The government is pressing ahead with carbon capture and storage projects. When I asked on Thursday who was paying I think the answer was taxpayers, though the Minister delphically said they will “socialise” the costs.
Normally when a business makes an investment customers pay for the output from the facility being installed. In this case the output is storing a lot of CO2, where the customer seems to be the state. It raises the question whose CO2 is it storing? Is that a cost of whatever caused the extra CO 2 in the first place? Some of it will indeed be CO 2 generated by the state itself, with all those heating systems in public sector offices and all that travel of public officials.
Overall the UK government needs to review just how much extra cost it is imposing through windfall taxes, carbon taxes and now these carbon capture schemes. It needs to get off the import best model. Current carbon accounting based on national boundaries still seems to encourage Ministers and officials to close down or drive out carbon dioxide generating activities in the UK, only to import the goods needed from abroad who can then account for the CO 2 in their national figures. This makes no sense for controlling world CO 2 and is damaging to the UK economy and business.
The present international carbon accounting could have been designed for April 1st.
April 1, 2023
Exactly to put it succinctly this government’s (May’s) net zero policy is total insanity carbon capture especially so. So what is driving it? Follow the money as usual I suppose.
Even usually sensible people like Jacob Rees-Mogg seem to accept there is a “climate emergency” though he questions the governments way of dealing with it (he has the excuse of knowing little science or physics. Capturing CO2 (plant, tree and crop food) wastes loads of the energy generated and achieves nothing for climate.
For some common sense on this issue see the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Physics Profs. Richard Lindzen, William Happper, Prof. Alison, Nigel Lawsons book is very sound too. Climate alarmism is a huge and absurd exaggeration the solutions pushed wind, solar, EVs, trains, walking… do not work even in CO2 terms and anyway China, India, Africa… will (sensibly) do nothing on CO2 anyway. A little more CO2 is (on balance) a net positive.
April 1, 2023
Rishi Sunak took private jet trips costing almost £500,000 in just over a week last year, government data has shown. So clearly Sunak must be very concerned about C02 emissions perhaps almost as much as King Charles. Flying by private jet emits circa 30 times more C02 and uses 30 times more fuel compared to flying economy (per passenger mile) helicopters can be even worse.
But Sunak (again lacking any science) perhaps does not grasp this. Heated swimming pools not too clever either if you really want to save CO2 either Rishi. Meanwhile lots of our elderly struggle to keep from freezing to death due to absurdly expensive rigged market energy prices.
Rishi Sunak has electricity grid upgraded to heat his private pool I note (so how often is he up North Yorkshire for a short dip in the tropical pool? Does he keep the pool warm just in case? Large pools do take quite a while to warm up and then all the heat is usually just wasted. Perhaps a wet suite instead Rishi – just trying to help? Only about 30 miles to the sea anyway from Richmond but perhaps best not to take a helicopter.
April 1, 2023
Lifelogic
As with Covid – watch what the politicians do… they don’t believe climate change is about to kill off the earth any more than we do!
Except, as with Covid – the government et al have done such a magnificent scare job – some people are terrified!
April 1, 2023
Lifelogic
The proffesors you name are at the very roo of their game and I have been following them on U tube.
It must be a completely military lead type conspiracy fo experts like this just to be isolated and ignored.
It will take a renegade type leader (Trump?) to call it all out and expose it for what it is and be the voice to tell them all they are stark naked.
This world wide conspiracy has got to be destroyed before it destroys everything.
April 1, 2023
But politicians are too scared to speak out against climate change
April 1, 2023
When one says that 83 and 81 years old professors are at the top of their game, isn’t that the best April’s Fool joke in decades?
April 1, 2023
I suspect it might very much be because they are both retired Hefner.
These men are some of the most highly qualified people on the planet and more importantly are prepared to state their views without fear or predudice. Unfortunately, there are many who probably agree with them who are not able to speak out because they don’t want to be fired, cancelled or have departmental grants cut. We do not live in an age of free speech.
However you do not need to be an academic to see straight through Net Zero, which equates to things made here are bad (all carbon counted) but things made elsewhere are good (no carbon counted). Why people are so blind to this simple fact is beyond me.
April 1, 2023
Influenced by Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, countries such as Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam all value to wisdom imparted by elders and treat them with a high degree of respect.
In Greek and Greek-American culture, old age is honored and celebrated, and respect for elders is central to the family.
Aboriginal communities are hierarchical structures. Though there is no single leader (as the early explorers assumed), Elders can hold a lot of power.Source: Respect for Elders and culture – Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/respect-for-elders-and-culture.
But it is becoming quite common now to totally disrespect the views of people over the age of 65.
April 1, 2023
heffer
When has old age been a handicap?
Experience which is solely lacking with 500+ of our so called politicians, at times like this is and does make realistic sense. Try listening to the whole U tube recordings by these people. I have a lot more respect for the work they have done and researched as opposed to iffy computer predictions.
April 1, 2023
Ageist are we hefner?
Zorro
April 1, 2023
The private sector, only-for-profit boys are meant to treat sewage and not just dump it into the environment.
Anyone seriously expect them to prevent, assiduously, the escape of CO2 for millennia?
April 1, 2023
+many
Agree 100%.A most unlikely tale!!
Must be a “conspiracy theory”.
I wonder who fed it to JR?
I just hope he doesn’t try telling the Commons about it!!
They’d all walk out!!
April 1, 2023
Politicians are so scared of the media that they say ‘we must do something’ ….I am waiting for an honest politician to say ‘we don’t need to do anything – look out of your window, nothing has changed’
April 1, 2023
Agree 100%
April 1, 2023
GC – But who OWNS ans CONTROLS the MEDIA???
April 1, 2023
Perfect April Fools’ day post.
I once bought into the idea of seriously harmful anthropogenic climate change, and the desirability of doing something about it. Not for long though. I wised up several decades ago or more. Now I just see it as another scam to make some people richer and more powerful at the expense of others. “Others” being ordinary people like you and me.
We need a clean out of our political class, not our air.
April 1, 2023
Wanderer
Your post is correct on all counts.
April 1, 2023
The whole net zero scam is an April fool joke. The latest wheeze is to completely offshore the motor industry. Already manufacturers are experimenting with synthetic fuels bit this government has bet the house on EVs.
Is there anyone out there who remember the groundnut scheme
April 1, 2023
I’ve just read Drax are in the frame to trial the carbon capture
They are subsidised to the tube of a billion yearly to double their CO2 output from wood. Then they want the taxpayer to pay for capturing the excess CO2.
Idea, stop burning wood and go back to coal, CO2 halved at no cost.
April 1, 2023
Now that’s a nice business model
April 1, 2023
Agreed.
April 1, 2023
@Ian Wragg; “The latest wheeze is to completely offshore the motor industry.
The UK motor industry has been effectively off-shored (and often foreign owned) for decades, the UK motor industry all but ceased to exist in any significant sense when the Blair govt refused to protect (by re-nationalisation) the assets and jobs at MG Rover Group back in 2005 when the Phoenix Consortium failed. Apart from a few specialist low volume manufactures there is no major UK owned automotive manufacturing left, and even large foreign owned factories are closing for issues unrelated to Net Zero policies.
Net Zero was launched here in the UK by Ed Miliband whilst SoS at DECC in 2008.
April 1, 2023
Infantile Absolutism is a form of unreason.
If you can reasonably demonstrate that the very worst case predictions of some scientists are unlikely – easy as they themselves say that very thing – then that in no way discredits climate science generally.
You appear to be a victim of this fallacy.
April 1, 2023
Unfortunately NLH – whatever the truth about climate change, there has been very little (reasoned) discussion of what we (the UK) should and can do about it. Instead we have the clearly nonsensical concepts of Net Zero, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Capture – the list goes on.
Our virtue signalling politicians wave their climate ‘willeys’ in the air, discouraging local manufacturing and farming, increasing food and energy costs and committing us to ever more future debt – without making any practical difference to the Global Climate. We all need to start shouting loud and clear – This Emperor has No Clothes!
April 1, 2023
+1
April 1, 2023
Especially when they are issuing over a million, mass migration visas a year. Do these people float about with no energy use, transport or energy needs? It’s a scam, end of. Just about control by the authoritarian Tory’s, a former Conservative Party.
April 1, 2023
I have previously highlightred the madness – literally MADNESS – of using £20 BILLION to just bury CO2 underground. This is a pointless, useless and completely unproductive use of our money. Literally burying money in a hole in the ground. I cannot begin to express the contempt that I have for anyone who actually supports this policy.
I am not convinced that the UK should do ANYTHING about CO2, given that China is building OVER 100 new coal-fired power stations. Anything we do will be swamped by what China is doing and we are just throwing our money away. The UK government is deliberately damaging the wealth of the nation and of the British people to achieve NOTHING.
What might be sensible however is to acknowledge that there are some other countries that are stupid enough to want to eliminate their CO2 and therefore to develop technology that does this so we can exploit their stupidity by SELLING this to them. So let’s invest in those British scientists who are working on converting atmospheric CO2 into graphene and also into animal and fish feedstock. Graphene and feedstock are useful products, so I would not object to these, but NOBODY who has a functioning brain can possibly support just burying CO2. The fact that Sunak is such a stupid traitor that he is willing to destroy our economy in this way explains why I will not and cannot vote Conservative again.
April 1, 2023
The whole net zero debacle is an April Fools joke along with the government. Everything is so self defeating. Taxes everywhere you look. Their policies make energy more expensive and they end up using our taxes to prop up household bills and energy bills. We make anything we manufacture more expensive when we don’t need to. Your government just carry on digging a big whole for the country. You are wasting so much money on things that simply won’t work and expect us to do the same regarding EVs and heat pumps. Luckily Joe Bloggs seems to have more common sense but unfortunately not so much money to throw away as we’ve given it all to you.
April 1, 2023
F U S
Bang on the money as usual.
April 1, 2023
”Poland’s Prime Minister has vowed to do “anything” to win the fight against a “pseudo-green” European Union “unacceptable” ban on petrol and diesel engines after 2035.” net-zero-watch
Its only our government thats against the people
April 1, 2023
Not for much longer. What are the 46% getting for all this taxation? Better health, immigration control, dentistry, education, Council Services, better roads, public services, removal of woke/pc minority priorities and sound Governence? None of the above. Good bye Tory’s. We have noticed after 13 years.
April 1, 2023
This is utter madness. There is no evidence that climate is changing. When the climate change grift finally collapses who will pay for this?
Whilst we’re on the subject, why is the Balkanisation of London with the ULEZ zone allowed to go ahead. We all know the barrier to entry will become electric cars within a few years. Then a certain type of low polluting tyre. Then only Londoners will be allowed in and out of London.
NetZero is just one of many reasons the public think the Government has gone completely mad.
April 1, 2023
We don’t ‘think’ they are mad, we ‘know’ it.
April 1, 2023
+100
Those tailors in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” behaved in a mad way …but all they really wanted was money!
April 1, 2023
The lizard conspiracy theory is starting to make sense …why else are they doing what they do !
April 1, 2023
+1 Defo. Just watch the grinning Snapps explain why our cars are banned and gas will cost more on the alter of net zero. Cackling sounds of a non scientist wrapped up in the bubble echo chamber, whilst we put our heating on as it’s cold. As it’s always been in. .. winter.
April 1, 2023
Javelin
Certainly agree with your ULEZ zone comment.
At the moment you can pollute if you can afford it, and the Councils hope you can, as it is more income for them.
However the qualifying criteria (Emissions) will eventually get tougher, and fewer cars will be exempt (even those made in the last few years) so even more income for the Councils.
If they were truthful about clean air, then they would ban all tailpipe emissions (like Oxford City), but then that has serious consequences for shops that need re-stocking, and for residents who cannot charge at home !
Thus clean air Zones’s are simply another way of taxation income, but as usual they are not being honest about it.
All rather ironic given that emissions on cars being produced now, are far, far lower than they were in previous years.
April 2, 2023
If they were truthful about clean air they would fine EVs for their higher levels of particulate emissions from tyre and road wear, and recognise that other emissions from cars are a small fraction of the total, having been heavily reduced by legislation over time. Moreover, the reduced level of new car sales already means more older vehicles with less good standards are being kept on the roads, as it has a knock on effect on the second hand market with reduced supply to people who don’t buy new but keep their car as long as they can.
April 1, 2023
Good morning.
Good question for which I may have found you an answer.
https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/wwf-report-uks-carbon-footprint
So we are destroying our own industry so to lower ‘domestic’ CO2 output, only for others to make and sell back to us what we made ourselves and, to compensate that we are to spend £20bn on carbon capture (probably foreign built). All the while . . .
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/27/energy/china-new-coal-plants-climate-report-intl-hnk/index.html
Madness does not even begin to describe what is going on in this country.
April 1, 2023
Our government is being wagged by the activists and the CCC and they only look and promote a one sided argument.
Ever since all this crap started the government supported by sheep mentality politicians of all political parties have refused to adopt a what if we have got this wrong, bowing to all this computer generated hypothetical scare mongering. Where does the money trail really end?
April 1, 2023
They’ve invested to much capital to admit they’re wrong. They’ve created a CO2 parallel universe where CO2 is no longer an essential trace gas that is required by every plant life on the planet, without which there would be no life. To a sinister monster gas that must be captured as it somehow has its hands on global temperature, oops no, that was yesterday’s news, now its climate change, although no one has noticed any…. change. Where is the evidence it her than computer models produced by fake researchers paid by Governments to show…….climate change. No researchers given grants to prove otherwise.
April 1, 2023
Would ‘strong delusion’ be more fitting? (Isaiah 66:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:11).
April 2, 2023
Notwithstanding the Olivet Discourse: Luke 21:25: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;” i.e not ‘man-made!’
April 1, 2023
I thought we had just entered a superb pact with countries on the Pacific rim? Do we not need to exploit this with our industrial and manufacturing skills? Crippled by the fad for Net Zero, about which there is a lot of debate at long last, we are not going to keep up with the likes of South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.
When I was a little boy in Peterborough, my elbows and knees were black with grease no matter how hard I scrubbed, our black and white cat was black all over and Peterborough cathedral was black too. The weather was exactly the same as it is now. In the 70s when everybody bought a new efficient petrol car, there was such a cold spell that the Guardian started talking about a Global Ice Age.
Are we really that stupid?
April 1, 2023
Yes, they are. We’re not and that’s why Worstminster dwellers are toast. “It’s the economy and our bills stupid”.
April 1, 2023
CCS has been heavily promoted by the fossil fuel cartel, however it is a hugely expensive and unproven technology at the scale proposed and indeed, every single site across the world where even medium scale projects have been attempted has failed. The government has announced CCS will receive a stonking taxpayer subsidy of £20billion over the next few years, when a mere £250 million will be made available for EV charging points and insulation of domestic properties.
Grant Schwraps and the government have been suckered in by the extremely powerful fossil fuel lobby on CCS. Many scientists are sceptical about whether it can be made to work and clearly, on the scale proposed it is a huge gamble. Obviously, the fossil fuel cartel see CCS as a ploy to continue extracting value from their oil and gas field assets
Ministers have also rejected or modified scores of the 130 policy recommendations made by Chris Skidmore MP in his review of the net-zero strategy, published in January. For instance, oil and gas companies will not be forced to stop the flaring of “waste gas”
April 2, 2023
You misunderstand the motivation for CCS. The government is slowly waking up to the fact that if you try to use lots of wind and solar you must have flexible dispatchable generation to back it up, since storage at scale is far too costly. Since they insist on being prepared to waste money and use up resources faster, rather than go for the economically sensible options they are more or less forced into hoping that CCS works. If it doesn’t, they will still need the underlying CCGT plant anyway.
April 1, 2023
Listening to the parliamentary news on the BBC yesterday, news of this carbon capture and storage, I simply could not believe the puerile nonsense being spouted.
The cost of this stupidity is utterly ridiculous and without foundation, for control of this trace gas that is essential for the survival of life.
April 1, 2023
+1
April 1, 2023
B O F
You can build a lot of houses and employ a lot of nurses, police officers and build a few tanks for £20bn.
April 1, 2023
We are living through the first momentous movement in history where those in power – a notionally Conservative government – are consciously destroying all that their citizens have come to value.
April 1, 2023
I suppose we should at least recognise that the Minister was being relatively honest on this occasion. He didn’t deny that this will be horrendously expensive or that this is a Socialist Government imposing Socialist-Green policies.
Meanwhile the Germans have scuppered the EU’s plan to ban emission-generating vehicles in 2035 and the Polish Government has announced it will do everything it can to prevent the ban on petrol-driven cars.
Yet still our moronic Government will bankrupt the nation in order to virtue-signal to the world ….. which couldn’t give a tinkers’ cuss.
April 1, 2023
Socialist-Green policies – and our country of 70 million only returned one single Green Party MP …doesn’t this tell us something
April 1, 2023
Yes. It tells us that green policies have fully infused the liblabcon so there is no need for a discrete ‘green’ party.
In the same way, as communism swept Europe from the Bolshevik empire via Comintern, the UK appeared relatively immune. Not so (As JR would say) because the Labour Party was the Communist Party hence its constitutional purpose of achieving “the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange”.
April 1, 2023
Donna
Horrendously expensive means diddly squat until they actually put the real figures on the table. When they do, that’s when people will get off their bums and start protesting.
April 1, 2023
I think I’ve missed something here… CO2 is great for plants, crops etc
However, the government thinks it’s bad and will destroy the planet – so why are they going to ‘capture it’? Do they plan to secretly sell it to farmers to use in their greenhouses? I’m confused!
April 1, 2023
Apparently they are going to store it for a thousand years ( or however long) in subterranean tanks of water.
And don’t forget they don’t want farming ( that destroys the planet).
It is heartbreaking that we should have come to this.
And BTW the utter b*****s don’t own the planet.
They just don’t!
April 1, 2023
Capturing and storing criminals safely would result in less harm.
April 1, 2023
Don’t trees do this ? Can anyone explained why we crop down trees in the US , then ship across the pond and burn in our Power Stations which releases CO2.
Sorry I forgot that is renewable energy. The other joke is carbon off- setting and trading carbon credits. Perhaps better not to chop down the rain forest and spend some money here to prevent it. We must not mention that the world’s population has grown since the industrial revolution and perhaps the earth’s resources can’t support the continuing increase. Polution destroys the CO2 capturing properties of the seas and nature’s other storage facilities. No one considers the vast amounts of heat generated by human activity. The CO2 layer reflects radiated heat back down to the earth and also reflects the heat radiated from the sun back out into space. As the layer increases wil the climate get colder ? There have been climate changes in the past without the help of human intervention. The climate has changed, we can all agree on this, but is it all due to the increased levels of plant food. Sorry CO2. Or are we destorying the planet’s natural ability to stabilise the CO2 balance in otherways we don’t like to discuss ? And off course it might be time for climate change as in the past. Who really knows for sure ? But all good for virtue signalling and ignoring common sense. No problems the tax payer will fund it or we can just print more money
April 1, 2023
There aren’t that many carbon capture machines around but they can achieve a 99% capture rate ( woohoo!)
However it becomes more difficult and costs more in money and energy to extract CO2 when in small concentrations.
How to encourage carbon emitting plants to spend on removing the last tiny puffs of poison?
Why…TAX them on the remaining escapee gas of course silly!
Oh and tax domestic gas boilers while you’re at it!
We have sooooo much electricity…it will all work…
Especially if we wear our magic shoes and click our heels together thrice!
April 1, 2023
There’s a whole industry of academics and expects ready to design and build carbon capture machines, they even have there own ‘carbon capture technology expo 2023’ ready to spend taxpayers money – but everything is on blueprint, its all jam tomorrow, read for yourself at https://www.carboncapture-expo.com/
April 1, 2023
“delphically”
“…if that which is lost is not found.” (Shakespeare The Winter’s Tale).
Could that be sanity?
April 1, 2023
This government is utterly bonkers.
April 1, 2023
Of course people generate carbon dioxide, both directly and indirectly. I won’t take Net Stupid seriously while the Government persists with increasing the population via their insane immigration programme.
April 1, 2023
beresford
Exactly, they say it’s man made, but the population continues to rise all around the World.
Is there a connection in there somewhere ???
More people more pollution, more energy used, more waste to dispose of, more food to produce on less available land !!!
April 1, 2023
Population is man-made. However population growth is the heaviest cause.
In 1950 it totalled only 2.5 billion. It is now about 7.9 billion.
Even is it halted now the billions of folk whose lifestyles are expanding into high consumption will add much more .
April 1, 2023
How can anyone take net-zero seriously when it is based on pure fantasy.
A growing population causes more Co2, but that’s what we need to grow food for us all – There is no such thing as over-population, there are only management issues, for which governments have failed us by throwing in the towel and feeding us a myth.
April 1, 2023
CO2 is just another money making machine for Governments & the rich. It is also a control mechanism of the masses. Plants & trees are the lungs of the world. Yet are totally ignored or worse destroyed by the same public servants who spout the ideology! The destruction of woods & forests across the world. Clearance of trees in urban areas, covering fields with solar etc, etc. The issue is too many people, too many new builds, too many pollutants harming the land. Poor land management increases CO2 levels.
April 1, 2023
What a ludicrous waste of time and money. Capturing the gas that makes plants grow, we need more Co2 in the atmosphere not less. Future generations will laugh at our stupidity and gullibility.
April 1, 2023
This obsession with a gas that comprises .045% of the Earths atmosphere is bordering on lunacy.
April 1, 2023
Bordering on lunacy? That’s because we have lunatics in charge…..and more waiting in the wings.
April 1, 2023
Especially as without it we all die!
April 1, 2023
And yet, and yet, CFCs which had an atmospheric concentration in the 200 to 500 ppb range in the 1990s (0.00002 to 0.00005%) had an impact on the stratospheric ozone. Isn’t that curious OA?
April 1, 2023
What an ignorant comment! Given that ozone makes up 0.00006% of the atmosphere, the concentration of CFCs was of exactly the same order of magnitude. So no, there was nothing “curious” or surprising about the affect that the latter had on the former. But when it comes to CO2 there is NO PROOF whatsoever that this is causing climatic change, and in addition there is NO PROOF whatsoever that man’s output of CO2 is having ANY effect. The man-made climate change scaremongering is just destroying the West and helping China to dominate the world.
April 2, 2023
I hope you realise that my comment was about the 0.045% concentration of CO2. The atmosphere has about 78% of N2, 21% of O2, and 0.9% of Argon, ie, gases with practically no effect on the atmosphere.
So all the ‘action’ comes from the less than 1% of H2O, CO2, O3, CH4, N2O, CFCs etc … the whole evaporation-condensation-precipitation with associated convection and cloudiness is linked to the very small amount of water vapour, and yet that’s what gives the weather.
Whether the concentrations of the various CFCs were of the same order of magnitude as that of ozone is beside the point. The point was that tiny amounts of relevant gases whether photochemically or radiatively active can have a huge effect not represented purely by what people say about their concentrations.
I had from your site the impression you were not half as x@#£& as some others on this site. I am now recalibrating my judgment.
April 2, 2023
HFCs are highly reactive and efficient scavengers of ozone. You might have made a better point if you had discussed the role of ozone in filtering out UV wavelengths.
April 1, 2023
And a gas that is actually vital for virtually all life on earth.
April 1, 2023
“The present international carbon accounting could have been designed for April 1st”.
Quite so. It is fortunate indeed that enough of the electorate can spot the clowns we have in the present government. Such a great pity that the Conservative party is no longer Conservative and is following net zero and other policies that are insane and will be rewarded with oblivion at the next election.
April 1, 2023
Yes , but the people who are favorite to win, are far worse???
April 1, 2023
Your last sentence sums it up. Nett Zero is a tax collecting scheme with infinite possibillities. Politicians and Scribes are running around looking for opportunities to expand them while making the people feel guilty.
ULEZ and its smaller town offspring are a classic example. Tax collection is paramount. Euro 6 diesels since 2015 and Euro4 petrol vehicles since 2006 are exempt. An intelligent government would create an attractive scrappage scheme to replace none compliant vehicles, which would remove the problem. I think they will just carry on taxing them until they die of natural causes and then they will move the goal posts to tax those currently exempt. They have to or where are they going to get the income stream they are already spending. Smug EV drivers are next in line, be of no doubt.
CO2 levies (tax) for its capture and encarceration are the next government scam. They have not as yet thought it through, which is why you can ask so many questions and get your delphic (bullshit) answers. You should cease asking questions of these oracles in suits and go for their jugulars in the HoC.
April 1, 2023
Afraid most Politicians the World over have lost the plot, some many years before others, they are now losing the very people who they are supposed to represent !
April 1, 2023
They say manmade CO2 creates climate change. Well just as a precaution, let’s see whether we can contribute something without wrecking our economy. Why can’t more people cycle to work as I do, denying the Treasury hundreds of pounds each year in lost fuel duty in the process? Good for the wallet and personal health. How about ending immigration so we can plant more trees instead of houses? How does chopping down a wood to make way for a residential development work for our carbon footprint? Better too to make things in the UK even if it does mean some burning of fossil fuels, rather than the same burning in another country on top of the shipping in one of those awful polluting freighters.
April 1, 2023
I think we gave up years ago expecting any honesty or realism on this subject. Totally in denial about cost, firstly not understanding or blind to it and then seemingly thinking we can all find up to the £50k and ignoring that a large percentage of our housing stock is unsuitable for what they are proposing.
Equally the pathetically small subsidy they are offering both at an individual level and overall how few houses can be done with it.
Grant Shapps ‘in charge’ says it all.
April 1, 2023
There’s a difference between carbon capture, carbon trading & carbon offsetting.
99% of co2 cannot be captured (ie cows flatulence, oceans etc) so our government is to spend £20bn on collecting that 1% co2 smoke from industry chimneys to liquefy and transport 1km below the sea ….we’re all going to be taxed to death due to rising sea levels that aren’t rising MADNESS
April 1, 2023
And in other news this government has managed to ruin the reputation and attractiveness of what was once the worlds financial capital as over regulation, high taxes and weak/no political leadership results in us slipping down the league tables.
My goodness we are poorly served by our politicians.
April 1, 2023
In the Spring Budget the Chancellor announced £20bn of government support for CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation & Storage) “to capture 20-30m tons of CO2 each year by 2030”.
So we’re going to spend £20bn (plus at least a doubling of energy costs as a result of the inefficiency of the process) – £700/income tax payer – to effectively reduce world global CO2 emissions by less than 0.1% (1/1000ths) per annum (IEA’s 2021 figure for CO2 emissions is 36bn tons – which will be much higher by 2030 as China, India et al continue to increase their annual consumption of coal).
Another of the many examples of why Net Zero is going to destroy our economy for no planet saving benefit whatsoever and I bet, like HS2, the current £4tn estimate for our unilateral Net Zero many have made, is an underestimate.
Net Zero is a chimera and the climate crisis/emergency is a religious cult being used by unscrupulous politicians and corporates to line their pockets and increase their power.
There is no climate emergency.
April 1, 2023
There is no climate emergency/crisis :
– Increasing CO2 greens the planet and increases food production.
– The climate has always changed and without any anthropological intervention. We currently have some benign warming of 0.13 degrees C/decade coming out of the Little Ice Age and, before that coming out of a full blown ice age just 11,000 years ago.
– Both CO2 and temperature are at historically very low levels since the start of the Cambrian explosion 500 million years ago and at these levels CO2 follows temperature as shown by the Antarctic Vostok Ice Core Data.
– There is no CO2 (anthropological or natural) explanation for the ice ages and the warming which occurs when they end, the most recent being just 11,000 years ago.
– Because of IR saturation (see the work of Wijngaarden & Happer) increasing levels of CO2 have an almost zero increasing warming effect.
– There is no empirical evidence for increasing weather events either numerically or in intensity and the planet has been warmer than today several times since the most recent ice age ended and long before the Industrial Revolution. The Arctic summers were not ice free by 2013 as predicted by the BBC (2007) or even by 2014 as predicted by Vice President, Al Gore (2009) and the Great Barrier Reef is in the best health ever since records began 36 years ago. Neither are the oceans “boiling” as claimed by Al Gore at the recent WEF/Davos meeting.
– “Climate action” is only number 13 in the UN’s list of “Sustainable Development Goals.
April 1, 2023
I think people should be free to follow whatever religion they choose, but when the Carbon Cultists try to push the costs of their mania onto everyone it is time to organise opposition.
April 1, 2023
Agree – Like any other religion; it should be kept out of politics
April 1, 2023
They’re pushing LGBTqyzmnplalala on us and more importantly on our children. Common sense has gone and Worstminster is full of village idiot’s.
April 1, 2023
It’s noy a load of hot air , it’s just another way to tax !.
April 1, 2023
Interesting to see the groupthink on display in today’s comments. My personal view is that CCS is an interesting export opportunity. There aren’t many other opportunities to sell a non-digital service to customers in developing world markets without having to ship a single thing. For sure, there is a lot of work to be done to remove nonsensical national accounting for carbon and to reach a global consensus on a carbon price, but with these in-place a commercial-scale CCS industry could be competitive selling credits to nations that can no longer afford to emit. Seems worth investing some capital now if only speculatively to be well-positioned if that future emerges.
April 1, 2023
A sterile debate Sir John as most private vs. public argument are. The plebs pay whatever, does it really matter if we pay via our taxes, or as end-user customers? One ‘solution’ takes from the left hand, the other takes from the right, but it’s all the same money, from the same bank account or wallet at the end of the day.
The real debate Sir John, one sorry to say you appear to shy away from, should be about why CCS & Net Zero is needed at all, whether CO2 is pollution [1] or a much needed natural plant food, a naturally forming gas essential to life, both plant and mammal.
[1] different to the debate about diesel NOx and particulate emissions
April 1, 2023
I read that the govt is planning to increase the amount the waste water companies can be fined for excessive or unnecessary raw-sewage discharges into rivers (and I assume the sea), so far so good, but the reports then suggest money from such fines would be used by govt to fund what are deemed essential conservation projects.
So does the govt want the water companies to stop discharging sewage or not, given they also appear to want to use those very same discharges as a cash-cow for their feel-good “Look at what we do for the environment” projects. I hope the media have it all wrong, otherwise the govt has just scored an own-goal from their own penalty spot, what is more their own goal keeper scored!
April 1, 2023
Interestingly this carbon is required for the new EU Synthetic fuel – all good it gets recycled.
The UK and the Minister concerned, going in the same direction of his dreams on HS2, wants the UK to go a different way. Going forward all petrol and diesel cars are to be rationed(even before the 2030 deadline) unless primarily the UK consumer adopts more imports of electric cars that ultimately keep the Chinese economy. So this Conservative Government (Its still a collective decision making entity), see trashing the UK economy, its industrial and manufacturing base the priority.
The UK is the only Country in the whole world that has joined the race to get to the bottom first. It is not about Net Zero, Global Warming or such like that the Government is engaged in, its the destruction of the UK. Why else would they give priority and encourage the Worlds Largest polluters above the livelihoods of the UK Citizen? This Conservative Government since Boris Johnson (it is still his team) has directly trashed the UK economy while increasing World CO2 production exponentially. Its a nightmare.
April 1, 2023
I am following the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO)
I am hoping it will turn into a new party
April 1, 2023
It is cheap money which allows such foolish notions. The money is cheap because the Government has commandeered it. A Government’s inevitable mismanagement of money, through central planning, pro-cyclical policies, and election-time bribes, often causes the Government’s downfall and in time the money’s.
Money is at the base of society. Its influence runs far. Cheap money encourages reward today, debt tomorrow. The peoples’ time preference is shortened. This makes them soft. The gap between what they have and want shifts from ambition to entitlement. The gap is closed by either personal debt or socialised debt through the state. Both possible because money is too cheap. In contrast, those who put off short-term reward are cheated by subsidised competition and inflation.
The debt becomes too large to ever pay. Those at the top can readily delude themselves in justifying their actions as helping others. ’This set of people will suffer without another round of QE.’ Maintaining confidence is key. Confidence goes ‘gradually, then suddenly’, as Hemingway wrote of bankruptcy.
April 1, 2023
This is the largest green cult folly to date.
CO2 is a very diluted part of the atmosphere, just 420 PPM, while capture technology is undeveloped for any meaningful deployment. I estimate that the government will waste billions on this hare brain nonsense to try and remove the excess produced by China, India and the rest.
All this is is just adding to the costs of living, causing some justified remuneration demands and increasing inflation, we are going the wrong way.
Quo Vadis Rishi?
April 1, 2023
Well said, and indeed:
The whole net-zero / climate change agenda is a very sad joke in fact, based on a complete lack of conclusive science….. It really does show how easily people are willing to be brainwashed for the pleasure of having something to believe in…
….but I suppose a fantasy is better than nothing for some.
April 1, 2023
I’ll never understand why so many world leaders appear to have been persuaded that Carbon and CO2 are the villains in the Climate Change ‘scare’ saga.
Where is their independently peer reviewed scientific evidence to prove this? Has it been reviewed and accepted by an evidence based science group similar to the one we have in Oxford for medicines?
And why must we, little Britain, be at the forefront to cut our Carbon emissions to zero? LOL. We are “guilty” of producing a mere fraction of one per cent of the Global totals yet spend (aka waste) £Billions of taxpayers money trying to cut it further.
So why are we being punished economically when China emits 29.18%, USA 14.02%, India 7.09%, Russia 4.65%, Japan 3.47%, Germany 2.17%, Canada 1.89%, Iran 1.8%, S Korea 1.69% and Indonesia 1.48% – the top ten in 2016. The UK comes in a number 17 for Global totals and number 59 in the ‘per capita’ league table. The latter is sometimes used to excuse the enormous output from China and reason for us to do more!
We know that both China and India, in the top three of offenders, are building new carbon emitting coal-fired powered power stations on a weekly basis and that Germany has recently opened some of theirs to cope with the loss of natural gas supplies from Russia. So anything we “save” will be gobbled up by those in the Far East and Germany’s increased output.
I have to ask, “Why are we breaking a backs and our bank accounts attempting to save the world when it is a pie in the sky dream”?
If we need a new definition of ‘insanity’ – this is it!
If this pseudo-Tory really wishes to get re-elected they must shelve the zero carbon target and then stop HS2 in its tracks, just for starters. They really are out of touch with the electorate these days.
April 1, 2023
What about reading the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences and/or Journal of Climate, or the American Geophysical Union’s Journal of Geophysical Research -Atmospheres or -Oceans or -Biogeosciences or -Earth Surface or Water Resources Research. Possibly the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan.
What about the Swedish Tellus: its series A has papers on Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography, its series B papers on Chemical and Physical Meteorology.
Maybe closer to home, the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
All those only contain peer-reviewed papers.
Obviously you do not know that these journals exist, fair enough, but do you really think that because you don’t know it means that there are no ‘independently peer-reviewed scientific’ papers about the evidence.
That looks to me like a very myopic view on life: There is a whole world outside your ‘ivory (cough, cough) tower’.
April 2, 2023
No matter what you believe, do you think it prudent of OUR Government to go “All-in” to save a meagre portion of the Global total? Especially when the worlds worst offenders are doing absolutely nothing to cut their own?
They must see OUR country as one which has lost more than its marbles and now despise us for being so stupid. We are seen as weak and totally ineffective and, as we are the ‘number two’, that is dangerous because it reflects on the military importance of NATO as a maintainer of world peace.
April 2, 2023
I forgot to ask, “Who peer reviewed the findings of these with vested interests in maintaining AGW $B Funding each year”? If so named, were they totally “Independent”?
April 7, 2023
You seem to have a very strange view of how these things work. Scientific papers (whether related to medicine, economics, environment, sociology, …) are peer-reviewed by other (usually mature) scientists. Practically no funding directly involves working scientists.
The scientists develop proposals, a justification of why such a research should be done, with its objectives, practical steps towards those, potential benefits, and costs (in staff, laboratory facilities, computer facilities, publication costs, …). These proposals whose number is generally some orders of magnitude bigger than the number likely to be funded are then reviewed by various different ‘committees’ concentrating on the ‘science’, on the cost, on personnel, on hardware, … and it is expected than the proposals going through this whole process are the best, considering the various criteria they have been judged against. In that respect it is not very different from how a proposal for developing a new product would be judged by the board of executives in a private company.
In the US most funding for environmental research comes from the National Science Foundation, NASA, NOAA, … with the original money voted by the politicians. In most other countries included the UK, the 27 individual countries of the EU or the EU itself, the process is very similar.
So now, does that fill your ‘independence’ criterion? Is Richard Lindzen more independent than other atmospheric scientists because he is retired, rather right-wing, has a history of brilliant ideas, which after checking by other scientists and against observations have been shown at best only partially true? Is being a member of the GWPF a proof of his ‘independence’ or a proof of him now being considered a spent force in research?
‘That is the question’.
April 1, 2023
Peter Mandelson: ‘I’ve yet to meet a Tory who says they are going to win’. Telegraph.
Is this what all this diversion is about, putting through schemes and plans that it is known Tory voters don’t support so that your government takes a break in opposition. Time up, all change sides of the room. Labour need to win back their Scottish seats so they don’t get accused of the SNP tail wagging the Labour dog, so suddenly Queen Nic gets dumped (all very strange). Boris gets stabbed in the back to the gain of two very wealthy men in their own rights who have nothing to lose personally by starting the punishing taxes on business that Labour are promising with nobs on. I’ve heard of people rushing to sell up now or simply closing down.
Labour will be stitching up the elderly, inheritance allowance reductions, property tax increases, garden taxes, they don’t have to pay them as much attention ⚠️ their votes are predominantly in the younger unsuspecting graduate class they have indoctrinated through university.
I think climate is just a diversion to get extra taxes whilst the most wealthy just carry on irregardless as they can buy their way out of limits and restrictions and the roads free up for just them and their families. British people just plod on muttering under their breath about ULEZ and gas prices, and fuel prices, and road tolls, none too smart motorways who say there are obstructions when there are none and have everyone doing 40mph or 50 mph for miles on near empty motorways for no good reason other than to fine and tax. The M6 at Crewe has had a lane cordoned off for over a month for no good reason with restricted speeds, nothing happening, no need for it and people just go along muttering this isn’t right. We Brits are on our knees, taking all this 💩 swirling around in the name of climate disaster whilst the biggest mouth pieces for change jet off and take multiple warm holidays per year leaving us in the cold.
April 1, 2023
By the way John great new word for me to use ‘delphicly’.
April 1, 2023
What has Rishi achieve, maybe a type of financial stability that the establishment like, but at a cost of rabid and in the case of food, predatory inflation. Couple this with being just about the highest taxed population in Europe inclines me to ask if we are getting value for money, to which I answer a resounding no. Rishi may reach for acclaim for the Pacific rim trade agreement. Think again, it took two years to achieve and on inspection you will find Liz Truss’s fingerprints all over it. Finally assess the comment to this diary submission. SJR you belong and show your loyalty with dissent to a conservative party that has abandoned its support and philosophy. Ever windvane Starmer has a problem finding anything real he disagrees with. I think the time is coming when you must ask yourself whether party or country take precedence. I remain a Conservative, but I do not see myself voting conservative ever again.
April 1, 2023
When will the government issue face masks to absorb the carbon dioxide we breathe out?
April 1, 2023
“The government is pressing ahead with alchemy projects…the Minister delphically said they will “socialise” the costs.”
Adjusted for April Fool’s Day. However, “carbon” capture & storage and alchemy are in practice interchangeable, and the taxpayer will get it in the neck regardless, with no tangible net benefit to quality of life.
April 1, 2023
The Government now claims if we put both feet in two buckets we can pull their handles and levitate to the shops/work without burning any fossil fuels!
April 1, 2023
Apologies for this longer than normal post.
Whether or not you believe in the climate emergency, almost all of our politicians have grasped it eagerly with both hands. Very few from any party are not signed-up converts to this new religion.
Fortunately, a very large proportion of the population ( ie voters), are looking on with growing alarm at what we are being told we have to do without being given any idea of the likely outcome or the enormous cost.
Every aspect of the Net Zero religion is going to destroy at least one greatly-loved pastime, hobby or lifestyle, and cost us a small fortune with it.
Whether it is simply having a warm home at an affordable cost, or foreign holidays, travel, cars, boats, caravan holidays, and pretty well everything else besides, these are going to come to an end or become impossibly expensive for most of us, and far sooner than one would expect !
I predict that this will all end in tears. Blair and Major had to back down on fuel duty escalators for fear of public protest and this is going to be MUCH worse because it is being piled upon us from all directions at once and almost nobody in parliament is listening. There will be therefore a public backlash which will lead to French-type protests arriving here before the end of the decade.
The first political party to recognise this and back off will win an election, not, maybe in 2024, but before the end of the decade. Given that the Conservatives have not followed the German-led EU in realising that the end of the IC-powered car cannot be achieved by 2030, the chances are not looking good for the party, are they ?
The opposition parties in parliament are even more determined to accelerate the changes a great deal faster, so the votes will have to go somewhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that a certain Nigel Farage and Richard Tice are going to be right there when they are most needed.
How will the protests start ?
When the government’s 2025 targets for electric car sales are not realised, they will find they cannot fine the manufacturers £15,000 per car, just because the customers will not buy their impractical and overpriced products. The automatic reaction will then be to attempt to force voters to buy them by greatly increasing fuel duty on petrol and diesel, and charging much higher road tax on IC-engined cars which, they should be reminded, will be owned and run by almost all of us.
That will be the trigger for protests like we have not seen in the UK before.
After all, these days, almost every one of us has a couple of Gilets Jaunes in the boot of our car.
I for one will be joining the barricades for the first time in my 71 years.
April 1, 2023
Good post Chris. I agree. There is only so much the public can stomach and I’ll be right beside you on the protest rally. The public are slowly waking up to the fact we will be poor, cold and have nothing to look forward to while the wealthy carry on as before. I don’t notice any of them curtailing holidays or hobbies. This whole net zero rub ish is affecting the poorer in society the most and by poorer I don’t mean those on benefits. They will be cushioned as usual. I mean the workers of this country. It’s not good enough and were mighty sick of it all.
April 2, 2023
Well done FUS !
I would dearly like to know our host’ attitude to the points I have raised. Would he, for example, vote against and join a campaign against the imposition of higher fuel duties which, I fear, is the only way forward for a government determined to get its way imposing EVs, Heat Pumps and banning us continuing to use gas boilers?
April 1, 2023
What are we talking about here when we have just joined the COTPP a club that is so diverse and geographically scattered throughout the World and what about the extra carbon footprint and other gaseous noxious substances emissions that are going to be thrown up by shipping with that endeavour. So we are going to join z trading bloc whose centure lies somewhere in mid pacific – great. The Kemi’s are truly in charge now – more Kwasi economics.
April 1, 2023
Surely the time has come to challenge the Government on the scientific basis for the threat of catastrophic global warming. Mr. Shapps should be asked whether he accepts the fact that the DIRECT effect of an increase in atmospheric CO2 from the current level would only result in a modest increase in global temperatures, and that the alarmists predictions are based on HYPOTHETICAL major net positive feedback from water vapour, vastly amplifying CO2’s small direct effect. Once he has answered that question we will know how to take the debate forward.
I recently wrote to the Committee on Climate Change asking for their comments on a paper by Happer and Lindzen published by the CO2 Coalition. They replied that it was not peer reviewed and was published in a journal with considerable ties to oil and gas energy corporations, and therefore could not be considered a reliable unbiased source of information. The Happer/Lindzen paper also warns that implementing ‘NET ZERO’ will mean the elimination of fossil fuel-derived fertilizers and pesticides.
It appears that the completely mad net zero policies are only being implemented in Western Democracies. The Authoritarian States can’t believe their luck.
We only achieved Brexit because the people were allowed a say.
We urgently need a referendum on NET ZERO
Reply A public debate followed by a vote would be a good idea. I will continue to query the carbon accounting and the UK policies which lead us to damage and run down our own industries and energy output only to import it from abroad. This is very bad for UK jobs and incomes whilst not saving the world any CO 2 This should be an easy argument to win,
.
April 2, 2023
I have yet to see anything from the Climate Change Committee of a standard that would pass a proper peer review. I read all the supporting papers to the Sixth Carbon Budget Review and found them wanting, full of imaginary assumptions, and no basis for imposing policy. Their most recent efforts continue in the same vein.
April 1, 2023
This is all about the CCC plans for hydrogen production. Steam reformation of methane produces about 6 tons of CO2 to 1 ton of hydrogen. This costs half as much as green hydrogen by electrolysis and of course the gas companies, who contributed to the CCC plan get to supply more gas and then get paid for bunging it back in old gas fields. £20bn for starters. The plan to run industry transport and heating on hydrogen depends on mass reformation. It will result in very large cost increases and wreck the economy.
April 1, 2023
You only need solutions to identified problems …climate change and the resultant net-zero is a scam, the science is not settled, scientific voices are being silenced
April 2, 2023
The real cost and even size of hydrogen ambitions is clouded in mystery. If we ignore the investment subsidy and dedicated pipeline network being proposed, and assume that the 10GW target for green hydrogen refers to input energy consumption, which will need a £100/MWh subsidy to compete with SMR, it will absorb £1m an hour or almost £9bn p.a. in subsidy to produce about 5% of our gas consumption. This is hidden away in fluffy talk about new market mechanisms.
April 1, 2023
The lesson to be learned for CAGW/NZ from the Covid pandemic is to not believe ludicrously exaggerated modelling by communist academics, especially those seemingly unconcerned by their own dire predictions, not to go along with ridiculous behaviour changes suggested by a communist behavioural psychologist professor and to not be terrorised every evening by propaganda from the communist state broadcaster who’s been instructed to “frighten the pants off them” with science determined by politics.
April 1, 2023
“Overall the UK government needs to review just how much extra cost it is imposing through windfall taxes, carbon taxes and now these carbon capture schemes.”
It used to be a joke that if the government could tax breathing they would. Well, a carbon tax is precisely that, because it is impossible to live without creating CO2.
April 1, 2023
Referendum NOW!
April 1, 2023
Gets my vote …so long as they honour the result
April 1, 2023
How about some Illegal Immigrant capture and repatriation.
April 1, 2023
UK was more vulnerable to gas price hikes than, say, Germany because we had dispensed with our natural gas storage. If using CCS technology, HMG has found space to securely hold vast quantities of CO2, then cannot that space be more usefully employed to store natural gas for the winter?
April 2, 2023
I think you should look at what has happened to German gas prices now they no longer have access to cheap Russian gas. Their prices have risen far more than ours.
April 1, 2023
“An evil enemy will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes” Sun Tzu
Sounds a bit like our own government with its policy of net-zero
April 1, 2023
O/T: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk ‘Civil Service Statistics as at 31 March 2022’
The 2021 version is also available.
Full of interesting information.
April 1, 2023
Carbon capture . Another big “con” along with 9/11, 7/7 and the PLAN-demic.