As we near a final text from COP 26 it appears the main producers of CO2 in the world are wedded to their fossil fuel economies and most plan to produce more CO2 over the next few years. China is planning more coal power stations, Germany is keen to keep hers at least for this decade, India thinks she needs to burn more fossil fuels to grow her way to better prosperity. There will be no new Treaty out of Glasgow. The idea was to flesh out the Paris Agreement with detailed national plans and targets, and to move towards more global enforcement of action through sharing information and applying moral pressure to countries that are falling short. There was never any plan to have an EU like structure with enforcement in court and with sanctions against non compliance.
Meanwhile the rich and powerful of the world turn to carbon offsets to allow themselves to enjoy private jets, air conditioned hotels, grand meat meals and the rest. Faced with charges of hypocrisy when they lecture the rest of us on stopping travel by passenger jet or diesel car, and criticising our reliance on gas boilers and meat from the supermarket, they tell us they have offset their more extravagant carbon based lives by buying pardons. They identify an investment in trees or windfarms or solar panels somewhere and claim that part investment as an offset for their carbon generation. The offset market can grow massively, as there is a plentiful supply of potential projects that some agency will rate as suitable as an offset.
The EU has also established a system of carbon permits. If a company wishes to burn fossil fuels to make steel or cement, it needs to buy or be granted carbon permits to allow it to burn the necessary fossil fuels in the process. There is much discussion about what the price of the carbon permits should be. The market in them has recently driven the price up to Euros 60 a tonne of carbon. This is now a substantial added cost on industrial activities that require a substantial fossil fuel input.
I would be interested in your reactions to this activity. There is a need to avoid scams and greenwashing. There has to be an understanding that this will make things dearer as the cost of carbon taxation enters the industrial calculations.
I was talking to a London taxi driver yesterday about the new electric cabs. He pointed out that they also contain a 1.5 l petrol engine which can be turned on to keep the battery charged. Apparently to get the range for a day’s work the petrol engines are much used. Such developments need to be taken fully into account when trying to work out how to decarbonise transport.
November 12, 2021
Good morning.
It was once a standard joke that, if governments could tax the air we breath, they would !
Laught ye no longer.
Leaving aside the hypocracy of the COPOUT26 Jamberee, I see our PM has give ÂŁ240 million of our money away, while at the same time putting up NIC, Corporation Tax and numerous other taxes. Let us hope that this winter is not particually cold as I am sure they will say there is little money left to keep the elderly warm with extra State Pension payments.
November 12, 2021
+1
According to an article I read, the excessive one is being taken in hand by the big cats.
Letâs hope!
About time really.
November 12, 2021
There’s 3 by elections for Joe public to show their displeasure.
Flop26 is a showcase of bovine manure and hypocrisy.
Life chugs on as normal, everyone realises global warming is a scam to Rob the little man whilst enriching the great and good.
Thank the lord it’s over.
November 12, 2021
+1
Absolutely.
Totally sick of all the rubbish!
Apparently they spent ÂŁ32 million on (making?) videos for presentations at âFlop26â.
(Nice description!!)
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
When we discuss relative GDPs, Sir John is always keen to focus on GDP-per-capita, understandably enough.
However, when it comes to CO2 emissions he dwells entirely on national outputs, which makes China of 1.4 billion people about the largest – also equally understandable, and revealing too.
However, on a per capita basis it comes well down the list, with – I think – Canada about the worst, and the US and UK rather near to the top.
Coupled with the fact that historically these latter countries have already put most of the extra atmospheric CO2 where it is it is gives the Chinese and other developing countries grounds to say that what is being asked of them by some is not equitable, and they have a point.
Joe Biden’s engagement with China is therefore very welcome in this light.
Reply The world scientists concentrate on world totals so it is China which matters most
November 12, 2021
It would be a very strange climate that takes note of per capita levels of pollution and not total levels.
November 12, 2021
‘when it comes to CO2 emissions he (Sir John)dwells entirely on national outputs, which makes China of 1.4 billion people about the largest ‘ Correct.
And not just the people, what about the fossil fuels burnt?
Well I don’t think the output of Malta is a major concern. St. Greta hasn’t mentioned it.
November 12, 2021
I agree with NLH.
Much of China’s CO2 output is to provide the West with goods.
We have lost control of how those goods are made so making us too poor to afford them is the plan.
Little Greta says Britain should go first as we started the industrial revolution – she refuses to acknowledge that we started modernity, and all the good that came with it; all anger and no thanks.
The retreat of the glaciers started 12,000 years ago – without a chimney in sight – and those we see falling into the Arctic ocean today used to extend to England some 10,000 BC.
Climate change has ALWAYS been with us and unilateral CO2 reduction is just as dangerous as unilateral nuclear disarmament. It will not ‘save the planet’ and the rank hypocrisy of politicians, celebrities and Royals will not be tolerated nor hidden behind greenwash scams … we can’t do much about eco billionaires (who only just recently helicoptered themselves to a super-yacht(ship) for a birthday party for one of their own but they only deceive themselves and (particularly) their daughters.
The BBC has been a disgrace. Filling our children with much terrification on Covid, Greenism and by telling them that they are inhuman and worthless if they are white.
(A 1000 blokes landed by boat yesterday – five lifeboats unable to rescue other seafarers – how’s that good for the UK’s carbon footprint ?)
November 12, 2021
Yes, Sir John, I agree that China matters most materially re atmospheric physics.
However, that alone does not entitle the already-developed world to demand things of billions of people -who each have far less that they do – to make sacrifices which they themselves, and their forebears during their respective developments did not.
This requires a far more nuanced approach, and it appears that Joe Biden grasps this clearly.
November 12, 2021
I don’t wish to prevent you from complaining about the west Notts boy, but there is little point in the few (the West) giving up anything if the many (the East) just use it to increase their standard of living and to start with the behaviours that you find so intolerable.
So the East needs to rein itself in just as much as the West – if indeed we need to be reined in, rather than pursue a more conservationist approach.
November 12, 2021
But, the developing countries are not automatically entitled to products, technologies and capabilities they haven’t developed.
Or do you condone IP theft? Is that what you mean by “nuanced”?
November 12, 2021
Nottingham Lad Himself :
âCoupled with the fact that historically these latter countries have already put most of the extra atmospheric CO2 where it is it is gives the Chinese and other developing countries grounds to say that what is being asked of them by some is not equitable, and they have a point.
No, they donât have a point.
Firstly because if AGW is a fact then the developed countries did not know it at the time they started to industrialise.
Secondly, since we are told by our PM, the civil service, academia and our MSM that wind power is now the cheapest form of energy (costs dropping by 70% this decade says our PM at PMQs) then why arenât China and the developing countries taking advantage of this new technology and building wind farms instead of coal-fired power stations?
Donât they have any wind in China and India?
November 12, 2021
Now thats a good point
November 12, 2021
Because they know wind is a scam
It’s not cheap any It’s not reliable.
As for cost dropping 70%, why are we still subsidising it
November 12, 2021
Here’s another scam – when fired in a power station wood pellets produce more co2 then UK coal…..and yet UK coal is demonised
November 12, 2021
How much carbon offset per tonne of fossil fuel do the Chinese pay when making steel or other manufactures?
November 12, 2021
I believe that they plant a tree somewhere in Africa…..right next to their lithium-ion battery mine
November 12, 2021
China overtook the UK in per capita emissions in 2014. Since then the gap has grown enormously. UK emissions were just 4.7 tonnes CO2 per capita in 2020, while the Chinese reached 6.9 tonnes CO2 per capita. The global average is just over 4 tonnes CO2 per capita. That should be seen in the light that many populous countries have rather lower needs for heating in winter than the UK.
November 12, 2021
The only problem, “lad”, is that CO2 is not harmful, so who cares?
November 12, 2021
We need more CO2 not less! Plants need it and we need plants. Physics proves that doubling CO2 will result in virtually no increase in warming. Unfortunately, those who believe in global warming are impervious to facts.
November 12, 2021
+1. The less people know about science, energy, climate history, CO2, transport, entropy ⊠the more they believe in the net zero religion and ârenewablesâ.
Nicola Sturgeon claims climate change is a ‘feminist issue’. Well perhaps this is why. Rather few women read STEM subjects – currently only about 20% are female at undergraduate level. Historically and at higher qualification levels even it is even lower percentages.
So perhaps they are more susceptible to this endless âBBC thinkâ, charities and government propaganda.
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
Conclusive proof with a system as complex as Earth’s climate for anything is not possible, so your claim has to be false.
However, based on observations, on existing proven relationships, and on the best models that mankind can make, it appears that greenhouse gas emissions caused by man will likely cause us serious problems, and with a probability that is reasonably calculated by the world’s most dedicated scientists to be far too high for any half-sane person to ignore.
I note that some here do ignore this fact, but that contradicts nothing that I say.
November 12, 2021
Nottingham Lad Himself :
“Conclusive proof with a system as complex as Earthâs climate for anything is not possible, so your claim has to be false.”
There is no proof.
Correlation is not causation and we do not know if higher Earth temperatures increase the CO2 levels rather than higher CO2 levels causing the Earthâs temperature to rise.
The AGW activists have no answer as to why we had an ice age maximum 22,000 years ago and why the planet started warming back then with absolutely no man-made CO2 emissions.
November 12, 2021
That might indeed be suggestive of a claim, but it absolutely is not conclusive proof.
Why are you unable to grasp these simple matters?
November 12, 2021
Grasp is the wrong word NHL
You mean believe.
It is the new religion.
November 15, 2021
I do not know about AGW activists but the explanation why there was an ice age 22ky ago is linked to Milankovitch cycles, and an explanation for the melting and its acceleration was published by various authors between 2008 and 2012
Origin of the 100,000-year timescale in Antarctic temperatures and atmospheric CO2, J.R. Toggweiler, 2008, Paleoceanography, 23, PA2211, 17 pp.
Wind-driven upwelling in the Southern Ocean and the deglacial rise in atmospheric CO2, R.F.Anderson et al., 2009, Science 323, 1443.
Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during last deglaciation, J.D.Shakun et al., 2012, Nature 484, 49-54.
OR, because you did not read it in your favourite paper or website does not mean that some scientists have not tried to propose explanations. Whether these explanations will still stand in 5, 10, 20 or 50 years time is another question, as science is as good as its participants.
But I do not know exactly why, but I would not think youâre such a participant ⊠as you appear not to know the state of play in these matters of glaciation-temperature-CO2.
Just a biased onlooker, arenât you?
November 12, 2021
Why were the predictions for an increase in the rate of temperature growth post 2000 wrong if the models used are correct?
From these models experts said, no oil left, no snow in Europe, no snow on tops of mountains, no polar bears, the Maldives under water and many more dire predictions that have not come true.
Have a look at extinction clock.org which lists all the doomsday predictions made over the decades by experts and see how they have not happened.
November 12, 2021
The predictions from the green lobby remain, but the goalposts and dates have changed….oh and they want even more money
November 12, 2021
‘It appears… likely, … a probability…’, you say. That’s quite a qualified ‘fact’, lad. More like a theory, I’d say.
What about the ‘facts’ on the destruction of economic prosperity and limitations on freedom that the net zero agenda entails? They look pretty definite to me. We now know the agenda will cost ordinary people a lot, even just to maintain a half-decent lifestyle. Nothing theoretical there.
So I’d want to see the track record of these ‘most dedicated scientists’ since they started making claims about climate over 30 years ago, before I agreed with their agenda.
And it doesn’t look good.
November 12, 2021
Spot On
November 12, 2021
Scientists have to eat Nottingham chap. They go where the money is. Unlike artists who starve to be right.
November 12, 2021
Your claim is not true. Even the IPCC admit that their alarmist scenarios are unlikely. I’d go further still, because they assume that the world will multiply its use of coal several times over, which is not going to happen, and that additionally the climate sensitivity to higher levels of CO2 is at the extreme top of the modelled range, a contention that is simply not supported by factual measurements.
November 12, 2021
According to UN IPCC Cop26, I thought we were all going to die this Saturday if the world didn’t pledge to the 1.5 degree rule…..maybe at the next Cop27
November 13, 2021
Totally agree…. this salient fact keeps being ignored. Surely better to protect green spaces & plant more trees. Curb the destruction of the rain forests & concentrate on birth controls. To control head count in a sustainable way. Rather than use man made viruses & experimental vaccines!
November 12, 2021
@Mark B +1 the operative being to GIVE, not invest there is no return there is no future
November 12, 2021
This carbon demonisation is just money grabbing and virtue shaming/signalling. CO2 is not the problem, but if the various governments of the world manage to reduce CO2 it may well become a major problem. I doubt this will happen though. King Canute was far wiser than the majority of current politicians. Money should be spend preparing for climate change (which has, and will, always exist) and not wasted on the folly of mankind thinking they can change the climate at will.
We know we will run out of fossil fuels, and pollution is a big problem, but the overpopulation problem will never be tackled. Nature itself will have to deal with that problem via starvation or plague. Governments the world over want workers and consumers, and that is far more important than the planet, so all their virtue signalling over CO2 fools nobody!
The UK (under Boris) will destroy itself to ‘save the world’ and will achieve absolutely nothing in the process! We really need a referendum, but after the last experience I know the majority of UK politicians will try to ignore any result they don’t like!
November 12, 2021
Indeed the governments net zero agenda would only ever make sense if all four statement below were true:-
1. CO2 is fairly certain to cause disastrous thermal heating of the climate.
2. That the solutions pushed wind, EVs, solar, heat pumps, green hydrogen… actually worked to reduce CO2.
3. Full worldwide cooperation on the war on CO2 will be forthcoming.
4 That the vast costs of decarbonisation will do far more good than harm and there were no better ways to spend it that would be more beneficial.
It seems clear to me that not just one but probably all four statements are untrue. There is no way I can be convinced that all four are true.
November 12, 2021
Mark Carney actually says something sensible for once in the Telegraph today.
Chinese zero Covid policy is global risk, warnsâŻCarney, Former Bank of England chief urges Communist state to change course as inflationary pressures grow.
November 12, 2021
Its (Chinese zero policy) only a global risk because they’ll have a competitve advantage over the west……because they wont do anything to reduce carbon
November 12, 2021
+1 Shirley M and Cynic. Good to that I’m not the only to see through the lies…
November 12, 2021
King Canute was indeed a wise man. It wasn’t he but his courtiers and sycophants who claimed that he was so mighty that ‘even the wind and waves’ would obey him. His beach demonstration was to show that he was a good Christian (convert from Norse paganism) King and that only God could command the wind and waves. We, poor souls, don’t seem to be able to control anything to do with the weather.
November 12, 2021
Shirley M : âThe UK (under Boris) will destroy itself to âsave the worldâ and will achieve absolutely nothing in the process!â
Indeed, and I expect the rest of the Wold, particularly the developing countries, will be watching to see how not to implement a transition to zero carbon should this still be even considered necessary in a couple of decades.
They will watch us dash to install hideously expensive, intermittent renewable energy with non-fossil fuel back-up and try to run a country with expensive but impractical, unworkable and unproductive electrical equipment.
The UK is taking a massive risk in thinking that the rest of the World will be firstly following our zero carbon by 2050 path and secondly thinking that we can sell to the World our zero carbon âexpertiseâ.
The rest of the World, if zero carbon is still considered necessary, will be implementing newer and hence more affordable and efficient technologies.
This is one of the reasons why China is waiting.
November 12, 2021
Shirley – do we really need politicians. If we did not have 650 MPs the country would still function.
November 12, 2021
The world is not overpopulated.
To say no effort is made to tackle the perceived problem of overpopulation is also not quite true. A proportion of abortion supporters think it is a great way to keep the population down a bit.
A sixth of the world’s population were until recently subject to a limit on the number of offspring they were allowed.
We’ve always been able to provide enough food for everyone. Except in those exceptional circumstances when people too isolated to reach experienced severe harvest failures.
November 12, 2021
Sir John – your reference to ‘buying pardons’ hits the bull’s eye.
The corruption of the belief in purchasing pardons helped to lead to the Reformation – perhaps the rampant and shameless hypocrisy of so many Green Prophets of Doom in Glasgow will do the same.
One can only hope.
November 12, 2021
The Catholic Church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567. Will this new Church of the War on CO2 (plant food) eventually do the same?
November 12, 2021
It is instructive to consider Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner preaches on the idea that greed is the root of all evil, before seeking contributions for indulgences, whereupon the host responds robustly saying he would rather castrate the Pardoner than pay for and kiss his indulgences.
November 12, 2021
Agreed, it is wholly discredited, it is just a means for the rich and powerful to escape the restrictions on their lifestyles that they would impose on others.
November 12, 2021
It’s rather like saying, “If I contribute some money to a hospital, can I go round thrashing a few people?” In moral terms, it’s totally indefensible.
November 12, 2021
@ SM – agreed. Also the administrative costs and complexities of the carbon pardons schemes will doubtless give rise to all sorts of nonsense and outrages. If it is appropriate to undertake activity that produces carbon, let us accept that and avoid constructing some great edifice of associated virtue signalling.
November 12, 2021
If one casts their minds back to the first electric PV panels and the subsidies thrown at them by government the reality was and still is, that it is only the rich to well off in society that have a spare ten grand could afford to take up the offer.
Nothing has changed much then.
Back in September the CCC was exposed by the GWPF for misleading MPs on their costings for Net Zero. No minister has verified one way or another on the conflicting figures picked up on the report. Nothing much has changed then.
How sad that so few of our elected politicians are confident and capable enough to actually research the facts to question and present them to the critical masses as provided by our host.
November 12, 2021
Net Zero Watch has audited Johnson’s claims that wind power costs have fallen by 70% , they found it was wrong in the order of ÂŁ100s of billions .
The lie of cheap renewable energy is exposed by their attempt to get a $100 billion fund to support developing nations ‘transition’ to renewable energy. If renewables were as cheap as they claim why the need to subsidise these countries? Surely they would not pursue a policy to have more expensive fossil fuels ?
November 12, 2021
Iain Moore :
“The lie of cheap renewable energy is exposed by their attempt to get a $100 billion fund to support developing nations âtransitionâ to renewable energy. If renewables were as cheap as they claim why the need to subsidise these countries? Surely they would not pursue a policy to have more expensive fossil fuels ?”
Absolutely correct.
Not only are renewables expensive, they are also intermittent and no grid-scale non-fossil fuel technology exists.
In fact I have read an engineering article which points out that the CO2 emissions saving from wind power is nowhere near the amount claimed because of the necessity to have fossil fuel power available, often running “hot” with no power output so as to be instantly available for when the wind drops.
November 12, 2021
My domestic energy bills are still rising
November 12, 2021
We have not had any sensible costing for the net zero lunacy. The cost is huge must be ÂŁ40K per household at least and all for a net negative benefit. Then rest of the world will not follow and slightly higher CO2 is on balance probably a net benefit. Please many of the solution pushed such as changing an old car to electric or wind farms often (after construction, maintenance and backup or storage needed) do not really work. Not even work in net C02 terms.
November 12, 2021
@turboterrier +1 All this give-away taxpayer money funds the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor. Then to rub salt into the wound it all goes to foreign states while removing jobs and livelihoods in the UK. This giving away of taxpayer money is not for investing in the UK, so nothing ever comes back nothing is generated for reinvestment.
November 12, 2021
Nota# : âThen to rub salt into the wound it all goes to foreign states while removing jobs and livelihoods in the UK. This giving away of taxpayer money is not for investing in the UK, so nothing ever comes back nothing is generated for reinvestment.â
Agreed. The Governmentâs âNet Zero Strategyâ talks incessantly about all the âgreenâ jobs that will be created. But all these jobs are internal UK jobs funded by the UK residents and taxpayers, fitting new boilers, laying new pipes, building expensive wind farms etc..
Do we no longer have to produce and sell anything to the rest of the World to pay for our imports?
November 12, 2021
MPs have to rely upon secondary research supplied by their civil servants and their party machineâŠafter all MPs are busy counting their revenue from the MPs job, second job, third job, rental income & expenses while attending every jolly on the planetâŠ.cynical goddame right I am cynical
Unlike our host, our other MPs need to question more, question everything and question this government
November 12, 2021
It all feels so sinister. So coordinated. Planned with ill intent. Societal and demographic reconstruction. Industrial reorganisation. Environment. Race. Gender. Religion. I see it all rammed down our throats 24-7. As though there is an overarching plan. It doesn’t feel organic, it feels political. Forced. Authoritarian. Unnatural. Immoral. Anti-libertarian.
I certainly don’t enjoy John’s delivery of such matters as though they are normal and reasonable. They are not reasonable, they are totalitarian in nature and it’s simply the height of hypocrisy to see politicians who have always elevated the issue of personal freedoms above all else supporting such barbarism
The State has become a threat to us all. It is unacceptable for libertarian politicians to pretend all is hunky bloody dory when in fact we are facing a future in which jackbooted thugs of the State can simply arrest us for stating our own identity, preferences and opinions
History will condemn this British political class for its embrace of authoritarianism in direct opposition to British values that have stood strong for centuries
November 12, 2021
+1
Youâd need a great deal of certain/committed support to meet this wokery head on.
Look at what happened to others who tried it. @ political wilderness.
Everything that has happened in the past few years ( or is it 1,000?) is very, very WRONG.
And can not persist.
Or maybe things are beyond help or hope?
November 12, 2021
+1.
Time to set up our own parallel societies and eliminate the pseudo-choice of a 2 party system offering identical globalist policies.
November 12, 2021
This government plans to introduce Plan B and follow other authoritarian countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Austria and France. Why else sack thousands of care workers which will cause the NHS to be overwhelmed and give them the excuse to also introduce draconian laws here. We know from the data that the vaccine doesn’t stop transmission of the virus, positive tests are reducing, as are deaths from COVID. Our government has become a tyrant and must go. There is a co-ordinated attack by politician’s to bring down the western world. Any politician who uses the slogan Build Back Better is part of this.
November 12, 2021
@ Christine – also if this week was the deadline (represented as essential and absolute) for care workers ceasing to pose a risk to those in their care through becoming vaccinated, why is it that not until 1st. April next year do N.H.S. staff face a like deadline?
November 12, 2021
Exactly, they want to overwhelm the NHS but not be seen to be the blame by having sacks thousands of NHS workers. I can’t see any other explanation. They can’t say these NHS workers are a danger but leave them in post for another 6 months. I never had any faith in Jabid once he came out with the Build Back Better globalist slogan.
November 12, 2021
DOM +1. I feel the strength of your feeling as I too have reached the stage where I care little who I upset. Perhaps politeness and understatement is becoming a thing of the past but I am tired of being treated like a second class citizen whose only purpose is to vote every 3or4 years and then have that vote ignored.
November 12, 2021
Total covid19 deaths in New Zealand: 33.
Covid 19 deaths in the UK (at least) 150,000 (actual figure unknown.)
Polls show that the people in New Zealand are generally satisfied with their government.
The UK has no written constitution, so it is only ever at the most one Act Of Parliament away from whatever form of authoritarianism that supreme parliament might decide.
New Zealand is one of the few similar countries in that regard, but its people seem to be more awake than some of those here at the moment.
November 12, 2021
It will be interesting to see what happens when New Zealand rejoins the rest of the world.
They can’t lockdown for ever.
November 13, 2021
That sounds very much like you are hoping that they suffer mass death.
That is unlikely, as we now have vaccines, unlike during the time while people were dying at a thousand a day plus here.
Their exemplary leadership has simply shown up many other countries for what they are.
November 13, 2021
Oh, and they are NOT under lockdown, precisely because they effectively eradicated the disease, so they were winning all round.
November 13, 2021
They have closed their borders and one day they will have to reopen them.
That’s inevitable NHL
Compare their geographical position and the age obesity and health of their population and most importantly their population density in relation to UK and Europe.
November 12, 2021
Agree – I feel the hand of the unelected United Nations
November 12, 2021
GC – The UN is an evil organisation.
November 12, 2021
One thing in particular does indeed feel sinister, Dom.
It is this party of governments’s apparent intent to dissolve Freedom Of Information.
If they achieve their apparent aims, then it would result in a person being liable for criminal prosecution simply for telling the truth as to what is happening in their place of work, if the Government did not want that to be revealed – and even if it were a matter which exposed the public to danger.
November 12, 2021
Correct. Hence Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, he who heads up the WHO and totally failed with the Covid Pandemic, lecturing us in the DT today about Climate Change and how to tackle it.
This is The Great Reset in action. I wonder when they’re going to tell us that we no longer own anything because it’s all been confiscated …. for the greater good (of the Elite)?
November 12, 2021
New Zealand, which followed WHO’s advice to the letter and more, has had only 33 covid19 deaths.
The Tory UK, which basically ignored it for precious weeks, has had over 150,000.
It is not WHO which failed.
November 12, 2021
Ten times more sheep than people and a very sparsely populated country.
Let’s see what happens when they rejoin the rest of the world.
November 12, 2021
I am sorry you didn’t see fit to publish my response to DOM’s submission today, JR.
When I raised the subject , I suspected that you wouldn’t. I have the greatest respect for you, Sir John, and regard it as a privilege to be able to address you and others directly through these columns. However, I do feel that there is truth in DOM’s penultimate para.
There is a parallel in the money given to University research to investigate the role of steam power in helping colonial expansion. Here we have two great English institutions (the one I mentioned in my unpublished response to DOM) and the other that has led to the numerous heritage railway systems throughout our country.
They are both part of the fabric of England and its people(witness Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed of 1844). The one will never be the same again, and the other is clearly under attack.
November 12, 2021
The whole world revolves around economics and all the time the wealthy countries, societies can see a loop holle to do nothing they will use it. Grandstanding, hand wringing worthy of an Oscar but in reality nothing changes because there is no accountability. It is and always has been the poorest in society that will take the hit. The media choose to ignore the reality or present doomsday scenarios to justify the actions of the few. They do it because they can and like the people they are indirectly supporting they too are not accountable. Nothing will change until there is more than an element of accountability.
November 12, 2021
Ramping up carbon levies whilst adhering to coal for energy production makes little sense . The French are pursuing nuclear as ,hopefully ,are we.
Reducing dependence upon fossil fuels is no doubt , noble, virtuous , sensible and the right thing to do for the future of the planet but it will not happen overnight.Meanwhile we needs must utilisie fossil fuels in the transition
It therefore makes no ecological or economic sense to be importing oil, gas and coal when we have abundant supplies of these commodities on our doorstep : North Sea oil & gas; fracking in the North West of England and coking coal in Cumbria
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
David +1
November 12, 2021
It isnât happening overnight. The target is for this to happen within about 30 years. This is a perfectly achievable target.
30 years ago next to nobody had computers or mobile phones. Whoâd heard of the internet in 1991?
30 years before that – in 1961 – relatively few houses had central heating and hardly anyone had been on a plane.
30 years before that – in 1931 – outside toilets were still pretty much the norm, domestic electricity was pretty rare and hardly anyone had a car.
30 years before that – in 1901 – there were no planes, hardly any cars and kids still worked down the mines.
30 years before that – in 1871 – slavery has barely just ended in the US.
The world can change quickly in 30 years. It really is time for you lot to stop your incessant whinging at everything and help to change it. Do good. For once in your lives.
November 12, 2021
But 30 years ago, Wokingham already had a John Redwood as a MP. So no change here.
November 12, 2021
Would you do something more relevant, like list the world population and number of power stations for each of those 30 year intervals?
November 12, 2021
And other than rightly banning slavery, how many of the other innovations you note were imposed by government, rather than being gradually taken up by the populace and its representatives as their benefits were perceived?
November 12, 2021
For once Andy you talk sense. The curve of development is an accelerating one. It is for government to set the targets and for those with technical talent to offer marketable solutions. My gripe is that a technically inept government are dictating how we do it. All those anti vaxers would have a point if Boris had produced the vaccine. He had the sense to facilitate and encourage it, but to leave his chemistry set in it’s box. Within thirty years we could be looking at Fusion Energy as the norm. Congrats on for the first time not weaving Brexit into your submission.
November 12, 2021
Yes – Fusion Energy always 30 years away!
November 12, 2021
latest developments at MIT now put it at only 3 decades away.
November 12, 2021
Andy
What you fail to see is that we have embarked on unilateral CO2 reduction.
This is at least as dangerous as unilateral nuclear disarmament.
The rapid ascendancy of a superpower that has no sentiment towards the environment whatsoever. None.
November 12, 2021
Weâve already done the greatest good that anyone can do – we voted to leave the anti-democratic EU.
November 12, 2021
Correct – lets continue the good work and also leave the anti-democratic United Nations
November 12, 2021
Which of those points would you like us to revert to, Andy?
November 12, 2021
Andy :
“Yes”, but we shouldn’t dash to implement the existing expensive, impractical technologies but do the necessary R&D first to find affordable and workable alternatives to fossil fuels.
The rest of the World are not following our âNet Zero Strategyâ.
November 12, 2021
track population growth over those 30 year periods as well young man.
November 12, 2021
Short term just get fracking and use natural gas & oil and coal too as needed. Then wait for better technology to come up with improved nuclear designs, nuclear fusion, better batteries or other better alternatives.
Rolling out duff premature technology using subsidies just litters the country with duff premature technology that will need to removed later. This decided by dopes in the Climate Change Committee and the Civil Service will be another top down government disaster.
Sensible R&D first then when and only if it works and is economic fine it will fly out of the door without subsidies.
November 12, 2021
Totally agree LL
November 12, 2021
LL : âRolling out duff premature technology using subsidies just litters the country with duff premature technology that will need to removed later.â
Totally agree. But not just litters the country with duff premature technology but costs a fortune to build, use and then take down and replace.
Apparently the PPE, economists, classists and history graduates running the BEIS (no engineers or scientists notice) have forgotten how we wasted money on building canals which lasted only some 60 years before the railways put them completely out of business.
And which country today would copper/aluminium wire up its buildings when glass fibre technology is available? Or, indeed, simply use 5G or 6G wireless technology instead.
Being the first to net zero carbon is very risky and particularly if the technology used is more expensive than current technology, however green it may be.
Not only has the Government not implemented a cost/benefit analysis of its unilateral Net Zero Strategy but it has not done a risk analysis either.
Perhaps such costings and analysis is not feasible when the technology has not yet been invented?
The Net Zero Strategy is a leap into the unknown.
November 12, 2021
@David Peddy +1 nearly with you on that ” The French are pursuing nuclear ” to date based on what has been committed too existing and pipeline, is the UK taxpayer ‘giving’ the French UK taxpayer money. There is no investment that will produce a return to create future funding for an on behalf of the UK taxpayer.
November 12, 2021
Agree
November 12, 2021
Gosh.
So other countries arenât queuing up to make themselves poorer?
Whoâd have thunk it?
November 12, 2021
+1 no just Boris, Sunak, May and Carrie it seems. Plus about 90% of the mad MPs of all parties as we saw with the insane Climate Change Act. Nearly all art graduates or non graduates needless to say. Put Lords Lilley, Lawson and Matt Ridley in charge please.
November 12, 2021
We don’t want any so called Lords running things. In fact we don’t want any so called Lords at all.
November 12, 2021
Not the Lords but just those Lords.
November 12, 2021
Itâs a strange thing indeed, a bit like some people I know who became vegetarian (only for a few months and in-between the odd bacon sandwich) because it was deemed fashionable âŠ.Currently the western elites believe ânet-zeroâ as fashionable
November 12, 2021
No – none of the twenty-seven are considering leaving the European Union, EH.
November 12, 2021
the politicians may not want to consider, but the people certainly reflect on it.
November 12, 2021
@Nottingham bloke
Yet Macron said a while ago, after we had voted to leave, Thea he thought the French people would vote to leave IF they were given the opportunity.
Of course, as a dedicated autocrat, he will never allow the French people a say.
Many of the countries are net recipients – they are not going to bite the hand that feeds them. Even in Germany, a lot of people want to leave.
November 12, 2021
That is a very bold claim NHL considering the anti EU feelings in Spain Italy Hungary and Poland.
“no one…….”
Any facts or data to help back that up?
November 12, 2021
Today’s post just confirms that is only our stupid government are the only ones who are totally committed to the lemming like charge to obscurity on the preachings from the pulpit of the Church of Renewables to Save the World.
Anyone with an ounce of credibility and honesty would get up and resign to what they are proposing. As it is it is totally unsustainable.
November 12, 2021
The polls are telling you what people think and I am not buying the spin that it a one issue (sleaze) situation. People agree with a generic âsave the planetâ approach but the obvious double standards, virtue signalling and frankly lies from Ministers when it relates to technical aspects (your taxi story, costs of air pumps etc) are transparently obvious.
We see that even hydrogen technology policy, generally accepted as a vital solution, is being disrupted by civil servants who donât believe in it/have bet their reputations on batteries. A metaphor for a wider uselessness amongst Ministers. Only another 1000 migrants yesterday, zero comment/activity in response.
It is now increasingly obvious that this and much else is being pushed by Boris and his naive No 10 kitchen cabinet unchallenged by even Ministers of State fearful for their jobs.
That fear is becoming reality not from Boris but from the polls threatening their very existence in Parliament so cracks are starting to appear in their so called unity.
Until the hot air (excuse the pun) emanating from Johnson is exposed for what it is, meaningless, hypocrisy, superficial etc nothing will change.
The public can see COP was a sham and who was its main cheerleader? Quite.
November 12, 2021
The public can see COP was a sham and who was its main cheerleader? Carrie? Or perhaps Theresa May and “could not put the skin of a rice pudding” Boris? Does Sunak really believe in this vastly expensive tosh?
November 12, 2021
I think that we are reaching the point at which there is a dawning understanding that batteries are never going to solve the problems of relying on intermittent renewables. The cost (now over $30,000/tonne for battery grade lithium carbonate) is prohibitive, already heavily China dependent, and beyond the available resource.
Hydrogen is just very expensive sticking plaster and is in reality not a credible solution either. Green hydrogen is roughly ten times the cost of methane in normal market conditions. We need to have very cheap electricity to make it viable – too cheap to meter nuclear power, for instance. It is a false analysis to pretend that this comes free from surplus wind. If you give electricity away you have to charge higher prices for electricity that is sold in order to cover the costs.
November 12, 2021
My reactions to EU carbon ‘permits’, Sir John?
I was going to say they give our wretched government politicians an opportunity to show whether we have left the EU. If they grow a backbone, they will refuse to introduce such permits in this country. Then I discovered this, from last May:
‘The government has used the established EU emissions trading scheme, which British companies were part of for almost 15 years, to set the trigger price for intervention.’ (FT)
Well, that answers my question.
November 12, 2021
You have left the EU. And you are still moaning. Tragic. But funny.
November 12, 2021
There is only one person moaning my stupid friend.
November 12, 2021
Andy: What is tragic, and not at all funny, is the government’s alignment with what the EU does, rather than consulting what British citizens want as regards net zero, by having a referendum – or let’s call it a ‘People’s Vote’, then you might like it. You may say the electorate voted for net zero which was in the Tories’ election manifesto. But surely we should be given a second chance, a People’s Vote’, remember?
November 12, 2021
Your position is amusing. You claim a massive mandate for your Tory pensioner Brexit – despite only 42% voting Tory at the last election.
Yet the exact same manifesto that said Get Brexit Done had a net zero by 2050 pledge in it and you deny a mandate for that. Weird.
I never wanted another referendum. Referenda are a silly way of getting thick people to make dumb decisions. I was perfectly content with the 9 consecutive general elections which gave overwhelming backing to our place on in Europe.
Having had your silly Brexit vote – and having spectacularly failed to deliver on the terms they promised – my view has long been to let the Brexitists get on with it, to watch their project fail and to undo it in due course. I remain surprised at just what an epic cock up the Brexitists have made of it all – but I find it very very funny laughing at them all.
November 12, 2021
andy
You moan about the last election claiming the government although returned with a huge 80 seat majority has no real majority and then with strange logic you say the previous 9 elections gave overwhelming backing to our place in Europe despite them have governments with similar voting patterns.
November 12, 2021
Actually, I didn’t support Brexit, Andy. I could see the arguments on both sides, and abstained.
You’re just wittering on as usual, as far as I’m concerned.
November 12, 2021
I think Richards point is that much of our civil Service have’nt left the EU – at least not in their hearts…
November 12, 2021
If we had TRUE Brexitists working for the leave vote we would have it completed by now. The globalist UK Establishment which includes many MPs and majority of civil servants are doing everything within their power to delay the final edict. It is not in their interests.
Follow the money. Cui Bono.
November 12, 2021
Andy. And you’re not funny but tragic.
November 12, 2021
RICHARD. Quite right. Our Govt is still a tool of the EU.
November 12, 2021
We just need a Martin Luther.
Believe it or not, it is possible to buy a personal carbon indulgence for ÂŁ6.99 per month.
Convince someone of their sins and then extort money on the promise of forgiveness/absolution.
âAs soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.â Tetzel.
November 12, 2021
That’s the basis of all religion. Give to the rich church (the C of E has 8 billion in investments, but no money for their church roofs) and you will be saved. Their master Jesus was against all this but they give themselves excuses and parade in expensive fancy dress.
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
Iâm sorry, but a carbon permit proves what a load of hog wash this whole thing is – a massive scam! A lot of of us suspected it, Cop26 confirmed it, and this proves it without doubt!
Look after the environment, with proper husbandry of the land and rivers; keep rubbish to a minimum with responsible disposal; stop crowing on about recycling and try reusing and repairing things; donât build on flood planes; would all make a big difference.
The sad thing is, with all this desire for global leadership weak leaders are now in charge of most of the western countries – meanwhile Russia and China see an opportunity. God help us all, because weâre going to need it! WWIII, anyone?
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
I knew there was “a cost” to industry of carbon pricing, but I was shocked to hear the actual figure you mentioned. No wonder the Chinese and Indians are not signing up to this type of thing, and their goods are cheaper than European ones (OK, other factors in play but even so).
My shock also demonstrates that the MSM don’t tell an important story to consumers about the real costs of all this regulation. No surprise there, but to counter that wouldn’t it be nice if there was more transparency provided elsewhere – for example a massive red warning at the top of one’s power bill that you have just paid “x” amount more than necessary because of government-imposed green taxes/subsidies. Currently you have to look at the small print to see this sort of thing – e.g. when buying a plane ticket, the info on taxes etc is way down the page.
The population at large is not being informed about all this; if it were then the irony is that we might have policies more akin to China’s regarding greenery. I’m sure there’s also a pun here about being “kept in the dark”.
November 12, 2021
Wanderer
Kept in the dark.
All to do with mushrooms and how they grow them. This government are good at that.
November 12, 2021
This is why it’s important for an parent of any little Greta to be a bit tough.
Turn off the heating, stop the pocket money, take away the phone, buy her second had clothes, no trips in the car whatsoever. An austere Christmas dinner, a ruler, a pencil case and an orange for presents….
They really need to feel what it’s going to cost. My guess is that the vast majority of child demonstrators wouldn’t last the winter and are just doing it to bunk off and be with the crowd.
November 12, 2021
That isn’t what is being proposed, though, is it?
It is the finding of new means of keeping our homes warm and comfortable, for free personal transport, and tasty nutritious foods, which do not cause the problems that the enormous burning of fossil fuels and the industrial farming of cattle do.
November 12, 2021
It’s definitely going to be done by heavy taxation and fines. Hardship, in other words.
November 12, 2021
But NLH some are law and not proposals e.g. no gas boilers in new homes after 2025 and no new petrol or diesel cars after 2030. You seem a bit short on facts.
November 12, 2021
No NEW – not including replacements – gas boilers – that’s somewhat different.
November 12, 2021
To put it into some kind of context it adds over 100% to the cost of coal fired generation., which despite that remains cheaper than gas or wind.
November 12, 2021
I do not share the view that man made CO2 is driving catastrophic global warming. Thus the whole apparatus of carbon pricing and offsets is meaningless. The ideas that natural forces can be disregarded, that temperatures can be predicted to an accuracy of 0.1C and that mankind can control future global temperatures reflect extreme arrogance. Instead of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, the model should be Daedalus who knew the limitations of his creations, adapted and survived.
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
Some people do not share the view that the world is round. But it is.
Your âviewâ on climate change has been completely disproved by science. There is no longer any debate about whether or not man made climate change is happening. It has been proven. It is not a matter of debate anymore. Your view is flat wrong.
This is not to say the climate does not change naturally, it does. But it is man made activity responsible for the speed of the current change.
Imagine how much easier this would all have been if we had started the shift we need to make in the late 1980s when PM Margaret Thatcher first identified and spoke about climate change as a great risk – making her the first major global leader to do so.
She recognised so many things her self proclaimed disciples do not. The value of the single market for example – and, as a proud European, the value of a place in Europe.
Your generation did nothing to fix the climate crisis for 30 years. We will fix it for our children. Get on board or get out of the way.
November 12, 2021
Still just 1.3 degree rise since 1880
And hardly any rise since 2000.
November 12, 2021
Totally agree oldtimer but to quote from the Met Office which is a government organisation “The leading cause of climate change is human activity and the release of greenhouse gases. However, there are lots of natural causes that also lead to changes in the climate system”
Unless that attitude changes or there is a change of government (or perhaps fear of a change by an election) then nothing will alter the course of action they are adopting.
November 12, 2021
Spot On
November 12, 2021
+1 (I wish it could be many more Oldtimer).
November 12, 2021
How much pollution are we creating with our at sea taxi service?
These people only ever want to see what they want. But surely pollution no matter what its origins are is still pollution. Where is the trade off?
November 12, 2021
Turbo
Perhaps we could convince them to simply row across, as we seem to have given up on trying to stop them. Over 1,000 yesterday I see reported.
For goodness sake John, stop the pull factor, all the time they are not returned back immediately, are given free accommodation, heat, light, power, food, clothes, medical assistance and spending money, they will come in even greater numbers.
Perhaps if Boris knew how much they were contributing to the UK’s global warming figures and our increasing tax rates (to pay for them all) it may encourage him to act !
Unfortunately it looks like he couldn’t care less.
November 12, 2021
5 RNLI boats on this operation yesterday. Unavailable for other call outs, not even for those who have paid for them.
Then there is the thought that a lot of these blokes will soon be driving uninsured and unlicensed on our roads.
The RNLI is probably a net risk to the average citizen now.
November 12, 2021
23, now 24,000 visitors have crossed the channel just this year. They have been put up in hotels, I imagine given government contract negotiations that each room will cost ÂŁ100 per night and that young men will not be expected to share (that might lead to an asylum application for persecution for sharing a room with a member of the same sex). Those that crossed in the years before may well still be in accommodation or have been put up in a house deemed large enough for their needs. I imagine this is a large amount of money even before the new Afghani invitees are factored in.
How much does a residential place at a care home cost per night – ÂŁ100 perhaps.
We have a solution to the social care funding issue. If only we would turn them round mid channel or just ship them back when they land.
Zero sympathy, it cost me a fortune and huge amounts of time to bring my family here. There is a process.
Belarus – another situation where personal choice has led those involved to their plight and another situation that should be reported with zero sympathy.
November 12, 2021
24,000 visitors….thats more then the number of our armys combat troops
November 12, 2021
What’s the RNLI going to say to the parents of a young girl stab to death by an illegal immigrant taken to England by one of its boats…..even if its only one death- its a death too many
November 12, 2021
The taxi thing is interesting. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that it will always be more efficient in energy terms simply to use the petrol engine to run the car rather than use it to charge the battery to run the car. So those taxis are producing excess CO2 and other emissions through burning excess petrol.
November 12, 2021
Roy, indeed loss of efficiency twice, instead of just once.
November 12, 2021
What happens when the next or following Mayor of London closes all the petrol/diesel stations?
I see a new traffic jam along the A roads from London – lines of electric taxis queuing for a fill-up.
November 12, 2021
Given the charging times the existing Fuel stations will not have enough forecourt room to make them viable to convert to electric charging stations, they would need to be at least 30 times bigger. !
November 12, 2021
the point was the electric taxis will still need to visit forecourts regularly for liquid fuel.
November 12, 2021
On a recent motorway journey I made a brief comfort stop at an MWSA. I noted a bank of 8 Tesla charging spaces, of which 5 were in use. It would not take much increase in EV numbers to see it completely overwhelmed.
November 12, 2021
And you don’t just sit in a queue for five minutes a driver.
November 12, 2021
Alan. Ah, yes, but don’t forget that many drivers will be off the road as the cost of driving will be sky high.
November 12, 2021
Roy, you are overlooking the fact that the efficiency of a petrol or diesel engine is not constant but is related to the speed of the engine and that battery powered electric motors are extremely efficient therefore running the engine at its optimal constant speed will potentially create a more efficient system overall.
November 12, 2021
engine speed, related to torque optimalisation, vehicle weight, air and road surface resistance, efficient road speed with minimum braking/accelerating.
November 12, 2021
forthurst :
What about the extra energy consumed by having additional weight from two engines?
November 12, 2021
The weight of a small petrol engine plus an electric motor is unlikely to be anywhere near that of the weight of a diesel engine which has to be more robust than a petrol engine; also electric motors have maximum torque at zero revs so there is no need for a large gear box either. On the other hand you have to add in the weight of the batteries. Probably not much in it. Does the system include inertial recovery by utilising braking as well?
November 12, 2021
No, the second law of thermodynamics if properly supplied with data does not say that.
A petrol engine used to charge a battery can run constantly at its most efficient speed, whereas one used to power a car directly will have to run as a compromise across a wide range of speeds.
A good battery charges and discharges at very high efficiency.
That is why hybrid cars give high mpg.
November 12, 2021
Not on a long motorway run.
November 12, 2021
I agree that carbon permits are thoroughly deceitful. This Net Zero lunacy is set to run at least several more years and unless the reality of gradually revealed true costs brings a public backlash, it will become entrenched such that the role of UK government will simply become the management of decline. That is a pessimistic view so we need to try and stay optimistic as right is on the side of climate scepticism. Attribution and value laden computer modelling are not science. Providing the likes of Mr Redwood, Steve Baker, and Craig Mackinlay grow in number and continue with their relentless logic, then we have a chance.
November 12, 2021
Imagining that the Tory party will ever be permitted to be overrun by patriots with gumption is
delusional because it is contrary to the purposes of the owners of the party who fund it.
November 12, 2021
According to a Congo government report 20% of the Cobalt shipped out of that country comes from illegal mines where some 40,000 children are employed in slave labour.
Put that in your knotty, green pipe, Johnson.
And smoke it.
More noxious than tobacco.
November 12, 2021
No doubt some bright spark or SpaD will come up with the idea of Slavery Permits shortly ….
November 12, 2021
And Tesla drivers.
November 12, 2021
Plus,more prosaically,the enormous amounts of additional copper that will be required to go all-electric.
November 12, 2021
Everhopeful. Absolutely obscene but we can rely on our righteous politicians to turn a blind eye. Let’s face it, using child manual labour who have no transport and probably live in shacks is SOOOOO green. You know it makes sense.
November 12, 2021
Allegedly the delegates at COP enjoyed Borisâs speech because every line âwas a jokeâ asked about some details. He supposedly replied âwhatâs details?â
I, for one, am not laughing.
November 12, 2021
While it is possible for countries to make money and avoid real action by trading carbon, targets will not be hit.
World leaders and other authoritarians using climate to dictate our lives would be better to focus on conservation and using the market to influence our behaviours. There is much supplicant appetite for their message so use the market.
November 12, 2021
The world is now becoming so full of various scams of one sort or another, that it is starting to become almost impossible to tell the difference between fact and fiction.
The growing volume of so called Spin, outright lies, white washing, green washing, half truths, greed, prejudice in all of its forms, victimhood, faux Woke rage, the blame culture et al, are just but a few of the growing manipulations used by all sorts of groups, to gain some sort of power or advantage for their own cause, be it in politics, business, religion, even sport and entertainment.
Mankind is on the road to destroy itself as we used to know it, if it does not wake up soon.
Carbon pricing is but just one of the small scams in such manipulation.
November 12, 2021
+1
There is only one group of mankind that will escape the dark days ahead – the powerful with money!
November 12, 2021
alan jutson ‘ you said it – welcome to the world of Steve Bannon, Domnic Cummings, and 350 on the side of a bus ‘ the world of chaos – like our very own – they believe that if you want to fashion a new order with themselves at the helm then you need to destroy and then build back again but in their own likeness.. a big like levelling up.. and other such nonsense
November 12, 2021
Carbon offsets are a perfectly sensible option – in certain fields.
Whilst the technology exists to decarbonise much of what we do, we have to accept that it is not all there yet. There is no current viable alternative to air travel, for example. Have we yet found a way to make cement or steel in sufficient quantities in a carbon free way?
The answer to some of these thing is no – and whilst we wait for the technology to catch up, which one day it will, we need to offset in those sectors.
Nobody sensible wants to ban air-travel Mr Redwood. It is scaremongering nonsense to suggest otherwise. But it is perfectly reasonable to suggest we all fly less and use greener alternatives, like the train, wherever we can.
High speed rail has a very important future across Europe and the United States. Perhaps you should all support HS2. Which still costs less than one year of state pensions.
November 12, 2021
It would seem that government UK are very slow learners. I doubt they do , preferring circumstances to build to such a crescendo that it it becomes force majeure and they have to act. Covid taught them fleetingly that politicians did not have answers, in fact they were totally unprepared. In a flash of desperate inspiration they encouraged people who knew and incentivised them to produce a vaccine followed by private talent to get it in peoples arms. That is the way to go for government. Recognise the problem, put a loose timetable on resolving it, but leave it to people who understand the technology and most important the market place to get on and resolve it.
Climate Change is only a problem in that it produces environmental situations that need to be acted upon to limit their extremes. There is not a snowballs chance in hell of moving some imaginary thermostat back to a position that is considered desirable. For the UK there are benefits, warmer and longer growing seasons to enable better yields and new crops. More wine for instance. combine this with the increased use of technology and we might get nearer to the desired self sufficiency we talk of.
The Environment is a totally different , man made situation that we can do something about to the lasting benefit of all. Think what a particulate and noxious gas removal would do for heart and lung disease and ultimately the workload of the NHS. Government should set the targets and timetable in this respect and direct those who are technically capable to come up with solutions that are marketable, not the ones we see gestating before our eyes at present.
My final comment is that Carbon Offsets are the religious confessions of the past, appropriate as climate change has become the new religion. You pay your money with a few Mea Culpas , feel better about it , and move on to repeating the sins. Last thought how about painlessly reducing the Worlds population by 50% with a drive for less procreation.
November 12, 2021
At times on this site, it is difficult to fathom if commenters are ârunning with the hares or hunting with the houndsâ, some appear to change from one subject matter to another. Meanwhile, you never know who the term âeliteâ, is actually being applied to. But, the following read sums it up:- (Google â â)
âMeet the âinactivistsâ tangling up the climate crisis in culture wars. As climate science has gone mainstream, outright denialism has been pushed to the fringes. Now a new tactic of dismissing green policies as elitist is on the rise, and has zoned in on a bitter row over a disused airport in Kent.â (Jack Shenker Guardian)
November 12, 2021
Well…. if the cost of going green means a severe curtailment in lifestyle for the less well off and only the better off can afford to continue normally and the rich can afford to buy indulgences to continue an ever upward curve of consumption (including private space travel) then – yup – green policies ARE elitist.
It would make a LOT of difference to see Camilla and Charles move into a semi (albeit with security) and using Zoom for most engagements.
November 12, 2021
Aren’t you going to allow them a cycling tour of the country?
November 12, 2021
Pointing out the absurdity of billionaires flying thousands of miles to attend a conference on trying to reduce pollution and reduce CO2 emissions is a very reasonable thing to do especially when these elites are demanding us peasants make big changes to our lifestyles.
Let these leaders set us virtuous examples.
But they do not.
Perhaps we should keep quiet about it, like in the olden days when criticising the Lord or Monarch could land you in trouble.
November 12, 2021
The Governments continuing and growing range of subsidies, penalising taxation polices, regulations, are fast destroying and preventing sensible long term customer reasoning on their purchasing decisions.
Need a new car, a new boiler, somewhere to live with no extra environmental taxes, house type construction/age, are just but few of the moving decision targets that the above policies complicate.
A reasonable decision taken now can look crazy in a decades time, with so many changes in the pipeline.
Stick with what you have got until the dust settles appears to be the most sensible outlook, as todays subsidies could be tomorrows taxation policy.
November 12, 2021
Off topic, Dublin and Brussels represent the UK as being on a par with the hostile authoritarian state Belarus, so that an ill-informed bystander like US President Biden might think that unless we are tightly constrained we will deliberately push unwanted sub-standard goods across the Irish land border into the Republic and so into the wider EU Single Market, yet here we are joining with Ireland and the US and other UN security council members in condemning Belarus:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/joint-statement-on-belarusian-authorities-instrumentalisation-of-migrants
“Joint statement on Belarusian authoritiesâ instrumentalisation of migrants”
“We, the current European Union members of the Security Council, Estonia, France and Ireland, joined today by the Security Council members, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States and the incoming Security Council member Albania, condemn the orchestrated instrumentalisation of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilizing neighbouring countries and the European Unionâs external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations.”
So before writing about “punitive actions” in yesterday’s Irish Times editorial piece:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-the-northern-ireland-protocol-the-price-of-repudiation-1.4725007
“The article allows the suspension of the protocolâs provisions in the event of âserious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of tradeâ, allowing the EU unilaterally then to take proportionate ârebalancing measuresâ in retaliation. Brussels has been considering such sanctions, but there are fears that punitive actions confined to the protocolâs remit, notably NI-UK trade, will not represent either sufficient economic leverage on the British, or may simply increase pressure on the Government in the Republic to police trade on the Border â precisely what the protocol was supposed to avoid.”
the author might have paused to consider that this part of the EU’s external border is with us, the UK, still a friendly power even though no longer part of the EU federal project, not with Belarus.
November 12, 2021
One paragraph in this other article:
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2021/1111/1259235-brexit-eu/
“EU official says UK demands over protocol ‘unattainable'”
encapsulates the essential stupidity of the Irish protocol as a means to protect the EU Single Market:
“The official said there had been agreement at the level of EU UK technical talks on the degree of risk that should be accounted for when goods move from GB to Northern Ireland.”
A stupidity which goes right back to the days of the Theresa May-Olly Robbins “Therolly” combo, eg:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/07/15/ministers-decide-civil-servants-advise/#comment-947577
“Which is also why Therolly is incapable of grasping that if the EU doesnât want properly disinfected chicken included in the goods worth a mere 0.1% of UK GDP which are driven across the land border into the Irish Republic then rather than having a law to prohibit its importation into the UK, as we do now, we could equally well pass a new law to prohibit its exportation to the EU, including across the Irish border.”
November 13, 2021
Whar you talking about Denis .. J mean who has time to read all of that stuff.. jezz
Heres the bottom line – we are bunched – and unless boris and ftost behave themselves we are bunched even further.. also am tired of writing supposidly good english and have now decided to try Ulysses style
November 12, 2021
I agree with NLH.
Much of China’s CO2 output is to provide the West with goods.
We have lost control of how those goods are made so making us too poor to afford them is the plan.
Little Greta says that Britain should go first because we started the industrial revolution but this is to fail to see that we also started modernity and all the good that came with it. All anger and no mercy from her.
I disagree with the indulgences that the rich can buy to continue their opulent lifestyles whilst lecturing the rest of us and deceiving their daughters that they are doing their bit.
Unilateral CO2 reduction is just as destabilising and dangerous as unilateral nuclear disarmament. It means a new ruling superpower and one that has no sentiment about the environment whatsoever.
November 12, 2021
What about its production to supply 1.4 bn people?
November 12, 2021
They’ll carbon off-set that by shipping people to Africa (and Taiwan)
November 12, 2021
China’s exports are just 18.5% of its GDP. Most of its GDP is for the benefit of local people. The UK exports rather more.
November 12, 2021
Interesting chart at https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/107/12/5687/F5.large.jpg
From the US National Academy of Science. It shows CO2 importers; exporters and consumers by country; GDP and per capita.
November 12, 2021
“Indulgences”, eh? ‘Twas ever thus. Bought by the Greta and the Good, to appease the Green God.
November 12, 2021
SirJ I fully understand your dilemma to reflect and review upon the UN IPCC cop26 report, the associated elite green-washing and the sham of carbon trading/permits
You canât change the wheels on a train while its movingâŠ.your government needs to put a freeze on its green revolution and co2 ban on people cars and domestic heating
The direction of green travel from this government is madnessâŠ.what Glasgow tells us is that half the world doesnât care a toss about âclimate changeâ and these countries account for 90% of co2 emissions, and 100% of plastic ocean pollution – they will flourish and we will suffer
November 12, 2021
Rolls Royce – Small Modular Reactor (SMR) âsounds good newsâ, but is it in reality and the long term?
The UK Government is to GIVEâ Rolls Royce and its investors an equal amount of âtaxpayerâ money as they have invested. â the operative is âto giveâ. This is not an investment! – There is no return, It doesnât create payback for the taxpayer to fund future projects. It is just money being given away.
The UK taxpayer will fund around 50% of the project, then the UK taxpayer as the consumer the power will pay a surcharge on its output. So the UK pays twice over.
We are also now aware Macron has announced a similar route of small reactors for France, but this is classed as an investment. Here is the ârubâ Rolls Royce’s co-partners in the UK give away happens to be the French. So the earning from the UK taxpayer created version of reactors gets diverted from the UK and paid to the French, then France gets to tax those earnings. This isnât me being anti the French or any foreign state, it me not believing of the naivety and stupidity of this Government. If the UK taxpayer is taking a chance on a risky investment by funding something like 50% of the project at the very least they should get to own the same proportion with the same payback as other investors.
This is not only a SPEND then find the TAX Government, its a Government that will NOT ever invest on behalf of the UK taxpayer â its a give away Government. Then appears to be the more than can fund foreign domains the better. Crazy if not deranged notion of serving the people with good Government has been lost on this gang.
November 12, 2021
Carbon permits are just another way to rake in money – a different form of taxation, but still something that while excusing the sins of the rich as well as producers, it does nothing to cure the alleged Co2 problem.
The only people that benefit from this scam are those living off the profits of such schemes – the rich and powerful continue their acquisition of wealth.
The taxis mentioned are just one more example of how we are sold a concept, but to make it work it has to rely on fossil fuels. We are being led down the garden path with excuses, false promises that nothing will really prevent us from enjoying life as we do now, and be mobile, when the reality is that their solutions not only do not work, they will cause us all grief as our quality of life goes back to the days before we used coal.
Here come the new dark ages.
November 12, 2021
Carbon taxes are really back door subsidies for renewables. They force up market prices, meaning that less direct subsidy is needed.
November 12, 2021
Correct
November 12, 2021
May I make two suggestions, Sir John. First, that the government audits every last ‘climate change’ policy measure it has adopted, willy-nilly, and assesses their value-for-money. Second, that the government pulls some of its funding for ‘climate change’ research and uses the money to establish a Climate Change Rebuttal Unit – so that it has access to counter-views. In the meantime, I’ll be spoiling my ballot papers.
P.S. A cold, rainy, windy day here. I’ve put the heating up to 20C – while I’m still allowed to.
November 12, 2021
Not very nice for a trip on the water off Dover etc. But still a free ride on a ‘new’ rescue boat, sadly without a convenience or a coffee machine, but the ride is a short one. I wonder if anyone has asked to go along the coast sightseeing?
November 12, 2021
Didnât you get the memo from the conservative party â the science is settled, never ever question âThe Committee for Climate Changeâ communiquĂ© againâŠ. youâve been warned, if you continue weâll turn down your heating by remote using your smart meterâŠ. now get with the programme
November 12, 2021
Somebody or something is influencing an intelligent man to have some ill-thought through ideas and take some ludicrous decisions that will drive this country into poverty. There is one thing to try and set an example prior to hosting a major conference but it is stupid in the extreme to assume that one can change the direction of travel of some of the most powerful economies in the world.
We have had the fine speeches from the world’s leaders last week, prior to them leaving their ‘negotiators’ with strict instructions on what not to agree to this week. We have gone from hope to reality with the US and China saying they will try hard to reduce their use of fossil fuels to Saudi Arabia saying ‘no way Jose’. We are left in the middle with egg on our face, a screwed up motor industry and a totally inadequate supply of electricity.
Carbon credits are no more than a cop-out for politicians and the wealthy for when their time comes to enter the ‘Pearly Gates’ and they can plead that ‘they were carbon neutral’.
Yes, the world is warming and has been doing so steadily for over 250 years. Over the same period the world’s population has grown alarmingly and both are now critical. In 1969 in a TV interview Prince Philip was asked for his view on the growth of the world population, to which he answered ‘I expect nature will take care of that’.
This begs the question as to whether we are witnessing Nature taking control with flooding and Covid-19?
A ghastly thought but only history will tell.
November 12, 2021
+10
November 12, 2021
The spike protein is cytotoxic so in order to counter it, it is necessary to inject people with the
spike protein. Engineering a virus that causes the common cold to cause a more serious illness and then supplying a very expensive injectable antidote is an excellent business model.
November 12, 2021
The odd thing about Covid 19 is that despite a very large number of fatalities, according to the Government, the mortality rate for the UK.in 2020 was about 1% which is within the normal range. I think this in itself raises many questions.
November 12, 2021
BOF: what’s also worrying is that beginning in July, mortality in England has been well above average every month – *even without counting ‘Covid deaths’*. For the warmer months and early autumn this is unusual, but it doesn’t seem the public health authorities are looking into it. You almost get the impression that for our political masters some deaths are more important than others.
November 12, 2021
Yes, George, the world has been warming over the last 250 years or so. But that was after the Little Ice Age, when people regularly skated on the frozen Thames. And prior to that the world was warmer than now, and people farmed in Greenland. It looks like nature tend to move in temperature cycles, regardless of human activity. Unfortunately, if you fell for the climate alarmists’ ‘Hockey Stick’ lie, you wouldn’t know about that.
November 12, 2021
‘carbon permits’ what a deranged ill thought through notion. All that happens is that jobs get exported so we can import product from the most polluting parts of the World using the most polluting methods of transport to get them back to the market.
UK Governments, even more so since Boris highjacked the Country with his equally deranged religion have done more to increase World Carbon emissions than would have happened if nothing was done. Boris is one of the Worlds biggest hypocritical World Polluters on the Planet.
This Hypocrisy that is just about seeking a headline surly has gone far enough
November 12, 2021
After all thatâs said and done â what if Piers Corbyn (brother of you know who) is correct about climate change http://www.weatheraction.com
Some say heâs a loon and some say heâs brilliant but his research have never been disputed
I am not saying he’s correct but we need to understand and listen to both sides….to date its all been BBC, Sky and the UN pushing man-made climate change
November 12, 2021
The issue comes back to sufficient evidence of climate change being unavoidable, or caused by mankind in general terms, can steps be taken to halt a consensus of opinion that our world is being fatally damaged at a rate which is inexcusable?
Population, land deforestation/mining /sea pollution, upper atmosphere – all worthy of examination and correction.
November 12, 2021
Any wise scientist would continuosly examine both sides…not the climate crusaders
November 12, 2021
CoP26 and its delegates – Economists have a term for it. It is called rent-seeking. That is, where the proponents make a living out of what they claiming should be done. Says it all…
November 12, 2021
The latest draft of the communique from Glasgow offers nowhere near the funding or Fossil Fuel reduction necessary to reach net zero by 2050 or the uncertain quest for a limit of 1.5% temperature rise.
All political parties in the UK, however, remain determined to bankrupt the electorate by persisting that we, almost alone, stick with these goals which on a World-wide basis are now all but unachieveable. China, India, the USA, and many other countries, will be silently laughing at us and relishing the damage being done to our economy by making it so uncompetitive.
We need to be realistic and slow down our headlong rush to an uncertain and very expensive future. We should start by putting back the end of gas heating boilers by at least a decade and IC-engined cars to at least 2035 and Hybrids to 2040. We should also allow more oil and gas to be extracted from the North Sea to offset the strategic problems over Russian gas and the uncertain output from both wind and solar power generation.
With these changes, we would still be going faster towards net zero that the US, India and China.
November 12, 2021
COP26 nearly over, but I’m sure that English rivers are still polluted with millions of gallons of raw sewage.
November 12, 2021
Has anyone found out why we don’t seem to make the treatment chemicals any more?
November 12, 2021
There’s no demand for them, now that the sewage companies don’t need to use them, maybe?
November 12, 2021
The hypocritical Globalist Elite buy off their selfish, destructive lifestyles (their definition) in much the same way the hypocritical Medieval Elite bought salvation from their sins by making a sizeable donation to the Catholic Church.
It simply proves, once again, that the Climate Change propaganda is basically a religion to these arrogant, self-regarding Eco-Loons. And they don’t want the nasty little people intruding on and spoiling THEIR global playground. So the idea is to Carbon-Price the little people out of travelling anywhere ….. whilst they can easily afford to buy an Indulgence.
Meanwhile, Johnson allowed/facilitated another 1000 freeloaders to enter the UK to live the life of Riley, courtesy of British taxpayers. That’s 23,000 this year; mostly young single men who are un-vetted and therefore represent a considerable security risk.
It’s wonderful to know that Priti Patel is jolly cross about it …… but as to actually doing anything to stop it ……. they obviously don’t want to, or they would.
November 12, 2021
Turboterrier: ” how much pollution are we creating with our at sea taxi service? ”
Well, we have the inexhaustible supply of coaches & vehicles on demand travelling up & down our motorways & roads & city centres, to ferry the new arrivals to their onward destinations & next points of assistance, presumably, on a daily basis, at great cost no doubt. Then there is, what seems to be, a regular supply of pizza, at great cost no doubt, reportedly many thousands of pounds just in the last few days which seems to make sense since the unofficial number of arrivals for yesterday alone was reportedly around 1000. ( & now confirmed 504 Tuesday, 695 Wednesday ) Hopefully the pizza company / companies concerned don’t operate with wood fired apparatus. Good incomes though for the transport / food suppliers. Some boats coming across are flimsy we are told but some reportedly now larger and more able to cope with waves / channel conditions too, so one assumes they require more power. And as for the aircraft we keep reading about, chartered or otherwise, at great cost no doubt, running virtually empty with a handful of returns on board after the obnoxious interventions in advance of these flights which we are all too aware of, well, I think we can hazard a good guess on that one.
November 12, 2021
Once again. Man made climate change is a myth, a hoax, and a SCAM.
November 12, 2021
Yeah but Cop26 and Covid is a great distraction from the invading illegal immigrants crossing the channel
November 12, 2021
+1000.
November 12, 2021
Well Sir John, even though there will not be an agreement, there have been other agreements between smaller groups of countries and individual states. One of them, joined by California and Wales (where I live) plans to stop the use of oil and gas, causing premature damage to there own citizens.
The juggernaut grinds on.
November 12, 2021
it will be the end of Easy Rider too.
November 12, 2021
I also had a chat with a taxi driver in the street where I visit in London. There used to be four there. Now there is only one. He would have to buy the new electric taxi when his latest diesel with an engine still permitted is banned. It will cost him ÂŁ85,000 and he said it was like taking out a mortgage. They are up against uber drivers running old hybrids with the petrol engine on all day.
November 12, 2021
We should let it be known far and wide that the UK will not accept any illegal immigrant or asylum seeker that has transverse a safe country
Illegal immigrant or asylum seeker that makes our shores will be held in secure barracks until return to home or safe country
Illegal immigrant or asylum seeker will not be processed
November 12, 2021
Indeed Glen. I am fed up of the promises of government to deal with the illegals then welcoming them rather than deporting them forthwith as Australia did.
November 12, 2021
The biggest nonsense is carting wood half way round the world to burn in Drax power station and claiming that itâs somehow better than burning coal that was mined a few miles away. At the end of the day itâs still burning. Greenwashing lunacy.
November 12, 2021
It’s all just one big money making con that thr rich gain the most from abd the poor pay. What an immoral society we live in and these rich knobs sint really give a toss about the climate as long as the rewards are large and their lifestyles aren’t impacted.
November 12, 2021
+1
November 12, 2021
The ratchet moves on.
Heard a snippet on the beeb at lunchtime, a UCL professor was being interviewed, and they are no longer interested in Net Zero, there must be no CO2 emitting energy generation – IE it must now be Absolute Zero.
But none of them explain and demonstrate how our energy and transportation needs will be met in such a world.
November 12, 2021
So we can send a small team of military engineers to help Poland protect her borders but do absolutely sod all to protect ours. I despair. 1200 yesterday!!
November 12, 2021
Cannot believe this is still not being addressed by the Government – is it part of a wider plan?! What on earth is going on!
November 13, 2021
Ah it’s probably only a gesture to the Polish government to bring them onside – could be that Poland might well be there to help us with the destruction of the hated EU – d’ya think?
November 12, 2021
I learnt today that increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is allowing the earth to become greener by an area the size of the Amazon, principally in India and China. Because there is more CO2 the pores on plants do not have to stay open as long to get what they require, and so they are losing less moisture. This is allowing plants to colonise arid areas. If we lower CO2 these areas are likely to become desert again.
November 12, 2021
I read today that NASA admit that reduced emissions during 2020 did not lead to any change in the rate of increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, and they do not have a rational explanation of this observation. (They tried to claim that lower CO2 in the atmosphere meant less was absorbed by the oceans, which is of course nonsense since CO2 continued to increase – aside from which they have no means of measuring the effect accurately) If that experiment is correct, attempts to cut emissions in the hope of cutting increases in atmospheric CO2 are doomed to failure, and we will simply need to adapt to the changing climate as we go, and accept that climate models fail to explain the trends in CO2.
November 12, 2021
For those who care to research the subject, as we must do, it will become clear that the whole idea of CO2 induced global warming is a fallacy and relies on suspect and manipulated “data”. One only needs to consider the winners and losers to see why it is being pursued.