Governments and all the UK parties in Parliament want to cut UK CO 2 output. I have been arguing against some the damaging self defeating policies they propose to do this. Stopping UK gas and oil extraction in order to import oil and gas increases world CO 2 as well as cutting our jobs and tax revenues. So does stopping food growing here so we import more. Blocking roads and deliberately creating traffic congestion boosts CO 2 from delayed vehicles. Today I will give my top picks on popular policiesĀ Ministers could follow to cut UK CO 2.
1. Reduce legal and illegal migration. Every extra person has a carbon footprint, and needs a Ā home and public service provision that also generate CO 2
2. Tell the public sector to substitute on line meetings for foreign travel to international meetings in most cases.
3. Install solar panels on most public sector roofs
4. Replace public sector gas central heating systems with heat pumps to create a market for them, which should then drive down prices and improve effectiveness of these unpopular products.
5. Step up bypass and better junction construction on roads to improve average fuel economy on journeys and remove more traffic from congested urban areas
6. Cancel work beyond current firm commitments on Ā HS2. It is very carbon intensive.
April 3, 2023
Good morning.
I see where you are coming from, Sir John but we all here know that it has nothing to do with saving the environment or cutting any a greenhouse gases. It is a money making scam with a dystopian social dimension added on.
As now everyone seems to be commenting, the nation is being deliberately run into the ground. This, as mentioned by others, seems to be part of the, ‘Build Back Better’ & ‘Levelling Up’ campaign. A UN and WEF / Chinese policy designed to get the West to destroy itself.
The best and nicest way to store carbon is to plant more trees. We don’t need new technology, just common sense.
April 3, 2023
We’ve already planted more trees. UK has more forested area now than we had 100 years ago. Same is true for many other regions of the world. An unfortunate fact the gloomsters ignore.
April 3, 2023
Yes, and in that 100 years we have gone from almost no-one owning a car to most people owning one. And from no-one having central heating to almost everyone having it. Every field could have trees planted around the perimeter next to the hedges – without affecting agriculture at all. And volunteers would do the work. It just takes someone in government to direct local councils to create a plan and implement it. I know that where I live if the councils called for volunteers to grow saplings at home and liaise with the local farmers to plant them, the council would be inundated with old farts like me keen to clear up some of the (carbon) mess we make.
April 3, 2023
I doubt that gas central heating produces as much pollution as a coal-fired back boiler. Remember the London smog.
April 3, 2023
If you really want to cut down CO2 (a daft policy anyway) then you should chop down all the old tree and forests (bury or use the wood to build) and plant new & growing trees. Mature fully grown trees do not absorb much or indeed any net CO2 only still growing trees do really. The decaying wood and leaves gives of CO2 & methane to what is absorbed in a mature forest.
But this would be rightly very unpopular with the green loons and (ancient forests lovers like myself). Consistency and a grasp of science is not a strong points with the greens.
April 3, 2023
…and the BEIS report that UK air is cleaner than the 1970s
April 3, 2023
+many
Strangely āthey ā seem uber keen on cutting down trees!
Heat pumps and Zoom only for Ministers!
April 3, 2023
‘heat pumps’ …sweat jesus what have we done to be inflected by such machines
April 3, 2023
Akin to cranking over a bicycle dynamo in the 70s ā¦max effect little reward
April 3, 2023
Absolutely!
Useless like the EVs and probably planned to be useless too! ( freeze us to death).
And I bet this alarm on St Georgeās Day is a global diktat.
( to do with ābird fluā and keeping us out of countryside and coming for all animals/pets/wild ones?) Naughty old conspiracy theory!šµāš«
Have disabled phone alarm ā¦hope that works.
If not I will crush phone underfoot and never get another!
April 3, 2023
+ 1
It is about money, power and control. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the environment.
April 3, 2023
Indeed but 1. a little more CO2 on balance is a good thing anyway.
2. The things being pushed by this dire Gov. (to save CO2) wind, solar, EVs, public transport, heat pumps, walking, cycling… do not really save much or often any sig. CO2 anyway, This when you consider all the backup and construction/ maintenance storage etc, needed. Burning imported wood at Drax and EV cars certainly increase CO2 when properly accounted for and is environmentally very damaging. As does exporting all our heavy industries.
3. World cooperation will not happen anyway China, Russia, Brazil, Africa…so get real.
4. The cost of putting solar cells on roofs and maintaining them rarely makes sense in cloudy, northern UK – especially at you get most of the electricity around midday in summer when least needed in the UK.
In short CO2 is not a problem it is plant, crop, tree and seaweed food, is vital for life and a net positive, the things the government push to save CO2 do not really save any anyway and finally world cooperation ain’t going to happen. So can we get MPs and the political parties to learn a bit of science, grow up and get real please?
April 3, 2023
Here’s a headline to Google, I won’t add the link so save our host time. Aussie newspaper.
“China Ramps Up Australian Coal Imports As Economy Rebounds”
April 3, 2023
Agree
April 3, 2023
@Mark B +1
And the Conservative Government are the disciples and servants of those that wish to hasten the end of the UK. They have done more damage to the UK just this year, than was done in the previous 3 years ā and that is really saying something.
April 3, 2023
Maybe we could start by not chopping down the 20million+ trees/year in the US having them sent to us just to burn in Drax.
April 3, 2023
Points 1&2 are glaringly obvious as a first line of defence from the deadly CO 2. However, point 1 in particular is something all parties will not do, so it just deepens my suspicion that CO2 is a smoke screen.
April 3, 2023
Point 1 is just an indicator of the real issue facing the planet. There are too many humans on it.
All the talk of net zero and having to stop carbon emmissions to save the world miss this point. Do you think the activists will shut up if we magically achieve carbon neutrality? Focus will then move to biodiversity, pollution, water usage, mineral usage, equality…
Why not try and solve the real problem? How to reduce the population from near 8 billion back down to early 20th century levels?
April 3, 2023
Agreed
April 3, 2023
PeteB
The way Russia, China, Iran are all being best friends and China getting more involved in South America and it covert acquisition of so many UK companies and properties across the free world the problem is slowly moving towards being solved in the most catastrophic manner.
April 3, 2023
Once upon a time (before all this CO 2 malarkey and the resulting waste of our money) it was hoped that, by supporting the education and training of women in the developing world, these women would then be able to invest their new skills in their local community, instead of their continuing to believe that they had to punch out as many future little earners as possible. What happened to that?
April 3, 2023
Well, John’s dictatorial approach to the public sector – a large part of which is local authorities – suggests far more centralisation of power away from communities and to Westminster, of what little is left after the ravages of previous Tory rule, that is.
April 3, 2023
Irrelevant.
April 3, 2023
Yes, local democracy is absolutely irrelevant to would-be right wing authoritarians.
April 3, 2023
Yes, clearly a fabrication in order to introduce more social controls. Covid was a trial, ‘how far will the sheeple let us manage their pathetic little lives?’
Well, the next dystopian scare is no doubt being planned. Watch this space.
April 3, 2023
Public sector central heating systems.
It is not just a case of boiler out heat pump in.
The enable a new HP system to operate very efficiently the properties have to highly insulated, existing radiator system able to perform at lower flow temperature, the existing pipework has to suitably sized to accommodate the higher water content and the property he to have enough physical space to accommodate the mains pressure high capacity storage cylinder and buffer tanks. In a word ###### expensive.
Who pays the public sector? We do through the government and community charges. My council has not the resources to lift litter, paint white lines on our roads. 82% of our money goes on social services.
Reply Strange accounting. Left out schools budgets and capital budgets I suspect.
April 3, 2023
Reply to reply
That was the figure quoted at a meeting with our local councillors try to get our street lights and bus service reinstated.
No breakdown just a request to try and appreciate the difficult decisions they are having to make.
April 3, 2023
I donāt care if the public sector property is warm! I just care that they have no gas and rely on specifically air-sourced-heat-pumps paid for from existing resources. Letās toughen them up! Letās see how long it takes before they start screaming about the new ice age!
Electric scooters and cars exclusively – ban all internal combustion engines from public ownership. If the battery dies – they can catch a bus.
Definitely NO AIR TRAVEL! Itās at these little meeting that they bond into a āWorld-Leader Groupā to oppose the majority.
A matter of years ago all MPs were shown respect and some warranted deference. All were safe walking among the general population. MPs and Ministers need to have NO SECURITY so that they legislate accordingly and can once again walk among us.
Macron has ban the filming of running battles on the streets of France. Provoking the people is a very dangerous game.
April 3, 2023
All that nonsense for a scam Lynn!
Oh!dearie me.
April 3, 2023
Lifting litter should be done by community service workers. Too many people get away with not repaying their local communities for their local crimes. It would be good to have a local register (without names of the CSW) to say what hours we have received in our local area and what they have done each week.
1. Pick up all litter from verges
2. Cut back grass overgrowing pavements
3. Pull out grass growing in road edges
4. Washing windows on empty local properties
5. sweeping up leaves, cuttings and debris
6. Tidying local parks and beauty areas and using waste pickers to pick up all the plastic bags of dog poop that people seem to think it is ok to hand from branches of verges.
7. Collect all dumped items from roadsides (often ironically near the local tip!)
8. In the school holidays – picking up all litter – debris – fixing fences, repainting fences.
Does anyone know what they actually are doing?
April 3, 2023
While I agree those in the ECHRs might not
April 3, 2023
Gov.uk says āYou may get a community sentence if you’re convicted of a crime by a court but are not sent to prison. You may have to do unpaid work in your local community,ā
The goal is to change the offender’s attitude and behaviour, in a bid to stop them reoffending. Unpaid work. Unpaid work can range from 40-300 hours, …
What is this work they are supposedly doing? I read all the time in the paper such and such stole Ā£100,000 and got 300 hours community service – doing what? Where?
April 3, 2023
John
We appreciate your efforts but why do you persist with the naive assumption that all that we are seeing today is driven by humanitarian or environmental considerations when we all know it is all about the State weaponising every issue to assert direct control over what we say, what we do and how we spend our money?
What we are seeing is collectivism without violent revolution
I can’t speak for other nations but in the UK if you vote or belong to Labour, Tory, SNP or LD then you’re culpable for the rise of Socialism that has now taken a grip over our world
People are literally voting themselves into servitude because people are naive, impressionable and far too trusting.
John should be encouraging voters NOT to vote Tory
April 3, 2023
Sometimes the only way to change a governments fixation with a bad policy is to get rid of the government. The rise of the Reform Party is a warning.
April 3, 2023
Cynic,
Warning to some but a blessing to the majority.
April 3, 2023
+1
April 3, 2023
Do you want Labour-led coalitions instead, Dom?
What do you think they will do any different if not worse?
April 3, 2023
Number 1 is the most cost effective and quickly makes the biggest impact of CO2 foot prints and government, social services.
Too many of our nation live in sub standard conditions already, don’t keep adding to the numbers. Sort them out before bringing any more in.
April 3, 2023
With respect John we really don’t need suggestion number 4. The majority of us are more than happy with the heating systems we have. I do not want to unnecessarily have to spend vast sums of money to rip my home apart to have an inefficient monstrosity in my garden making such a din it would drive me insane. Just leave us alone.
Reply Itās about government systems, not yours and mine!
April 3, 2023
It make little sense to switch to heat pumps in old buildings even in new ones it iquestionable & marginal. This as heat pumps use electricity which costs fare more than gas anyway. We have no spare low carbon electricity anyway and the grid would need considerable extra capacity to cope. This especially in government building as they nearly always spend money so inefficiently they would probably end up paying perhaps 10 times any value they received.
Best to halve the number in the state sector as most do so little of any value anyway. Perhaps put new state sector building next to gas power stations or visa versa and use the waste heat to heat the buildings. Combined heat and power usually makes far more sense than heat pumps.
April 3, 2023
Perhaps but we all know government want us all to have a heat pump. New oil boilers to be banned from2026. people in rural areas are mostly on oil as we do not have gas. Mine works extremely well thank you.
April 3, 2023
Reply to reply
That is where the problem lies
Too arrogant to hold their hands up and admit they are wrong.
Ever since the Climate Change Act the people have been railroaded into a situation bought about by fear, dodgy computer models, incompetence and ignorance. Nobody has ever listened to the likes of you who have shouted “stop let’s have a real open and honest debate” They have blown their whistles and have to go over the top and for what?
April 3, 2023
We are already training up heating engineers in Germany because that is the country that is ahead of building all these smaller home heat systems. Its all about keeping the money-spinning around in the right areas.
April 3, 2023
”Just leave us alone” Spot On FedUpSouthener
April 3, 2023
Right to Reply
Our government systems should be a reflection of the voting majorities wishes and wants ā¦no the other way round
April 3, 2023
UK could do worse than follow the EU’s example of since 2017 or earlier identifying the critical minerals required for transition to Green Energy, identifying their sources and developing a strategy for accessing them that also reduces dependency on China. Ukraine, with its massive reserves of lithium and rare earths valued at up to US$12 trillion, oil and gas is central to the EU’s strategy. Russia’s invasion gave the EU, headed by Germany, the opportunity to shift from access in exchange for financial support to control via EU membership. Together they wasted no time. Within 3 days of Russia’s invasion, on 27 February 2022 Germany reversed its policy of not supplying arms, the EU massively increased financial support – including for arms supply – in exchange for Zelensky handing over the future governance and sovereignty of Ukraine to the EU.
These resources will remain untouched by the destruction above ground and will be devloped and processed at enormous profit by EU industry financed by post-war international aid.
This is not an argument for rejoining the EU to gain UK’s share of the bonanza, although I am sure that when such exploitation by this Faustian deal becomes repectable it will be used as such. It is an argument for the UK to look to countries like Australia which is rich not only in these resources but also in uranium. CPTPP is a splendid opportunity for some strategic thinking in UK – rare as that seems to be these days.
April 3, 2023
I’d like all “governments and all UK parties in government” to dramatically escalate their anti-CO2 drive, starting about 9-12 months before the next election. Ā£200 carbon surcharge for air travel, quadrupling of petrol tax etc. Then all run on a promise of more such measures to follow.
That would give enough time for a genuine opposition to get organised, get elected and stop this madness.
April 3, 2023
If they were remotely serious about CO2 they would ban private jets & helicopters and only allow economy flights on fairly full aircraft. But as we see Rishi Sunak took private jet trips costing almost Ā£500,000 in just over a week last year and then we have his North Yorkshire swimming pool needed a new grid supply for heating it. How many old people could be kept a bit warmer using Ā£500K?
So we know that he thinks CO2 concerns is something only for other little people to worry about & not himself.
April 3, 2023
People would just take small journeys out of the UK and then take longer journeys elsewhere not applying the charges; then all the UK airports lose out. Some people do actually genuinely have to travel for their work (not me thankfully I hate travelling.)
April 3, 2023
Stop talking nonsense John
You know as well as anyone cutting g CO2 is a trojan horse for impoverishing the country.
The UN/WEF want the industrialised to countries to bankrupt themselves in favour of the BRIC countries
Germany and Poland plus a few others are waking up to this ginormous scam.
They’ll be trouble ahead.
April 3, 2023
This last week or so in the MSM it appears they are waking up to the catastrophe ahead.
The government complaining of too few rental properties whilst The odious little Gove carries on with his programme of destruction.
Various stories about nor being able to get a mortgage unless your property is Gove compliant
The nationalisation of the countries housing stock in line with agenda 30.
I do think the wheels are getting very loose on the governments bandwagon and it’d only a matter of time before the peasants revolt.
April 3, 2023
+1
April 3, 2023
Agree
April 3, 2023
Sir John in your position you have to try and cover the angles but all the time that China, India, USA continue to pour tons of CO2 into the atmosphere what is this really all about?
Government policies for NZ are slowly strangling the life out of the critical mass of people in this country.
Just because of this addiction with our government and 88% of our politicians that this country has to be in the lead no matter what the cost.
April 3, 2023
You forgot about the other countries and continents that arenāt interested in reducing co2 emissions ā¦they take the money and vote with the UN, but do nothing ā Africa, South America. Middle-East, Asia and Russia
April 3, 2023
The whole demonisation of carbon on which human life is based and particularly carbon dioxide, without which there would be no life on earth as we know it is part of an elaborate scam to enrich further the already wealthy minority at the expense of the majority and exercise more control over the majority to the benefit of that same minority. We are told that we must have ‘net zero’ in order to prevent the earth’s temperature from rising by 1.5 degrees. Does anyone really believe that politicians or any one else are capable of controlling the earth’s temperature? When are politicians going to stand up and represent their constituents or do they see themselves as likely beneficiaries of this process?
April 3, 2023
+1
April 3, 2023
That 1.5 degree trigger is to stop the oceans rising, trigging the collapse of the world ā¦.but that target trigger will change again in 10 years
April 3, 2023
I see that Grant Shapps wants to waste Ā£20 bn, over the next decade, on ‘carbon capture schemes’. That’s enough money to buy about ten SMRs. I can guess what will happen next: the government will seek FOREIGN investors – probably in the intolerant Gulf – to finance the SMR programme, so that every time we switch on a light more money will flow out of this country.
April 3, 2023
+1
From Wiki – Grant Shapps was educated at Yorke Mead Primary School, Watford Grammar School for Boys, where he achieved 5 ‘O’ Levels, and at Cassio College in Watford, where he studied business and finance. He subsequently completed a business and finance course at Manchester Poly. and received a Higher National Diploma.
So does our “Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero” have a physics or science O level? Or even a maths one? Does he have a clue about energy or electricity supplies?
April 3, 2023
Yes, Mr Shapps – a true NZ ‘believer’.
He was asked on TV the other morning whether he was following his own advice. “Why Yes – I’ve driven an electric car for ages and have had solar panels for a long time” And what about a Heat Pump? “I’ve got a surveyor coming next week to see if my house is suitable for one, not all properties are”.
Well Mr Shapps, I don’t need an expert to tell me that mine isn’t and nor are many others. In fact over half the UKs existing housing stock will never be suitable, unless you pull them down and completely rebuild them. And for those that can use them, there will likely be a very significant cost involved in not just the installing the heat pump but in also installing extra insulation and probably re-plumbing the house. So get real Mr Shapps – it’s going to take (at a minimum) many decades to improve our housing stock and we need affordable heating solutions during that time.
April 3, 2023
Sea_Warrior :
You are absolutely correct. Ten SMRs could have been purchased for the Ā£20bn uneconomic CCUS scheme which will save the planet from 0.1% of global CO2 emissions.
But I expect our energy policy makers are looking for SMRs which are :
– Not British
– Expensive
– Unlikely to work
– Using a nuclear fuel we cannot produce ourselves
As they have very much done already by purchasing the only new nuclear plant since 1988, Hinkley Point C, the duff French technology of EPR, expensively financed by the Chinese.
To make sure they can continue with the wind turbine scam and destroy our economy.
April 3, 2023
Shapps – the man who thinks smart motorways are safe.
April 3, 2023
SW
What makes it even worse is that this foolish government is to look overseas to find the cheapest foreign version of SMR, allowing the advanced technology within Rolls Royce to disappear and THEN fund it with foreign investors. Still at least we will be given the opportunity to pay for it all!!
April 3, 2023
Excellent suggestions, except that none of it is really to combat anthropogenic climate change.
CO2 is instead the weapon to keep the people terrified now that Covid19 is receding into the background. The enemy that must be feared and controlled because it will kill us all! The excuse to cancel freedom of movement, speech, association and even thought. The excuse to cancel human liberty.
Total nonsense of course, it is a minor trace gas that is at a historic low. We need more CO2.
4. We have new council house down the street from us and the heat pumps do not work very well. Now the residents are to be put up in hotels while they ‘fix’ them. Never mind, council tax payers will pick up the bill. Heat pumps are rubish.
April 3, 2023
Teachers are certainly terrifying the life out of our children with all this stuff and therefore future generations will believe it all, no sceptics such as we have now. Job done.
April 3, 2023
Not this week they’re not ….they’re all on holiday again for two weeks for Easter, the lucky blighters
April 3, 2023
Regrettably, it seems to me you could retitle your list to ‘Popular policies Ministers will not follow to cut UK CO 2’.
April 3, 2023
Less pollution should be the target not less CO2
But as all parties are in thrall to this cult your point seven above should be to reform carbon accounting to show the actual CO2 generated by activities and existence in the UK not created within the UK. That way we will look for efficiencies not outsourcing.
April 3, 2023
Absolutely NS – if we are going to be constantly hit with NZ policies, then they should be based on true C02 ‘consumption’ numbers. Those EVs and iPhones imported from China all have a carbon footprint. So do those pellets imported from the US to burn at Drax. All these new Wind Turbines have them too (Blades made in UK, all the generator & mechanical parts made elsewhere and imported).
If we allow this false C02 accounting to continue, it will continue to distort UK policy and decision making. I’m not a great believer in the whole Climate Change argument but the Net Zero scam is doing real damage to UK and we should work to expose the fundamental deceit that it’s based on before it does any more harm.
April 3, 2023
My council canāt even clean the streets, have stopped weeding and cutting back hedgerows and you need a rite from the almighty to get your āplasticā wheelie bin emptied
April 3, 2023
Narrow Shoulders
Hold your hand out for a good slapping and repeat after me. I must stop applying common sense to my thinking. Less pollution and waste it is everywhere you look.
Very well put pal
April 3, 2023
Are passport workers striking part of the anti carbon brigade?
Where will they be picketing over the next five weeks – outside their own front doors?
Has their reduced commuting costs been factored into any pay settlement they are asking for or have they conveniently forgotten those savings?
April 3, 2023
Of course, they’ve forgotten those savings; this government will just cave into them in a few week’s time when bad headlines about people not getting their passports in time for the holiday season (a timely strike when they’ve been so quiet all winter!).
Please John tell your government just to agree the increase quickly and give in sooner because we seem to take all the pain and get no gain plus a backlog to overcome again. Unless you can show where you haven’t caved in.
April 4, 2023
You sound rather defeatist. Come on, canāt all these British people just stay in their British Isles? What about them going to the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Inner or Outer Hebrides if they really have to go to islands or going to the various spectacular places that Great Britain and Northern Ireland have.
Isnāt that the way to take back control, if anything making sure that the British pounds are spent in the UK instead of feeding the continentals or the USAmericans?
April 3, 2023
Prelude to ā15-minuteā cities
April 3, 2023
N S
Issuing and renewing passports with the books being made in a foreign country. Another security issue.
April 3, 2023
“Governments and all the UK parties in Parliament want to cut UK CO 2 output.”
Solution – vote them all out as the majority of the people know that Net Zero is bonkers.
Implementing your list is utterly pointless as CO2 isn’t the problem, the problem is with our leaders who have sold their souls to the globalist organisations like the UN, WHO and WEF.
If you want to use your voice to fight this then speak out about net zero rather than meekly kowtowing to this cult.
April 3, 2023
Get my vote for the most sensible post today, youāre correct on all counts
April 3, 2023
glen cullen
Glady second that proposal Glen
April 3, 2023
Sir John – you forgot to mention point 7, which is presume is:
7. Turn off the heating to Sunak’s private swimming pool and take away the keys to his private plane.
It’s the personal behaviour of the Globalist Elite which demonstrates, better than anything else, that the Climate Change “crisis” is just a scam of the highest magnitude, dwarfing even the Covid scam.
April 3, 2023
+1 & For King Charles too!
Perhaps have a Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero with at least some basic knowledge of energy and science too? Abolish the appalling Committee for Climate Change too.
April 3, 2023
LOL nice one Donna š
April 3, 2023
Donna
Brilliant
April 3, 2023
Sunakās pool parties are almost certainly a āwork eventā šš¤£šš¤£
The plane has itās engine running ready for takeoff in case of ātrouble aheadā. It knows the way āhomeā.
April 3, 2023
+1
April 3, 2023
Another idea – electrify Sunak’s plane, take out the engines and see just how that works out.
April 3, 2023
Absolutely RIGHT Donna
April 3, 2023
If the objective is to cut world CO2 levels, cutting ours to zero achieves near to no noticeable effect.
Our finance and efforts would be better spent persuading China & India to cut theirs, or preventing the increasing population worldwide.
April 3, 2023
On the assumption that the generation of CO2 is the only factor producing climate change then your suggestions Sir John are good. But the net-zero rush is not motivated by reducing the global production of CO2 but UK Government and other organisations virtue signalling how good they are at great cost to the tax payer.
This Ā£2 billion to be spent on carbon capture will it enable us to keep coal fired power stations using our own coal. Likewise for stations using our own gas and oil ?
April 3, 2023
Afraid Politicians are deluded if they think net Zero is going to save us before it impoverishes the Nations people.
Just like ULEZ areas, it is all about collecting more money, nothing to do with stopping pollution.
If the Government were serious about pollution, they would make the Water Companies fix the water treatment systems to stop the known and continuing pollution of our rivers, instead of playing and paying with carbon capture.
April 3, 2023
Go to Heatable to understand heat pumps and boilers
April 3, 2023
While I do not believe that the plant food CO2 is a problem, I am all for generating cheap power via solar. However our government show how stupid they are being advised by allowing large areas of good food producing land to be covered.
We have acres of flat roofing with a convenient connection to the grid in warehousing, factories and shops spread all over Britain.
I understand that all MPās cannot be technically aware but they can access this via advisers, so have their advisers got a reason for giving poor directions ???
April 3, 2023
P.S. O/T but I’m sure that some of your colleagues will have noticed that your sister-party in Australia – which has wandered off the path of Conservatism, embracing the lunatic policies that this article touches on – lost the Aston by-election.
April 3, 2023
Some may feel “we” are doing the right thing. However, I return to the question I “asked some moments ago” .
“No matter what you believe, do you think it prudent of OUR Government to go āAll-inā to save a meagre portion of the Global total? Especially, when the worlds worst offenders are doing absolutely nothing to cut their own”? NB. These villains are doing quite the opposite right now.
I am surprised no MP has asked this of a Minister from the floor of the house. After all, it is their constituents who suffer the most from these perplexing policies, forced upon us by an apparent systematic crusade to be the world’s “First” in achieving zero carbon. Why?
Meanwhile, other Nations cannot believe what Britain is doing to itself and the poor get poorer, et al.
April 3, 2023
Re your 1/ ….it is blindingly obvious , you add millions and millions of people to your country, and guess what? You create massive demands on the infrastructure that requires an awful lot of energy consumption to fix. What I find beyond comprehension is how this policy contradiction is allowed to be pursued without comment . On the one hand we are told we have to live like paupers to save the plant, next our political classes are saying to the world.. ‘Come on over we have unlimited resources to accommodate you all’.
As there is no explanation for the contradiction it can only mean the Climate Change hysteria is a fraudulent policy. It is a Marxist con, where they seek to exert control over all aspects of our lives with their authoritarian club of climate change, but as they also want mass immigration to unpick the social fabric of our country, we get them both. They of course can guarantee it will pass without critical analysis for most of our institutions have been captured . The Tories, those that aren’t closet Marxists, have been bought out by the Globalists who want the eradication of the state, so bed fellows of the Marxists, with the result, bar a few heretics, the Tories have bought into it.
April 3, 2023
Yes, all very good… But:
…for a myth.
It should be very clear to all concerned that Co2 is being used as another stick with which to beat us. Co2 greens the planet and produces our food. If the UN goes ahead with plans to fill the atmosphere with a sun blocking substance then a lot of us will die of starvation.
There is absolutely no need to reduce Co2 – yes, let’s be cleaner, but we shouldn’t be interfering with nature.
If anything, with the sun in a cool period and an ice age overdue, we should be thinking about how to keep ourselves warm, not destroying ourselves with suppressive governance and bad science.
April 3, 2023
Over geological time carbon dioxide in the Earths atmosphere has fluctuated between 200ppm and about 300ppm. Of late it has climbed to about 400ppm and there could be a corrolation between the time we have been burning fossil fuel and the increase of CO2. As CO2 is also plant food, has anyone calculate the extent of plant absorbsion and therefore residual CO2. There is also a lack of clarity on the negative effects of residual CO2.
The answer, if we are convinced of the negative effects of excessive CO2 , is reduce our creation of it, but not as a tax collection scam by a profligate bunch of politicians and scribes. If you want effective policy you need to take the population with you. Bare in mind, if there is a financial cost or a restriction on current freedom, it is the population who will pay. As long as you allow such as the mayor of London and similar to leach on the people, the people will kick back. The speed at which you attempt it as well as the way you attempt it also directly affects population agreement. Science and engineering beat the legal restrictive approach of our politicians and scribes every day. Bare in mind, the UKs contribution to negative CO2 is miniscule, so at best we can only look upon any acceptable success we have as an export opportunity.
April 3, 2023
Agricola
I agree, you do need to take the population with you, and that includes the Chinese population.
April 3, 2023
agricola : āOver geological time carbon dioxide in the Earths atmosphere has fluctuated between 200ppm and about 300ppm.ā
Whatās your definition of āgeological timeā?
570 million years ago CO2 was at 6000 ppm or more. It fluctuated quite wildly, showing absolutely no correlation with temperature, until about 150 million years ago when it was at around 3000 ppm and since then has been on a steady decline as shelled marine animals were using up the CO2 to build their shells faster than volcanoes were emitting CO2. When these animals died they formed the 100 million, billion tons of carbonaceous rocks in the earthās crust including the rocks where oil and gas can be found.
For the last 800,000 years the atmospheric CO2 has dropped 8 times to just 180 ppm, only 30 ppm above the minimum required for plants to survive. The last occasion being the most recent ice age which we exited just 11,000 years ago.
So the current level, around 400 ppm, is geologically speaking, very low and we need to increase the CO2 in the atmosphere to promote the growth of food to at least 1500 ppm.
For the last 400,000 years, when both temperature and CO2 have been at low levels, CO2 has been found to follow temperature, not vice versa, as evidenced by the Antarctic Vostok ice core data.
April 4, 2023
And what do you make of R. Uemura et al., 2018 āAsynchrony between Antarctic temperature and CO2 associated with obliquity over the past 720,000 yearsā, nature.com, Nature Communications, 9, 961.
According to these authors the link CO2-T is much more complex than what inferred from the original derivations of CO2 concentrations vs temperatures, particularly considering differences in T from the Antarctic plateau and from oceanic sediments.
As a good citizen scientist, will you change your mind when new perspectives appear?
April 3, 2023
7. The UK has a very low exchange rate. Stop importing and start exporting.
April 3, 2023
I still donāt understand why MPs go along with all this utter rubbish and nonsense.
OK I have seen the naked money greed.
But what on earth good will consultancy payments of Ā£10,000 per day do them when the entire world is on its knees and in a state of desperation? They think theyāll be safe and sound on Mars??
Having said that of course we know that the vast majority, for all their āmodellingāš¤¬, have no care for consequences!
Whatever do they believe will happen? Iād love to know!
PS JR gets it. He is diplomatically sceptical and ironic! IMHO
April 3, 2023
To the list you could add:-
1) Change the house building regs to ensure solar panels are installed on all new builds – with the housebuyer benefiting from the free electricity – and reintroduce the highly successfull solar panel FITS scheme that Cameron’s government scrapped
2) Cut the VAT on public EV chargers imposed by Kwarteng from 20% back to 5%
3) Remove Grant Schwraps ministerial car and make him cycle to meetings
4) Provide support for the much delayed High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission line from the Scottish windfarms to England
5) Reduce the temperature of all UK Civil Service, QUANGO and council offices from the current 25deg C to 18deg C and give them M&S vouchers for scarves and woolly hats
6) Provide support for the upgrade of National Grid assets. Remove all the planning restrictions on onshore wind and solar
7) Fast track the approval of Rolls-Royce nuclear SMR and get them installed
8) Get a competition going to decide which of the several British designs for grid-scale energy storage systems is the most efficient and build a full scale demonstration plant
April 3, 2023
Sakara Gold : āGet a competition going to decide which of the several British designs for grid-scale energy storage systems is the most efficient and build a full scale demonstration plant.ā
No point, the answer is already known to our energy policy makers and this is why no storage is shown on either the āMission Zeroā or the NGESO FESās 2035 or 2050 energy flow diagrams.
I have performed the calculations myself by downloading the demand (average : 30GW) and wind data for 2022 from Gridwatch into an Excel spread sheet.
Using hydrogen produced by electrolysis from excess wind requires the installation of 6.75 times the average power, so 200 GW, and the storage of 1 million tons of hydrogen.
Using batteries, requires 5 times the average demand, so 150GW, and 30 TWHhrs of batteries at a cost of Ā£11 trillion.
This is why storage of electricity and hence intermittent supplies from wind and solar is uneconomic and we are heading for expensive, intermittent electrical energy. Or, possibly using CCUS at twice the cost of unabated gas for grid stability and long-term storage. But then we need a supply of gas. So the shutting down of our North Sea oil and gas, as currently planned, is not sensible.
April 3, 2023
Our host still avoids the elephant in the room, is there actually any need to cut CO2, he also avoids mention of what private companies can do should CO2 need cutting, how much (extra) CO2 does the daily commute to the corporate office emit or cause for example?
April 3, 2023
Sir John
I think its time to call it a day you are wasting your breath, time and energy.
I support everything you say. Your Conservative Government doesnāt, their priority is to destroy the very fabric of the UK as an entity. Uppermost is to remove from history any memory of what an economy is.
Over the weekend we have seen many pronouncements coming from the Downing Street crew, everything down to how Government can control the UK Citizen, how they can enforce their Socialist Dictatorship on the very being of the UK. Even the Cabinet minister Mr Stupid heading off to Japan to sell wind-farms, the wind farms the UK buys from China I presume as the UK has no wind-farm manufacturing facilitates other than a few blades attached to Chinese equipment.
It wasnāt even April the 1st when all this bizarre hype hit the Media
April 3, 2023
There is no empirical evidence for a climate emergency/crisis and certainly not one caused by anthropogenic emissions of CO2. CO2 is not a pollutant but a trace gas very necessary for all life on Earth. Both CO2 and temperature are at historically low levels for the last 500m years since the start of the Cambrian explosion and at these low levels CO2 is following temperature as shown by the Antarctic Vostok ice core data. In fact 8 times over the last 800,000 years, including at the last ice age which ended just 11,000 years ago, CO2 went down to 180 ppm just 30 ppm above the level below which plants, and hence all life on Earth, cannot survive. The work of Happer & Wijngaarden, based upon real data, shows that increasing CO2 (or methane) has negligible effect on warming because of IR saturation. Their paper was published in 2019. The IPCC has not refuted their findings, just simply ignored them.
Rather than cutting CO2 we need to increase it to increase food production. This will happen anyway as China, India, Brazil etc. will not be cutting their CO2 emissions.
āClimate actionā is only number 13 in the UNās list of āSustainable Development Goals.
April 5, 2023
OR, As I had already told you, if Happer & Wijngaardenās work were of a proper scientific standard, the authors would have shown the plots of the differences between the observations and their calculations and not the observations and their simulations separately in two different sets offigures. Because wherever there is sizeable absorption by atmospheric gases the agreement is not particularly good.
Thatās the type of errors in presentation that any graduate student would not do, and certainly a reason why their paper was not accepted in a scientific journal.
That you are unable to see how these two authors lead you by the nose just shows how ignorant and gullible you are.
April 3, 2023
It is clear that communists are in charge of our energy policies. Expensive, intermittent, unreliable, low energy density renewables, all supplied by a state described by our security services as āhostileā, are selected for power generation instead of affordable, reliable, high energy density and secure nuclear fission. They plan for us to live with intermittency using surge pricing and rolling blackouts controlled by individual smart meters. Cultural Revolution style behaviour change will forced upon us to cope with the lack of power and intermittency, enforced by daily propaganda lessons by the state broadcaster. We are to live with deliberately made expensive energy and food by restricting travel within 15 minute cities and eating insects and factory grown meat for protein. To look good on the international stage the budget included that Ā£20bn will be spent on a technology which does not yet exist economically to reduce global CO2 emissions by 0.1%. Our manufacturing is being driven offshore to reduce our CO2 emissions and carbon taxes are planned to be applied to people and imports. Manufacturers of heat pumps and evs are fined if they fail to sell their quota of impractical devices to the unwilling public. As communists, the elites of course will not be changing their lifestyle.
If anyone wants to know the inevitable result, just read the history of communism in the last century
April 3, 2023
The UK is such a minute part of any World Environmental situation. Agreed all the Conservative Governments actions to-date add to the Planets perceived problem to the detriment of the UK. That is without taking into account no other Nation is willing to trash what they have to join this bizarre race.
If the Majority of the Political Class was serving the people that voted them not Foreign Masters then started being honest as to what they should be doing. Their function is in securing the prosperity of the UK not sacrificing it, then ensuring that the UK can survive what ever it is, a rise in temperature, a rise in sea-levels. Their job is to ensure the safety, security and resilience of the UK by it being self reliant.
Pandering to the Socialist ideal of the all Controlling State is vandalism.
April 3, 2023
SirJ youāve fallen into the trap of believing the UN IPCC report, believing that we āhaveā to do sometime to control co2 emissions to stop the oceans rising ā¦.if you donāt believe the UN IPCC report you donāt have to do anything, like China and the rest of the non-western world
April 3, 2023
Cutting our Oil and Gas production and importing more doesn’t make sense . Air sourced heat pumps do not produce enough heat for slightly larger homes during the sort of cold spells we have had and are far too noisy in closer house linked communities . We should invest in and exploit other forms of energy producing systems such as Hydrogen .
April 3, 2023
Totally agree on all points.
Lead by example should be Westminster’s mantra….
April 3, 2023
Allow free speech, somewhat unlikely. There is a cartoon at conservative woman about our country and those who will not keep silent about the injections you have imposed upon us.
April 3, 2023
Sir John,
Point 2 should explicitly include the next COP28 climate change conference to be held in Dubai this coming December. That would set an example to the rest of the world.
April 3, 2023
No 4 is a great idea. Only one or two premises need to be done and the resulting high costs and poor availability of actual heat will demonstrate that fitting heat pumps to existing buildings is quite silly. But demolish the structures and build new with heat pump technology at the core of the design and it might just work. Well, possibly.
April 3, 2023
Solar panels need evaluating for the energy used in production which is outsourced to China.āMining quartz, refining silica, and getting to a finished panel isn’t low energy.āSilicosis is prevalent from mines with poor standards.
Replacing ‘gas central heating systems with heat pumps’ isn’t like for like.āMore than the boiler needs changing, e.g. radiators need enlarging.āThe ripple effect is high, e.g. fix-up interior decoration.āThe air cools more significantly in winter than the ground.āAir-source heat pumps seem to give a poor result in typical UK buildings to those used to a wet system with a gas boiler.
April 3, 2023
@Ralph Corderoy
It is a Sir John infers the Conservative Governments policy is to buy all the UK’s needs from the most polluting sources. World Pollution is reduced by the UK closing or not creating UK facilities, even when the UK causes it to grow elsewhere.
April 3, 2023
The only ones not understanding the misery and destruction of the UK is the so-called majority of the UK Political Class.
From the MsM. In-depth polling and analysis by YouGov. The Conservative Party have retained just 58 per cent of their voters from the last election.
It is still āthe economy stupid!ā Nothing else does it better.
April 3, 2023
In the media over the weekend we were treated to the Rt Hon Grant Shapps Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, latest initiatives and proposals.
The imposition of so-called heat-pumps on older properties(anything pre 1980) requires not the quoted spend of Ā£10K but a minimum spend of Ā£26K to get it to work. Then to get the revamp done to reach the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero aspiration for all existing properties at current rates will take between 3,500 ā 4,500 years. Yes, the shooting from the mouth for a headline without thinking it through.
Also from the MsM.
The Energy Secretary is flying to Japan to promote British businesses amid a scramble for offshore wind farm deals worth tens of billions of pounds with Japan. The UK itself importsall its equipment for wind-farms, accept a few blades, and most of it from China – japans closest neighbour. So what and who is he promoting, other than what some of us think ā stupidity.
We have a no action sound bite Government, all noise and no proper management ability
April 3, 2023
As a coincidence, just arrived in my inbox
An Invite to The 24th China International Optoelectronic Exposition
Optical Communications Chips and MaterialsĀ
Optical Communications Component and Module
Semiconductor Equipment
Optical Lens & Camera Module
LiDAR/System and Solution
Millimeter-Wave Radar
Industrial Sensors and Measurement
and many more hi-tech offerings
More things for the UK to import now we have kicked UK manufacturing and innovation out of the Country.
I guess many Conservative Ministers will be lining up to throw even more UK taxpayer funding to their Foreign Friends
April 3, 2023
To avoid the delays at Dover Suella should release some of her collection of small boats to willing holiday makers so that with favourable wind and tides they might easier paddle across and storm the French beaches – it might save some holiday time and sauce for the goose
April 3, 2023
No small boats for a week …has the home office decided to not count them
April 3, 2023
I think they say it is because of the weather.
Trade will pick up when sea is calm and sun is shining!
April 3, 2023
Or maybe our border force is looking the other way
April 3, 2023
Sir John, as you well know – or certainly should know – there is NOTHING that the UK can do which will affect either CO2 levels in any meaningful way, or the earth’s climate in any way at all. While China is building over 100 coal-fired power stations anything we do will be literally insignificant. Nevertheless, I do believe in increase our domestic energy production, and solar panels on all government-owned buildings (offices, schools, hospitals, etc) is a good idea BUT ONLY IF the solar panels are made in the UK! Why don’t you insist on this?
It’s like your question about government electric cars, which doesn’t ask if these are made in the UK. Why not? If the government used its massive purchasing budget to ONLY buy UK-MADE goods they could help expand our manufacturing sector. It’s called patriotism. And good economics, too, as British manufacturers pay British taxes, and employ British workers, who also pay British taxes, and who spend their money supporting their local economy.
And one more thing. Why do you not mention deep geothermal energy? This is the ONLY renewable energy which is constant and reliable. It could provide around 25% of all our electricity needs, and as it is entirely CO2-free you’d think the government would be going big on it. But they’re not. Are they complete cretins or have they been bribed by the wind turbine manufacturers?