24 June 2024

From the director

Dear readers, donors and subscribers

Over the weekend, Labour and Conservatives turned their guns on the Reform Party, suggesting they are both experiencing some nervousness about the upstart party’s strengthening poll figures. Their utterances on Net Zero in the last few days also suggests that they are painfully aware that Mr Farage’s anti-Net Zero position is going down well with the public. As you’ll read in today’s Samizdat, Rishi Sunak and Ed Miliband have been offering, respectively, emollient words and a partial policy retreat, although it would be going too far to suggest that many people will be convinced. The two parties remain trapped by green orthodoxy.

If these stories are both signs that Net Zero is starting to become an electoral liability, that’s good news. As another Samizdat story makes clear, the eco-madness is about to get very painful indeed. If u-turns are in the offing, we need them enacted soon.

Best wishes

Andrew

As always, please don’t reply to this email address, which is not monitored.

The headlines

UK elections

• Labour decarbonisation plans ridiculed

• Skidmore to run GB Energy?

• Rishi Net Zero desperation

• Miliband wants to cancel heat pump target

Around the world

• EU plans to exempt long-haul flights from emissions rules

• Gas outage risk in Victoria, Australia

Decarbonisation

• Emissions at record high

• UK Supreme Court lawfare

• SNP in further Net Zero retreat

• Windfarms vulnerable to cyberattacks

• Port Talbot workers to strike over Net Zero plans

Etcetera

• Overmanning at DESNZ

• On Jim Ratcliffe and the Supreme Court

• Children being scared by climate activists

UK elections

Labour decarbonisation plans ridiculed

Business seems appalled by Labour’s decarbonisation plans. Jim Ratcliffe, an oil and gas investor, and Britain’s richest man, described them as ‘absurd’ (£). Javier Cavada, European boss of Mitsubishi Power, said they would be prohibitively expensive and would require ‘huge sacrifice’ (£). Meanwhile, North Sea operators face credit downgrades.

Skidmore to run GB Energy?

Chris Skidmore, who as a minister placed the 2019 Net Zero dodgy dossier before Parliament, announced that he was going to vote Labour. Most assumed this was a job application to run Starmer’s GB Energy.

Rishi Net Zero desperation

In apparent desperation, Rishi Sunak tweeted ‘It's not right for hard working people to pay the price for Net Zero’. Reactions were, ahem, mixed.

Miliband wants to cancel heat pump target

In apparent recognition of the popularity of Reform’s opposition to Net Zero, Labour’s Ed Miliband said he would cancel the Conservative’s 2030 heat pump ban and focus on incentives instead. Given Miliband’s fervent greenery, this will be taken by sceptics to mean that he intends to make gas boilers unaffordable.

Around the world

EU plans to exempt long-haul flights from emissions rules

The European Union’s plans to exempt long-haul flights from new emissions reporting rules caused a row, as short-haul operators demanded to be included too.

Gas outage risk in Victoria, Australia

Facing cold weather, low renewables output and gas plant maintenance, the Australian network operator warned that the East Coast faced gas outages over the winter.

Decarbonisation

Emissions at record high

The latest edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy noted that carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector have reached new highs.

UK Supreme Court lawfare

The UK Supreme Court ruled that Surrey County Council failed to consider the climate impacts of allowing new oil wells to go ahead.

SNP in further Net Zero retreat

The SNP administration in Holyrood quietly abandoned grants for rooftop solar power.

Windfarms vulnerable to cyberattacks

The Turing Institute has warned that UK offshore windfarms are dangerously vulnerable to cyberattacks, bringing a risk of disruption to power supplies.

Port Talbot workers to strike over Net Zero plans

Staff at the Port Talbot workers are to go on strike over the decision to close the two blast furnaces.

Etcetera

Overmanning at DESNZ

Net Zero Watch identified nearly three billion pounds of savings that could be delivered in short order at the Department of Energy Security and Climate Change.

On Jim Ratcliffe and the Supreme Court

Andrew was on Talk with Mike Graham, discussing Jim Ratcliffe and the Supreme Court decision on oil and gas.

Children being scared by climate activists

Amanda Spielman, a former head of Ofsted, said that green teaching resources contained overwhelmingly negative messages that were spreading anxiety.

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