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Michael Gove Urges Caution Over “Religious Crusade” on Environment, Calls for Relaxation of Net Zero Measures

by Richard Eldred
23 July 2023 11:00 AM

Michael Gove, the Levelling Up and Housing Secretary, has called for a more flexible approach to Net Zero measures, cautioning against treating environmental efforts as a “religious crusade”. In an interview with the Telegraph, he becomes the first of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet to openly call for a reassessment of green initiatives amid a cost of living crisis and Tory backlash over recent by-election results. Here’s an excerpt:

Michael Gove has warned against treating the environment as a “religious crusade” as he called for a relaxation of some Net Zero measures.

In an interview with the Telegraph, the Levelling Up and Housing Secretary cited Dutch protests over emissions regulations, saying that the “inflexible” application of rules designed to reduce pollution “leads to a backlash”.

In his own department, Mr. Gove admits the Government is “asking too much too quickly” of landlords. They will currently be banned from renting out their homes unless they pay for green measures, such as insulation and heat pumps, to meet a new minimum energy efficiency threshold by 2028. 

Citing existing financial pressures on landlords, he added: “I think we should relax the pace.”

He also warned that Natural England, the environment quango, must “pause” a push to block new housing near more than 330 designated areas across the country unless councillors agree to introduce green schemes such as ultra-low emission zones (Ulez) and low-traffic neighbourhoods.

The intervention comes amid a backlash among Conservative MPs over the party’s drubbing in two by-elections last week.

In a third, Boris Johnson’s former Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat, the party narrowly won the poll after campaigning against Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion in London.

On Saturday, Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, issued a warning to his own party over its loss in Uxbridge, saying: “We are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour Party end up on each and every Tory leaflet.” He urged the London Mayor to “reflect” on the Ulez scheme.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith has become the latest MP to call for a rethink of Net Zero in light of the by-election results. 

Writing in the Telegraph, the former Tory leader said voters are angry that the target of reducing net greenhouse emissions to zero by 2050 has led to “arbitrary and very costly” deadlines, such as the 2030 ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars. 

Of the petrol car ban, Mr. Gove said he cannot say “whether or not that is a perfectly calibrated target”, even though “I’m sure it’s achievable”.

Mr. Gove becomes the first of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet ministers to publicly call for a relaxation of some measures, while warning about the consequences of pressing ahead with unpopular schemes during a cost of living crisis. 

His intervention is particularly significant because, as environment secretary under Theresa May, he was a champion of the original move to put the overall 2050 deadline into law. He did not question the deadline itself.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Green AgendaMichael GoveNet Zero

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29 Comments
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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

Until a government minister says it how it is – that the entire premise of “Net Zero” is FALSE, I’ll put Mr Gove’s little statement in the same box as usual – the one labelled More of The Same Sh*te.

Last edited 1 year ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
156
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nige.oldfart
nige.oldfart
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

So we now see the election trail to the next general election, has started. But what the main parties miss is that their aint a lot of people who would trust either mob to do what would be right for a Country that contributes so little to the purported global climate apocalypse.

91
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NeilParkin
NeilParkin
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

They can’t have it both ways.

Either Nett Zero is essential to preserve human life on Earth, in which case everyone should do it regardless of cost or consequences, or it isn’t.

If the existential threat to all human life is flexible enough that they can play with the timings, and the content of what actions are to take place, then its not really an emergency, is it?. Perhaps Rt. Hon. Mr Gove would like to go and pull the plug out of the Kings Doom clocks, if that is the case. Perhaps consider some mitigation measures for the effect of a 1.5c rise, maybe, if it happens, (Edinburgh will be as warm as Manchester is today), and dismantle the apparatus currently wasting an extraordinary amount of the citizens money might be the best idea.

82
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LaptopMaestro
LaptopMaestro
1 year ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

Let me help you – it’s total bollocks.

109
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NeilParkin
NeilParkin
1 year ago
Reply to  LaptopMaestro

I realised that a long time ago LM, but there are still many who believe with heart and soul that this is a thing, the biggest thing ever, and they have to ‘do something to save the world’. People are waking up quite quickly to this one though, I think. Everytime the Elite try to fool us, it will be more and more difficult for them to get away with it.

51
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D J
D J
1 year ago

A radical option might be to have a political party that promises to do things FOR the benefit of the people and which admits that more taxation and larger government damages a country.

90
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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago
Reply to  D J

We can keep these “radical” ideas alive, eh. Least we can do, I suppose.

As huxleypiggles so often writes, “salvation shall not be achieved via the ballot box” (or words to that effect).

“The revolution shall not be televised.”

34
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DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
1 year ago
Reply to  D J

Steady on DJ. That’s a far too rational strategy; it’ll never catch on. Sadly.

2
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Uncle Monty
Uncle Monty
1 year ago

Strange words from the man who used the ‘pandemic’ as a religious crusade.
When the only solution presented by government and media entails higher taxes, more state control and the acceptance of further restrictions to individual liberty, you can be guaranteed that the problem is in fact a scam.

Last edited 1 year ago by Uncle Monty
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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago
Reply to  Uncle Monty

Thank you, Uncle, lest we forget what almost every man jack of these barstewards did to us in the name of “safety”.

Few exceptions there are. Thank you, Mr Andrew Bridgen.

PS did you ever play The Dane?!

Last edited 1 year ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
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Uncle Monty
Uncle Monty
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

Hahaha! Cheers Marcus.
Never played the Dane, I’m afraid!

”It’s the most devastating moment in a young mans life, when he quite reasonably says to himself, “I shall never play The Dane!” It is at that moment that all ambition ceases to exist.”

9
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For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago

He is just saying “Look at me, I would be a good choice for PM”

52
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Smudger
Smudger
1 year ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

When seeing Gove I am reminded of Dizzy’s character assassination of Gladstone. “ A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.”

0
0
Monro
Monro
1 year ago

‘…as environment secretary under Theresa May, he was a champion of the original move to put the overall 2050 deadline into law’

Time for reading and comprehension tests for politicians

‘Net Zero regulations and actions are scientifically invalid because they:

  • Fabricate data or omit data that contradict their conclusions. Net Zero proponents regularly report that extreme weather is more severe and frequent because of climate change while the evidence shows no increase – and, in some cases, a decrease – in such events.
  • Rely on computer models that do not work. An analysis of 102 computer models used by Net Zero proponents found that 101 of them had failed to match real-world observations. “Simply stated, the (computer) model essential to every government Net Zero regulation, action and the trillions of dollars subsidizing renewables and electric cars, trucks, home heating, appliances and many other products do not work,” said the paper.
  • Rely on findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that are government opinions, not science. The paper says that the conclusions of IPCC scientists that contradict the narrative of catastrophic global warming from fossil fuels are rewritten by government bureaucrats for public reports to support the false narrative of Net Zero proponents.
  • Omit the extraordinary social benefits of CO2 and fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide, including that from the burning of fossil fuels, serves as plant food that increases crop production and enables the feeding of more people. CO2, as well as the greenhouse gases of methane and nitrous oxide, help to keep Earth at temperatures conducive to life; without them, people would suffer. Fossil fuels are economical and abundant sources of energy necessary for modern societies and are critical feedstocks for fertilizers and pesticides that support the lives of billions of people.
  • Omit the disastrous consequences of reducing fossil fuels and CO2 emissions to Net Zero. “It cannot be overemphasized that eliminating fossil fuels and implementing Net Zero policies and actions mean the elimination of fossil fuel-derived nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides that will result in about half the world’s population not having enough food to eat,” says the paper.
  • Reject the science that demonstrates there is no risk of catastrophic global warming caused by fossil fuels and CO2. “We are not aware of any reliable science that supports the National Climate Assessment’s or others’ theory that fossil fuels and CO2 will cause catastrophic global warming,” said the paper’s authors, “We have written extensively on this issue for decades.”

https://co2coalition.org/publications/challenging-net-zero-with-science/

61
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richardw53
richardw53
1 year ago

We already have enough enemies. We don’t need friends like Gove!

48
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TheGreenAcres
TheGreenAcres
1 year ago

Judge them not by what they say, but by what they do. ULEZ is as much a Tory policy as it is Khan’s.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fine-particulate-air-pollution-pm25-setting-targets

The above then led to this:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/96/made?view=plain

Last edited 1 year ago by TheGreenAcres
46
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sskinner
sskinner
1 year ago
Reply to  TheGreenAcres

It is a Civil Service policy. The two main political parties are merely vessels to be used however the civil service wishes. Actually, it is a policy originally dreamed up by the Club of Rome and now being pushed by amongst others the WEF and UN.

“Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level.”
UN

‘In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill….All these dangers are caused by human intervention….and thus the ‘real enemy, then, is humanity itself….believe humanity requires a common motivation, namely a common adversary in order to realize world government. It does not matter if this common enemy is ‘a real one or….one invented for the purpose.’
Club of Rome

‘A keen and anxious awareness is evolving to suggest that fundamental changes will have to take place in the world order and its power structures, in the distribution of wealth and income.’
Club of Rome

‘Now is the time to draw up a master plan for sustainable growth and world development based on global allocation of all resources and a new global economic system. Ten or twenty years form today it will probably be too late.’
Club of Rome

‘The concept of national sovereignty has been immutable, indeed a sacred principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation.’
UN’s Commission on Global Governance: 

‘Democracy is not a panacea. It cannot organize everything and it is unaware of its own limits. These facts must be faced squarely. Sacrilegious though this may sound, democracy is no longer well suited for the tasks ahead. The complexity and the technical nature of many of today’s problems do not always allow elected representatives to make competent decisions at the right time.’
Club of Rome

‘The greatest hope for the Earth lies in religionists and scientists uniting to awaken the world to its near fatal predicament and then leading mankind out of the bewildering maze of international crises into the future Utopia of humanist hope.’
Club of Rome

The Earth has cancer and the cancer is Man’
Club of Rome

‘…the resultant ideal sustainable population is hence more than 500 million people but less than one billion’
Club of Rome

‘A reasonable estimate for an industrialized world society at the present North American material standard of living would be 1 billion. At the more frugal European standard of living, 2 to 3 billion would be possible’
UN Commission on Global Biodiversity 

Last edited 1 year ago by sskinner
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Hound of Heaven
Hound of Heaven
1 year ago
Reply to  sskinner

Thank you for posting this. The Roman Empire never went away. Daphne’s laurels are prominently used by the UN and the WHO etc., and were seen in abundance at the Coronation. The resurrection put an obstacle in the Roman Empire’s path but the Roman Catholic Church with its current support of a One World Religion has preserved much of the Empire and when it has accomplished its ambition we will be but muzzled digital slaves. This time the means to own and oppress fully and effectively exists and it is called technology. See Hugo Talks – even if you do not believe spiritually, what matters is that the megalomaniacs do.

1
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago

Several years ago, Gove sat there rictus grinning while that mentally ill f***tard teenager Thunberg dribbled on in front of him and a bunch other patronising, sweaty men about the environment. It’s like an axeman at the end of a mass execution saying ‘Perhaps we should order a retrial!!’ Gove – a deranged lockdown supporter – needs to shut his gob and never reopen it.

74
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Marque1
Marque1
1 year ago

Greasy little weasel.

46
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CHRIS
CHRIS
1 year ago

If there is any human-caused “climate change” it’s almost certainly down to increased population (out of control population growth, really), the construction of 100’s of new heat-trapping concrete mega-cities (the result of out of control population growth) and the slashing and burning of critical rainforests – again the result of out of control population growth.

Look at a weather map of the UK and 90% of the time London is the warmest place. It’s a concrete heat trapping mega-city. In the last 11 years we added 1 billion to the world’s population. That’s 100 Londons.

Climate Change has nothing to do with greenhouse gases or your Skoda diesel hatchback or cow farts. But those are the only “causes” the maniacs in power around the world want to throw our money at. Madness.

16
-1
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  CHRIS

Could you explain “out of control population growth?”

8
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Agreed. There’s no reason why the planet can’t sustain many times the current population. As technology improves over the decades, we might find ways to push back the deserts and even properly inhabit landmasses such as Siberia!

12
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CHRIS
CHRIS
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

“There’s no reason”??????!!!! How about corrupt money stealing politicians, particularly in 3rd world countries where they out and out steal most of their country’s budgets and aid money for themselves?

Of course such corruption is also appearing in the west now in the form of leftist and uniparty (think The Conservatives in the UK) governments wasting trillions on Net Zero madness, shipping billions to their pals in companies that control renewable energy.

I seriously doubt whether 50% of the world’s current population enjoys even a half decent standard of living. We can’t just keep adding to the poverty with a doubling every 20 years of populations of many 3rd world and poverty stricken countries. If you think the UK immigration problem is bad now you ain’t seen nothing yet.

3
0
Chris P
Chris P
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Jordan Peterson’s take on the subject: –

https://www.bitchute.com/video/XiXVkPGjncdh/

2
0
CHRIS
CHRIS
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Yes I can. Take a country like Nigeria. Its population has more than doubled in the last 20 years. Another 20 years and it’ll be 500 million. It has been shown that richer countries have almost no population growth (except for immigration which threatens to destroy most of them but that’s off topic). A better standard of living means parents aren’t panicking into having 6 or more kids hoping their children will look after them in their dotage.

The reality is, though, that due largely to the corruption of their political leaders, the vast majority of Nigerians will never have a decent standard of living but they WILL slash and burn their country to oblivion before starting the inevitable mass exodus to the west.

4
0
Hester
Hester
1 year ago

A snake, he has his eye on the Party leadership. Remember what he did during Covid. The vaccine passports, the crap around sitting down in a pub no mask, standing up a mask, a scotch egg was it a meal or not, a most heinous creature. Gove you will note does not suggest scrapping net zero he just wants it postponed, my guess until the next election is out of the way and if by some almighty stroke of luck the Conservatives win he will be backing all the unenlightenment policies once more. Oh and by the way in case anyone has forgotten this is the guy who oversaw the censoring of journalists whose articles he didn’t like.

37
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

Mr Gove, incase you haven’t noticed, pretending to save the planet and forcing people out of their cars and ripping out their gas is a religious CRUSADE. Our western politicians (except Trump) are Eco Crusaders. You will now find out all about the religious zeal that the crusaders will unleash on you and try to send you to the burning fire. ——–Every eco fundamentalist lunatic will be after you and would string you to the cross for you sins against this pristine world. You are now a heretic that denies the coming apocalypse.

8
0
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
1 year ago

How do we know if Gove is lying? His lips move. He could do press ups under snakes with the number of about faces he’s performed.

4
0

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