9 August 2024

From the director

To our readers and all of our generous donors

It has been a quiet week on the Net Zero front, with media attention focused elsewhere.

However, there is still much to worry about. The news this week that grid bosses are privately conceding that the country may face blackouts in the next few years is not wholly surprising, but is at least confirmation that all is not well in the electricity sector.

Perhaps more concerning is the fact that no hint of such concerns has yet appeared in the pronouncements of the grid operator. The stability and reliability of the grid is of vital importance to everyone in the country, and we could surely expect to know the facts.

But perhaps we should not be surprised. That we are not being given the unalloyed truth about Net Zero is not exactly news. Rishi Sunak said as much just over a year ago, and examples of energy bureaucrats and quangocrats playing fast and loose with the facts are ten a-penny. While they face no sanction for doing so, it is unlikely that they will desist. Indeed, it is far more normal for them to be rewarded.

All we can do is continue to highlight their misdeeds, and demand better behaviour.

Andrew

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

The headlines

UK

• Grid bosses warn of power cuts by 2028

• More North Sea Warnings

• Solar farm challenged

Around the world

• German EV sales slump

• US solar giant files for bankruptcy

• Another EV conflagration

• Green activists disband

Decarbonisation

• Leading where noone follows

Etcetera

• Coral bonanza

From the blog

UK

Grid bosses warn of power cuts by 2028

National Grid has apparently privately warned of power cuts in the South East of England by 2028 (£), because of congestion on the network. Its public position is that there is no risk.

More North Sea Warnings

Oil and gas company Serica warned that Labour’s plans for the North Sea would lead to thousands of redundancies.

Solar farm challenged

Suffolk County Council announced that it would challenge the legality of Ed Miliband’s decision to give the go-ahead to the massive Sunnica solar farm, raising the prospect of the Government’s Net Zero drive getting bogged down in legal suits.

Around the world

German EV sales slump

In Germany, electric car sales in July were down 37% on a year earlier, in contrast to sales of fossil fueled vehicles, which were up slightly.

US solar giant files for bankruptcy

SunPower Corp, once valued at $10 billion, filed for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors. Operations will be wound down, and its assets will be sold off.

Another EV conflagration

A fire started by a Mercedes EV burnt out 140 vehicles in a private carpark attached to an apartment block in Incheon, South Korea. Its owner had parked the vehicle two days earlier. The government announced an emergency meeting to discuss the problem of EV fires.

Green activists disband

Austrian activist group Last Generation announced that they were to disband, citing a lack of public interest in their disruptive activities.

Decarbonisation

Leading where noone follows

In the Telegraph (£), Jeremy Warner argued that it’s only the UK that is still blindly pursuing Net Zero.

In China and much of the rest of the “developing world”, net zero targets appear to mean nothing at all beyond their usefulness in undermining the West. Economic growth is routinely prioritised over climate change goals.

Similarly in the US, which pays lip service to net zero while simultaneously celebrating its position as the world’s largest oil producer; big tax breaks for fracking go hand in hand with the hundreds of billions the Biden administration is pouring into the green energy transition.

Even holier-than-thou little Norway, which aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, seeks to extend the life of its North Sea oil and gas reserves long into the future with big ongoing incentives to invest.

In a bid to revive economic growth, Christopher Luxon’s new centre-Right government in New Zealand is meanwhile in wholesale retreat from the environmental commitments of his saintly predecessor, Jacinda Ardern. 

Only in the UK does the torch of net zero still burn strong, with the newly installed Labour Government determined to double down on emission targets whatever the costs.

Etcetera

Coral bonanza

It is reported that coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef is still increasing quickly, raising the prospect of a third year of record-breaking good news.

From the blog…

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