The United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change in 1988 and in 1995 the first climate change Conference of Parties (COP1) was held in Berlin. There has been a COP meeting every year since then, apart from 2020 when covid intervened. Last year COP28 was held in the United Arab Emirates and was attended by 84,000 delegates who flew in from all around the world to lecture the rest of us about the importance of reducing our carbon footprint.
In the nearly 30 years since COP conferences began, the U.K. has halved its CO2 emissions so that we now account for a mere 1% of the global total. But in this same time interval the developing world has massively increased its CO2 emissions. For example, China’s CO2 emissions have quadrupled and now account for 29% of the global total. India’s have tripled and now account for 7% of the global total. Both countries are still increasing their CO2 emissions.
The problem is that ‘green’ technologies are not very good. Electric cars and renewable energy are more expensive and inferior in performance to their fossil fuel equivalents. So as the developing world industrialises it is using fossil fuel technology to keep its costs down. Is it right for the privileged people of the First World to tell the poorest people in the Third World that they now have to stop operating gas and coal-fired power stations and stop driving petrol cars because of worries that in 50 years time the planet will be warmer? Climate modelling is so complex and uncertain that we don’t know how much warmer and we don’t know the consequences of that warming. Quite understandably the priority for the leaders of the developing world is to improve the lives of people now rather than worry about what may or may not happen in 50 years time.
Despite the fact that we only produce 1% of global CO2 emissions, our Government has decided we must press on with being world leaders in Net Zero. Because our ‘carbon footprint’ is already so small, reducing it further will have no measurable impact on global temperatures, but it will further impoverish British people. For example, we are repeatedly told by the green lobby (which these days occupies influential positions in politics, the media, universities and business) that renewables are now the cheapest form of energy generation and we should build ever more wind farms and solar farms. Since the U.K. is already a world leader in offshore wind it follows that we should have some of the lowest electricity prices in the world. In fact the opposite is true, the U.K. has some of the highest electricity prices in the world. Typically people in this country pay more than twice as much for electricity as they do in the USA, where shale gas has transformed the energy market, and more than five times as much as in China, where they are still building coal-fired power stations. The reason the U.K.’s electricity prices are so high is because there is a massive hidden cost in renewables which its supporters gloss over or never mention, namely the need to have back-up energy generation for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
The sales growth of electric vehicles in this country has stalled as people realise just what poor value they are. They are expensive to buy and inconvenient to drive because of the long charge times and the scarcity of public charging points. There is also the issue of how green electric vehicles actually are after taking into account the environmental impact of mining the rare earth metals and manufacturing the batteries. Yet our Government is blithely carrying on with its plan to ban petrol cars.
If the world is going to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the best way forward is to encourage research and development so that we improve green technologies. Imagine for a moment a time in the future when ‘green’ technologies might be cheaper and better than their fossil fuel equivalents. If this were to happen then people would want to buy green technology and the world’s CO2 emissions would fall quickly and naturally. In the meantime we have the Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem parties all wanting to inflict more of this junk green technology on us. Only Reform offers any sanctuary for the Net Zero sceptic.
Dr. John Fernley is a retired scientist.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The two-tier approach to arbitration, justice or anything where simple common sense should apply has now been deliberately inverted. The intention is to confuse and throw the population off balance, a sort of crude update to the C1984 crap of masks, social distancing and the ‘safe and effective.’
Off-com like our judicial system is being run from the outside. There is to be no concession to honesty or decency. In fact if a decision can be made which flouts or inverts common sense, honesty and decency then that is the decision that will be made. Thus, GB News challenging the Off-com decision will simply amount to pissing in the wind although they are absolutely right to have a go.
Kneel’s Davos Britain.
The BBC do it every day and counting over the Climate!
GB News voluntarily agrees to be regulated by Ofcom.
Why?
Well exactly, they had their chance with a proper journalist Mark Steyn, but realised they have no spine.
Clearly, the elite is starting to feel a little bit scared of GB News.
Can’t think why, they’ve killed off all the proper journalists and have Neil Oliver safely confined to Youtube.
When attack comes closer to the enemy the flak increases.
“Will Ofcom turn its guns on ITV in the same way it has GB News? Don’t hold your breath”
It may do but will probably do it while kicking & screaming!
They are an utter disgrace.
A little off-topic but has anyone noticed how Yvette ‘Allo ‘Allo Cooper has aged since 5th July whereas 2TKeir looks like he has not lost a night’s sleep since becoming PM.
2TK is IMHO disconnected from the significance of events as they unfold in the world around him with a total empathy by-pass from birth.
He does not understand and it all goes over his head.
This is why he can keep blathering on as if nothing has happened because to him nothing has.
David Starkey has strongly hinted at the reason why, which I reached some time ago.
Keir-Ching! is on the spectrum. He shows no empathy because he doesn’t “understand” it.
I agree and thought so too.
However, let no one be in any confusion about autstic people.
The high functioning verbal ones are used to disguise and cover up the fact the majority are non-verbal autistics who will need help and care and often residential care for the rest of their lives.
And the numbers keep on increasing and it is a real increase.
The increase has causes and no one cares less to find out what the causes are in order to stop this disaster for children.
I was shocked to learn recently from two people independently that autistic children forced into mainstream classrooms commit suicide.
The two people concerned had that distressing direct experience in their class at two different schools.
How much of that is going on I have no idea and I’ll bet the DfE keeps not records nor statistics of how common it is.
But to encounter two people simultaneously at the same time at the same place who told of each experiencing exactly the same is either a bizarre coincidence or suggests this is more common than anyone realises.
Spot on! It’s the emotionless facial expression that is the giveaway! He just doesn’t ”get it”!
PS 2TK’s insistence the Southport and other ‘riots‘ were by the ‘Far Right‘ is also consistent with his disconnect.
He just does not understand and explains it all away with a dismissive simplistic ‘they’re all Far Right‘ when he was entirely Far Wrong as usual.
Additionally, when he tipped up in Southport to lay his wreath or bunch of flowers or whatever it was it was all clumsily done and so obviously pre-planned and orchestrated as a semi-formal sort of ceremony.
Again, consistent with a man who has no conception of the significance of events happening around him.
He is wholly unable to do anything ex tempore, being incapable of spontaneity.
Everything has to be planned in advance.
This is also consistent with his inability to respond at all to Rishi Sunak’s challenges and questions when they were in a TV debate together.
‘Muppet’ comes to mind but whose hand is it up his arse pulling all the strings?
The Establishment is obviously getting very nervous about GB News.
Leading Labour politicians and Ministers now have no option but to appear on it and be interviewed when previously they could not be bothered.
Let us hope GB News will continue to address the issues other news media do not.
Will other news media ever realise that is major factor in GB News’ success? They probably already have but just carry on regardless as they have always done.
Sue Offcom?