16 August 2024

From the director

To our readers and all of our generous donors

I’m watching with interest as the candidates in the Conservative leadership race set out their stalls. What strikes me is that they are still having to hedge their bets on the Net Zero question, with the difficulties of appealing to all of the Parliamentary party leading to compromise messaging. It can’t be easy to please everyone, for either the green wing or the true blue rationalists.

The dreary Westminster consensus on decarbonisation has been extremely damaging for the country, and with Labour now racing ahead towards the Net Zero mirage, the country desperately needs some serious opposition. Rumour has it that the Conservatives may shorted the leadership election timetable may be shortened, so that someone is in place in time to respond to the budget. But they party is unlikely to choose someone who is willing to challenge the climate narrative anyway. To me, it seems that they are not yet ready to take a clear stance. There is a further price to be paid.

Wishing you all the very best weekend.

Andrew

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

The headlines

UK

• Aberdeen councillors condemn Labour tax plans

• Badenoch backtracks on windfall tax

• Sir Simon strikes a balance

• Extremists at DESNZ

• Further subsidies for steel industry

Around the world

• German state of Lower Saxony approves new gas project

• Delays to Inflation Reduction Act projects

Decarbonisation

• Car leasing firms threaten to shut up shop

• Green sector manufacturers in trouble

• E-fuels fiasco

Etcetera

• Climate dissent to be outlawed?

• Dodgy claims of carbon-free electricity

• Global greening – it’s going to be a disaster (apparently)

• On the failings of the BBC

From the blog

• What shall we do with the drunken sailor?

• Bumper crop of BBC bias

UK

Aberdeen councillors condemn Labour tax plans

Aberdeen City Council’s Finance & Resources Committee voted to condemn the Government’s plans to expand the windfall tax on the oil and gas sector.

Badenoch backtracks on windfall tax

Speaking in Aberdeen, Conservative leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch described the last government’s oilfield windfall tax extension as a mistake, and criticised Labour for making the situation worse.

Sir Simon strikes a balance

Badenoch ally Sir Simon Clarke says that there is a middle path to be struck.

There is an authentically Conservative middle path between the damaging state-ism of Labour’s GB Energy and its attack on North Sea oil, and the siren voices of those who call for us to jettison our climate commitments.  

This sounds much like the line that was taken unsuccessfully during the general election.

Extremists at DESNZ

Guido Fawkes blog looked at the Government’s special advisers in the energy department and found that some very eccentric ideas abound.

Further subsidies for steel industry

As the disaster of the closure of the Port Talbot blast furnace unfolds, the government has thrown £13 million of subsidy at businesses involved in the supply chain.

Around the world

German state of Lower Saxony approves new gas project

In a further sign of Germany’s retreat from Net Zero, the state of Lower Saxony approved a permit for gas drilling near the island of Borkum.

Delays to Inflation Reduction Act projects

Nearly half of the projects that have been spawned by the Biden administration’s (inappropriately named) Inflation Reduction Act have been delayed, according to a Financial Times Investigation (£).

Decarbonisation

Car leasing firms threaten to shut up shop

With resale values for second-hand EVs plunging, some car leasing companies are threatening to leave the business altogether if they are forced to go electric faster than the market will bear.

Green sector manufacturers in trouble

The difficulties for wind turbine manufacturers continue, with Vestas posting another loss in the second quarter. There is also plenty of red ink at one of Germany’s largest heat pump companies, with sales collapsing.

E-fuels fiasco

Orsted is leaving the e-fuels sector. Its planned project to make methanol as a shipping fuel has been abandoned.

Etcetera

Climate dissent to be outlawed?

Tilak Doshi wonders whether the Starmer administration will move to outlaw climate scepticism.

Dodgy claims of carbon-free electricity

At RealClearEnergy, Bill Ponton looked at a data-centre operator’s claims that it only used renewable electricity, and found them to be (ahem) not exactly accurate.

Global greening – it’s going to be a disaster (apparently)

Ten years after Matt Ridley first drew attention to the way the Sahel was greening, eco-journalist Fred Pearce seems to have accepted the facts. But, he says, it’s actually bad news.

The world was wrong to expect that climate change would trigger rapid and widespread desertification in the world’s arid lands. In fact, the reverse is happening. But it could be a similar folly to imagine that the dramatic greening now visible in satellite images across many of those same regions is a reason to declare their troubles over.

You couldn’t make it up.

On the failings of the BBC

Andrew discussed our new report on the BBC’s climate output (see below) with Julia Hartley-Brewer.

From the blog…

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