Last month the scandal broke that the Climate Change Committee (CCC) relied on just one year’s wind data when it advised MPs in 2019 that the U.K. would be able to rely on wind and solar power by 2050. This is despite U.K. annual wind varying by 39% from its maximum to its minimum during the period 2009-2022.
Now, it turns out that this error, major as it is, is a mere footnote compared with the much bigger problem of the mismatch between the CCC’s advice regarding carbon capture and storage and the Government’s stated intentions.
The U.K.’s ambition to achieve Net Zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 is heavily reliant on carbon capture and storage technology to remove all the CO2 that the country will still be producing.
According to the CCC report (see below), by 2050 the U.K. will need to be able to store 176 Mt of CO2 in order to achieve Net Zero emissions.
However, as things stand the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) states that by 2050 the U.K. will only have capacity to store 50 Mt of CO2, which is just over a quarter (28%) of what the CCC says is needed, falling 126 Mt short:
The U.K. is a first mover; we are aiming to support the establishment of two CCUS [carbon capture, usage and storage] clusters by the mid-2020s and a further two by 2030, through which we aim to capture 20-30 Mt CO2 per year. The long-term ambition is to reach 50 Mt CO2 annually by 2050. [emphasis added]
This massive shortfall guarantees that Net Zero cannot be achieved by 2050. Furthermore, it would in no way be possible to undertake the engineering and groundworks to build all that missing CO2 storage capacity by 2050, even if the U.K. had the money to fund it, which it does not.
There are of course all number of reasons why Net Zero is unachievable, unnecessary and unjustifiably costly. But the chasm between the amount of carbon capture the CCC says is needed to hit the target and the amount the Government actually thinks it will have available at the time means Net Zero is unachievable even on the Government’s own terms. It means that it doesn’t matter how much the Government cripples U.K. industry and drives it overseas, how successful it is in replacing dependable fossil fuels with intermittent renewables, it will never hit Net Zero by 2050 or anywhere close to it and has no credible plan to do so.
Do MPs and ministers realise this? The danger is that once they are alerted to the issue they will see it as a reason to redouble efforts to slash emissions and accelerate the building of carbon storage capacity. Of course, what they should do is add it to the ever-growing list of why Net Zero is a terrible idea that needs replacing with a proper energy policy that prioritises prosperity and security for the long term.
Stop Press: The Executive Chairman of Fortescue Metals, Andrew Forrest has said carbon capture is a “complete falsehood” that will never work. The Australian billionaire told the 50th anniversary meeting of the International Energy Agency: “We’re going to keep burning fossil fuels and somehow magically get rid of the carbon down into the ground where there is no proof that it will stay there, but heaps of proof that it fails. I say for policymakers everywhere, do not be the next idiot waiting for the old lie to be trotted out and say I believe in carbon sequestration. It has only failed for 75 years… It’s a complete falsehood.”
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“The long overdue correction of Western democracies is now in train. The slow and painful process of restoring trust in public institutions might just have begun.”
Not true of the U.K.
The only slight cause for optimism is the impending destruction of the Tory party and their potential replacement with a actually conservative political force- but this is by no means certain.
Absolutely first class commentary on the state of the Western world today. In this country if Kneel does achieve the anticipated landslide our real battles will come over the next five years and if that is the case these five years will be shit or bust.
“The old Left-Right divide has become obsolete. Instead, the new divide is between the international technocratic elite in alliance with national elites against the interests, values and policy preferences of national populations.”
Or, in hux speak the Davos Deviants and their regional managers who make up the political executive along with the First Division Association. On top of this conglomerate of useless grifters are the largely corrupt judiciary, the management army of the NHS and our police forces.
It can only be a matter of time before the real battles begin. Sadly, I believe that blood will be spilled.
In 2017, Labour under their, supposedly, unelectable leader, Jeremy Corbyn won 40% of the vote. Under Starmer they’re about to win a landslide with 36%-38%.
Something’s wrong in the deepstate.
There’s something wrong with the notion that a ‘voter’ is someone whose only political right is to select his preferred party and that parties ought to be represented in partylament in proportion to their share of the popular vote. That’s not how the British system works and hence, such percentages are meaningless. In the UK, voters elect MPs for their contituencies. They don’t vote for parties.
So who elects the government?
As a British politician once famously put it: The purpose of the NATO is to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down. I, for one, would welcome an end to this charade. The ‘public institutions’ which claimed to protect democracy and human rights by abolishment of human society and vaccine and mask mandates are thoroughly bankrupt and this includes the political system which begat them.
At the height of the Corona madness, at least one democratic (ie, from the US party) politician went on record with stating that ‘human rights’ never meant to include the right to breathe freely and to talk to and otherwise socialise with other humans as one see fit as humans, who are notoriously nothing but carriers of highly dangerous pathogens, simply couldn’t be allowed to do that for their own safety and such is the nature of these people, may they meanwhile all again have eaten a lot of chalk to soften their hideously croaking voices.
The ‘western’ mock-democracy willingly killed itself when the WHO demanded that in 2020.
Great article. I would however challenge the claim of “Islamophobia” – what does this even mean? It is an often used slur against anyone raising reasonable criticism of the encroaching march of theocracy and/or the denial of terrible crimes committed in the majority by members of one particular religion due to “cultural sensitivity”. For example the still ongoing “grooming gangs” situation throughout the country, although that should be called what it is – paedophile rape and slavery gangs.
https://x.com/TheCriticMag/status/1747540137129423263?s=19
The link leads to an article in the Critic (from January this year) which basically seeks to exploit the situation as feminist propaganda for the “war on women” story. That’s exceedingly poor taste as the Rotherham authorities who remained intentionally blind to this certainly included both men and women and the elephant in the room is not that the abusers weren’t investigate by men because they were also men but weren’t investigated by all kinds of officials because they were muslims of Pakistani origin and it was desired to avoid possible accusations of racism.
Poor taste is actually way too mildly put. This is not a (All) men seek to rape female children!! story. It’s one about muslim gangs getting a free pass from communal authorities.
The people we should be worrying about are the traitorous izlamoPHILES: queer starmer, ed davey, greens, and red tories who indignantly huff & puff if anyone dares to point out that izlam has 50+ countries it captured and we needn’t think our country exempt from that fearful outcome.
liblabcon treachery against the rightful people of this country knows no bounds and manifests itself in its most dangerous form as a 75-year-long mass importation of an alien death cult that anyone with a smattering of history knows has world domination as its aim either by conquering countries with swords or conquering them by outbreeding the natives.
smarmer has recently been poncing in and out of various muzlim ghettoes reassuring them that he as PM will protect their rights. He doesn’t give a flying f*** about the rights of British people to their own homeland untainted by the 7thC AD savagery of izlam.
He also promised them that he will ensure that they feel ‘safe, secure, protected’. Bugger the Brits, then, they will just have to put up with jihadis, terrorism, proliferation of mosques and the loud wailing therefrom, tales of blatant misogyny in sharia courts, honour killings, muzlims telling off Brits for eating when it’s their ramadamadingdong, plus the numerous other delights that disgust us such as the cruel halal killing of animals in defiance of our animal welfare laws.
Never forgetting the mass gang-rapes of hundreds of thousands of young British girls by paedophile muzlims, which smarmer as DPP 2008-2013 certainly knew about, but did NOTHING about. Unforgivable and Unforgiven.
Anyone who hasn’t a phobia concerning izlam is an ignorant fool. The ignorant fools are about to form another government.
Nick Robinson has always been, is now, and will always be a first class tosser with a leaky brain.
‘Sunday roast with all the trimmings’ is a very stupid way to characterise a person and invites the obvious riposte of characterising Robinson as food.
Imagine a cheap ready meal well past its sell-by date left to fester in a faulty fridge until the plastic film begins to bloat and swell. One prick off a fork and there is a puff of noxious air that turns the stomach. Anyone unwise enough to unwrap it to have a peek instead of hoying it straight in the bin will turn green and perform some projectile-vomiting.
Yes, Farage as food is very wholesome compared to a sickening BBC leftard hack.