John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con):
Did the Chinese representatives give any indication of when they might stop their big increases in carbon dioxide and start to reduce them? Does the Prime Minister agree with me that it makes no sense for the UK to rely on Chinese imports of electric vehicles, solar panels and other green products when they are so CO2-intensive in their production, and deny us the jobs and added value?
The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak:
My right hon. Friend makes a good point. He will see in the G20 declaration a commitment by all members recognising the need to peak emissions in the next couple of years. To his broader point, that is why the Government have consulted on measures to address carbon leakage. It is absolutely right that there is a level playing field, and that if we take action here it should not come at the cost of British workers if it ultimately makes no difference to global emissions. That is why we have consulted on proposals on carbon leakage, and I very much welcome his thoughts on that.
September 13, 2023
Ooooo ….. a joint declaration … and a commitment by the Chinese Government on “peak emissions.” How wonderful š
I wonder, did the son-in-law of India ask the Chinese Minister (Xi didn’t bother to attend the boondoggle) whether that “commitment” was the same kind that they gave us over Hong Kong? ie about as water-tight as a colander and completely unenforceable?
September 13, 2023
Ah so the G7 agreed to hit peak emissions at the same time as we have agreed to hit Net Zero. Sounds like a ālevel playing fieldā to me. No wonder the PM was so satisfied with his deal.
Have they all been to Kiev a bit too often – canāt see through the āfog of Cocaniaā as Baerbok calls it?
September 13, 2023
So basically a no from Rishi!!!!
September 13, 2023
China doesn’t need to weaponise climate and carbon output to control its people, they have Communism for that. Western leaders MUST weaponise climate to achieve same degree of power as the CCP if they are to achieve their collectivist dream
Don’t trust any of the major parties and their Parliamentary lackeys. Their intent is dishonest and destructive
September 13, 2023
A true level playing field would be by reducing or eliminating subsidy to chosen industries like wind and EVs. No chance.
September 13, 2023
President Xi has enunciated Chinese policy hitherto (that adoption of new, “green” solutions awaits those being effective replacements for the old) and it is naive in the extreme to suppose a G20 declaration changes what does seem a wise course.
Well done Mr. Sunak though for conforming to convention (unlike his Education Secretary recently) by saying “My right hon. Friend makes a good point”. And nice to learn there is to be a consultation about correcting past mistakes (if we can’t just act immediately to get things right).
September 13, 2023
The “according to local circumstances” wording gives him a free pass to do as he pleases. Our local circumstances are that we need diversity of energy sources by origin and technology. Coal offers both.
September 13, 2023
The PM is getting good at providing non-answers.
The facts are that the Chinese have no intention to be persuaded to ruin their economy by giving up coal and oil – They don’t need to, for the communist party already exerts almost total control over the country and it’s people.
It’s only the West that needs to invent reasons to oppress it’s own people.
September 13, 2023
BH,
Indeed. Talk is cheap and often insincere or deceitful. Sunak will say what suits at the time.
There will be no action though.
September 13, 2023
By following a false god the country has abandoned the majority of its people and they are begining to show the first signs of rebellion. The execution of ULEZ cameras around London, and vigilante police forces in Hampshire. Meanwhile government leaves all the major challenges untouched. I won’t boor everyone with great lists of deficiencies, just think about it and try naming anything that works. I would describe it as managed decline falling into chaos. That suggests it is organised, but I cannot credit it with such. Fiddle playing while Rome burns is nearer the mark.
September 13, 2023
I am so sorry, and disappointed, that we have yet another PM who is unable to give a straight answer to a direct inquiry. This is why the PCP is reviled now, and will be removed shortly.
September 13, 2023
60% of the worlds power comes from gas and coal. itās not going away.
NetZero is de-industrialising Germany. Germany is basically committing economic suicide. Germany is the breadwinner in the EU so when Germany defines so does the EU family.
Iād point out the trajectory of the EU is right wing parties who will be anti Net Zero. Plus there is continuous pressure from China and India that will increase the down trend in the EU. So there is a critical point where the EU canāt recover and politics will move to the right.
September 13, 2023
I don’t think Germany blew up its own pipeline. The US is way out of order and needs to be muzzled before it starts WWIII. The irony of course is that the American people, themselves are self-contained with their own concerns and are hardly aware of their government’s unwelcome meddling (apart from in the Tory party) abroad.
September 13, 2023
So more platitudes, no answers other than some other authority can let it pass so should we. All at the cost to the UK economy.
The PM obviously doesnāt recognise that his import only strategy, to lower World emissions has the opposite effect. He (the PM) and his Conservative Government have prioritised imports mainly from the Worlds largest polluters that are expanding their own fossil fuel emissions just to satisfy the UK Need for imports.
That is how this Conservative Government thinks it through
September 13, 2023
āthe Government have consultedā but 13 years on done nothing other than cancel the UK economy, outlaw UK production and punish the UK People
September 13, 2023
A pretty fair conclusion to draw.
September 13, 2023
We have a Conservative Government that after and over the last 13 years, have succumbed to totalitarianism as the way of rule.
Rish will take orders from and accept that the āBlobā, the BoE, the UN, the G8, G20 and so on are those that he must bow down too. He is not interested in a UK economy, democracy, freedoms ā his aspirations seem to be appeasement of bureaucrats that no one in the UK can vote for or hold account for their stupidity.
September 13, 2023
+1
September 13, 2023
The PM’s answer is waffle and simply an insult to it and yourself.
The country continues to be brought down, grovelling to others, being more aware of them is what Sunak does. He cannot obviously understand us.
September 13, 2023
It’s disrespectful for an MP not to answer a reasonable question properly.
I think Mr Sunak and the other socialists should be thrown out of the Conservative Party.
September 13, 2023
Putting thoughts in Sunak’s head can never be relied on ; he prefers to be surrounded by sycophants and those who seek their own comforts .
September 13, 2023
Another ambiguous answer from the PM to a very valid question. Thoughts, investigations, enquiries and reviews are one thing but it is only “action” that actually gets things done. ‘When can we see some action, PM’?
And that question applies to just about everything concerning our Government these days.
September 13, 2023
Another ambiguous answer from the PM to a very valid question. Thoughts, investigations and reviews are one thing but it is only “action” that actually gets things done. ‘When can we see some action, PM’?
And that question applies to just about everything concerning our Government these days.
September 13, 2023
The PM : āHe [Sir John] will see in the G20 declaration a commitment by all members recognising the need to peak [CO2] emissions in the next couple of years.ā
There is no climate emergency/crisis/breakdown caused by increasing levels of CO2 either through natural or anthropogenic emissions. The latest AR6 IPCC WG1 report could find no evidence of worsening weather. Only a small benign increase in ocean and land temperatures out of the Little Ice Age towards the higher temperatures of the Roman and Medieval warm periods when barley was grown in Greenland and vines along Hadrianās wall. They could find no change to the Antarctic and only a decrease in river, lake and Arctic ice which has now recovered back to average.
There is no scientific evidence that CO2 controls temperature and in fact the Antarctic Vostok ice core data, when both CO2 and temperature have been and still are at historically very low levels, CO2 is found to FOLLOW temperature and indeed the Greenland ice core data shows that CO2 followed temperature as we came out of the most recent ice age just 11,000 years ago.
CAGW, has been described by the 2022 Nobel Physics prize winner, Dr. John Clauser, as āa dangerous corruption of science that threatens the worldās economy and the well-being of billions of peopleā
Hopefully CO2 levels will continue to increase at 2 ppm so as to further green the planet and increase crop yields.
September 13, 2023
PM : āTo his {Sir Johnās] broader point, that is why the Government have consulted on measures to address carbon leakageā.
The Net Zero Strategy (P19) says we will have āabundant, cheap, British renewablesā¦.and ensure reliable power is always there at the flick of a switchā. And we are constantly told that renewables are now the cheapest form of energy, with wind is now 9 times cheaper than gas.
If these claims are correct, then why is the proposed CBAM necessary as surely there shouldnāt be any ācarbon leakageā because our energy prices will be lower than China, India etc. who are still manufacturing using out-of-date, more expensive hydrocarbon fuels?
Particularly for the energy intensive processes, the UK should have a big advantage as a result of British renewables providing cheap and abundant energy.
So it is surprising that renewables have been initially subsidised to decarbonise our electricity when, if the cheap renewable energy claims are true, energy intensive industries would surely have been the first to construct wind farms for their own energy and ācarbon leakageā would not exist?
September 13, 2023
Hahahahaha!
“A commitment to recognise a need”???
These parliamentary questions serve no purpose – they just say any old tosh and the questioner has no choice but to sit down and shut up.
There needs to be a right to push further. When they changed parliament in 1948, creating the Statutory Instrument, they allowed government to push through any legislation they want, with little scrutiny (usually on a Friday afternoon). It’s been going downwards from there.
How do we get our country back?
September 13, 2023
I think he gave a straight answer. The truth lies in his first and last sentences.
If the world is to reach “Peak Emissions in the next two years,” why are we busting a gut to lower ours at such a fast rate ? It is expensive, inconvenient and pointless.
“it should not come at the cost of British workers if it ultimately makes no difference to global emissions”
At last some honesty. We all know that whatever we do, it will make no difference to global emissions.
A Change of direction is absolutely essential.
September 16, 2023
Well that is a nothing reply if ever there was one. How can you have a level playing field when one is chucking out filth and producing stuff we have banned our own people from making. Crazy thinking.