Last month, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) released its 2024 Progress Report to Parliament. As you might expect, there is much sound and fury because we are not on track to meet our target of a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030.
The Climate Change Committee sets out the priority actions that the Government must take to get back on target. Interestingly, there are ten of them and they are presented almost like a list of commandments. However, some of the new priorities underline just how wrong much of their previous guidance has been and how self-contradictory their latest commandments are.
The commandments we shall look at are:
- Make electricity cheaper
- Effectively design the upcoming CfD auctions
- Finalise business models for deployment of engineered removals
- Reverse policy rollbacks
- Accelerate electrification of industrial heat
Make Electricity Cheap Again
The first commandment is that the Government should take out its magic wand and make electricity cheaper. It is like a Trump campaign slogan: “Make Electricity Cheap Again!” They want to do this by removing “policy costs” from electricity. They are coy about where they want these to go, but recently the NG ESO made the explicit call for levies on electricity bills to be “re-balanced” on to gas.
In other words, they now acknowledge electricity prices have risen because of the massive subsidies that have been lavished on wind and solar power, along with crippling grid balancing costs and the enormous costs of expanding the grid to connect to these remote generators. Loading these costs on to gas instead will immediately make it more expensive for most people to heat their homes. This move might also make heat-pumps superficially more attractive, but as Andrew Montford has explained, this is really a massive bait-and-switch con.
This is the same CCC that called for variable renewables to expand to 60% of generation capacity by 2030 and 80% by 2050, and claimed in their sixth carbon budget that the cost of offshore wind could fall as low as £23/MWh by 2050. They also claimed that a near-zero electricity system had additional costs of about £3 billion up to 2035, and by 2050 there could be savings of up to £5 billion compared to the high-carbon alternative. The reality is that offshore wind is being offered £102/MWh in AR6 and renewables subsidies are already costing about £11 billion per year with more in the pipeline.
The only way they can make electricity cheap again is by pretending the costs they have already imposed on us do not exist and that their new cost estimates are credible.
Effectively Design Upcoming CfD Auctions
They call for the upcoming allocation rounds six and seven (AR6 and AR7) to be “effectively designed” to deliver at least 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. There’s currently about 15GW installed, 8-12GW with planning consent and the AR6 budget is set to procure about 3GW [Update August 4th, 2024: The recent budget increase might have pushed this up to 4-5GW]. Some of this will be allocated to projects that are re-bidding part of their capacity because they can no longer meet the commitments made in earlier rounds, so they are effectively calling for AR7 to be a bumper auction of about 20GW or more. The CCC also recommends defining a minimum targeted procurement volume, effectively calling for volume to be prioritised above price. This is a recipe for developers to bid anything they like.
In the Executive Summary, they make the false claim that the “cost of key low-carbon technologies is falling”. The offer price for all technologies have gone up in AR6 compared to AR5.
They go on to say that the “adjustment” (increased by 66%) made to the administrative strike price for offshore wind made for AR6 may not be sufficient. If offshore wind really were cheap, it would not need subsidy and the allocation rounds would be redundant as developers fall over themselves to provide cheap energy.
We can expect more subsidies for these “cheap” renewables and we will pay in some way or another, either through our electricity bills, our gas bills or general taxation.
Business Models for Engineered Removals
Not content with extra subsidies for renewables, the CCC are also demanding that business models for engineered removals of CO2 are finalised. This is code for even more subsidies for BECCS and other carbon capture technologies.
Reverse Policy Rollbacks
Of course, the CCC are angry that Rishi Sunak had the temerity to delay the phase-out of new petrol cars by 2030 and exempt 20% of properties from the 2035 gas-boiler ban. Now they are demanding that these bans are reinstated in their original form. They claim this transition will save households money, without explaining why any Government intervention is required if electric cars and heat pumps are cheaper, superior products. I do not recall the Government exhorting us to replace old Nokia bricks with smart phones. They rather give the game away by calling for measures to “support affordability” which totally undermines their claim that these new technologies are cheaper.
Accelerate the Electrification of Industrial Heat
The CCC also calls for a comprehensive set of policies to enable a rapid transition to electric heat across much of industry. These policies include “making support available”, which is another code word for subsidies. They also insist that the price of carbon be increased, effectively demanding that gas be priced out of the market. They recognise that this will not be enough and call for a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) which is a carbon tax on imports. They think this will protect against offshoring, but no energy intensive company is going to remain in the U.K. if its main cost is much more expensive than elsewhere in the world. This is because they will not be able to export to the rest of the world. Electrification of heat is a recipe for industry dematerialisation, not decarbonisation.
Conclusions
They start with the lie that renewables are getting cheaper and contradict themselves by demanding even more subsidies. They go on to demand even more “support” to accelerate the adoption of EVs and heat-pumps, which also contradicts their claims that they will save customers money. Their plans for industrial heat reveal an economic naïveté that is beyond comprehension.
Our energy policy institutions are broken beyond repair, and the CCC is no exception. As we have discussed before, the CCC should be disbanded.
If they really do want to make electricity cheap again, then they should call for renewables subsidies to be rolled back together with a big investment in new gas-fired plants and new sources of gas supply in the North Sea and through fracking. This should be followed by a U.K. version of France’s Messmer plan that installed 56 new reactors over a period of 15 years.
David Turver writes the Eigen Values Substack page, where this article first appeared.
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That asteroid can’t come soon enough, can it?
A science fiction story I remember from the past starts with aliens landing on earth who then immediately proceed to butcher and process humans for some mysterious purpose in vast numbers. All attempts to stop or otherwise fight them fail because of their superior technology and the doom of mankind seems a certainty until someone finally manages to communicate with them. At this point, they immediately stop these activities and sincerely apologize for the unintendend massacre. The problem was that they had entirely failed to realize that humans were something other than contaminated water.
Some certainly aren’t.
Me next for the suicide booth, Bender.
Bloody hell, this is getting dark!
Well, I’ll be certainly be AVOIDing them with my charitable donations from now on.
I accidentally blundered into their donation site, not realising it was an echo-chamber blog, and asked a neutral question exactly what they fund, and whether the White Hats were involved, which led to my being set upon by a gang of virtue-signallers with blue-and-white profile filters. I made my excuses and left.
Can charities (or their employees) be held responsible for misappropriation of funds? If so, this would seem be a splendid opportunity to do that: It’s a safe bet that nobody who ever donated money to Oxfam desired to commission an Oxfalish: English Expertly Undone For The Postcolonial Age report.
It’s pretty clear that big charities have been engaged and proactive in furthering political agendas for decades. How individuals view giving money to charities is up to them but the huge amounts given to them via government regulated lottery monies and directly awarded tax payers money is matter of great concern.
But what should we expect from a fake Tory Party?
What language isn’t “The Language of a Colonising Nation”?
Stand in the Park – Make friends & keep sane
Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am
Elms Field
near Everyman Cinema & play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE
What utter planks! At least people like this don’t work for the BBC and civil service. Wait a minute…
“The introduction apologises for being in and about the English language.”— Quite so! In future, please submit your work (woke) in Sanskrit or Coptic.
Or Klingon. More people would understand that, and as it’s the language of a fictitious “colonising nation”, presumably it would be OK for the crackpots at OXFAM.
“In future, please submit your work (woke) in Sanskrit or Coptic…”
because none of the rest of us want to firkin read it.
Perzakerly!
How about Esparanto?
The people at Oxfam must get smacked of their tits on crack, then hold a meeting to discussing the best ways to p off their donors!
I stopped supporting Oxfam years ago when they changed their job description to ‘fighting the anthropogenic 0.001% of a gaseous plant food that keeps everything on this planet alive.’
When they are not using charitable donations to pay for prostitutes they are using them to insult their donors. They pay their CEO a six figure sum to come up with this?
That’s just like the former Silicon Valley Bank: Once a single woketard has managed to get into a position where he can influence employment decisions, he’s going to use that to hire more woketards doing ever more woketarding at the expense of the company until all of the productive staff has been replaced with drones issueing language guides and engaging in performance politics celebrating other woketards for also doing this. This continues until the money has run out. Then, the parasites jump ship and find another host company/ organization.
This is Andrew Bridgen’s speech from this afternoon. You Tube have already taken it down because it’s too much truth for them to handle. Can’t be getting that much contradictory information to the masses now…But if you’re quick you will see at the very start somebody taps the guy with the white hair in front, he goes over to the other side and speaks to somebody and they all get up and leave! So Andrew is left speaking to a near empty room once more. Disgusting! They should be obliged to remain out of basic courtesy! And the guy who replies to Bridgen has nothing in the way of come-back and is a right gonk. See what you think;
https://odysee.com/@AwakenWiki:c/Andrew-Bridgen—Efficacy-of-the-mRNA-covid-19-booster,-17-Mar-2023:e
I don’t have the time to watch this completely ATM (it’s about 27 minutes), but thanks for posting it.
Actually I haven’t watched it all either, just skipped it along. My preference went instead with a dose of The Walking Dead.
Government minister does not answer any of Bridgen’s questions. Same old safe and effective. One day this is going to bite them on the arse.
It’s both disgraceful and insulting in equal measure. I listen to these sock puppets and just think they cannot possibly believe what they’re saying, they’re just toeing the party line.
Extraordinary if true. I have never heard before of a Member of Parliament, speaking in Parliament, being censored. I listened to him speaking on BBC Parliament Channel. What he says is based on ONS data. It at least merits a response from government if they have a different interpretation. Otherwise the impression is that they just don’t want to hear dissent.
Well I’m disgusted because it comes off as being blatantly snubbed by your fellow colleagues. It’s both rude and unprofessional. Also, if this is the sort of treatment Bridgen has now come to expect, does it come as any surprise that these same MPs have also zero interest in listening to the public’s concerns, the vax injured or even contemplating starting an investigation into the safety of the products that they bullied, threatened and coerced people to get, all based on lies and fraud? Their behaviour in Parliament just speaks volumes of their attitude and disinterest towards the British public. I’m not even a UK resident anymore and I feel very, very pissed off watching this.
Thanks
Nations are colonising, by definition.
Oh well, language is difficult and should be banned, to avoid offending people who are a bit dense.
So, as I haven’t colonised anything, I shall now write that in my language, as follows:
Erdle flinsbuk shert’bhi grees klus.
Literally, anything colonised have not I myself.
Hope that hasn’t offended anyone.
Does the guide have lots of euphemisms for sexual offences?
Aren’t Oxfam up to their necks in pedophilia and child abuse in those countries that they claim are victims of colonial power. I’m wondering how they square that particular circle. Perhaps they could take a leaf out if the good book which advises “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” What is it with these hypocritical parasites that makes them think we should do as they say and not as they do.
Watch this 6min video from Truth Be Told posted 2 hours ago, thanking Andrew Bridgen. Very moving.
https://twitter.com/CoviLeaksCVVAM
Thanks
The Newspeak is getting more Orwellian by the day, it seems.
I stopped donating when the prostitute scandal broke. Also our local Oxfam shop has a very peculiar smell which I don’t like and the ‘holier than thou’ attitude of some of the staff adds to my dislike of it.
This latest stuff is ridiculous. So, it’s nevermore for me and I’ll bet they’ll lose donations.
As per Oxfam’s Annual Report and Accounts 2021/2022, the salary of the current CEO Dr. Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah is reportedly well over ₤120,936 and the company’s turnover is ₤400,000,000. After the CEO, the highest salary is of CFO who is paid around ₤108,703. Isn’t the term ” pounds” a left over from Colonial rule? Just saying
A charity that can afford to spend donated funds on producing such guff, clearly has forgotten what it is for, it appears in common with many organisations it believes it is more important to virtue signal, rather than actually perform the job it is supposed to be doing.
I will no longer donate money, clothes, things to Oxfam, neither will I purchase from its shops, clearly it is spending charitable donations on too many staff, with too little to do whilst the poor and diseased suffer for Oxfams vanity.
So the English language didn’t exist before the English set up colonies? Gosh, the standard of history teaching is really impressive.
I know. And Yorkshire folk spoke something quite different from Viking before those colonisers showed up. B*stards.
And don’t get me started on the French
Not even the french like the french.
English colonies had by-and-large ceased to exist by the 1980s, ie, about 30 years ago. Hence, today’s decolonizers are preaching to an echo chamber filled with themselves about a supposed issue which doesn’t exist anymore. Or actually, exists in the exact opposite of what it used to be: Colonization is nothing but immigration of foreigners with the intent to settle permanently in the area they immigrated into. Usually, they don’t care very much about the natives and just themselves up exactly (or as exactly as possible) as things used to be in the place they came from. Considering this, the England of 2023 is a heavily colonized nation, to a degree where large parts are barely recognizable as English at all. There are even – although this is still officially denied – Sharia courts operating here handing out covert death penalities to people they deem religious transgressors and the police is backing them.
Silly buggers.
NEVER allow this absurd wokery to influence your world view. At all times choose your own words and thoughts, for if you let these insidious central planners choose them for you then your freedom is LOST, and as Joni Mitchell would say “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone”.
Oxfam’s owes its existence to the UK’s colonial heritage as do many other charities. Oxfam is known for its high salaries in the sector but I suspect if you look at its diversity record, most of its leaders will be the children and grandchildren of those very same colonalists from whom they derive their privileged positions and continue to benefit from albeit by trashing their legacy.
I suspect those who wrote the guide know very little about history besides what they have been told.
Human history shows that the Western culture has created the most free, richest, equal and diverse civilization in the history of the world.