Politics Home reported yesterday:
Rishi Sunak has said “climate politics is close to breaking point” and that targets must be reached in a way that “doesn't burden working people,” as he defended his decision earlier this year to relax some net zero policies.
Yesterday former US Vice President Al Gore did it now felt like the U.K. government had been captured by fossil fuel interests. He exempted the King from the accusation.
Is Al Gore right? I think so.
What then is Sunak doing (and Starmer copying)? He is making up an excuse that does not exist.
We can easily afford to manage climate change. He is creating an utterly false excuse that there is a budget constraint. There is not, unless of course you refuse to tax the wealthy in appropriate amount. Neither Sunak or Starmer will. They would rather the planet burns.
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Someone who agrees with you. As he says, we can’t give up. We have to try and make Sunak and Starmer see sense.
Thanks
Alas, Starmer is profoundly blighted by what I call moronavirus, the virus that turns brains and consciences to moronic mush! So some hope!
Al Gore is right in my view.
And as for Sunak – austerity and the low wage/low investment economy that the Tories insisted on are what has undermined people’s ability to change.
You could try to explain this to him until you were blue in the face however and it would not register.
I can’t remember where I saw reported yesterday that Sunak, the King and Cameron had all arrived in different planes, not small ones either if Sunak’s was typical. The North East reporter says that he had contacted Sunak asking him to attend virtually, but had no reply.
You can’t make this stuff up.
And how did Starmer get there?
LOL, good question. I don’t think it said in the report, and I haven’t managed to find out. Maybe he is not quite in the ‘large private jet’ class yet?
Yet…..
“targets must be reached in a way that “doesn’t burden working people”
Hmm, so with PV and wind (on & off) delivering elec at less than fossil I’m interested to hear from Sunak how CO2 targest in this area “burdens” working people.
The energy efficiency aspects would work better financially if interest rates were closer to 1 or 2% – well within the remit of the gov. & RES elec would also be cheaper if this was the case.
Politicos only stay in power because most people are unable to identify the nonsense/lies the politicos speak with every breath they draw.
Mike Parr i would be very interested on your views on this article thanks
https://www.argonautcapital.co.uk/blog/articles/2022/04/29/wind-overbuild-why-more-wind-wont-work/
I can tel, you that we all know that
Mr Howe, the article is internally contradictory.
Point 1: wind auctions (on/off i) deliver auction results/prices that are, for the most part less than the cost of gas generation (either CCGT or OCGT).
Point 2: CfDs are only there because the Uk together with other countries has failed to reform its electricity markets. CfDs are the way in which wind & PV “interface” (badly) with the marginal market.
Point 3: elec market reform would deliver more stable prices (the CAPEX-based stuff e.g. RES & Nukes) selling in at their auction prices. Marginal would only apply to what was left of fossil. But price stability does not & never has suited “market traders”.
Point 4: Demand << than generation? – push the surplus into either batts or electrolysers/H2. In the case of the latter, with heat recovery & reuse, efficiencies start to look very similar (batts vs electrolysers). Generation << Demand – use H2 with CCGTs or OCGTs if you must.
Point 5: what happens no wind/no PV – won't happen if the wind fleet is distributed across the Uk (listen to the shipping forecast – I'd be interested to hear of times when there is a flat calm across all areas…….thought not). I'm not against nukes – but if you over build RES – then where do the nukes go in the summer? (perhaps supply electrolysers – but nukes look very expensive – now).
We are moving to a more complex energy system – there will be trade offs and results will often be sub-optimal. If the Uk wants to rely on gas from climate-denying gulf states or Chinese funded nukes – fine. If not then a focus on resources that will not run out might be sensible.
…..”PV and wind (on & off) delivering elec at less than fossil”……………..Unfortunately PV & Wind are intermittent, the wind doesn’t always blow & the sun doesn’t shine at night, so base load power provided by nuclear is essential.
Nuclear is nit the only other option
Your analysis is deeply simplistic
The issue has been discussed here many times
“Politicos only stay in power because most people are unable to identify the nonsense/lies the politicos speak with every breath they draw.”
Democracy now an exercise in herding sheep by other sheep:-
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/02/keir-starmer-praises-margaret-thatcher-for-bringing-meaningful-change-to-uk
What’s not to dislike in verbal diarrhea and monetary system incompetence!
The poor relation in Green Energy discussions is Tidal. The most recent development was announced on 29 Nov 2023:
https://renewablesnow.com/news/nova-secures-eu-funding-for-4-mw-tidal-energy-project-in-orkney-841675/
The consortium comprises the EU, which has pledged funding of 20m Euros, Nova Innovation (the manufacturers of the turbines, and the Scottish Government. It’s telling that the UK Government has no part in this development and indeed has had an on/off attitude to tidal power for c2 decades. What’s even more telling is that, with Orkney already producing more renewable energy than it consumes, the connector cable to the UK Grid is incapable of carrying the excess to the mainland (I suspect it was originally scoped to carry power to the islands). Application for a subsea connector enhancement was made to Ofgem in 2018, but consent wasn’t given until 2020. Construction (also including Shetland and the northerly Western Isles) is now under way but is not expected to be completed until 2027/28. Why does it take so long for anything to happen in the UK?
Meanwhile Orkney inhabitants are paying the highest electricity connection charges in Europe, as, indeed, are all the inhabitants of Northern Scotland.
Sunak cares about ‘burdens on working people’ !
Yeah. Right.
We’re supposed to believe that?
🙂
Yes Andy, you are. If you’re really, really guillible and stupid.
This might be a good time to point out that the wealthiest 10% are responsible for 50% of global emissions while the bottom 50% are responsible for only 8% of emissions.
Another case of the Torys blaming the poor for the excesses of the wealthy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/20/richest-1percent-produce-same-carbon-emissions-as-poorest-66percent-report-.html