Boris Johnson believes the West should be given a “climate change pass” to help wean the EU off Russian gas supplies as he faces mounting pressure over the Government’s 2050 Net Zero target. The Times has the story.
The Times has been told that Johnson wants the West, particularly the U.S. and Canada, to ramp up its own production of gas to help remove the “massive leverage” Russia has over EU countries.
While retaining the Government’s target, Johnson is understood to believe that Western countries should be able to increase gas production during the transition to nuclear and renewables. It came as Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader, announced that he is launching a political movement to campaign for a referendum on the Net Zero policy.
A Government source said: “The Prime Minister has been very clear that one of the massive problems is the leverage that Putin has over a number of European countries over gas and oil.
“We have to address this over the short term, mid term and long term. The Prime Minister is interested in giving the gas industry a climate pass in the transition to nuclear and renewables.” Johnson hinted at the approach during an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica and the German publication Die Welt last week.
“We need a collective European strategy and a Western strategy to diversify away from this dependence,” he said. “There are other sources… in North America, in Canada, in the Gulf.”
Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, suggested at the G7 meeting in Brussels on Friday that a ceiling be imposed on imports of Russian coal, oil and gas which comes down over time. She believes that the “long-term defence of freedom is worth short-term economic pain”.
Germany gets two thirds of its gas from Russia. It recently announced that it is shelving the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. …
Thirty-four Tory MPs urged the Prime Minister to reverse plans to seal two shale gas wells, insisting that Britain must secure its energy independence. Cuadrilla is due to concrete over its wells in Lancashire on March 15th.
In their letter to Johnson, the MPs state: “We urge you to pause and conduct a review. At a time of such geopolitical strife, we cannot refrain from actions that would improve the position of the U.K. and its allies. We have seen how a reliance on imported gas affects the responses of other countries during the initial stages of Russian aggression.” The intervention was organised by Craig Mackinlay and Steve Baker of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group.
Worth reading in full.


Discussion
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“There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”.
a moratorium on nut zero is half-way to an abandonment.
Maybe he doesnt fancy a fight with Nigel Farage. Interesting that his new policy appeared just as Mr F launched his new campaign….
If France can make yoghurt a protected industry, maybe we should bring back fracking in the interest of energy self-sufficiency.
Perhaps he could just decide himself due to covid restrictions before the law runs out later this month? Would save him for going back to parliament, and the green lunatics.
Call who for relaxation of target? Just scrap it, we don’t owe it to anyone to ruin ourselves
It’s a small step, very small, in the right direction. However, it’s going take quite a while to reach any result.
More urgent action is needed to stop the insane plan to stop production of petrol and deisel cars by 2030. It’s too much and far to quick, especially in favour of expensive EV’s. Battery issues, short journey lengths, frequent charging stops, very few charging points etc.
And manufacture of them producing at least as much if not more CO2. Theres no point.
Leave things alone and let the public decide if they want them.
So it has taken Putingate and a kicking from his own MPs to make this “leader” see the bleedin’ obvious.
Net Zero is an impossible target … unless you really do want a stone age society and stone age life expectancy again.
Plenty of irony-impaired eco-loons are tweeting support for that from their iPhones.
Every war-torn cloud…
Johnson just gets more off-the wall surreal every day – what can be done?
What is he on? Who can help us?
No-one in the sold out Tory Party.
Cost of gas up 20 times in the past year?
I was reading earlier today of someone having been quoted £4000 to fill up their 2000 litre oil tank. Heating oil has gone through the roof this last week and a lot of rural properties have no alternate source of heat. Big trouble ahead for gas, electric, oil. How long will the lights stay on at this rate?
My retired in-laws gave up on heating oil for their rural property (on cost, and when it froze in the pipe) and went for electric storage heaters.
They’re not desperately trying to move house before the price hikes hit, and hoping that potential buyers don’t ask how much the heating bill is likely to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7isMkGxOrXs&ab_channel=TheDuran
System collapse. Biden turns to Iran & Venezuela for help
Mercouris discusses energy crisis caused by US actions against Ukraine.
From about 40 mins in.
I wonder what he had to do to get around Carrie so that she’d allow him to do that?
She gets to redecorate the flat and pick the wallpaper again.
He now sleeps with the dog .Poor dog .
Every time he opens his fekin mouth he contributes to “Anthropomorphic global warming”!
This is the problem with net zero. It’s based on such an imminent calamity, that you can’t blink on the policy. As soon as you do, people will begin to question the emergency underpinning it.
Vote Reclaim!
Honestly, Ron, I can’t even remember which novelty ego project that is. I don’t think it’s UKIP 3.0 Ltd, so it’s either Luvvie Lawrence, or the decent but Quixotic David Kurten, unless I missed yet another novelty launch.
And either way, no I don’t vote for parties, because I’m not a flag-waving simpleton. We cast our votes for, and get represented by, the individuals who are actually standing in our constituencies. So that’s what I do. Vote for the person who best represents my views, regardless of rosette, or writing “None of these cads” (or words to that effect) on the ballot.
Party politics are the cause of our woes, not the solution.
Or even Reform
People have got to stop tolerating Western prostitutes saying that ‘Putin uses gas as a weapon’. The USA is the one using gas a weapon and has caused Europe to commit industrial suicide by cutting off NS2. The only way to explain that is that the USA truly hates Europe and wants it destroyed. There’s no discussion possible about that. That NS2 warmongering of the USA was going on for years before Putin went into Ukraine.
Europe needs to grow 60 testicles and punish the USA for trying to destroy their economies.
There needs to be a declaration required of all US citizens living in Europe, including every single diplomat, that they have no right to reside in Europe if they advocate policies destroying European prosperity to benefit the USA. They have to state that the USA trying to shut down NS2 was pure mafioso gangsterism, behaviour incompatible with any friend of European nation states. If they refuse to state that, they should be given 96 hrs to leave the country of face the consequences….
If that means that the USA has no diplomatic presence in any European nation, too bad….
Release the reverse-ferret!
Well, a Government Source has floated the balloon, anonymously, and deniably.
Let’s see what the narrative develops into once Premiere Johnson’s husband has had a few days sleeping on the sofa, and WuGov has told us how horrified by are by this betrayal of Saint Greta.
Getting tired of this ‘zero‘ nonsense – its everywhere now whether its zero covid, zero carbon, zero emissions, zero this, zero that – it sounds like fanaticism – sounds too much like Pol Pot’s crazy ‘Year Zero’.
Zero this you lunatics …
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incredibly artistic
All peddled by the Zero brains brigade.
You really want these clowns to micro-manage your life. Why is this even a discussion. You should just tell them to fuck right off.
But we left the EU didn’t we?
Oh Boris FFS just scrap the lot. Please.
“The Prime Minister has been very clear that one of the massive problems is the leverage that Putin has over a number of European countries over gas and oil.”
He’s only just worked that out?
Most of his life has been very busying greasing his weasel, and the last two years he has been busy defrauding the public with the lockdown scam.
He’s a bit slow isn’t he – must have been dropped on his head as a baby.
But as the Saudi Arabia of wind to be,we surely do not need to do this as the magic windmills will solve all our problems, said Pig Dictator not 5 monthes ago.
Stuff the lot Nigel we are right behind you..
Trouble is it takes about 20 years to force the Tories to do the right thing.
You are right but at the moment there is no real Public debate .I think Farage has the skills to at least get the ball rolling.
Re: reCHAPTCHA. This pointless step is annoying enough without having to read “if there are none…”. It’s “is none”.
I could not care fewer.
Flip-flopping according to which way the winds of political opinion are blowing. As he usually does!
Should we start exporting our clean air….
We already are, in empty shipping crates being sent back to Chyna.
‘Government source said: “The Prime Minister has been very clear that one of the massive problems is the leverage that Putin has over a number of European countries over gas and oil’
Talk us through the wisdom of moving all our industry to China whilst simultaneously selling off our infrastructure to them you big fat Etonian bell end.
If the Chinese cut off their exports to us we are screwed are we not.
And China? Oh that’s right…..

At the start of the Ukraine thing I was certain of very little other than Putin will run rings around the gender bender politicians we have in the West and that the propaganda from our lot would be tiresome.
Putin is mad, Putin is Hitler blah blah blah
Lie detectors are always set off when I hear the UK Government telling us they’ve been ‘really clear’ about something.
It always means the exact opposite.
Johnson and his Reset Gang must go.