We will soon hear of the Earth Summit in April to be set up by the USA. It will be followed by the Petersberg Group on climate change in May and the G7 in June, leading inexorably to the big global UN conference, COP 26 in Scotland in November. The aim of each of these meetings is to establish firm pledges from countries on how quickly they will bring down the carbon dioxide and wider greenhouse gas output of their countries. The world establishment now wants shorter term targets and tough realistic pledges on the long road to net zero by the middle of the century.
Some of my readers welcome this, and others are sceptical about various aspects of the climate change movement. I am writing this accepting the twin facts that governments believe there is a serious manmade climate problem created by greenhouse gas production, and intend to do many things to control and reduce the output of these gases. There are no mainstream political parties with a reasonable number of MPs taking a different view in Europe and the UK, and it is likely the Republicans after Trump will move closer to the Democrat position. International bodies and civil services are enthusiasts for this theory, and welcome the radical policies it ushers in. We are in for many more bans, rules, controls, and taxes to wean us off fossil fuel based goods and services, and for more subsidies and state sponsored investments to build the new green economy. Costs and charges of various products and supplies will be pushed up to discourage use. As the UK Climate Change Committee proposes, they want change in how we travel, in how we heat and cool our homes and workplaces, how we generate our electricity, how many products are produced in factories and in what we eat. They wish to see a reduction in meat and diary products.
I would be interested to hear your reactions to this, and to know how you will change your conduct if at all in the light of the likely changes to come.
February 6, 2021
Good morning.
Let those who believe in this nonsense practice what they preach.
Instead of flying in to have all these conferences, let them conduct them by video. That should drastically cut the number of air miles and reduce their CO2.
And whilst we are talking about CO2 let us ask ourselves what exactly is it ? It is a gas that makes up no more than 0.03% of the air we breath, is made of 2 part Oxygen, which constitutes some 21% of the air we breath and is need to keep us alive, and 1 part Carbon which is one of the building blocks of life. It is also plant food.
So what is the panic ? There isn’t one !
So how will I change my life. Well that is going to be difficult but, wherever I can not pay the government any taxes, I shall. What you deny me, I shall try and deny YOU !!
February 6, 2021
Will Saint Joe Biden give up Airforce One or stop flying ‘The Beast’ and thousands of security people around the globe? ‘There are no main parties taking a different view’. That’s all right then. When have politicians ever been wrong about anything? Follow the money and you will find the people behind a scam.
February 6, 2021
Will the Pentagon shut down being more green gas polluting than many countries, combined.
February 6, 2021
You touch on the hypocrisy of those pushing the climate change agenda. That’s how it is. They will make all kinds of noises to make themselves look green, then do nothing about it themselves. Thus, the government presides over more coal mines being opened up and another runway at Heathrow planned.
If we are serious about climate change, we can do our bit by refusing immigration, largely of people from warm countries who will need the burning of fossil fuels in this country for winter warmth. Less English meadow will need to be churned up for housing estates, keeping this country greener and more pleasant.
Government doesn’t want to do this of course, as they want more people stuffed into this country to push up GDP and make spiralling national debt not look so bad.
February 7, 2021
Dave, ‘climate change’ has happened ever since the Earth formed 4 and a half billion years ago. What you’re referring to started off as a ‘global warming’ scare, but because there’s been no ‘global warming’, the scare was given a new name which can conveniently encompass every kind of weather: climate change. What continues to be promoted is the idea that man-made carbon dioxide causes the Earth’s climate to change and therefore man-made CO2 is wrong and therefore must be halted. The original intention behind the creation of this scary nonsense, however, was not to ‘save the planet’ but to deindustrialize and control the use of (cheap fossil fuelled energy) and to reduce human numbers – by vilifying a product of industrial and other processes using energy which is, of course, carbon dioxide. Yes, sorry, the original intention was that nasty! The actual quantity of man-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was (in 2016) according to the US Energy Information Administration a mere 0.00065% of total Earth atmosphere (5.5 quadrillion MTs.) Clearly, such a miniscule amount has no effect whatsover on climate. So you (and our legislators) need to examine the underlying ideology and all the funding backing ‘decarbonisation’ propaganda.
February 6, 2021
As has been proven in the last year, reduced flights do not make better air quality or different temperatures. Anyone not flying to a conference would be truly virtue signalling but politicians is as politicians does.
February 6, 2021
I agree with you Mark these big mouths need to stop travelling around the World and start video conferencing, maybe our big wigs will then take a look around them and start making our Country more beautiful to remain in.
February 6, 2021
MarkB, Indeed – ‘carbon based lifeform seeks to ban carbon’ says a lot about the CAGW hoaxers. All civilisations have failed in the past, and we are witnessing the failure of Western civilisation, which is based on working technology.
We now see how it happens – it is not external conquest (though foreign invaders will later sweep in to fill the vacuum) but internal decay. Our elites imagine they can make falsehoods true by exhortation. But the result is people cease to believe or trust their leaders – “we’ll pretend to work, if you pretend to pay us” said the ordinary people in communist countries.
It is said that “there are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy”. One thing Christianity did give us was an understanding of absolute truth. In our post-truth era Wind can indeed power all our homes, according to Boris. Until it can’t, of course. That is when the relative-truth train hits the practical buffers, and our civilisation collapses.
February 6, 2021
THE SUN heats the earth in various cycles. The earth gives off CO2 and then we see higher temperatures. I remember when the climate fanatics said there would be no more skiing in the Alps or Scotland by the year 2000. The Cairngorms have just had their best snow for years. I have not noticed my heating bills going down over the last 20 years – au contraire!!!
February 6, 2021
Rodney, Here is a choice two quotes from the doomsters who have the memory span of a goldfish:
“Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters ⊠A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a âSiberianâ climate by 2020.” – Guardian 2004.
“Over 4.5 billion people could die from Global Warming-related causes by 2012. Runaway Global Warming promises to literally burn-up agricultural areas into dust worldwide by 2012, causing global famine, anarchy, diseases, and war on a global scale . . .” – The Canadian 2007.
February 6, 2021
+1
February 6, 2021
I agree with all of the above and as one of the poorest in this Country I will not be doing anything different. Let’s see the ‘ones at the top’ doing their bit. Such as Al Gore & etc. and all those Celebs etc. etc. etc. They won’t be doing anything different either, will they?!!!
February 6, 2021
Youâve dipped your toe in this one a few times, with generally negative and sane responses.
Are you hoping to have changed a few minds or maybe having cancelled all naysayers make yourself feel better about the future ruination?
Climate change is merely another âvirusâ. And they have been trying it on for years.
Nothing has happened! No drowned polar bears…we still have snow!
Of course …because it is another scam to give power and wealth to the few.
Delivered on a silver plate by our so called government.
February 6, 2021
Everhopeful’s view is correct. Unfortunately the climate warming meme has built up to the extent that facts, including failed predictions, have no effect in stopping it. When the costs and inconveniences of the green policies can no linger be hidden, people will turn against them.
February 7, 2021
They will be able to hide the inconveniences of green policies indefinitely. When people start objecting to them theyâll blame the inconveniences on other factors. Failing that theyâll convince us the consequences of not having the green policies would be much much worse.
Just as with lockdowns, the government convince us to blame our fellow citizens not obeying for them having to be reimposed, not the government; and if we still object they say 5 times as many would have died if we didnât have them.
If 2020 has taught us anything it should have revealed the politiciansâ playbook of how to control and manipulate the message to contain popular protest while inflicting the most draconian, unwarranted, indefensible restrictions on our freedom to get on with our own lives.
2020 has taught the politicians just how much they can get away with and has been a perfect practice run for the Net Zero agenda.
February 6, 2021
Hear, hear!
And any dissenting voices are stopped, cancelled, discredited or just sacked! A sure sign the whole thing is not for âsaving the earthâ.
And in reality, Earth will survive and/recover. Itâs managed for millions of years.
February 6, 2021
As the UK Climate Change Committee proposes……………..I suggest this Committee gets on a slow boat to China, then India and Germany (many new coal powered power stations). I do not believe in this stuff and by now the northern ice cap was supposed to be gone, the northern passage navigable, and all glaciers melted, oh and the poor Polar Bears with no where to live. I was reading an article based on average earth temperatures over the last 300,000,000 years. Our current temperature is considerably less than it has been on many occasions and for millions of years in the past. Then add in ice ages where it has been suggested that we are long overdue our next one, tectonic plates, Milankovitch cycles, the last years lock down and vehicle use (what noticeable differences has this had on our weather?) The Government and msm only sponsors the climate change zealots who produce hockey sticks that are based on false data and start dates. Changing graphs to distort their religious narrative. There are many scientists who have debunked these theories but they don’t get Government grants or their contracts dry up. Until we have balanced debate the whole thing is nonsense.
There are no mainstream political parties with a reasonable number of MPs taking a different view in Europe and the UK……………………..well, based on your record to date I can’t see people like me and millions like me voting for any of you ever again. Bring on the Reform Party.
February 6, 2021
Sir John some other facts:
– the Climate has always changed
– polar bear numbers are rising
– sea levels are not, at all
– the âEstablishmentâ must be prepared to give some credence to the many graphs that DISprove AGW or question a direct linkage
– why do they only film ice shelves calving in Antarctic summer when theyâd be most likely to break up?
– there isnât enough Cobalt for all the batteries we need
– my garden plants, lawn & trees grew incredibly in 2020, yet with much less travel by car and plane, CO2 is plant food
– no one in power is yet seriously suggesting 18 million UK homes will have to change gas boilers for electric heating, whyâs that?!
– ditto the 32 million cars being exchanged for electric?
– the temperature has (apparently) continued to rise despite massive cuts in CO2, letâs start with where all the new sensors are being sited, in warm places? Then letâs analyse the effect of having cleaned up trillions of cubic miles of the atmosphere, removing the old grey skies and cooler climate of industrial pollution, and letting the sun burn through hotter and longer.
What about the effect of sun spots, rarely covered by AGW zealots.
Just where is all the electricity going to come from? More power stations inefficiently burning wood pellets rather than coal (which is wood)?
Shouldnât it worry us that China continues to build coal-fired power stations, as does Germany, are we so indebted to them both that weâll only be able to pay them back by buying their nuclear power stations (China) or cars (Germany).
I refuse to be made to feel guilty about eating meat, Iâve reduced our carbon footprint and energy use by huge amounts in the last 20-30 years, enough is enough. The UK is already way ahead of he rest let the rest catch up ?
February 6, 2021
Everhopeful, Spot on.
World Economic Forum Globalist idiots are in control and these people are VERY dangerous to humanity.
We are irrelevant to them, it is purely control of the masses.
People MUST wake up and take their head out of the sand.
February 6, 2021
The Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay.
February 6, 2021
What a sick joke. Now they want us to give up meat. Then we have the absurd Citizenâs Climate Assembly con trick. Repeal the insanity of Ed Millibandâs climate change act and kill this moronic & evil agenda. Also stop the endless one sided propaganda and lies on this issue from the dire BBC.
February 7, 2021
Lifelogic
Not just meat, but milk (and allies associated products) as well, milking cows are not exempt from giving off the very same gases as the bred for slaughter ones.
February 6, 2021
Yes, you’re in quite a large crowd.
There are about seventy million like you in the US.
Reasonable people accept that science cannot predict precisely what will happen, but given that the real possibility of global disaster exists, they apply the Precautionary Principle, on the other hand.
February 7, 2021
Martin, Your application of the precautionary principle is highly selective. How about being cautious about mere computer models that have never predicted accurately, and only hindcast by adjustment (ie, fiddling)? How about being cautious of the “scientists” caught fiddling in the climategate emails?
February 6, 2021
I deplore your surrender, Sir John. May I suggest that you read a book giving a counter-view to the left-wing Climate Change extremists who are intent on causing the most egregious mis-direction of public finance in the history of mankind. The Conservative Party – now signed up to socialism in all its forms, it seems – has lost my vote; I am now a political refugee in my own land. To hell with it.
P.S. If you’ve already ready such a book, you might like to state which one it was. My guess is that very few Conservative MPs have bothered.
P.S.2 BTW, I view fossil fuels as a highly useful but finite resource and limit my use to help preserve our supplies and to help keep the air clean enough to breathe.
Reply try re reading what I wrote.
February 6, 2021
I have – and note that you declined to answer my challenge at my P.S. I will, however, applaud your publishing my post and, as is your way, seeking the views of your constituency of Cyberingham.
February 6, 2021
Sir John,
My first reaction is disbelief: we are talking here of changes which will not only alter every aspect of our lives but of a reduction in living standards greater than anything experienced by the people of Europe short of a catastrophic war. To do so unquestioningly is not just reckless, it is criminally negligent. I know you dislike long posts so let me take just one worrying example.
The climate catastrophe theories rely on computer models. Huge, complex, with many details too small to calculate efficiently ‘paramaterised’ â that is to say they are set at a level which the modellers think is reasonable, the models predict about 3 deg C warming per century.
There are three global measures of actual warming starting in 1975, surface thermometers, satellite sensors and balloon carried-thermometers. The data from the first agrees with model predictions. The latter two indicate that warming is 1.5 deg C per century. However, only one model — which sets the sensitivity to CO2 parameter to half the accepted figure — agrees with the reality measured by balloons and satellites. It seems that the climate catastrophe theory, in at least one aspect, may be wrong.
Net Zero involves betting the lives of millions and the entire basis of our civilisation on scientific opinion which needs deeper analysis. There is however a way of getting to it that is safer than most proposals. Use natural gas as a bridge fuel. Develop and build small modular reactors In twenty years we could stop using fossil fuels. And if the hysteria dies away we will still have a country with industry, warm homes and a working transport infrastructure.
JF
February 6, 2021
J F
Is it not always been, that you can make a computer give you the results you want by selective entry of data?
February 6, 2021
At last a coherent explanation and looking forward as opposed to the usual âstay as we are, nothing to see hereâ
February 6, 2021
The global warming hoaxers do not model for the effects of Solar cycles or of water vapour so their models are simply designed to hoax know-nothing politicians. I really hope that the weather for the hoaxers in Glasgow this year is atrocious and they will be forced to land their planes elsewhere.
February 6, 2021
Regarding your comment on the surface temperatures. This was what introduced me to the climate debate due to an American meteorologist named Antony Watts. He was doing a survey of the US siting of weather stations. Obviously he couldn’t visit them all, so asked the internet to assist. The result is a site named surfacestations.org. It highlighted the problems with these stations and the data gathered. He later created a site called Wattsupwiththat, which is the most visited science site online (even though wiki calls it a climate denial site).
February 7, 2021
Many are at airports, so are guaranteed to show the increase that the Climate Change extremists want.
February 6, 2021
Julian Flood +1
February 6, 2021
How we heat our homes is vital.Proper insulation is a must.
February 6, 2021
Indeed -and will be useful on those cold, windless days when the electricity fails and there’s nothing to power the eletric heating system mandated by government diktat. Improving the insulation standards of new homes is something I would support.
February 6, 2021
Insulating older homes can be problematic as our friends are finding out. Solid walls and uninsulated floors are a problem. We have concrete floors so it would be a major job to have underfloor heating and be able to get to a minimalistic energy heating requirement. ASHP are only effective in highly insulated properties utilising underfloor heating but it doesn’t address how you heat water because of the low output temperatures which necessitates stand alone electric hot water storage systems. The only other consideration would be to use thermal storage units that can benefit from solar heat pumps and wood burning stoves as installed with biomass boilers. Expensive or what? It will be a major headache for hotels, nursing homes, schools, offices and hospitals. The noise from these heat pumps is dreadful. Our neighbour has one and it would drive me insane. He has a new house.
February 6, 2021
FUS
There are still many houses in rural areas with two feet solid stone walls and some estates built during the 1960s where the construct was a mixture of cavity and solid walls with external tile elevations.
February 6, 2021
âThe majority of post WW2 brick properties has now had cavity wall insulation retrofitted over the past 30 years. Homes built in the last 80 years are usually built with cavity walls, with 2 layers of brick and a gap in between…. In the 1970s it was found that these gaps could be insulated by pumping an insulating material in between the brick work. Various free insulation schemes have come and gone over the years,â the greenage.co.uk Nov 11 2015
New homes were built with wall and roof insulation. I wonder what % of properties donât have it now and why?
February 6, 2021
A-Tracy. I am perfectly aware of what cavity wall insulation is. Where we live there are many homes in rural areas with solid walls. No cavities and solid concrete floors. Many homes in the 60’s had cavity wall insulation on the ground floor and the top floor had 9 inch block work with tile elevation on baton or timber match boarding. There are estates everywhere like this. They are not going to be cheap or easy to insulate.
February 7, 2021
FUS – my comment wasnât directed to you? Underfloor heating comes in a variety of forms for a wide range of flooring types including concrete floors it goes between the concrete and the tiles, wood; carpet or vinyl.
I had a wall insulated on the inside because of sound pollution once, we lost about 6cm of space into the room but it did the job.
February 7, 2021
The problem with in-filling cavity walls with insulation foam is that condensation becomes a problem, given Britain’s climate.
February 7, 2021
SM, sorry to hear that but Ive not had that problem in our 30 year old home, we do have extraction fans in the kitchen and bathroom though and open windows after showering.
February 6, 2021
Well slap my thigh.
Those who thought Agenda 21 was a myth are in for a heck of a shock.
Will there be any mention on how and who is going to pay?
What about the major countries that are not part of the UN? They will be splitting their sides laughing
February 6, 2021
And one, which is a member, China
February 6, 2021
Ha!
And those of us who metaphorically had their thighs slapped for mentioning Agenda 21
Will this be deleted?
February 6, 2021
The Government have clearly gone insane on this. Not content with locking everyone down to destroy the economy they now want to further throttle it with an insane war on harmless (indeed net beneficial on balance) plant food. The solutions they propose (electric cars, renewables, hydrogen, heat pumps, public transport, walking, cycling etc) will really not make any significant reduction to Worldwide CO2 emissions let alone change the climate. Do we really want our energy policies determined by Queen Carrie with her theatre studies degree or similar people who are totally ignorant of energy engineering and physics?
February 6, 2021
So are the ones signed up to the Paris Accord who get to delay their actions and get to watch the rest self-destruct. Our politicians have signed us up for hara-kiri and are now passing the blade to the citizens. Hopefully the citizens will think carefully about what to do with it.
February 6, 2021
Taking money from the masses and giving it to the few.
Just why are governments and civil Serpents keen on all this green initiative. Because it gives them a stick to beat us with.
Yesterday the CEO of Rolls Royce was on local television stating that the gas turbine will be the only option for longhaul flights for decades to come.
We know that so the only way is to ban flying. Except of course for the movers and shakers
February 6, 2021
I’ll be looking out for Boris’s use of his personal Air Force One when he goes to worship at the feet of Biden.
February 6, 2021
Is that biomass I see on your shoulder?
February 6, 2021
15 month short of knowing each other for 50 years – we can’t even meet for a cuppa and a chat. At the same time our taxes are used to keep illegals in hotels, free to move, meet the other 150+ or so illegals in each one, chat away in their own language, plotting whatever.
I no longer wonder whose side our leaders are on – because it can’t get any clearer.
Who knows Ian – we may actually get a last cuppa and chat before one of us pegs out – which will be blamed on Covid 39 – the Orion Nebula mutation.
February 6, 2021
The nutrients that humans require are found most densely and in the right form in animal-based foods.
It seems strange to recommend that people should consume a nutritionally deficient diet which requires supplements to be taken.
February 6, 2021
+1 Dozy comes to mind
February 6, 2021
The Climate Change Committee it seems are determined that we shall give up gas and oil boilers and have heat pumps. They want rid of wood burners which they allowed in smokeless areas against advice just so the trendy in Islington could pretend they are living the ‘Good Life’. At best heat pumps only provide background heat, will need to be kept running 24/7 or they will not even do that. They require larger radiators or that bane of the athsmatics the ultra dry heat of electric fans. They work at low temperatures and so will rust out wet systems which will need replacing every few years. They also require electricity which we don’t have, needing twice the generating power we have plus all the upgrades to the transmission system. It is all lunacy on stilts, will adversely affect the poorest, as usual of course whilst the politicians on high salaries and expenses will fare well. And of course we will pay for it, ruin our industry whilst the big polluters who may make promises they will not keep look on and laugh. Poor little UK will gold plate all the regs and not make one iota of difference to the planet.
February 6, 2021
As things break or fail to operate correctly I will change them for what is in line with climate change policy at the time and not before.
I hope by then we have transport that will do more than 500 miles in a day and not take hours to recharge and that we vastly expand the use of water, wind and solar panels for generating electricity. There are many groups and restrictive rules preventing progress that must be changed or swept aside if we are going to get anywhere near carbon neutral by 2050.
February 6, 2021
Good day (is it?)…
Carbon Dioxide level is currently around 400 parts per million. Life began on this planet when the levels were nearer to 8000ppm.
If the climate change zealots, apparently including our chimera of a prime minister are brought below 170ppm, plant life, which is what keeps us alive too, will start to die, and there will be nothing that we can do about it.
Ironically, the lower the concentration of this life sustaining gas in our atmosphere, the warmer it will become.
The world is being led by charlatans, bent on turning the world into a communitarian hellhole, before we all die of starvation.
I certainly did not vote for this, and I seriously doubt whether anyone else did.
You don’t usually publish my comments, but I hope you read them and make deeper enquiries. The party that you represent is about as far from conservative as you can get, despite its name.
February 6, 2021
I look upon it from the planets viewpoint.
Over the long term the level of CO2 is diminishing.
CO2 by way of the skeletons of living creatures is being sequestered in rocks such as Chalk and Limestone.
I shall fight this problem by requiring my body to be cremated so that its CO2 content can be released to become part of the life sector of the planet.
February 6, 2021
There were no political parties in favour of Brexit.
Yet here we are
Boris’ war on the poor is nothing short of genocidal and he isn’t winning elections on a platform of “the poor can freeze”
Reform UK are still there, May fell to them, Rishi wont do any better
February 6, 2021
The climate is changing faster than it ever has done – and most scientists believe that man is responsible for the speed of the change. Their concern is that the pace of this changing climate will wipe out entire species, destroy entire eco-systems and lead to large parts of the planet being uninhabitable for humans.
The scientists may be wrong. But the question no climate sceptic can ever answer is this: what if the vast majority of scientists are not wrong? What if YOU are wrong?
If the scientists are wrong we will have unnecessarily spent some money sooner than we otherwise would. We will decarbonise anyway but we may have done it in 50 perhaps 100 years from now. So we bring forward spending. But if you, the climate sceptics are wrong, it is much more than money that we lose. We really could lose the planet. There is no Planet B is you are wrong.
We need government help to decarbonise. Not because most of us donât want to – amongst younger people most of us do – but because the costs are currently prohibitive. Apparently one of the benefits of Brexit is VAT free solar panels and heat pumps. Do it then. Use your new powers of state subsidies to pour cash into green power companies. Provide consumers with interest free loans to make their homes green. There are no other benefits to Brexit so use the two you have.
You mostly object to the trickle of dinghy people we have crossing the Channel. Climate change will turn the trickle into a flood. If you care about immigrants you should also care about tackling climate change.
Your grandchildren demand you act. They expect you all to fail – as usual.
February 7, 2021
“The climate is changing faster than it ever has done”
Perhaps you could give examples.
February 7, 2021
Andy, Incorrect – most scientists do not believe in CAGW, though green activists do. CAGW is a hoax. Climate change may require adjustment but is not a disaster – far from it, the slight warming since the Little Ice Age has been entirely beneficial. As for your highly selective “precautionary principle”, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of other dooms which are perfectly possible, unlike CAGW – wars, tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear accidents, asteroid impacts, etc, etc. Why not prepare for those which actually might happen?
February 6, 2021
If there is a serious climate problem why have sea levels not risen? Why have glaciers increased in size? Why has the arctic ice pack not disappered as promised?
I’ve been hearing this tosh since the 1970’s and not a single one of their dire predictions has come true, just another wealth extraction tool.
February 6, 2021
The one and only question that be asked:-
Who is going to gain, really gain out of all of this?
As been stated many times on this site over numerous subjects.
âžFOLLOW THE MONEY
February 6, 2021
I would be delighted to see net zero, even absolute zero. With electric cars and planes and electric home heating, industry and transport. All generated from some zero carbon source. But whatâs that source to be? According to OWID data, global primary energy use by 2050 will be 242 PWh of which 193 PWh will come from fossil fuels.ârenewablesâ supply a vanishingly small proportion of the current 160 PWh energy use. A 1.5 MW (average) wind turbine at 25% efficiency produces about 3,500 MWh pa. so if we need, say, 240 PWh /yr by 2050 to come from wind turbines, we need another 69 million of them do we not? Thatâs 6,500 per day to be constructed and put into operation between now and then. Are there plans and resources for that?
Do the politicians who advocate net zero and polish their green halos in saying so go through these kind of analyses? Should they not level with the public – the numbers are not that difficult to understand?
February 6, 2021
Makes no difference what I think, the politics supported by the science are going in only one direction however overall I welcome it, lessening the impact we have on the planet can only be positive.
It would be good for your usual nay sayers to add their climate change qualifications to see the authority with which they speak or else they are no different to the Covid deniers and they might as well save their energy, no pun intended. I am struck but how little imagination or hope some have re the future.
Personally I am confident, as with the vaccines, that given the political direction of travel and timescales solutions will be found.
February 7, 2021
You were confident and positive about Borisâ Brexit. You decried the ânay-sayersâ then too. Now you have had your nose rubbed in it you are one of the biggest nay-sayers.
Have some humility.
February 7, 2021
“add their climate change qualifications to see the authority with which they speak ”
And yours are?
February 6, 2021
Climate Change
February 6, 2021
Boris Johnson needs to ask himself one very important question before embarking on “Net Zero”, and then ask it again of those itching to attend COP26, has science actually proven the link between high CO2 emissions and the claimed changes to the climate/weather, and if so why have they not placed every scrap of scientific data and discussion papers in to the public domain so that their findings can be independently and freely peer reviewed, as is the norm with any other science?
Also if Johnson is so sure that CO2 is endangering the world, why is he so keen have climate scientists fly into the UK for COP26, surely a better place to hang out would be Zoom?
No doubt some will consider the above are loaded questions…
February 8, 2021
Your demand about having âevery scrap of scientific data and discussion papersâ put into the public domain is already met. How do you think the GWPF, Anthony Watts, Judith Curry, and authors of other forums work? The fact that YOU do not know where to look for the information is a completely different kettle of fish.
February 6, 2021
Climate change should be used as a stick with which to beat China.
Let them close their damaging power plants and factories. Meanwhile, The West can take a break and wait for other countries to match them. That will take sufficient time to allow a rethink of the whole exercise.
Of course, if Boris has bought into the Great Reset – build back better – exercise the whole thing is pointless anyway, as it is already mapped out.
February 6, 2021
It is said say that when hapless, greedy and gullible leaders get caught up in the toiles of international bodies they are as teenagers imprisoned by a cult.
Shame our leaders can not show us one thousandth of the loyalty and consideration they show to their captors.
February 6, 2021
It is imperative that there is a âcontrolâ and a âtestâ. Rather like the States which refused yo lock down and have reported fewer deaths than those that did.
I suggest that those enthusiasts for zero-carbon, show us how it works. Letâs see them implement the full measures, starting with those in power, because they will be such a high profile example for us all to follow.
So the Olympics must be cancelled and all these world conferences must be digital. The Palace of Westminster must be Zero carbon and the difference in the cost born by the âenthusiastsâ – we need to see the cost.
Boris and Carrie can forget holidays in Italy and Scotland as itâs too far to cycle with a baby.
February 6, 2021
I think I read the Olympics are going to be run on hydrogen. Perhaps it has changed due to Covid.
February 6, 2021
You should ask Carrie Symonds she seems to be the chief policy maker in that regard.
February 6, 2021
All these climate change zealots in Parliament, but not one of them living a zero CO2 existence, odd that isn’t it? Top 15% of earners and not one of them can afford to live life they seek to impose on us.
I expressed my concerns on this site when Boris, in his Green zealotry, said he would drive us on the economic rocks by cutting the Zero CO2 timescale back to 2030 , and wondered how much more damage he would inflict on us before the Glasgow summit. It would appear to be an awful lot, for now we see them floating the Carbon Tax.
The Green zealotry was something to be tolerated while politicians fiddled around the edges, but now you are intending to cut our living standards and make us live cold, miserable, vegetable eating lives , and you can forget it, for people don’t vote to be impoverished. There may not be political opposition in the unaparty in parliament, but who says we have to stick with you lot?
February 6, 2021
This agenda has been driven by a mix of dodgy science, skilfull and well funded propaganda and political opportunism. How else does one explain the EU’s decision to incentivise the sale of diesel cars in place of petrol engines cars? This, it turns out, was a public health disaster, forcing the EU to backtrack only to embark on the electrification folly. It is evident that more disasters are to be imposed on us in the cause of “saving the planet”. The arrogance of its advocates that they can control the earth’s climate is extraordinary. Another man made disaster is to be imposed on the rest of us by the political elite, all driven by the latest edition of project fear.
February 6, 2021
There is little evidence of a public health disaster. It is yet more fake science reporting. The supposed 40,000 death toll is fear factor rubbish. The air is cleaner than ever and cars are/were being developed with minimal emission engines, basically the modern diesel with AdBlu exhausts fresh air.
February 6, 2021
Not only do the climate alarm fraternity think they can control the earth’s climate, they think they can control it to within half a degree. The whole nonsense is breathtakingly ridiculous and laughably absurd.
February 6, 2021
I would have thought that since last March we had learned to be incredibly cautious about driving massively expensive policies based on dodgy algorithms. Instead, it seems we’ve learned absolutely nothing. Collective insanity, Sir John, please become a voice for reason
February 6, 2021
+1
February 6, 2021
It’s not recommended to feed babies a dairy free diet or indeed young children.
O/T just had our fourth power surge this week which necessitates resetting many electrical bits of equipment.
February 6, 2021
UPS power supplies and surge protectors are not very expensive. I once had almost everything electrical in the house fail due to a power surge.
February 6, 2021
It will be observed that though many pledges have been and will be made, none are adhered to.
The only country to actually cut COÂČ emissions is the US, mainly by switching from coal to gas.
The hot air will continue as long as it confers wealth and status on conference goers.
It would be logically consistent to insist that all climate conferences be conducted by zoom in future.
And don’t be so sure that the COÂČ panic will continue unchallenged. I suspect that a point will be reached when those who imagine they can have cheap reliable power without fossil fuels will realise their mistake and insist on the former.
Meanwhile countries in the third world, which ridiculously includes China, will continue in the path to cheap reliable energy, whilst sucking as much money out of the West as possible.
February 6, 2021
Sir John,
This article has terrified me. I live by green principles and have done so all my life. I used to vote green until they went open borders. Yet a bald statement that we have no choice, that we are heading into a totalitarian future of drastically lowered standards of living, fills me with dread, for this reason:
The most useful thing we could do for the environment is to reduce the human population. I am all for doing this by educating women across the world, by providing contraception etc etc. If we’re moving into an authoritarian world, though, where advances in A.I. means that we little people are no longer needed to feed, clothe and amuse the elites, then taking green principles to their logical conclusion, we should be disposed of quickly and efficiently so that the elites can enjoy their green and pleasant world.
Thank you for helping me to make up my mind; I shall NOT be taking any of these vaccines.
February 6, 2021
Climate Change is the new home for zealots. In the past and to an extent still they found their home in the religions of the World, now they have climate. They ignore the historical fact that climate has been changing in many directions since the World began and will continue until it no longer exists. They would put current change, which I do not dispute, all at the foot of man, nothing to do with the sun our finite source of climate. They would seem to blame it all on CO2 the basic food of all plant life. To rectify this misbegotten zealotry they would consign us back to the Middle Ages with the support of various other quasi religions such as veganism which I deem okay for vegans but not the majority. Said zealots deny the talents of engineering and science. The two disciplines that are most likely to get us through the Covid crisis which no amount of zealotry ever would.
Within science and engineering there is the ability to mitigate against climate change and to clean up mans filth around the World without standing life on it’s head. That is what politicians should focus on, giving only direction minus detail which few of them are qualified to do. Covid forced this on them as a fait acompli, they should allow solutions to the effect of climate change to come from those who know, not the frightened frenetic voices of zealots.
February 7, 2021
I agree with all you say, but I query, “current change, which I do not dispute”
Just what are the current changes? From what and when, to what? Is it warmer than it was in the Little Ice Age? I sincerely hope so. If we could indeed control the temperature of the planet, which varies from the hottest of 56.7 C in Death Valley in 1913 to the coldest, minus 89 C at Vostok station in Antarctica in 1983, what should it be? And who gets to decide?
February 6, 2021
There is no point in us trying to fight the climate change mafia. All we can do is try our best to mitigate the worst of the decisions and policies being forced upon us.
The most potentially devastating for the consumer is home heating. It is impossible to move from gas to any other form of home heating in the timescale envisaged. Not only does the technology for Hydrogen fuelling not yet exist, but the cost of an interim dual fuel gas/hydrogen ready boiler will be prohibitably high. I suspect that the dual fuel boiler is nothing more than a face-saving formula to get round the commitment to phase out gas.
Heat pumps are not a solution to provide adequate winter heating, and electricity, is already 3-4 times the price per kW/H than gas.
In any event, when the next generation of Hinkley Point-style Nuclear reactors come on stream, the contracted price of the power they generate will be double so their electricity will be 6-8 times more expensive than gas. No matter how good the insulation, nobody will be able to afford to switch to electric heating !
February 7, 2021
Absolutely ChrisS
Am I expected to spend ÂŁ12k on a heat pump system and new radiators, and then pay X3 the fuel cost of gas to run it? That’s a vote winner.
The gas heating CO2 emissions for a household are roughly the same as a return medium-haul flight for 4 persons. I was wondering if I could keep my gas boiler if I promised not to fly anywhere?
February 6, 2021
As if we have not had enough punishment, as if our declining society had not already been so seriously damaged, the powers that be want to see the quality of life reduced to basic survival.
Why can’t it be understood by those pulling the strings, that life is for living, not hiding away in our own prisons unable to do anything but exist. Especially when it is imposed on us and is based on nothing more than a sham.
Like CV the stories about climate change (CC), the propaganda, never stops. ‘Experts’ who have no knowledge of anything but their own sphere, unrelated to CC or CV pop up all the time to convince us of the problem. Today we hear Mark Carney telling us : Climate crisis deaths ‘will be worse than Covid’.
What does he know about it?
How could anyone trust such people? It is clear they are just mouthpieces for this religion.
As regards the convergence of thought on the subject of MMCC, we only have to look at how socialist policies have become accepted in the same way and timescales to see that they are linked. It’s all part of the agenda. Simply because there is solidarity on the subject of MMCC doesn’t make it any more real or indeed true.
Every few years we hear, “only 10 years to save the Earth” – It gets repeated so often by puppets that it would be a joke if our so green government was so keen on taking this ideology forward.
We hear constantly about how the ice is melting, so where are the subsequent coastal floods.?
You have to ask just what was the purpose of BREXIT if our own government is planning to take away our future prosperity, our way of life and indeed reducing our potential to NET ZERO, removing our will to live? Here come the new dark ages.
EXISTING IS NOT LIVING…!
February 6, 2021
At least I am of an age (69) where we won’t have the short-range electric car imposed upon us which will make it far too difficult to indulge our preference for European touring holidays.
Luckily, we will still be able to enjoy many more holidays in our V12, 5,759cc V12-engined Ferrari until I’m too old to be driving long distances. I don’t like driving it in cities anyway.
Whether I will be able to pass this glorious piece of machinery down to our equally-Petrolheaded son to enjoy is, sadly, another matter.
February 6, 2021
After you have completed all the additional Brexit paperwork you need for your European touring holiday you will be so exhausted that youâll need to stop to recharge your electric car.
But, seriously. The do have plugs in Europe you know. Amazing, eh?
February 7, 2021
Andy, Europe is not the EU. And the EU is not Europe. They may have plugs in the EU but they don’t seem to have many vaccines. Are you even sure about the plugs?
February 7, 2021
And do British appliances plug into those European sockets?
February 6, 2021
Sir John
I have a degree in environmental science. For a time I thought that global warming was about the science. I then noticed that the science is almost never discussed, particularly on the BBC. It eventually sank into me that the science is a smokescreen and as the UN makes clear this is a scam to sell socialism by the back door. That the Conservative Party is part of the scam tells us that it is not Conservative. With Trump having been removed by vast fraud the Conservative cause now seems lost.
Roger
February 6, 2021
Fully concur with your comments
February 6, 2021
Thatâs about right.
February 6, 2021
+1
With wrecking the economy, unchecked totalitarian subjugation of the populace, N.I. border fiasco, Green crap, etc., the Conservative Party has succeeded in busting its own boilers below the waterline. The Siren voice showed that it only had to Carrie across one pillow. The rest of the crew did little or nothing to avert the seductive dopiness from Milliband’s juvenile initiatives onwards. The Conservative Party is as relevant to the needs and cries of the people who once voted for it as the Republican Never Trump rump.
February 6, 2021
Hear, hear!
February 7, 2021
Not lost, lost by peaceful means. Now the âeliteâ should quake …
February 6, 2021
Electricity prices have already doubled over sixteen years because of the expensive wind and solar contribution to the grid and the disruption of the gas generation along with reduction of coal. The expansion of offshore wind is going to make matters worse and the promises of reduction in the cost is not enforcible. The turbines only last for 16-20 years.
It is a ploy to ensure that the government continues to avoid the necessary replacement of nuclear stations which will not be running in the next ten years. We will possibly have one new station at a higher cost than anywhere else. Electricity is only a fifth of the total energy, which is almost all supplied by gas at present. To replace all that gas with hydrogen and liquefy the separated carbon dioxide from methane is untried at that scale and will triple the cost. The storage of the gas in old gas and oilfields will be limited but suit the oil companies well.
The Green Party only received 5% of the vote yet Johnson, Gove and other ministers are behaving as though they were in office as Green Party politicians.
February 6, 2021
Don’t forget the environmental tax on every fuel bill and transportation tax on movement of goods etc etc
February 6, 2021
My experience, over 77 years, is that anything the Government, particularly when it is competitively supported by the opposition, tells you you must do, from the Ground Nut scheme, to deisel engined cars, turns out in the end to be wrong. In the case of global warming and climate change, as you say, all governments are on this band wagon which makes it even less likely to be right. It is something politicians and civil servants, not to mention experts, all love. It is very unlikely that there will be any proveable beneficial result in their terms of office, so they are unaccountable, unlike for things that really need doing, like reforming the NHS, making the education system work, or even producing a sensible tax system.
You ask what I propose to do in response to Governmental prodding, and the answer is, wherever possible I will do exactly the opposit: run a gas guzzling car, turn up my OIL (it looks as if coal will soon become unavailable) central heating, burn more logs in my wood fire and enjoy eating meat whenever I want to.
Luckily for me, I can afford to do so; the people who are really going to suffer so the ‘Elite’ can feel good, as usual, are the poor.
February 7, 2021
+100
February 6, 2021
As all parties worship at this false alter there is no choice for voters to register their displeasure. Much as until UKIP found popularity there was no way to register distaste for our membership of the EU.
Therefore no party actually has a mandate to incur costs aiming for net zero, it has never been voted for or tested as all parties include it in their manifesto . There is no way to vote against it.
Sounds like an ideal referendum “people’s vote” to me. Do you want to be poorer pursuing something that has not been proven or do you want to take manageable, low cost steps to clear up our air and use our limited resources better? We two sides can be Spend or Save.
February 6, 2021
N S, three nice pungent paragraphs, thank you.
I remember days when it was accepted that a managed decline was all that the ‘wise’ politician or journalist could speak of, a world of subjection to Trade Union dictates. I remember, too, the heresy of the soon to be successful Margaret Thatcher and her most able acolytes, including one John Redwood.
February 6, 2021
I omitted to declare what changes to my conduct would ensue.
I changed my voting habit of a lifetime back in the days of Major’s betrayal.
UKIP, Reform Party, they have been the recipients of my vote and my future intentions will be to vote for whichever Party will fight to cancel out the inanities of the current and recent Conservative Governments.
Socialists need not apply, nor need any ‘woke’ pretenders to the name ‘Conservative Party’.
February 6, 2021
Brexit Party did get my vote too. I vote for what I want, never for ‘tactical’ reasons.
February 6, 2021
‘We are in for many more bans, rules, controls, and taxes…’
The May 6 local election date has been confirmed. I will vote for a party that questions these shocking impositions. Whether it’s ‘mainstream’ or not, Sir John. Your party doesn’t want my vote.
February 7, 2021
“Your party doesn’t want my vote”. I think you’re right. The Labour party is dead on its feet because it assumed it could always rely on its core vote whatever crazy policies it adopted. Its voters said otherwise. The Conservative party is going the same way.
February 6, 2021
This whole project is a steam roller that it is not worth lying in front of because governments have signed up to it already. The world governments that have agreed to it should try just being honest, tell people straight what you have agreed to.
We donât live in London with a super public transport system day and night, the rest of us have our buses stopped at 6 and only 1 per hour even in a town with over 30,000 residents so if you make motoring too expensive theyâre not going to be able to work.
Rich people in their Teslas in London think this is all great but who do they think serves their drinks and takes out their rubbish, delivers their milk and bread. Try these green stoppages of freedom in Brighton first please theyâve already signed up for it.
February 6, 2021
Put Napoleon-Lite (aka Macron) in charge of setting and meeting Climate Change targets.
“Paris court finds France guilty of failing to meet its own Paris climate accord commitments”
France – leading by example.
While the UK lapdogs meekly follow the Climate Change rottweilers, to the letter.
February 6, 2021
There has been very slight warming (about 1 deg K) since the “Little Ice Age”. That is to be (historically and geologically) expected after such a downturn in temperatures – we better hope! It has been entirely beneficial.
I will do my level best to circumvent the ridiculous CAGW hoax in every way I can. That goes from voting for a party which doesn’t peddle CAGW, to buying sensible technology to keep me going for the next 30 years.
In the meantime I will laugh at Boris Johnson and his vacuous plans to generate most of our electricity with Wind, without backup, and without realising he will triple demand for electricity with his electric homes and battery cars schemes.
February 6, 2021
My main concern is with pollution and conservation.
I am sceptical about the propaganda of âglobal warmingâ, later rebranded as âclimate changeâ since it relies on forecast models which by definition contain âvalued judgementsâ.
We have already seen media campaigns based on forecasts â which are often presented as facts â where the outcome has not matched the propaganda i.e. the performance of the economy and Brexit.
As for global warming, some of the news reports from some 20 years ago forecasts that some islands would be under water by now and some animals would be extinct by now. None of these have come true and these stories were featured by the BBC.
My main concerns are that (i) global warming issue is a Trojan horse to usher in hard-left policies; (ii) some of the remedies may do even greater damage to the environment. Trying to play God with the climate may not be a wise thing to do. For example, from the little research I have done, it does not seem as if anyone knows the long term effect of removing energy from the sea waves and the wind will have on nature.
I am very sceptical when a policy aimed at improving the environment costs us more money.
I much prefer conservation since this results in a win-win where we reduce our demands on the environment and save money as well.
For example:
Re-usable packaging
Heating people (clothing) instead of buildings
Job exchange service where people can work more closely to where they live.
More working from home.
Distributing milk to homes through a pipe network
Making more products in our own factories so we can sell parts, increasing the product life
All of the above will reduce waste, whether that is packaging, sending energy/heat into the air and needless travel.
These are practical steps that will be good for the environment and for the economy.
We have wasted too much time and money listening to the propaganda. For example, recycling was the big thing in the 1980âs and 1990âs yet it has produced a great deal of pollution/emissions at dubious gain.
February 6, 2021
I have spent a working lifetime in the electricity generating industry, and taken and a great interest in all aspects of the man made global warming topic.
My reaction to your piece above Sir John, is simply despair.
My despair is for my grandchildren who will never be able to enjoy a life as safe, secure and civilised as mine.
As the Carbon Zero zealots tear our society down, the stupidity of trying to compete with the power and energy of the Sun will become apparent.
Mankind will gain nothing and lose everything.
February 6, 2021
A silly question to ask your bunch of “Denialists” JR! The major question is how long will it take for the oceans to catch up with the Pliocene epoch atmosphere man has re-created today (400+ ppmv CO2) and how quickly can it be mitigated. It will make plants bigger in temperate climates with adequate water; but, is already doing the reverse in tropical climates that are becoming more drought prone. Probably a waste of time on this site but NASA is quite convincing. https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
February 6, 2021
We do not deny that climate changes (always has done and always will do), but clearly there is no climate emergency or catastrophe imminent. Most of the actions the government(s) propose will do far more harm than good. CO2 (plant food that provides the Oxygen we breath) is just one of millions of factors, not even the largest greenhouse gas.
Time to get real mate. Go and study some real science. Avoid places like UEA.
February 6, 2021
Acorn, It is a pity that you think you can get away with calling people “Denialists” who disagree with you about CAGW. Do you expect no repercussions for your belligerent ad hominems? You and other Remains on here whined when we retaliated for your similar tactics in abusing Leave voters as racists, thick, uneducated, etc, after the Referendum. You dish it out, but can’t take it back. Which makes you a hypocrite.
February 6, 2021
I can confirm it was a waste of time reading it.
February 6, 2021
O/T: it might be worth reading âHow AstraZenecaâs vaccine was hit by flawed trials, defects and politics – but might still save the worldâ
and âBritain risks becoming virus âmelting potâ as mutations spreadâ
Both in FT 06/02
February 6, 2021
I see, Hefner, so the EU were wise to delay their vaccine purchases and approvals!! Even though the EU has approved and bought the same vaccines. Even though the EU invoked NIP Art16 to create a hard border between the UK and Eire. Next time we must do better and copy the EU.
February 8, 2021
Oh, you see …
February 6, 2021
Reaction? We don’t want this green cr@p; don’t need it; can’t afford it; didn’t vote for it; and won’t campaign for it.
Change of conduct? Other than to make a note to purchase a new internal combustion engine car in 2029 and hope it will see my time out in Cuban fashion (I will then be 67), perhaps to change the habit of a lifetime and cast a vote for a new common sense party that emerges from a realignment on the right and pledges to scrap the Climate Change Act, Net Zero and all their trimmings.
February 6, 2021
We do not deny that climate changes (always has done and always will do), but clearly there is no climate emergency or catastrophe imminent. Most of the actions the government(s) propose will do far more harm than good. CO2 (plant food that provides the Oxygen we breath) is just one of millions of factors, not even the largest greenhouse gas.
Time to get real mate. Go and study some real science. Avoid places like UEA.
February 6, 2021
Having similar plans, I am concerned the government will then bring in swingeing taxes to make it untenable.
February 6, 2021
I am completely opposed to Carbon Zero policies and think parties who wish to implement them should argue their case at elections. Boris Johnson is clearly going to carry on where Teresa May left off, however, implementing green policies for which no-one voted. As has been the case with Covid, furthermore, I fear democracy will be set aside by technocrats who feel, as communists have always believed, that democracy is some kind of luxury that can be dispensed with in the face of what they consider to be their superior wisdom and morality. Statistics and scientific expertise will be manipulated by governments worldwide, including the UK government, to justify policies for which there is virtually no popular consent.
February 6, 2021
I believe that many eminent professors of climatology consider âclimate alarmismâ as the most expensive nonsense in the history of homo sapiens. Why is it that we never see or hear any of them on the BBC?
February 6, 2021
That hardly needs asking.
February 6, 2021
It is BBC policy not to give airtime to climate scepticsm, which the document describes as deniers. The briefing note does not completely rule out including climate sceptics in BBC coverage: âThere are occasions where contrarians and sceptics should be included. These may include, for instance, debating the speed and intensity of what will happen in the future, or what policies government should adopt.â They also smear sceptics and insinuate their funding is dubious, see how Lord Lawson was treated.
February 6, 2021
Roger Harrabin seems to command the BBC airwaves on that topic, much as Paul Mason was seen as a ‘respected’ dispassionate economist.
February 6, 2021
Yes! Why is it that we never see or hear any of them on the BBC? We all know why!
February 6, 2021
Somwhat O/T: Will the UK create a sovereign wealth fund like Norway and Alaska did years ago? ÂŁ400m/year are likely to be gained by the Crown Estate over the next ten years thanks to leases for off-shore wind farms in four seabed regions around the UK âbelonging to the Queenâ.
February 7, 2021
That’s a good question to ask for whenever the governments thrown up by our pathetic university system and awful political system ever get around to paying off the National Debt. Come back in a hundred years.
February 6, 2021
My view is the climate lobby probably has the science wrong but I do not know. I expect its wilder demands will be curbed in time, not least because of practicalities, but I do favour the concomitant strong curbs on polluting.
I do not expect to go out of my way to change my conduct but if the inducements are sufficiently attractive on a personal level, no doubt I might.
February 6, 2021
I believe that they certainly have the “science” wrong. You could try “The Hockey Stick Illusion” by A.W. Montford for a detailed analysis by real scientists and the battle they are facing against the establishment.
February 6, 2021
Completely reject the Far Left’s Climate Agenda and the Build Back Better Great Reset, scam.
The last Election was all about an Oven Ready Brexit Deal…now it appears we have dragged the Trojan Horse into the Citadel.
February 6, 2021
Sir John â We just donât believe you (the government)
Nothing has changed in my lifetime
I do believe that those that are funded to research or have a interest in the production of electrical widgets are manipulating either the government or the people
We live on an island of coal and gas surrounded by a sea of oil â lets use it
For balance this government should create an ââanti-climate change committeeââ and collect evidence
February 6, 2021
+1 !!!!!, for each short precise paragraph.
February 6, 2021
+1
February 6, 2021
Sir , I agree with virtually all of the replies. However I feel so helpless against the madness sweeping the world with wrong info pushed by people with vested monetary interest.
I am glad I am in the last years of my life,(now approaching 80) however I will resist all changes as far as possible as I feel to have failed my children but more so my grand children and great grand children who I look at with great sorrow!
February 6, 2021
I despair for my country and the majority of people in the Western World. The threat of impending disaster has been used to control the general populace, to empower and enrich the rulers throughout time yet it is slavishly permitted. Climate has changed since the beginning of time and will continue to do so long after mankind has gone. Focus the efforts and finances on real issues such as the removal of plastics from the oceans, the production of meat substitutes et al.
February 6, 2021
Yes, it’s like a religion and look how many people that has killed.
February 6, 2021
I remember some years ago reading an article, by an earth scientist, that we were in the middle of an ice age which happened to be warm.
25 years ago I could ice skate on 10 acres of Bury Fen in Cambridgeshire. There has been no ice worthy of skating on since.
February 6, 2021
I gather that there was once a ‘Medieval Warm Period’. Must have been caused by chariots – or something like that.
February 6, 2021
Exactly Sea Warrior. Over time there have been catastrophic weather events before mankind invented the combustion engine.
February 6, 2021
Forgotten the record low temperatures of late November early December in 2010?
Daughter was married then, with West Midlands overnight temperature of -12 degrees C, and -6 during the day. Was Bury Fen a Freezing Point Denier?
February 6, 2021
No-one seems to have noticed that “the new normal” may actually be a solution to this “problem” (if it is a problem).
Having office staff working largely from home will reduce carbon output massively. The other aspects of WFH are also benefits – it’s a win-win.
Those who prefer to work in an office may be able to do so – and most people will need to get together some of the time, just not every day as has been the way in the past.
Has anyone done a study of emissions world-wide during the covid situation? I remember seeing a satellite photo early on of a Chinese city before and after lockdown and the difference in the smog cloud was enormous, even after a short time of limited traffic.
February 6, 2021
Sorry XY but not every body has inky fingers. Some , infact most have real jobs that require workshops or visiting the location where the work is. I doubt that there would be any change in co2 output as even the houses that were left cold during the day are now all heated during working occupation.
You cannot but dream !
February 6, 2021
We know that this is a scam and that governments everywhere know it’s a scam because they still plan for more runways and travel to conferences in preference to working online. There is some deeper motive behind this attempt to deceive us all into this false group think perhaps a Common Purpose.
February 6, 2021
The labour party in the 90s under Blaire became woke, media driven and adopted populist middle of the road (European) centralist ideas â and lost the tradition labour voter
The conservative party under Boris has become woke, media driven and adopted populist middle of the road (European) centralist ideas â and lost the tradition Tory voter
The road to net zero is a road to nowhere
February 6, 2021
Over the next decades there will be fantastic advances in technology, that will make the cost of dealing with climate change trivial.
There is no reason why massive costs, and restrictions on freedom, should be absorbed by the currently existing generations.
Our parentâs generations paid investments in infrastructure (railways, roads, bridges, hospitals, waterworks, telecommunication networks etc etc), but only when there was a prospect of a return on that investment. Why should our parents have sacrificed their standard of living, and personal freedoms, any more that that to subsidise our standard of living, which is so very much better than theirs ever was?
February 6, 2021
For the record I do not believe the arguments being forced upon us and intend to say clearly as often as I can. I intend to resist all the changes forced upon us by the authoritarians and speak out against the media who give us only one side of the picture and exclude opposing views.
I intend to keep my petrol car. I will not accept a smart meter. I will keep eating meat. I will argue that tree planting is a nonsense and in any case is unmeasurable in its effects. I wish to continue living in te modern world. I do not wish to be forced back to primitivism.
February 6, 2021
Me too although my car is diesel.
February 6, 2021
I am with you 100%
February 6, 2021
I like your attitude
February 6, 2021
Off topic, here is a very long article by the Irish commentator Tony Connelly explaining why the EU is in the right, as always, and why the Northern Ireland protocol is a good and essential thing:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0205/1195326-tony-connelly-analysis/
And especially note this:
“By its very nature, the treaty Johnson signed establishes trade barriers down the Irish Sea”.
While here is a much shorter letter from Professor Vernon Bogdanor:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/05/solution-irish-border-problem/
in which he says that a fundamental constitutional consideration:
“… points to a border on the island of Ireland, though checks need not actually take place on the border. It would be less onerous to administer than checks in the Irish Sea since Northern Irelandâs trade with Great Britain is so much greater than its trade with Ireland.â
But “there is an escape route”, because the Northern Ireland Assembly must be allowed to vote on the protocol in 2024, and they may insist on bringing forward the vote to 2022.
However I suggest that it would be a bad idea to have that vote without having first clarified, and preferably road tested, alternative arrangements to give the EU sufficient reassurance that the integrity of their Single Market will still be protected with the Irish land border just as open as it has been and is now.
February 6, 2021
This is like Groundhog Day with all the same points being raised. We didnât vote for any of this and when the UK population wake up to the realities this Government will be history. The only solution is for a viable clean energy to be invented and this is where money should be invested. Paying all these trough feeders to fly around the World lecturing us on how to run our lives will end in disaster. Talk about Do As I Say, Not As I Do! Itâs laughable. Reducing the human population is another solution but this isnât even talked about.
February 6, 2021
+1
February 6, 2021
If you voted Conservative you did vote for it. It was in their 2019 manifesto. The one Johnson claimed have him a thumping majority to get Tory Brexit done. Despite the vast majority of voters rejecting him and it.
February 7, 2021
This is the problem with manifestoes; we canât choose which policies we actually want. Just because a political party gets elected it doesnât mean that the majority of the voters agree with all their policies. Something as life-changing as net-zero should have been debated and a referendum held. If all the main parties have the same policy then what choice do voters actually have?
February 7, 2021
Andy, I voted to Leave the EU. We were the majority. But Remain Parliaments refused to honour our vote. Which is what you wanted. So in subsequent elections Leaves went for the least worst option. Everything that’s wrong about the WA and the T&CA are the Remain bits. The bits that you wanted.
February 8, 2021
Ah, wonderful how you reject any responsibility. âStab-in-the-backâ is such a convenient get out card.
February 6, 2021
That the âScience is Settledâ is purely a scam and is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on Mankind.
At a CO2 gas concentration of 0.04% of the atmosphere WHY does our entire energy policyâs function still revolve around removing CO2 emissions ?
Apart from Natural Variability in all my 78 years the climate has not changed, the leaves as always, are off the trees by end of November. Our summers are still mild and wet. Our winters are still cold and wet with snow some years. Al Gore in 2007 said the Arctic would be Ice Free by 2014. It was said that polar bears would be extinct, Pacific islands would disappear. All this was Bullshit and didnât and will not happen.
In view of the increasingly obvious indications of Chinese world ambitions for us all, it is incredible that America, Europe, and the UK still are so naively swallowing the bondoogle being relentlessly propagandised into forsaking all the benefits of reliable fossil-fuelled energy which has served us so well for the last 300 years. Boris’s unreliable All Pain and No Gain expensive on a grand scale ‘Net Zero’ energy policy for absolutely nothing other than to dissipate the country’s resources, – will not even remotely âSave the Planet.
February 6, 2021
All this rubbish is just another scam.
February 6, 2021
Given that we all have some responsibility to do our bit as this is not going away any time soon, I think it is really hard for the average person in the street – not to demean, and I include myself in that – to get their head around all this & what it really means for them. The multiple billions, trillions ? that will be spent and invested on these commitments and actions already taking place as countries & companies litigate one against the other on issues in fighting climate change and not on any kind of level playing field, not now and not likely in the future, with multi billion lawsuits & huge amounts being lobbed around in compensation payments – e.g. in attempts to end coal usage. Some, and I do not profess to know exactly who, what or why, will profit monetarily & enormously. We are expected to drive less, fly less, eat less meat and more stuff that many won’t want to & at the same time we hear the lamenting of the decline in car manufacture, car purchases, airline usage & travel and that the levels we ‘enjoyed’ only a short time ago will not get back to ‘normal’ / previous levels until year….? I would never use the word hysteria but question much of what is proposed and the direction & rate of travel.
February 6, 2021
Perhaps Sir John would like to give us his reasons for not opposing the increasingly authoritarian nature of this government rather than passing the buck?
February 6, 2021
+1
February 6, 2021
+1000
February 7, 2021
What, the authoritarian actions of this government that you cheer on, Weary?
February 6, 2021
Zero covid, zero carbon, zero human rights.
February 6, 2021
zero UK fishing, zero immigration controls, zero brexit, zero democracy
February 7, 2021
Yep – heading inexorably to net zero – which will include zero politicians.
February 6, 2021
If there is no mainstream party capable of arguing rationally, then how can the political system be changed rapidly enough to achieve representation and save humanity from the madness?
February 6, 2021
Post-rationalism is a term I read recently .
February 6, 2021
On meat and dairy, it is important that these are expanded in peopleâs diets and the misrepresentation of their potential production stopped. Meat and dairy for the elite and vegetarian sugars, processed carbs and oils for the proles is a vile attack.
February 6, 2021
Indeed. The vegetarian/vegan diet is much lauded but it is much harder to get protein – especially if trying to avoid Sarcopenia. Andy is yet to realise it but his body has already switched to losing 3% of its muscle mass per year.
If he doesn’t take in more protein and do resistance exercises he will wither.
February 6, 2021
Managing the globe has been a dream of many for centuries, if one method fails, then they simply try another.
I am a sceptic because I simply do not believe that there is enough detailed information over a reasonable timescale to substantiate what is actually happening, is the temperature gradually rising, perhaps, what the real reason is, is certainly open to question given we have had warming and cooling spikes over many centuries.
Are we gradually poisoning our world, absolutely, is it man made, absolutely, so I think this should be of far more concern than so called climate change or weather patterns.
Will I change my pattern of behaviour, not really as I already practice what I believe is sensible recycling, and try and avoid excessive waste. etc etc.
I think the Government are trying to move too fast, and the cost of effective development of reliable technological solutions is now trying to play catchup in a panic.
Increased taxation and huge subsidies is NOT the way forward
February 6, 2021
I believe that “climate change” and “global warming” are complex problems that need a lot more debate than they get at the moment. Anybody labelled as a “Denier” will get no chance to debate any aspect of climate – no matter if their ideas make perfect sense (or not). However, just to declare that “carbon is bad” and anything that produces it should be banned is extremely simplistic.
Trying to rush these things is also a great mistake. We (as a Country) should let others be the ‘leaders’ in these areas – our <1% is not significant enough to make any real difference and 'haste' leads to mistakes.
Just imagine spending untold billions to build a public 'charging' infrastructure (and it's associated power grid) across the country to support an expected 30+ million private electric vehicles to replace current internal combustion engines, if (by 2030) driverless cars mean very few people need to actually own their own vehicle. Suppose you can just call one (on your phone), use it to go where you desire and then let it drive off once you've arrived. Fantasy – maybe but it's what Elon Musk is predicting will happen well before 2030.
Does that idea make more sense to me. It might well do so if the costs were right. My car is quite expensive to run and certainly this year, has just sat on the drive going nowhere. Am I tempted to buy a new electric vehicle – with potentially limited battery life? No, not at this time. I might just wait and see. It wasn't so long ago, "our" (well, one of them) Government was pushing diesels as a great way to reduce carbon emissions, forgetting (ignoring?) that it was already very well understood that particulates were a real danger to health.
A week ago, the wind didn't blow and our 'renewable' electricity supplies dropped dangerously low. We (UK) are busy running down conventional & nuclear power stations without having any clear plan on how to replace them. Again Musk may have the solution and perhaps I will eventually install my own power collection and storage systems. Not quite for the reasons Elon thinks but more likely to make sure I'm not freezing when public supplies are 'browning-out' when the wind don't blow and the alternative is paying hugely inflated power bills.
So I'm sure change will happen but the evidence is that Government has a very poor record on predicting exactly when or how. Strangely, Joe Public often has a better feel for what might make good sense (for them) than some committee of environmentalist Phd's sat somewhere in Westminster (or even No 10!)
February 6, 2021
Iâm sorry to post twice, but it has occurred to me that we should pin these net-zero people down to what % of carbon dioxide they want to have in the atmosphere.
I understand one Tory MP, a zero carbon enthusiast thought 60% of the atmosphere consisted of CO2.
February 6, 2021
The modern politician is a slave to science, as we’ve seen recently.
February 7, 2021
The modern politician is a slave to what he is told is science by activists.
February 9, 2021
Have you ever considered the possibility you might be wrong? I guess not. Just to encourage further ramblings from you against the âeliteâ, may I advise reading the latest report by the well-known green activists, The Royal Society & The US National Academy of Sciences:
âClimate Change, Evidence & Causes: Update 2020â royalsociety.org 36p.
Isnât it incredible how ER, FoE, Greenpeace et al. have all been able to enter these august institutions?
â
February 6, 2021
If we all cut our CO2 by 50% but the world population doubles then we are back to the same problem. If we cut it to zero but the world population continues to double every few years CO2 will be the least of our worries. I am coming to the end of a great life and I feel sorry for our grandchildren. Population growth is the elephant in the room not CO2 if you do not solve that nothing else matters but the government still fills the country up.
February 6, 2021
John. Well said mate dead right.
You cannot control climate change but you can control birth rates.
It ain’t nice but it is the only way
February 6, 2021
I have been lucky in the lottery of life.
But I am very confident that my grandchildren will benefit from currently unimaginable technology.
As I have benefitted from technology unimaginable to my parents.
My grandchildren tell me to enjoy my life and spend my money on myself, because, as they say, âWeâll look after ourselves. Youâve done enoughâ.
February 6, 2021
All the pain and grief that “they” are planning to impose on us and their own citizens in order to reduce carbon emissions will be wasted unless simultaneously we control and then rapidly reduce the size of the human population.
If measures to reduce the world’s birth rate are not started now, the whole effort to reduce green house emissions by half by 2050 will be pointless because twice as many people will be consuming resources and energy.
The majority of the developed world’s aid budget should immediately be redirected towards achieving a reduction in the human population. Hunger would disappear and wealth would be shared by fewer people.
February 6, 2021
Sir John, just a small point that is not really mentioned when electric cars are suggested as the future of domestic transport, I think it’s a great idea, BUT towing a caravan is a no no situation as although these cars have the necessary torque they do not have the range due to the limited range of towing a medium sized caravan. One would be forever stopping to charge the batteries , providing one could find a charging port.
Things will have to improve somehow before I change.
Dave
February 6, 2021
The Greens secured just 2.7% of the vote at the 2019 GE, unequivocally demonstrating that the majority of the general population is neither interested in, nor votes for green issues. “Climate change/emergency” is not a proven fact and not even the strongest advocates can maintain a robust and evidenced-based defence of it. Yet, on the basis of nothing more than ideology and “modelling” produced by interested parties, billions of our money is being diverted into life-changing (not enhancing) projects no-one has voted for; neither would they, given the chance. The cult of climate change is considered to be a blatant fraud by most, yet our gullible and grandiose government/establishment seem to think that the people of this small and insignificant dot of an island will welcome the huge sacrifices being inflicted on them in the name of “saving” an entire planet. Are they truly so delusional; or is it an inherent conceit that makes them believe it’s plausible? The reality is that we don’t tend to elect any government that threatens to remove our right to live as we wish, so perhaps the sooner our glorious leaders are jolted from their dangerous stupor, the better! It’s worrying, though, as there appears to be something rather sinister creeping through the corridors of power.
February 6, 2021
Free-market, liberal thinkers need to start doing some thinking here or we are going to paint ourselves into oblivion. I commend your openness to starting that debate. There has to be market solutions to an evident challenge – probably around pricing externalities and risk – but none of them will be comfortable.
February 6, 2021
I feel so powerless, pardon the pun. Iâll be going where I went when I last felt like a rung out rag, taxed to death at every turn , betrayed on pensionable age and a below par NHS, constantly forced to be the worlds almsgiver and with no democratic way out: the Brexit Party , now Reform UK. OR, will sufficient conservatives stand up and present a common sense energy policy that will not beggar me again?
February 6, 2021
I support the above comments, not one in support of the madness of net zero, undebated in parlement and uncosted , utterly criminal to bring financial hardship to so many through raised ” carbon taxes” currently on the table , CO2 is a life giving gas, there is no historical or emprical data to suggest it is detrimental other than modelling and the questionable science of people like Micheal Mann and Al Gore politicizing the green agenda
I didnt vote for the green party, I voted for conservatism , I will never again vote for the conservatives , I feel betrayed , utterly disilusioned by the conduct of this shambolic and vanity driven party and what it has now become , you seem like one of the more grounded members John , this is not a personal attack on you, rather expressing the dispair I feel for our lack of any pragmatic leadership which I hoped for and voted for from conservatism
February 6, 2021
I will oppose this folly by continuing to analyse the unaffordable and utterly unrealistic projections for net zero made by the CCC, BEIS and National Grid etc., and draw attention to the problems in as many public fora as I can, and most particularly to those who govern and who set the media agenda. I will look for a rational political party that understands that adaptation to such changes in climate as may occur is a far superior strategy to imposing a green dictatorship that will take our standard of living back to pre industrial levels, and destroy our freedoms.
I find it astonishing that our politicians wish to crucify the country on the altar of net zero while the Chinese increasingly dominate the world. China has already shown its hand, threatening to withdraw “climate cooperation” should anyone dare to criticise its actions.
February 6, 2021
Indeed Mark, I totally agree. However, if one considers the political motive rather than the non-existent practical one, than all becomes clear.
February 6, 2021
Following several years of cunningly imposed subliminal propaganda in some cases, and blatant full-on propaganda in others, the BBC preventing expression of contrary views, has promoted the pro-EU ‘Climate Change’ religion unopposed in as many of their programmes as they can, – whenever they can.
Unsurprisingly throughout the country there has developed massive national dis-trust in the BBC’s alleged impartiality which will only be assuaged by an unlikely about-turn to permit debate.
However, the ‘Great British Public’ are not fooled as demonstrated by the BREXIT vote, and will not accept unquestioning subservience to un-costed cuts to our living standards leading to Middle-Ages levels of poverty demanded by the Extinction Rebellion devotees for us to ‘Save The Planet’.
It is extraordinary that our so-called Representative Parliamentary Democracy unquestioningly follow the ‘Climate Change’ mantra, yet still stubbornly fail to govern for the people.
Effectively dis-allowed as members of the EU, following Brexit, we can now wake up and turf out MP’s who don’t listen to our requests but presumably this will take time to sink in.
February 6, 2021
Just when you think life canât get more depressing the Government makes plans for sky high energy costs and rota power cuts!
February 6, 2021
All part of the reset agenda, terrify the population with Covid , then use that impose other policies people would never normally accept . The Who said that Covid was the result of global warming. The new development of this is to claim eating meat in part causes global warming, so we all have to become nut eating veges.
February 6, 2021
Net zero is a delusion in the time scale (2030-2050), mainly because 90% of polluters have no intension of slowing down their production of CO2, China, The US, Africa, Asia, South America – are increasing CO2 and China is helping by financing hundreds of coal burning power stations.
We should mention Germany and Japan who are shutting down their nuclear zero CO2 power station and replacing them with Lignite (brown coal, the worst pollutant) in Germany and gas in Japan.
The delusion extends to the cost of the project, in monetary and human misery terms in the UK. When energy price jumps another few rungs the energy poor will overwhelm us.
A really serious attempt to limit energy supply to renewables will be a disaster within a month and a change of government within 6 months.
February 6, 2021
To give an intelligent response (as opposed to a kneejerk, emotional one) we need to differentiate between the ultimate goal and the means by which we achieve it. Ultimately, having vehicles that do not pollute our air, and not being reliant on finite resources, is a noble aim. But the reason so many people object, quite rightly, to the gvernment’s policies is that we are being forced down the road much too quickly and in a way that betrays Britain and the British people, compared to other countries.
Take electric cars. I have written here previously (although you didn’t publish my comment) that the arbitrary deadline of 2030 is stupid, as battery and hydrogen technology is not yet perfected. So we will have cars that are more expensive to buy and are less convenient to use. How stupid is that? Ah, say the climate doomsters, but the situation is an emergency and the world cannot wait – we must act now! My response to that is that firstly I don’t believe it (there is no sound evidence to this effect), but – and this is the most important part – if that were true then the same rules must apply to EVERY country in the world. Otherwise we in Britain are suffering while achieving nothing for our pains.
And that, sadly, is what is happening. China, and almost as importantly, India, are NOT reducing their CO2 output. They are INCREASING it. So even if we in the UK were to produce zero CO2 tomorrow, that would be negated in a year by the increase in these two countries. In other words, our sacrifices are UTTERLY POINTLESS. What sort of cretin goes around flagellating himself for no good reason? The answer: cretins like our MPs.
If climate doomsters truly believed that the situationwas as grave as they say they would be demanding total trade sanctions on China and India to force these countries to stop producing CO2, right away. These countries argue that they are ‘poor’, and demanding that they syop polluting the atmosphere as quickly as western countries would be ‘unfair’, but my response to that self-serving whining is twofold: firstly, it is not true – these countries both have space programmes, huge militaries and foreign aid programmes of their own! And secondly, even if they are poor (like some African countries are), that does not give them the right to become wealthier AT OUR EXPENSE.
The reason I will never vote for Boris Johnson again is that he does not put Britain’s interests FIRST. I want politicians that are patriots, not traitors. But look at his negotiations with the EU, or his continuing to spend billions on foreign aid, or these green taxes that apply to the UK but not China – everywhere you look Boris is discriminating against Britain and the British people and in favour of foreigners. This is simply unacceptable.
February 7, 2021
London Nick – If your comments do not fit the narrative pushed by the Establishment it will not be published. They do not like the truth. I have been in a smilar position.
February 6, 2021
Home Truths: Heavy Reliance on Wind & Solar Turn California Into âThe Blackout Stateâ as reported on the Stop These Things website 03/02/21
A very interesting report regarding the problems when all the air-conditioning and normal loads cause blackouts as the sun loses its power towards the end of the day .
February 6, 2021
This is the only hope we have, that the sheer impracticality of green policies makes itself felt early.
February 6, 2021
Sunsets: an inconvenient truth.
February 6, 2021
Another piece that highlights the shortfall in renewable supplies. It is happening everywhere so it would seem.
8 January 2021: Europe just skirted blackout disaster
Global Warming Policy Forum
Henrik Paulitz and Kalte Sonne
17 January 2021
February 6, 2021
Sir John
In the investment world there is something called Environment Social Governance (ESG) that is well under way and having a significant influence on the corporate world.
ESG mandated assets under management in Europe are circa $14 trillion and $12 trillion in the US and growing fast. So investment managers are favouring ESG rated companies meaning ESG rated companies have better access to the capital markets then non ESG rated companies. In addition ESG rated companies tend to have a higher investment returns, Bank of America Merrill Lynch covering the US market between February 19 and March 25 estimates the top 20 per cent of ESG-ranked stocks outperformed by over five percentage points hence the flight to invest in them.
Its not just investments, Investment Bankers are now incorporating ESG ratings into their corporate lending criteria so corporate borrowing favours ESG.
Itâs a driver behind things like diversity in the boardroom, companies looking to improve their ESG score to get better access to capital markets.
So this month a Singapore company will get regulatory approval for artificial meat production. As an ESG rated company it will have unlimited capital made available to expand. This is now a fast moving ship and we need to get onboard so we can grab the wheel and debate the direction it goes. Its not just already happening but the money behind it now is irresistible. If grazing land reduces what will be the environmental cost? Something for Parliament to debate.
February 6, 2021
I have taken a keen interest in the subject of “Climate Change” for 15 years, and I have to admit that, the more I know, the less I believe that there is a problem for mankind. Throughout that period, the BBC has pretty much forbidden the voicing of views such as mine, with many other media, particularly broadcast media following suit. We are now in a similar position on this topic to a totalitarian regime, in which all the sensible voices have been outlawed and the leaders left standing think they must be speaking the truth because they never hear disagreement. Although the British public is subjected to beautifully shot David Attenborough-voiced climate porn on a numbingly regular basis, we have been starved of facts and these need to come out into the open. In particular, we have not been told the cost of achieving Net Zero, although some of us know the National Grid has estimated it at ÂŁ100,000 per household. If a politician can step up, be honest about the costs, and convince us all we should put our shoulders to the wheel, then let us do it. But I do not think such a politician exists.
February 7, 2021
Absolutely agree.
February 6, 2021
“The long road to net zero” is a road we should not be travelling. Time for people to waken up and question the flawed / manipulated data used to “prove” the globalist agenda and destroy life as we know (knew?) it.
February 6, 2021
Please John read this. What CC there is is driven by the sun not by CO2 or mankind. Letâs put an end to this knee-jerk policy making which will cost nations dearly,and bring some intellectand perspective into the mix.
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2021/02/Goklany-EmpiricalTrends.pdf?mc_cid=41e10ffe91&mc_eid=766a886954
February 6, 2021
OFGEM received representations from energy retailers about rising levels of bad debt, because more consumers are unable to afford their energy bills which continue to be driven sharply higher by accommodating more renewables in the system (generation supported by CFDs now comes at an average cost of ÂŁ143/MWh, while balancing costs have surged to ÂŁ2bn p.a. and network costs have risen sharply). Their solution?
Slap another ~ÂŁ700m onto household bills!
February 7, 2021
Mark, Correct – my electricity costs have increased by 23% this year.
February 7, 2021
How much of it is an actual increase in the kWh price, how much is due to an increase in consumption as I guess as most of us you must have spent much more time at home?
Compared to 2019, the 2020 prices for gas and electricity remained within 2% for my company (OctopusEnergy).
February 7, 2021
All of it, Hefner. I said the costs had increased; I made no comment about my usage. Learn to read.
February 8, 2021
It is because I know how to read that I show you for what you are …
February 6, 2021
I am concerned that if moves to prevent so called human Global warming fail and temperatures continue to rise due to natural causes we will need to urgently spend all our resources on how to protect from rising sea waters and drought migration. That maybe too late to stop disaster
February 6, 2021
To John Payne,
It won’t happen, The I.R. Absorptive Characteristics of Greenhouse Gases, in particular that of Carbon Dioxide if doubled to 800ppm is such that Global Temperatures will only increase by half a degree C.
See also: “CO2 The Miracle Molecule” paper by practicing physicist – David Coe.
February 6, 2021
I believe it is all a nonsense, Sir John. The global warming/climate change agenda will be revealed for what it is: a giant wealth generating exercise for the globalist cabal using false science and fear to drive it. We have already proved how gullible and how indoctrinated we are, behaving like sheep during Covid. Why are the global death figures not significantly different for 2020 compared with previous years? In a true pandemic, figures would be significantly higher.
February 6, 2021
There is plenty of “science” that suggests that all the alarmism is unfounded, although it is, of course, not publicised. Regardless of the scentific arguments, for the UK to in effect turn its back on the industrial age and embrace “zero carbon” without any credible plan to provide the necessary power generation and to take an authoritarian stance on enforcement, in order to reduce the UK’s 1% share of global CO2 output to zero for the sake of virtue-signalling on the world stage is irrational, to say the least. The cost for the Government will be in the order of ÂŁ2 trillion, and many thousands for most individuals, hardly affordable for either. Of course we need to reduce pollution and consumption and waste, and take better care of the environment, but we do not need “zero carbon” to achieve this, or to go back to some idealised rural idyll which never in fact existed.
February 6, 2021
âThe world establishment now wants shorter term targets and tough realistic pledges on the long road to net zero by the middle of the century.â
âThere are no mainstream political parties with a reasonable number of MPs taking a different view in Europe and the UK.â
Then this is not politics, it is tyranny.
As we are very likely entering a Grand Solar Minimum, absolute madness to be trying to âcool the planetâ.
February 6, 2021
Reading these replies has really cheered me up, they all agree with me. I have voted Conservative all my life, but never again. It will probably be The Heritage Party next time. I like their manifesto very much.
February 6, 2021
Firstly it is impossible to reach zero carbon (CO2) emissions whilst there is life on the plant when it is all gone not even then. In the past the atmosphere was 20% CO2 but no pollution as we know it today and a lot of living things roamed around but not the polluter in chief.
Secondly the climate is changing but is it down to us completely or nature or an unknown combination of both. And off course is it our CO2 or nature’s CO2. The climate changes in cycles. We were around in the ice age. Not that long ago in terms of the Earth’s Age. What is true is the warmer it gets the rate of CO2 release increase.
There is no scientific evidence to support the green house effect otherwise it would be discussed at length on various TV programmes to convince us on a weekly if not Daily bases. One fact is that CO2 reflects infrared radiation very well. Water vapour better but does not build up in the Atmosphere. It rains.
Heat is conducted and Radiated. ( home water filled radiators /electric bar fire) The CO2 layer which is increasing will only return the radiated Heat not the conducted Heat which will be conducted up in the atmosphere and warm it.
So we just stop generating Heat and the place will cool down Perhaps đ So the plan is to stop generating CO2 but not Heat. But if we warm up the planet more trapped CO2 will be release by nature.
Bit of a problem. We may cause more pollution trying to reduce CO2. Perhaps if we still want to warm the planet we might as well focus on cutting down pollution in all it’s forms and plant a lot more trees hopefully the CO2 from a growing population might provide enough CO2 for them to grow. And of course the vast amounts of Heat we will continue to generate. About 100watts each not sure how much CO2 each per day đ
February 6, 2021
One last time!
The Greenland Ice Core Record.
This means that:
a) In interglacial periods, it is almost always warmer than it currently is.
b) 10,000 of the last 11,000 interglacial years have been warmer than this.
BTW the average length of an interglacial period is about 10,000 years. We are overdue.
February 6, 2021
Studies have shown the planet has been greening as the CO2 levels have increased, along with larger crop yields. In addition, land surface temperatures have cooled and approximately 30% of all man made CO2 has been sequestered by this increase in biomass. We have room for improvement in pollution reduction and greater energy efficiency, that has been steadily improving and will continue to do so as technology progresses. So essentially a non problem certainly not one worth the cost of the zero carbon ideology unless you have an agenda.
February 6, 2021
What do I think about Carbon Zero goals? Unconvinced they are necessary and angry that Conserative governments keep pursuing them when they have not formed part of their manifesto. How will I change behavior? Complain to anyone who will listen about the government’s stupidity and recklessness, lament the fact that more than thirty years after the iron curtain fell we have allowed ourselves to be enslaved by the followers of another millenarian cult, and vote for any party offering an alternative approach.
February 6, 2021
Thank you first for many sane articles over the years on many topics.
You ask readers’ thoughts about this. As to the dominant consensus over climate change, there will be increasing contention over the options:
eliminate carbon emissions and seriously hamper technological advance versus funding technology for more efficient methods.
Stopping climate change or bending to it flexibly.
Setting an example to the world or realising the China and others will not follow (will not follow former imperialists).
The current consensus is strong for zero carbon. That will come into contention.
Ten years ago the consensus was strong for UK membership of the EU.
February 6, 2021
I don’t doubt that the climate is changing. It has been warming and cooling over many hundreds of millennia. However, I do disagree with the notion that man and his dependence on fossil fuels and his penchant for eating meat is having the effect that the acolytes of the Climate Change religion would have us believe. And certainly not to the point where every country and person in them is mortgaged up to the hilt to reach that arbitrary net-zero position. What if we get to net-zero and the climate continues to change? The fact that there’s a carbon credit scheme worth billions and administered by financiers says it all.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. After all this is not an infinite resource and other dependable power sources like small modular reactors will need to replace them in the energy mix. Likewise, there should be a drive towards more energy efficient homes and work places. Otherwise, it’s inevitable that we won’t be able to keep the lights on, if we continue to decommission efficient gas fired power stations.
As to my personal tastes, I’ll not be rushing out to buy a veggie burger anytime soon.
February 6, 2021
If I became convinced that in order to save the planet our Nation should adopt plan zero then of course I would be willing to play my small part. However at the moment that is a very long way away. One hears from many renowned people that CO2 emissions must be drastically reduced but they never delve into the science and certainly never expose themselves to difficult questions.
I am not a scientist but have been taking a keen interest in the topic for more than ten years. It surprises me that mankind is responsible for only about 4% of CO2 emissions, apparently the other 96%, which is from natural sources, doesn’t matter. I am also led to believe that the direct effect of CO2 is quite small but is vastly amplified by a hypothetical major net positive feedback from water vapour.
There are other reasons, too many to mention here, that cause me to have serious doubts about the need to drastically cut our emissions of CO2. What worries me most is the apparent lack of scrutiny of this policy;
not it seems in Cabinet, not in Parliament, and not in the media. I am surprised that, unlike the European issue where throughout the last fifty years there were MPs in both major parties opposed to membership and later a party dedicated to leaving, there seems no organised opposition to the Climate Change Acts. There are however several excellent websites regularly pointing out the errors of the Government’s climate related policies.
February 6, 2021
Renewable energy is a relatively new technology, and new technologies always begin by being less profitable than the existing ones, because the existing ones already have the necessary infrastructures in place. The first railways were essentially expensive toys, as were the first cars and the first aeroplanes. That means that the initial investors in a new technology lose their shirts. The only choice we are faced with is whether those initial investors are to be individuals or taxpayers as a group. In the end, though, we will not be resisting renewables, but competing to be at the forefront, at which, happily the UK is usually pretty good.
February 6, 2021
We need more natural, less waste , more consideration for livestock with more vegetarians, the use of abundant natural resource not harmful to the planet, less greed .less selfishness, fines for those disposing of plastic incorrectly and less plastic packaging. We need to take care of what we have and not always be looking for something better .
February 6, 2021
Net Zero.
I see the Nu Greenists have been attempting this by sniffing each other’s farts.
Net Zero is simply a way of making us poorer whilst telling us it’s for our own good. We’re going back to Downton Abbey – where the only cars we touch will be the ones we polish and the only ones we drive are the ones we chauffeur … except they’ll be driverless.
Red pill or Blue pill ?
The future is virtual. Our kids are half way in it already. Let’s get the best internet we can. It will be the only way to keep the masses happy.
February 6, 2021
SHANGHAI (Reuters) â China put 38.4 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity into operation in 2020, according to new international research, more than three times the amount built elsewhere around the world.
Including decommissions, Chinaâs coal-fired fleet capacity rose by a net 29.8 GW in 2020, even as the rest of the world made cuts of 17.2 GW, according to research released on Wednesday by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a U.S. think tank, and the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
February 6, 2021
the whole issue is another example of how completely and utterly out of touch with the real world that the majority of our political and journalistic classes are.
a fair amount of this will end up like Prescott’s promises on becoming Deputy Prime minister, which were clearly nonsense, but he stood there and solemnly promised to deliver them, and of course the result at the end of his term was the exact opposite. stuff like promising that the numbers of cars on the road would go down. a lot of the political class are this stupid, and a lot of them are prepared to trot out any old nonsense.
we have already exported a lot of our manufacturing to china and india by mandating expensive anti pollution measures here, more of this will only lead to more of the same, this does not reduce net world pollution. so complete nonsense.
February 6, 2021
I commented on this thread earlier but didn’t read the other posts when I commented. I have now done so and 90% agree with my own position which is pretty much that “Climate Change” is an enormous scam. I find this very reassuring – I didn’t think I was alone but I did think I was in a small minority. OK the link was from Conservative Home so the sample was not representative of the whole UK population. But the UK population have not yet been told how much “Net Zero” will cost them – when they find out, I rather expect they will expand my small minority into a large and vociferous one, and maybe even a majority. If all our major political parties insist on pursuing this lunacy, then (as some have already commented), it creates a Brexit-sized opportunity for the Reform Party. Can Nigel Farage save us from elite stupidity for a THIRD time?
February 7, 2021
The stamp of âelite stupidityâ deserves to be applied to so much of what we must endure these days. May the stamp become widely used.
âBufton Tuftonâ became the shorthand for old fashioned stick in the mud conservatism (an undeserved slur, probably, on a man of considerable achievement, Tufton Beamish). Itâs time that a handy handle can shorthand for so much nonsense that conservatives have had to suck up from their own ranks in the time of Cameron, May, and now Johnson.
Reason, facts, and calm debate are being easily swamped by the snappy catch phrases of wolves dressed as sheep, BLM, for instance, âsave the planetâ, and other tabloid trash.
February 9, 2021
The release of carbon, sequestered very slowly over millennia, but released in a short space of time through the burning of fossil fuels is bound to have a warming effect on the planet. It would be prudent to err on the side of caution and attempt to reduce emissions somehow. In my mind, the real questions are how should we tackle it and not if it exists. It raises the following questions.
1. Will the crippling costs associated with the changes give China an unfair advantage as it pretends to be on board with reducing emissions but anyone can see it is nothing more than lip service.
2. As the population will increase by 1.2bn people by 2050 in the Middle East and Africa alone – more people than in the whole of Europe, any cuts we make will be dwarfed by increased demand for energy across the globe.
3. The only real way the world can generate power in the volumes required is to go nuclear. However, do we really want nuclear power plants in Africa and unstable regions of the world?
My point is, if we do not have significant population reduction globally and the prolific use of nuclear energy production everything else is just very expensive window-dressing.
February 6, 2021
There is a limit to what one nation can do unilaterally, without being penalised in competitive markets by high energy costs. CO2 is no respecter of international boundaries. We need to use our full diplomatic weight to get the USA, China, India, Poland, Germany and other coal burning nations to stop. We should be proposing that all coal fired power stations are converted to clean (decarbonised) coal and should try to get American backing.
February 7, 2021
I am not sure what you are hoping to achieve other than gauge the proportion of your followers who believe the whole thing is a scam. Our individual opinions count for nothing and there is no honest and transparent debate happening. The “citizen’s climate assembly” is a further scam pretending to bring in concerns and views of the common man but is a pretense.
I will continue to do whatever I think is right for my family to survive and prosper, my friends and community as well if I can. That includes a degree of independence in food and energy, the choice of products I buy and the investments I make.
February 7, 2021
What will I do?
I will support any politician or political party who oppose the climate catastrophe agenda.
Itâs the biggest threat our society and economy face today and the most important issue in politics right now.
It threatens capitalism, it threatens freedom, it threatens democracy. It will hand economic and political victory to China on a plate.
Climate-scepticism is currently very niche. In surveys 10 -20% disbelieve the catastrophists.
But Euro-scepticism was niche once.
An equal and opposite movement needs to emerge, and if that isnât within the Conservative Party it will have to be outside it.
February 7, 2021
The 2030 target is way too short.
The UK should be aiming for the average CO2 reduction of the G20, or maybe the average for Europe. Aiming for no.1 in the situation we are in is ludicrous.
As pointed out previously on here, UK is circa 1% of global emissions, and if all UK emissions were stopped tomorrow, the global reduction due to that would be eaten up by one years’ growth in China and India.
This is one instance where we really are an insignificant little island.
February 8, 2021
Twenty or so years ago you could have similarly said that, given that all UK political parties were signed up to European integration and that no major parties had a significant number of members opposed, how were we going to cope with becoming a citizen of the EU rather than the UK. There was, after all consensus amongst the party hierarchies and fringe movements like Referendum Party were seen as little more than a joke. Fast-forward to today and we have left the EU, not because the Conservatives had a change of heart, but because the party was forced to move to staunch a tide of lost votes by offering a referendum. Even then, the establishment fought tooth and nail to disregard the result and, had Johnson not taken over the party and made the right noises, the Brexit party would have made significant inroads into the Conservative vote in 2019. The truth is that if a significant proportion of the UK population is opposed to a government consensus then political parties can arise to capitalise on that, either by changing the agenda or – if that fails – by gaining enough of the vote to sweep aside the established order.
In this regard, the EU could be seen as an abstract problem – however much money we were sending to Brussels and how much policy they were sending back, most people didn’t see a significant impact on their daily lives. Resistance for most was based more on a feeling that something was wrong. The zero carbon drive, however, will make sweeping changes to people’s lives, preventing travel and imposing changes in diet and lifestyle, and drive significant numbers into fuel poverty. The idea that governments imposing this deprivation will have it all their own way is naive – there will be a pushback and, if a future Conservative party doesn’t respond as they did to UKIP and change tack to follow the public mood, they will be swept aside.