Net Zero is Dying – But it's Taking Us Down With It

Net Zero is Dying – But it’s Taking Us Down With It

The Net Zero green energy illusion is dying as reality catches up with it, says Francis Menton in the Manhattan Contrarian. But the economies of the U.K. and Germany are dying as well as Net Zero takes them down with it. Here’s an excerpt.

What will the death of the green energy illusion look like? From time to time (see, for example, here and here) I have described a vision where some state or country runs headlong into a ‘green energy wall’ — an impassable barricade of physical impossibility, characterised by scarcity and blackouts, into which the country crashes suddenly. Among the Net Zero zealot countries I have identified as the leading candidates for imminently hitting such a wall are Germany and the U.K.

But perhaps, instead of a sudden crash, the demise of the green energy illusion will look more like a slow but steady decline, a gradual withering of economic activity and prosperity. In this scenario, high energy prices brought about by energy restrictions drive important industries out of business and, as good jobs disappear and energy prices increase, the people gradually and inexorably get poorer. Recent events in the U.K. and Germany seem to point in the direction of this type of scenario.

The latest edition of the GWPF’s Net Zero Watch newsletter has the headline ‘Net Zero is dying’.(Go here and follow the link for your own copy of the newsletter. Full disclosure — I am on the board of the American affiliate of the GWPF.) Nine linked news articles from the past couple of days all deal with recent instances of industrial decline in the U.K. and Germany, each one a consequence of energy prices intentionally driven upward in the pursuit of ‘Net Zero’.

Several of the pieces cover the impending closure of the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, with the loss of up to 2,500 jobs. Illustrative is a January 19th piece in the Daily Telegraph by Allison Pearson, headline ‘Port Talbot has been sacrificed to the angry god of Net Zero‘. Although the Telegraph is behind paywall, the NZW newsletter has a lengthy excerpt. Here is a part:

The high price of U.K. energy makes Port Talbot uncompetitive… [N]et Zero. That absurd and misanthropic creed… calls British workers losing their jobs ‘progress’ while their carbon will now be emitted in India and China… [The U.K. will now be] the only G7 nation with no first-class steel manufacturing – are they serious? You might almost get the impression the nation was run by a fifth column plotting its downfall.

Francis observes that for the U.K. and Germany, “the current situation of steady ongoing decline is inflicting damage that may well not be reversible. Even if energy prices suddenly come down in the U.K. by a factor of three or more, is anyone going to re-build Port Talbot once it has been dismantled?”

Drawing attention to the ongoing decline in German industrial production (see below), Francis concludes: “Net Zero may be dying, but so are the economies of the U.K. and Germany. I just hope that the U.S. can be rescued in time.”