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.”

Worth reading in full.
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And when all the jobs have gone the government will be the peoples saviour by introducing CBDC and universal basic income. Klaus will be happy, a model nation with an enslaved population.
..a model nation with a replaced and mongolised enslaved population …Klaus will have very sticky pants as his wet dream becomes reality .
Thanks Tories .You scum !!
This “Tory Scum” always makes me smile. They’re ALL scum. Every. Single. One. Labour would have just drove the country into the ground quicker. Anyone that thinks what’s happening is because of political allegiance hasn’t been paying attention.
That is why i find GB News tedious now, do they really think there is a real difference between Labour and Conservative!
However, the economy will be so shrunken that we will be very poor indeed. That may lead to violent reaction by the angry proles. Be warned,.political scum.
Reform UK recognise the scam that is Net Zero and will scrap the scheme.
People who consider the Net Zero agenda is both a huge scam and will inevitably impoverish them will be able to register their disgust at the general election later this year.
What will happen when industry is decimated, regular cars eliminated, living standards wrecked? Will they ever go: “Congratulations everyone, we’ve done it, we’ve finally reached the right level of CO2 and we can now sleep easy because catastrophic climate change has been averted.” Will they?
Of course not. This never ends. They’ll tell us we still haven’t reached the right levels of CO2. So, let’s see, what else emits CO2 and contributes to “anthropogenic climate change”? Well, the clue is in the name: humans.
Sorry guys, we’re going to have to cull the human population because we’re disgusting CO2 emitting creatures…
Manwhile is all the Brics countries there wil be deafening laughter !!
All the way to the bank….
“Sorry guys, we’re going to have to cull the human population because we’re disgusting CO2 emitting creatures…”
I have been banging this drum for at least the last two years.
Happy to cull them…..
I have been saying for years that the reason our treasonous Uniparty politicians push the Net Zero agenda has nothing to do with climate. They are doing it at the behest of their globalist overlords and paymasters to wantonly shackle and control the global populace through impoverishment, deindustrialisation, food deprivation and depopulation.
My most recent effort (October 2023) was addressed to several nonentity local politicians who needless to say didn’t reply but was primarily directed at my 100+ Bcc addressees: https://principia-scientific.com/what-rishi-sunaks-recent-net-zero-back-pedalling-really-means/.
The Party believes that ‘something must be done’, and no doubt the King is quite keen on Net Zero, so it (or they) are happy to do something that looks like NZ, whatever the outcome.
Following on from Stewart’s observation
– is there a correct measure that would allow us to say definitively at some point between now and let’s say 2040 ‘right you good people of Great Britain we have got the Co2 concentrations in this country down to 190 ppm. One big push and we can achieve 150 ppm in the next ten years.’
(And guess what we are beating the frogs.)
Is there firkin bollox and I don’t need to insult the intelligence of DS members explaining why.
And this explains why it is all a massive con.
Co2 is not a problem. Greenhouse gases – another load of nonsense – are not a problem, even the suggestion of Anthropogenic Global Warming is nonsense. The climate changes and the forces creating the changes are far too numerous and powerful for tiddly humans to worry about. What utter hubris to assume that we can regulate the temperature of this planet as if it was a domestic oven.
Club of Rome – Limits to Growth 1972.
Realistically the loss of 3,000 and probably more like 6,000 jobs, with supporting trades, at Port Talbot should be described as a Cull for that is most definitely what it represents.
The Port Talbot Cull.
Question to DS.
Why the picture of dark industrial smoke stacks to illustrate an article about Net Zero policy?
CO2 isn’t pollution.
If you want to illustrate British heavy industry, why not show the products, the useful output rather than the externalities?
If you show the pollution that industry produces you promote a negative image of heavy industry and worse still contribute to the erroneous conflation of CO2 with pollution.
Not to mention the fact that the cooling towers are emitting steam, not CO2.
It’s a nice stock image I expect.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/dolans-digest-suddenly-trump-is-in-the-driving-seat/
The commendable Simon Dolan with his take on Trump v Biden.
What do the Dems and deep state do about Sleepy Joe?
Assassination and blame it on Trump?
It’s a repeat of the EU situation when the UK was still a member.
The only countries implementing Brussels’ demands to the letter were Germany and the UK.
One has to wonder what is wrong with these 2 nations and people?
Germany has surprised me the most. Its as if they had a death wish!
Befehl ist befehl!
Anyone who thinks the US is our friend is deluded. America continues causing chaos around the world and we continue holding onto its apron-strings. Meanwhile HMS Britannia is slowing but steadily sinking beneath the waves.
We must have the dumbest politicians ever in our history!
Well, the nation is run by a fifth column plotting its downfall. Or actually, rather not so much plotting its downfalls. It’s being sucked dry by parasites who’d rather carelessly kill their host and then die themselves than admit that they could ever have been wrong about something. And the name of these parasites is Democrats and their European lickspittles. My hope is, by the time that these people have managed sink the USA, we over here can dust ourselves off, shed a few crocodile tears and again worry about our own affairs.
We’ll see who makes the race, Mr Francis ‘wisecrack’ Menton. But remember that you had a head start.
“Net Zero is Dying – But it’s Taking Us Down With It”That is the intent.
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
Maurice Strong
“Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun”
Paul Ehrlich
“We contend that the position of the nuclear promoters is preposterous beyond the wildest imaginings of most nuclear opponents, primarily because one of the purported ‘benefits’ of nuclear power, the availability of cheap and abundant energy, is in fact a liability.”
Paul Ehrlich
“A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer “
Paul Ehrlich
“Government in the future will be based upon . . . a supreme office of the biosphere. The office will comprise specially trained philosopher/ecologists. These guardians will either rule themselves or advise an authoritarian government of policies based on their ecological training and philosophical sensitivities. These guardians will be specially trained for the task”
David Shearman An IPCC Assessor for 3rd and 4th climate change reports:
Thanks for these.
They are a few from a very thorough collection of incriminating quotes here:
https://www.c3headlines.com/global-warming-quotes-climate-change-quotes.html
And how about this?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/23/rain-is-caused-by-carbon/
Our net zero targets are fueled by Chinese coal.
it makes no difference to the climate which country the emissions come from
Our politicans are quite thick when it comes to the practical effects of their stupid and ignorant decisions. They have no mental horizon other than this week’s news cycle and whether they are in or out. Personal ambition has become the sine qua non of political existence whereas it was once the improvement and advancement of the nation. They are enemies of the people and must pay for their crimes.
This will only get worse under Stalin Starmer.
“the nation was run by a fifth column plotting its downfall.”? It is, with a sixth and seventh waiting in line to plunge in the knife.
The UK shows the world how to grow old and senile