Air travel will soon be the preserve of the privileged, an airline boss has admitted, as Net Zero makes low-cost air travel a thing of the past. The truth the Net Zero is making us poorer is slowly leaking out, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt.
It would drive a new industrial revolution. It would create lots of ‘well-paid, green jobs’. And the wealth it would generate would lower prices, raise living standards and spark innovations that would transform whole industries.
For most of the last decade, corporate leaders have insisted that the transition to a carbon-neutral economy was win-win.
We would save the planet and get richer at the same time. But hold on. The Australian airline Qantas has just broken ranks, admitting that flying may soon be the preserve of only the privileged, while a wealth of research is making it clear that environmental goals have hammered the economy.
In reality, bosses are starting to admit what has been obvious for some time. Net Zero is making us poorer – and that means we have to rethink the way we go about reducing carbon emissions.
If you thought that summer flight to Malaga or Crete with the family was already looking eye-wateringly expensive, you have not seen anything yet. According to the data company Mabrian, budget – and the word “budget” is looking increasingly out of place for the no-frills aviation industry – flights to Spain will cost 26% more this year than last and those kinds of price rises are becoming the norm for many destinations.
But it will get a lot worse very soon. Vanessa Hudson, the Chief Executive of Qantas, admitted this week that flying may well become “so expensive that it’s something only for the privileged”.
It doesn’t stop there.
Chris Wright, Trump’s Energy Secretary, delivered some blunt truths on UK policy last month when he argued that our roll-out of wind farms and solar panels “had not delivered any benefits”. In fact, he said that British politicians were impoverishing citizens “in the delusion that this was somehow going to make the world a better place”.
Likewise, earlier this month, an analysis by Peel Hunt showed that the steep decline in electricity supply since the early 2000s had coincided with a sharp fall in the growth of living standards and that the two were inextricably linked.
There is no point in kidding ourselves any more. The Net Zero drive is making us poorer.
Let’s take aviation, for example. Vanessa Hudson’s point was that sustainable aviation fuel, which will soon be mandatory for at least 10% of an airline’s consumption, is far more expensive than the traditional fossil variety.
It can cost up to five times as much as kerosene and that increase means fares will have to rise prohibitively if airlines are to stay in business. We have only seen the start of the rise in ticket prices and there will be a lot more to come over the next few years. Very soon, only the wealthy will be able to fly and the rest of us will have to stay at home.
The trouble is, this is completely crazy.
Lynn goes on to explain how numerous industries, including tourism, exports and conferences, rely on affordable air travel. And manufacturing of course is already being hammered by high and rising energy costs.
“At least Qantas is being honest,” he says”. “So are a handful of other corporate leaders, even if the majority are still living in the la-la-land where there is no trade-off between hitting our environmental goals and maintaining our standards of living.”
Worth reading in full.
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“It would drive a new industrial revolution. It would create lots of ‘well-paid, green jobs’. And the wealth it would generate would lower prices, raise living standards and spark innovations that would transform whole industries.”
Complete and utter bollocks!
I am not sure about driving a new industrial revolution, but it might drive an actual revolution, in the end it will drive immiseration to the extent that many people will realise that, when you ain’t got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. ”This net-zero’s going to put us in the poor house, it seems that this whole worlds insane, on the 99th floor, a gold plated door won’t keep out the Lord’s fiery rain”.
And those that brought this about will be remembered as they have been quite vocal and cheerful in bringing about this cultural and economic vandalism.
I honestly don’t understand why the daily sceptic gives this net zero a minute of their time.
how about a great article about astrophysicist Professor Willi Soon, Dane Whittington the geoengineeringWatch.net. Guru. And dozens of other brilliant scientists who know net zero is a scam.
Yet another crazy far-right conspiracy theory proved true.
1st APRIL 2025, FARADAYS ACADEMY GCSE PHYSICS CLASS
Physics Teacher: Morning Class.
GCSE Class: Morning Sir.
Teacher: You do realise, Class, when you grow up you’ll never ever fly in an aeroplane.
Class in unison: Oh Sir, don’t be such a killjoy!
Teacher: Don’t blame me, blame the Minister for Energy Insecurity.
1st Student: Red Ed, Westminster born, Westminster bred.
2nd Student: Strong in the gob, and weak in the head.
(Much guffawing as class dunce launches paper aeroplane to land on the physics teacher’s desk)
Teacher: Let’s get down to business. Today’s topic is Conservation of Energy. By way of example, hydrocarbons are conserved solar energy.
1st Student: Stored in carboniferous matter aeons ago by photosynthesis.
Teacher: High-density 24/7 energy used to power vehicles, trains, boats and planes.
2nd Student: The Tiger in your Tank.
Teacher: Nuclear power is the highest-density 24/7 energy source of all.
3rd Student: Controlled atomic energy release.
Teacher: The atomic successor to hydrocarbon energy.
1st Student: Which Mad Mutti Merkel switched off in Germany.
Teacher: Whereas wind and solar are low-density intermittent energy.
2nd Student: Once a windmill always a windmill.
Teacher: Dependent on vast physical footprint, back up energy and massively subsidised by green levies.
3rd Student: All thanks to the climate heist. No wonder Britain’s electricity costs 5 times more than 25 years ago, yet wages have only doubled.
(More guffawing as class dunce heard snoring loudly)
Teacher: Now Class, would it make sense to take energy from low-density intermittent wind and solar…
…Use the energy to split water to make hydrogen, losing half the energy in the process.
…Then use the hydrogen energy to make electricity, losing another half of the energy.
…And finally use the surviving quarter of the original intermittent energy to charge batteries to power electric vehicles, boats and aeroplanes?
Class in unison: That’s stark staring bonkers, Sir!
Teacher: Trick question, Class! You cannot power a modern civilisation on breezes and sunbeams.
Class in unison: Bang on Sir! Reality is determined by physics, not by Greenwash energy policy.
Teacher: Well-done, Class. But when you leave the Academy, I wouldn’t advise applying for a job in the Energy Insecurity industry.
(Bell rings, class dunce stirs and lets out enormous belch of wind)
Excellent. Here’s a True Story from 1995:
Teacher: Extreme weather events are going to get more frequent and more severe because of the hole in the ozone layer caused by man!
Young MAk: When did the hole in the ozone layer appear, sir?
Teacher: [thinking…]
[Bell rings]
And from 1969 in return:
Class: What’s gonna happen when the oil runs out in 2000?
Chemistry Teacher: We’ll need to find some more. In the meantime just focus on your GCE’s (which weren’t cancelled to stave off the pesky Mao Flu that had been and gone the previous winter, thanks to the schools staying open…).
This Qantas CEO had better start fighting to keep her job and preserve her industry.
Doesn’t look much of fighting man to me. No doubt prefers green salad to red meat.
She’s a woman. Anxious, safety obsessed and thinks with her emotions not her logic.
OhOh! – better take cover after that comment. And it is broadly correct by the way
The UK FIRES Absolute Zero report has this to say about flying (see chart page 5):
No, I’ve no idea what the ‘Beyond 2050’ bullet point means either. Looks like word-salad to me or maybe idea-salad.
2050: They mean it. Not even freight.
So Doncaster (for example) airport needs to be closed sharpish (Hi Eddy-baby, how’s your constituency doing these days?)
The UK FIRES chart
I came here to mention UK FIRES. Whenever I tell anyone about their goals, specifically those you mention above, they think I’m absolutely crazy and won’t even begin to discuss it because it’s a “conspiracy theory”.
However, even I think it is highly unlikely that this will be achieved… after all, it’s now 2025, so only 4 years left in which to close all but three British airports. And surely all but the most dedicated Just Stop Oil types would be a bit miffed if within the next 10 years the UK because the only country in the world without airports, or without import/export via freight. I mean we’d all starve to death pretty quickly I suppose, since farmers aren’t really allowed to produce food any more (bad for the environment), but still.
Pol Pot managed it. He also used the word ‘Zero’.
Mm-hmm, now do India and China;
”The UK cut emissions by 3.5% in 2024—13 MtCO₂e less.
But globally? That’s just 0.035% of total emissions.
Crippling industries & raising energy costs for zero impact. Time to rethink Net Zero.”
https://x.com/HeartlandUKEU/status/1905281630295433491
https://news.sky.com/story/uk-greenhouse-gases-fall-again-as-renewable-electricity-hits-50-for-the-first-time-13336741
“we have to rethink the way we go about reducing carbon emissions.”
Damned right we do and given the huge benefits to agricultural production that slight increases in CO2 have produced in recent years we need to “burn, baby burn.”
Re-open the pits, get fracking, open the oil and gas wells, blow up the windmills and bury the solar panels and we could return to cushty. And if we don’t at some point there will be blood on the streets although it is difficult not to conclude that this has always been the intention.
I’d chuck the wreckage of the windmills in May, Cameron and Boris’ etc.
back gardens as they were responsible for expanding this economy wrecking bullshit.
Mods.
The article following this from Julian Mann concerning Free Speech does not have a comments section.
Taking irony to a whole new level…
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/stabbings-amsterdam-dam-square-b1219285.html
Knifing in Amsterdam. The assailant has not been named and no ethnicity declared so most probably a ROPer.
This is him. Jury’s out on ethnicity/migration background. Could just be a native Dutch nutter. Couldn’t find any additional deets in the Dutch press earlier. At least nobody died. What kind of man stabs a young girl and elderly woman in the back?? Cowardly pr*ck!
”BREAKING: Man who stabbed a young girl, elderly woman and 3 others today in Amsterdam appears to have Turkish/Kurdish descent
The left facilitated this.”
https://x.com/Inevitablewest/status/1905310022071902681
The 10% mandate for Sustainable Aviation Fuel seems to be a UK government thing, is it replicated in other countries? If not, presumably inbound flights will be running on cheaper fuel?
I’m pretty sure the Chinese government wouldn’t fall for this kind of thing, and presumably the Trump administration wouldn’t either.
Europe will become a backwater – I was going to say ‘quaint’ backwater, but stabbing and drug dealing aren’t really that quaint.
And that means that all airlines will shrink in size because the number of people that can afford to fly will fall. Profits foen, shareholders pissed off, loads of good jobs trashed, economies shrunken, less food because we’re turning food crops (sustainable aviation fuel is made from human food crops, or land that should be growing food foe humans).
These green communists are guilty of a major crime against humanity. Vile, evil, intellectually deficient people who ought to be on trial for their crimes. Particularly Milliband the small (brain)
The industry should refuse to fly all Politicians, the employees and members of NGO’s etc which support Net Zero. That would be a start, let them reap what they want to sew for the rest of us.
Mr O’Leary will you be the first? can you form a group to protect your industry?
If they don’t then they’re just part of the problem. Now there’s a surprise.
Old Never Here Keir, “arrange a safari for me” Nobraynor, oxygen thief Lammy and so on [and on and on] would be devastated.
Guido is reporting “Learjet Lammy” has taken over a million poundsworth of private flights.
If you thought that summer flight to Malaga or Crete with the family was already looking eye-wateringly expensive, you have not seen anything yet.
Bring it on. May be then the people will revolt, and say No to this government.
Agree. It all needs to start happening so that people realise what Net Zero actually means, in real life. Not just the rainbows and unicorns trotted out by politicians.
She looks so pleased with herself….
For “the privileged”, read “the people in positions of influence who think it’s fine to lecture lesser mortals on how to live smaller lives with less of everything, while they continue to live the high life.”
Eloi and Morlocks. Look how that ended. Millibrains on toast anyone?
Why does the daily sceptic give a letter, word or sentence to a SCAM???? “Net zero” is a scam. Do you honestly think the aircraft builders, the airline industry and all the other companies that make their living on people who travel by air, is going to allow the incompetent gov’ts of the Uk, eu, australia etc get away with lies, scamming? No, I do not think so. Stop giving these incompetent countries an inch of space in the daily sceptic. And for anyone who wants to continue to not travel by air, please do so. It is your choice.