 6%, Spain 5%, France 2% (Association of British Insurers, Admiral.com).
April 7, 2024
I read that the industry paid out £9.9bn in claims last year, or an average of £330 per policy based on 30 million vehicles. I suspect the average policy costs a lot more than that given what I paid in January as a maximum NCD low risk with a largely depreciated vehicle.
April 8, 2024
People need to shop around, never just automatically renew, as insurance companies don’t do deals for loyalty, sadly as they comply with FCA rules. Deals are there. I used to own an insurance broker and still have friends in the business. You can use the new compare-the-market deals and then look at the companies that aren’t on CTM, such as Direct Line (there are others). A decent local broker will find you a better deal if you still have one.
April 10, 2024
a-tracy. What about the people who for years had been buying food from the German discounters or had their car insurance bought after considering these comparison websites. These people are not going to find any big savings now and will have seen that even the discounters have increased their food prices up by 20-25% since 2020.
Which? magazine has an interesting item on car insurance ‘Out of control: the rocketing cost of car cover’ in its January 2024 ‘Money’ issue.
April 6, 2024
Yet again ‘storage’ of generated electricity gets a mention. It is not feasible.
You would need 50,000,000 100 kw/hr (that’s a large) EV battery to power the grid for a week.
Present pumped storage can provide 5.6 gwh for about 5 hours. Or, a sixth of what the grid needs for one hour.
Please stop mentioning storage as if it is possible. It is not.
April 6, 2024
DOM , +++++++
It’s all too obvious.
Thank goodness we didn’t have politicians, lawyers, or intellectuals devise our road signs.
Halt, Stop, No Parking, . . . . how many extra paragraphs of provisos, exemptions, sophistry, would be added to confuse the reader?
Keep it simple for the stupid,
Ditch Net Zero !!!
April 6, 2024
MW, ++++. Exactly! The ‘discussion’ continues to include the belief in the Tooth Fairy quality inclusions such as ‘storage’, ‘carbon capture’, all electric cars and planes when any sensible evolutionary path forward without ‘incentives’ and subsidies must exclude them from pragmatic discussion.
April 6, 2024
It is indeed not possible or affordable, but not sure what you “50,000,000 100 kw/hr” actually means or comes from not KW/H but KWHs. Circa 330 TWH PA of electricity is consumed in the UK. So lithium iron batteries for a month of consumption might cost circa £33 Trillion.
But that is average consumption look at winter consumption and push everyone on to heat pumps and EV cars! This pushes it up by at least 10x. The idea is totally impractical & scientific and economic insanity.
April 6, 2024
Put another way a car style battery to store 20p of electricity cost about £100 and typically last rather less than about 8 years and so finance and depreciation on the battery roughly doubles the cost of such stored electricity. Losses in the charge discharge ups this another 20% or so.
April 6, 2024
MW :
The Royal Society’s ‘large-Scale Electricity Storage’ report recommends 100 TWhr (thermal) equivalent to 50 TWhr (electrical).
I calculate this to be equivalent to 500m 100 KWhr batteries and taking Europe’s biggest battery, supplied by Tesla, which can store 196MWhrs, located at Pillswood near Cottingham, East Yorkshire, cost £75m, the battery cost would be £19 trillion.
BTW, the Royal Society recommended an 80/20 wind/solar mix and to provide reliable electricity using hydrogen storage would double the cost of the electricity with the big assumptions that the wind capacity factor and the electricity->hydrogen->electricity round trip efficiency would both double from today’s figures.
April 6, 2024
One glaring omission from your article Sir John is the outsourcing of emissions. We are already experiencing costs, inconvenience and economic pain through exporting our emissions through further de industrialisation. We have not yet had to cut back on the tat we buy m, it just gets made elsewhere.
Will the public accept rationing in order to meet our targets?
You should be encouraging the publishing of our total consumption in order to make your point not just our direct home grown emissions
April 6, 2024
Good point NS but in the world of global diplomacy our people can go around boasting that we have reduced our homegrown emissions by 𝑥 percentage points irrespective of the damage caused here.
We can probably look forward, or in reality askance, at Ed Miliband becoming a worldwide figure.
April 6, 2024
They will have to. We will no longer be able to afford imports beyond essentials, aside from the moneyed elite. See any typical third world country.
April 6, 2024
Readers of Conservative Home should be more concerned about what your party is doing over an MP who gave fellow Conservative MPs’ personal details to a blackmailer. So far he has not been asked to step down, nor has he had the party whip withdrawn. Other Tory MPs have been forced to resign or have had the whip withdrawn in recent years over ethical matters, so what about this thoroughly unethical behaviour?
Reply The issues in this article are far more important. Mr Wragg is stepping down as an MP at the election.
April 6, 2024
Reply to reply: True, but in the meantime he chairs the HoC’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. How is his judgement to be trusted, in such an important role?
April 6, 2024
I agree. Disgusting, disgraceful behaviour from an elected MP. The whip should have been removed immediately and if he handed out personal contact details for other MPs without their permission, they should sue him.
Hunt said his courageous and fulsome apology should be applauded. Absolutely wrong, as usual. I have no sympathy whatsoever for him.
April 6, 2024
JR, the matter goes to the heart of integrity and honesty underlying All issues including this one. If your MPs, including cabinet ones, cannot be trusted then there is little debate because as you say no one believes you.
As an aside 62 Tory MPs are standing down, but that does stop standards being applied because it is an election year and he is self declared minority on sexuality.
April 6, 2024
Mr Wragg appears to be yet another MP selected because he was biddable to CCHQ, only to have that go wrong. He is at best a distraction.
April 6, 2024
Indeed as are the issues Andrew Bridgen has raised. Yet he was kicked out of the party just for telling the truth. Sunak however (contrary to all the hugely abundant evidence) continues to assure us the Covid Vaccines were “unequivocally” safe and remains leader. Had Sunak looked at the stats. or even asked anyone remotely competent and honest to do so? Before he made his absurd claim?
April 6, 2024
“Government and business are working together on this strategy.”
ie Corporatism. Mussolini famously said, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
There has been no debate permitted on Net Zero or implementation of the Eco Lunacy because this country is no longer a democracy. To maintain the charade, every 5 years we are presented with “a choice” between two potential Governments but both propose basically the same policy, underpinned by blatant propaganda and the silencing of any expert dissenters.
The level of genuine support for the Green Lunacy is demonstrated by the number of Green MPs returned to Parliament. Most people, including me, are concerned about our environment and want obvious problems dealt with. For me, that includes the pollution of our rivers and seas with effluent and the windmills slaughtering thousands of sea-birds, raptors, bats every year.
I have absolutely no concern about climate change. The climate changes … it always has; it always will and it is not within our control. Net Zero is a blatant scam and is about rationing, transfer of taxes from the little people to the Globalists and above all, CONTROL of “the peasantry.”
I will not vote for any Party which intends to pursue the scam.
April 6, 2024
Donna, ++++++
April 6, 2024
Donna,
Uni party learnt from EU referendum, no more referendums where they will lose.
We see from JR’s blog today it is another attempt to deflect blame from his party. JR cannot deny that Cameron called “Red Ed’s” energy policy “Marxist”, Treacherous May heralded the Marxist policy by saying she would build on it!
Trump denounced the Paris Agreement as a job and manufacturing transfer and withdrew from it, he stopped funding to WHO, he did not engage in foreign wars but stood up against Putin over chemical weapons in Syria. A man of his conviction and implemented what he said he would. No wonder Democrats are acting worse than dictatorships like China, Russia, Iran to do anything to stop him being elected. We expect much better democracy in the West.
Reform Party are the only choice not to accept net stupid.
April 6, 2024
Correct.
April 6, 2024
We only have net-zero because the Tories have pushed & promoted net-zero, over the past 14yrs, as one of its prime policies ….pointing the finger at others is unfair
April 6, 2024
You should ignore the green party ….as does the voting electorate
April 6, 2024
Yes, but which parties are against netzero that we could vote for?
All the parties in Parliament demand netzero policies, some more idiotically than others. BUT, when are we going to see an option on the ballot papers to disregard all offered candidates?
“NONE OF THE ABOVE” should be an option, and where it accrues more than 20% of the vote the election should become nulled, and new candidates should be provided for a new vote.
It would be interesting if at the next GE voters could actually vote for or against netzero – “DO YOU FULLY SUPPORT NETZERO?” Then we’d see how many people have been utterly indoctrinated to be true believers and how many can think for themselves.
April 6, 2024
Would anyone care to guess what percentage of the atmosphere is CO2, 5%….. 10%?
Net Zero is an undesirable goal and it’s the biggest scam ever visited on the people….. Climate… the movie
Follow the Money
0.04%. and if it fails any lower all plant life on planet Earth will die
April 6, 2024
L C
Interestingly a scientist asked senators in the USA at a select type committee meeting, how much of a percentage they thought Co2 was in the atmosphere, some said 8% some 5% the lowest was 4% he then informed them that the actual figure was 0.04% and they looked at him as if he were mad, because they really thought they were right.
And these clowns are making rules, regulations, laws and taxes for the rest of us.
! viewed it some time ago, so unfortunately cannot give the link.
April 7, 2024
@Cynic
Well said
April 6, 2024
By calling a non-CO2 source of energy ‘”clean”, SJR, you have conceded the other side’s point. The climate alarmists want us to believe that carbon dioxide is somehow “dirty”, even though it’s essential for life. Use their language, and you fall in with their thinking. If you adopt their absurd position, I’m afraid much else then follows, especially the need to commit huge expenditure to “clean” energy sources. You’re in for a penny, in for a pound, I’m afraid.
April 6, 2024
Sir John
While conspiracy theories abound with NetZero and it reasoning the fact this Conservative Government has taken up a position of punitive punishment and high cost not found in the rest of the World. You do get to ask the question of what is the real end game of this particular so-called Conservative Government? It is not NetZero
The closest rational comes from really left field theories from the media https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/05/true-blue-tories-banned-standing-general-election/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/05/young-margaret-thatcher-tory-candidate-list-today/
Rishi & Hunt along with this cabinet have proved they can destroy the UK’s Conservatives, meaning the UK center ground, with their left leaning Socialist stance on the economy, taxes and managing the economy.
The logic coming out is they have designed a stance to cause the Conservatives to lose the next election so their next step is to ensure only left learning Socialists Candidates are offered to the electorate so as no Conservative can come to the fore.
April 6, 2024
There are 2 versions of Socialism that are rife in the UK. Labour has the big State, big State knows best version. The Conservatives have the One Nation World run by bureaucrat’s version where democracy, freedoms, enterprise and the economy is not part of the process.
So there is no left right option, you just get to define which is the lesser evil.
April 6, 2024
NZ policies and costs may well be on the ballot paper but there is unfortunately little choice between Con/Lab/Lib/Greens/SNP. Only reform has NZ in its manifesto. The Conservatives are pushing ahead in this race to net penury, with this the latest idea :DT article “Household electricity bills could be slashed by £142 in green rethink : ‘Crazy’ addition of renewables levies blamed for holding back progress on net zero”.
Coutinho is planning to move the renewables taxes from electricity bills onto gas bills or general taxation so that ASHP look economically attractive. This is madness. If gas is 1/3 the price of electricity, we should be delighted and getting more gas from North Sea and fracking. 74% of UK houses are hated by gas, so who will this gas tax impact – yes, the poorest, the plebs, not the wealthy who can afford even to think about an ASHP. But this is not debated in the HoC, in the MSM. I despair.
April 6, 2024
A ‘Conservative’ government (a proper Conservative Government) would not have used cohesion and punishment to inflict its will on a free people, a free Sovereign Democracy.
In all this the ‘fact’ that at worse the UK is just 1% of the World situation, so cutting emissions in half does nothing if the situation even needed it.
The other more salient fact 95% of the World is not playing to this Conservative Governments tune, they do not wish to destroy their economies, and would never dream of inflicting this sort of punishment on its people. China for instance is introducing more addition carbon emissions each week that the UK can save if all the Conservative Government punishment gets to do anything.
To move in a direction, it works when it is an evolution, the hard exponentially expensive punitive punishment does nothing other than destroy the Country. We are coming to learn it is destruction this Conservative Government is hell bent on destruction, bitter malicious destruction, simply nothing else stacks up.
April 6, 2024
As above – ‘coercion’. predictive text once more
April 6, 2024
Net Zero is achieving what it was set out to achieve…. the impoverishment and destruction of capitalism in the west and levelling down with the rest of the world!
April 6, 2024
“The question of consumer acceptance needs more debate than the greens allow.”
Caroline Lucas has posted on social media:
“Radical right-wing charities on Tufton Street, like the Global Warming Policy Foundation, are constantly spreading harmful climate change disinformation & denial. What does the Charity Commission do to stop them? Nothing. So we’re taking them to court.”
Attempting to censor its rivals is not a good look.
April 6, 2024
If there was a direction correction needed in our energy consumption and carbon emissions an evolution would have achieved more, been less costly and worked seamlessly.
Auto transport should have evolved towards self-charging hybrids. Most UK commutes are less than 15miles per day, even the basic hybrid is good for 30miles.
Smaller Air Source heat pumps should have been used as a supplement to more or less preheat home gas situations, that would have covered every property in the UK for a good 80% of the year. It would not have discriminated between new properties and those built more than 20years ago.
SMR’s are a route for expanding our energy production but the Government is holding back licensing them which is weird. Westinghouse formerly owned by the UK Taxpayer has the funding and the sites and is ready to go – but no license. In perspective the much-heralded RollesRoyce SMR’s will be using Westinghouse technology – not their own as some have been given to think. The only block is the Conservative Government – Why? Is it because it undermines this Conservative Governments aims to give French Nationalized Industry UK Taxpayer money? Or is it is part of the plan this Conservative Government is to cause as much destruction and misery as possible before being moved from office?
April 6, 2024
Any Conservative in the UK must note that this version of WEF Socialist one Nation cabal calling itself a Conservative Government along with the CCHQ as its gate keepers that have deserted the center of UK thinking and politics. In a nutshell these are anti Conservatives trying to close down Conservative thinking and disenfranchised the center of UK politics. The Conservative voter is still there but with no home and no candidates
April 7, 2024
I agree, our MPs should be pressing the government for immediate and detailed explanations on energy, infrastructure and industrial strategy and plans. Why has there been no effective action over the last 15-20 years.
April 6, 2024
I doubt H2 will be used for vehicle internal combustion based engines. Rather I suspect H2 will be used for high-temperature fuel cells in aircraft and trucks since that is a more efficient process than a gas turbine, quieter, cleaner in terms of emissions and permits a more flexible design of vehicle. The issue for light vehicles is then one of fuel cell cost as current designs rely on expensive metal (eg platinum) catalysts, but it does offer the potential combined benefits of a liquid “fuel” with electric traction.
Your comment on the danger of many competing technologies is odd since that is how most STEM challenges are addressed, unless the concern is the lack of time available to choose. But developments in all areas of technology and engineering don’t simply stop, development and refinement proceed and there is rarely a single winner.
April 6, 2024
The only real way to compress hydrogen storage for use as aviation fuel for anything other than very short haul flights is to provide it as Jet A1 avtur. Anything else and the volume required means you have an inefficient bulbous balloon to hold the fuel.
April 6, 2024
It does not need to be stored as H2 gas.
April 6, 2024
Even if you store it as LH2 – which brings a host of other problems, not least the energy required for liquefaction.
April 7, 2024
Apologies, that was incomplete, it does not need to be stored as H2 – gas or liquid.
One potential direction is direct liquid feed fuel cells don’t need H2 gas and can have 4+ times the power density of H2. The fuel would be a hydrogen carrier such as formic acid or methanol.
April 7, 2024
Neither formic acid nor methanol are suitable for aviation fuel. Formic acid solidifies at 8C. Methanol has about half the energy density of jet fuel per unit volume, and has a very low flash point of about 12C and a colourless flame which makes it unsafe. Even the boiling point of 64C is not completely out of range if tankage is not adequately cooled. Of course, both produce CO2 anyway when combusted, and rather more per unit of energy supplied than does jet fuel. Jet fuel is greener.
April 8, 2024
The point is there are potential pathways that can avoid H2 gas/LH2 though development is needed to find more optimal solutions which will differ between the different transport categories. For long haul synthetic jet fuel may become the predominant option.
April 6, 2024
You need to get the prices on an even footing.
The so-called “Levelized Price” is no such thing when we are discussing intermittent wind and solar.
Your government needs to re-define the levelized price as the price of power delivered 24/365. The price of power when consumers want it, not the price when it is convenient for the company to supply it.
That would mean including the cost of energy storage, something they have escaped responsibility for, as things stand. At that point, the true cost of wind and solar power would be exposed.
April 6, 2024
Why do Arts graduates who dominate our legislature believe they understand more about the Earth’s climate than someone like Dr William Happer who has made a lifetime’s study of climate and has stated categorically that CO2 levels do not drive the climate? The climate is far more complex than the simplistic nonsense purveyed by the climate hoaxers.
Perhaps if the evil Ruskies were to prevail in Ukraine and then do what we are constantly told they would then do next which is to invade the rest of US occupied Europe, they, in their evil, would force us to buy their cheap oil and gas instead of the very expense US products whilst sending all climate hoaxer politicians to their holiday camps in Siberia.
April 6, 2024
+1
April 6, 2024
Anyone who thinks that net zero is attainable/desirable should not be let out of the house without reins.
April 6, 2024
+1
April 6, 2024
It is a sad comment on the quality of our Government and MPs that we are going blindly down a very expensive Net Zero path. Net Zero will never be achieved, CO2 is no problem, and yet our MPs seem to make no effort to understand the science. I was always taught in business if a decision is cheap and won’t cost much to change, make it quickly and get one with it. But equally, if a decision is expensive and costly to change, make it slowly, think about it and make sure you have all the information for and against.
But I guess the calibre of most of our MPs can be judged by the latest scandal, when some have sent naked photos of themselves to a mobile number they don’t know! These are the people who are supposed to make wise decisions for the long term future of the UK.
April 6, 2024
Exactly. No punishments forthcoming. Imagine if the twits were Head Teachers, Police, Council execs etc. Their feet wouldnt have touched the ground before discipline and sacking. Or is their exemptions because they are DEI candidates, pushed through on diversity, equality, inclusion and MP’s are special cases? Mind you they are part time, unqualified and highly paid with NO influence as our host often reminds us.
April 6, 2024
Voters are too lazy to sort the matter out themselves, they just want to tick a box and that it.
I see in Rotherham a garage owner came in second place in the by-election last month, that is the way forward but people are too lazy to be bothered to do something for themselves to win power with independent people and take over control from the elite, they just want a party to blame. Even if you vote for the Reform party, it may start off alright but the elite will take it over like all the other party at the end of the day.
As for net zero, it waste of time and money. The technology they are using is from the beginning of the twentieth centenary and nuclear power is eighty years old they not investing in new forms of power, they will keep putting the price up so you can not afford to use it.
April 6, 2024
SMR technology is not eighty years old, and nuclear fusion is still being developed.
April 6, 2024
Of course there should be a referendum to stop this Net Zero Marxist driven nonsense to destroy the West’s economies and security.
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 “runaway warming” 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 Hadrian’s Wall and in the Middle Ages when barley was grown in Greenland requiring an increase in temperature of 5 degrees C from those of today.
The IPCC’s WG1 (“the science”) 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 “solution” is a Marxist device to impoverish the West. The activists have no issue with China’s 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 6, 2024
Well said
April 6, 2024
Oil companies are making the biggest advancement in net zero fight with liquid gas at new refineries for transport fuels and if they had left the transport manufacturer alone with the new fuels transport pollution would have been cut in half by now and cut again moving forward at next no cost to the public.
April 6, 2024
Same old show off’s and arguments.I too think net zero is impossible and cannot see a time when I have to breathe on my plants to let them survive, but come on these degrees don’t mean anything.You are amongst the thousands who have similar and don’t rely on kiddies schooling to back up their argument.For goodness sake leave Uni ,grow up.
April 6, 2024
A genuine question, Sir John, not a wind-up, I assure you: To what extent do you think that the insensitivity of most of your 649 colleagues towards UK citizens paying twice as much for their energy (now with no relief) is down to the fact that MPs are less exposed to the cost by 1) their heating costs being paid at the workplace by the taxpayer, 2) their salaries and expenses being high enough to accommodate home costs without difficulty, and 3) their assurance of a post-parliamentary future in quango-land or academia or globalism or speech-making ?
Reply Everyone gets their heating costs at work paid by the employer. MPs still rightly have to pay their home heating costs. Good pay obviously helps. I do not know why I do not get more MPs to support my calls for cheaper energy. Perhaps because most MPs think dearer energy is a means to drive down CO 2 .
April 6, 2024
“To do this [impoverish the nation and ration food, heating, travel] there needs to be far more consumer enthusiasm than there is today. Government and business are working together on this strategy.
Er…no…we need to put a stop to this Marxist propaganda designed to destroy the Western economies.
When GB news interviewed PM Sunak on 12/02/2024 he said :
“Free speech is the cornerstone of our democracy. I believe in having frank and honest debates about the issues that really matter.”
So when is the PM going to notify Ofcom to instruct the BBC and the other Marxstream Media that they must allow free speech and hence discussions on CAGW and Net Zero and not act like Pravda only propagating the views of government and big business?
That important and senior scientists such as Happer, Wijngaarden, Lintzen, Koonin, Moore (a co-founder of Greenpeace) and Clauser (2022 Nobel Physics prize winner) etc. are denied any airtime is anti-democratic and shameful making our media and Parliament a national disgrace in the eyes of true democracies.
It’s like a return to the unenlightened 16th century when the Pope “owned the science” as the UN tells us they do today.
April 6, 2024
Why post this on that socialist site “Conservative” Home?
Its ultra-wet editor has reduced the readership (via “stealth moderation”) to a rump socialist commentariat, making it pointless for true small-c conservatives to bother with the site. I only look when Guido posts a link to it.
The new site for conservatism seems to be Conservative Post. They have an interesting front page piece urging Conservative Party members to write to their associations demanding a Special general Meeting to (re)consider candidate selection if the MP has behaved in an “un-Conservative” way.
Basically, weeding out the wet/woke/socialist infiltrators.
It seems only 10% of the membership can force a SGM and that meeting does have the power to force reconsideration of candidacy, even if the process is already (seemingly) complete. As they say, for a 150 member association, just 15 letters can trigger this.
Now *that* is a REAL conservative site!
April 6, 2024
You too have noticed that conservatives have been cleansed from the commentary.
April 6, 2024
From today’s MsM
“Ed Davey: One Nation Tories see us as their new home”
Yup… One Nation Tories that are running this Governments Cabinet and running CCHQ.
While they would be at home along side Davy, but then that would mean the destruction of the UK’s center ground being halted,
April 6, 2024
I do not know what the man is saying, SMR tec has been used since the 1960s in submarines and aircraft carriers, fusion is as old as the rest, been on the table forever. Nuclear fusion is already built, they put a D notice on it so it cannot be switched on because if it was it would wipe the elite assets out with mine.
April 6, 2024
We are paying about 25 times as much for our gas and electricity as for our water etc. We use very little gas and electricity. Nothing like what we used to use. It must be mostly taxes and standing charge.
April 7, 2024
….and double the price of petrol (governments just love that extra VAT revenue)
April 7, 2024
I don’t believe we have had a real chance to vote against the net zero nonsense or the Climate Change Act. I promise to vote for a candidate wanting to row back on the unachievable targets (else spoil paper) not expecting this to be the Conservative candidate.
Conservatives all know that attempting to buck the market through government interference (energy cap) is counter productive; we have not had a Conservative government for a long time and voting for this pretend Conservative party will not help the cause.