If you were asked, or were to ask anyone else:
1. Would you like to save the planet? I’m sure the answer would be yes.
2. Are you prepared to be poorer, financially and socially, giving up may of the luxuries or even basics that make life worth living? And condemn future generations to poverty for absolutely no reason other than a distorted ideology? I suspect the answer would be a resounding “NO”.
The folly of Net Zero and the Climate Change Act is that they are predicated on a false premise. We, in Britain, have been lied to for more than 20 years with the claim that we must cut our CO2 emissions to help “save the planet” from overheating due to climate change.
To do this the UK has shut down our coal generation plants, stopped mining coal, shut down our heavy industries and manufacturing, driven oil and gas companies away by excessive taxes. Instituted a progressive ban on the sale on internal combustion engine vehicles, and hydrocarbon boilers. Our last oil refinery is closing and our petrochemical industries are also being shut down.
The cost to businesses and UK citizens is incalculable, financially and socially.
Alongside this, successive governments are investing wasting money on inefficient, intermittent “renewable energy” whilst at the same time forsaking energy security. We now rely heavily on other countries to provide much of our gas and electricity via LNG (liquified natural gas) and inter-connectors.
The financial cost to achieve Net Zero by 2050 is estimated at £3 trillion in today’s money. I suspect this is a gross underestimate and doesn’t include the revenues and jobs lost by driving oil and gas companies away, the refusal to frack, higher costs of importing LNG, and taxes lost due to companies closing and workers losing their jobs.
Our economy is collapsing. We have the highest electricity prices internationally, making it impossible for large companies to remain viable, and forcing small businesses, shops and pubs to close. Not only is this making the current generation worse off, financially and socially, it’s removed any chance of the next generation being better off than previous ones.
What difference has or will this make to global emissions of CO2? Answer, absolutely none.
Our politicians have forced the exportation of industry and manufacturing to countries that continue to use hydrocarbons and are accelerating their use. China will build another 100 coal fired power stations in 2025. Tata Steel has announced it will build a new blast furnace plant in India, as it shuts down Porth Talbot’s.
The use of hydrocarbons (coal, oil and gas) continues to grow globally making other countries more wealthy whilst Briton’s get poorer and colder. Britain’s naive race to “decarbonise” has allowed other countries to raise their living standards and health outcomes, whilst ours decline.
Our real “carbon emissions” have actually risen as we have to import just about everything we need, however our politicians only count the CO2 produced here, not those needed to manufacture and transport goods we import. So whilst we only produce about 1% of global emissions now, our actual impact is far greater.
Wouldn’t it be more sensible to produce as much as possible here, providing jobs and opportunities, raising more taxes from those companies and employees whilst at the same time lowering CO2 though using more efficient processes at home, and not importing so much of what we need?
Some will say we have to be a world leader in this race. However there is no race and nobody is following. Sensible leaders are looking at our mistakes and refusing to follow our example.
Links
https://www.current-news.co.uk/reaching-net-zero-to-cost-3bn-says-national-grid-eso/
https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters
