26 March 2024

From the director

Dear Subscribers

It is becoming quite hard to keep up with all the news from around the world of governments quietly backing away from decarbonisation plans. Just this week, the Scottish Government confessed that it was considering legislation to allow it to back away from its earlier fantasy pledges to go full-renewables by 2030. France, Florida and Arizona are all staring to put major stumbling blocks in the way of renewables developments and Net Zero in general.

Meanwhile, media outlets are increasingly asking questions about the affordability and credibility of Net Zero. Our message is getting out there too: the Daily Express covered our story about the retreat from Net Zero in Scotland.

But there is also a great deal of inertia in the Green Blob, so we are far from complacent. But we are winning.

Best wishes

Andrew

As always, please don’t reply to this email, which comes from an unmonitored mail box.

The headlines

Greenflation causes Indonesia and Vietnam to backtrack on renewables
Nikkei Asia, 25 March 2024

Green investment trusts face vote on future as shares slide
Financial Times, 25 March 2024

How Chinese spies could remotely control Britain's electric cars
Daily Mail, 23 March 2024

Labour’s Net Zero plans ‘will cost £116 billion’
The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2024

Wind farms investigated after ‘overcharging customers by £100m’
The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2024

Multinational backing for wind farms ‘backfires on consumer’
The Times, 25 March 2024

Farmers warn of food shortages as green schemes take land out of use
The Times, 25 March 2024

SNP told 'you can't negotiate with reality' as Humza and Co realise they can't hit 2030 Net Zero target
Scottish Daily Express, 21 March 2024

New report explodes myth that ‘extreme weather’ is getting worse
Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, 24 March 2024

The detail

Greenflation causes Indonesia and Vietnam to backtrack on renewables

Nikkei Asia, 25 March 2024

Behind the backtracking is a growing concern over the rising cost of going green.

Indonesia's recent lowering of its renewable energy targets highlights Southeast Asia's decarbonization challenges, with inflation and financing concerns growing across the region, from Malaysia to Vietnam.

Indonesia's National Energy Council in January revealed a plan to trim the target for renewables' portion in the country's primary energy mix to 17%-19% in 2025 and 19%-21% by 2030. The original target that was supposed to have kicked in next year was 23%. While setting a more ambitious goal of 70% renewables through 2060, council executives argued that the original target was simply out of reach. Currently, renewables account for only 13% of Indonesia's energy sources.

The council's revelation came not long after Indonesia's energy ministry said implementing a carbon tax would be further delayed to 2026; the tax was originally set to take effect in 2022.

The cuts indicate the government's "weak commitment" to energy transition and "rampant interest to preserve fossil fuels," the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), an Indonesian think tank, said in a news release.

Full story

Green investment trusts face vote on future as shares slide

Financial Times, 25 March 2024

Green energy investment trusts face investor votes on whether they should continue trading as a prolonged slump in share prices hampers access to capital and presents challenges for the green transition.

High interest rates have lured investors into other assets while onerous fee disclosure rules have made trusts appear comparatively expensive, weighing on the sector and pushing them to trade at a steep discount to net asset value.

Full story (£)

How Chinese spies could remotely control Britain's electric cars

Daily Mail, 23 March 2024

Warning EVs could be remotely stopped by Beijing to bring roads to a standstill and steal drivers' data - as experts warn vehicles 'could be a Trojan horse'

Beijing could bring Britain's roads to a standstill by remotely stopping Chinese-made electric cars, MPs have been warned.

The possibility of China remotely controlling EVs and stealing drivers' data presents a 'major security threat' that could be exploited if its relationship with the UK badly deteriorated, an expert claimed.

Sales of electric cars made by Chinese manufacturers have been rising and Beijing plans to expand its EVs to Europe.

Professor Jim Saker, president of the Motor Industry, told MPs that electric vehicles 'flooding into Britain could be 'the most effective Trojan Horse' at the Chinese Communist Party's disposal.

Professor Saker made the claims in a report submitted to Parliament's National Security Strategy committee, which examines threats to the UK's economic security.

Concerns have been raised as Chinese electric cars could possibly be remotely controlled and even stopped by China.

Sales of electric cars made by Chinese manufacturers have been rising and Beijing plans to expand its EVs to Europe.

The expert, who is also director of the Centre for Automotive Management at Loughborough University, warned Chinese-made electric cars could give spies access to 'big data' as well as personal data.

'We know that at the moment connected vehicles can be stopped remotely,' he wrote in a submission reported by The Times.

'If this happened on a motorway at 70mph and the automatic braking system was applied to a vehicle the traffic would simply pile in the back. If this occurred at strategic points it could gridlock cities.

Full story

Labour’s Net Zero plans ‘will cost £116 billion’

The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2024

Analysis finds even if sums were available, Starmer’s plan to decarbonise UK’s power grid by 2030 is ‘infeasible’

Labour’s plans to reach net zero will cost £116 billion, new analysis has revealed.

Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to decarbonise Britain’s electricity grid by 2030 will require more than £15.5 billion additional investment per year until the start of the next decade.

This is more than double needed over the same period to achieve net zero power by 2035, the Government’s current target.

Analysis by Aurora Energy Research, founded by academics from the University of Oxford, for Policy Exchange, found that decarbonising the UK’s power grid by 2030 would cost £116 billion over the next 11 years.

Even if such sums were available, analysts concluded, the supply chain constraints, skills shortages and lead times involved make achieving the 2030 goal “infeasible”.

Full story

Wind farms investigated after ‘overcharging customers by £100m’

The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2024

Wind farms owners are being investigated by the energy watchdog for alleged market manipulation after they were accused of overcharging consumers by £100m.

Ofgem is to examine claims that renewable energy companies artificially inflated compensation payments given to them for switching off their turbines on windy days when the grid did not need extra capacity.

It has been handed a dossier gathered by analysts at the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), which suggests wind farm companies could be boosting the price of “virtual energy” they never actually generated.

An Ofgem spokesman confirmed that the claims had been received and an investigation has begun into whether any rules were broken.

John Constable, director of REF, a charity that has frequently highlighted excessive payments to wind farms, said: “Our evidence suggests that multiple wind farm operators have been charging over the odds to reduce their output on windy days, generating no energy but costing consumers a fortune.

“We estimate it added £100m to overall consumer bills in 2023 alone.”

REF claims that operators overcharged for constraint payments, the cash given to electricity generators to switch off wind farms and other assets when the national grid risks being overloaded.

On windy days, the output from Scotland’s turbines surges to an unmanageable level because there are too few national grid links to carry their power to England’s cities.

When this happens, the National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) tells wind farms to “constrain” their output – meaning they must switch off, and therefore earn less money from the subsidy system that underpins renewable generation.

The farms are then allowed to claim compensation for this lost income, with the costs added to consumer bills. However, the complexity of the system has given rise to multiple opportunities for overclaiming.

Ofgem is already investigating a separate allegation of wind farm overcharging that is estimated to have cost bill payers £51m since 2018.

Full story

Multinational backing for wind farms ‘backfires on consumer’

The Times, 25 March 2024

Campaigners claim large companies benefit from net-zero cachet but that the public picks up cost of constraint payments

Large companies have been accused of pushing up electricity bills for the public by backing wind farms.

Amazon, Tesco and Kimberly-Clark, the American paper group, are among the multinationals that buy electricity produced by renewable power to meet their net-zero targets, according to Scotland Against Spin, a pressure group.

The campaigners claim many wind farms are not needed and say the facilities attract millions of pounds in subsidies when the National Grid goes beyond peak supply and turbines are stopped.

Constraint payments have become a significant part of the energy business as the number of wind farms grows without a matching upgrade to grid capacity.

John Constable, director of the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a think tank, said electricity bill payers were in effect subsidising businesses that take power from Scottish wind farms.

The REF collates data for constraint payments and Constable said: “The 2023 totals confirm our view that weak regulation of wind constraint pricing has resulted in a strong perverse incentive for wind developers to choose sites behind grid bottlenecks in Scotland, at the expense of consumers. This is a scandalous mess.”

His investigation found that wind farms serving Amazon, Tesco and Kimberly-Clark were paid more than £4 million in 2023 to shut down turbines. He said all constraint payments were passed on to consumers in their bills.

Aileen Jackson, of Scotland Against Spin, said the situation was “intolerable”. She said the Scottish government had waved through wind farms far beyond local demand for electricity.

“Why is Scotland having to put up with all these wind farms when we are not going to need it,” she asked. “A lot of developers choose the north of Scotland because they know the grid is not up to scratch so they are much more likely to get constraint payments.”

She added: “It’s an absolute scandal. Why should we be paying for this? It’s all a moneymaking exercise.”

Full story

Farmers warn of food shortages as green schemes take land out of use

The Times, 25 March 2024

With egg shortages already a familiar sight on supermarket shelves, farmers are warning that vegetables and grains could be next, as environmental schemes take large areas of land out of use for food production.

Stephen Holt, 66, who farms 670 acres in Northamptonshire, said farmers were being incentivised by government subsidies to reduce domestic food production in favour of wildlife.

He has signed up to a scheme under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), part of the government’s post-Brexit Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs), which are being rolled out in England under the concept of “public money for public goods”.

It comes as more than 50 farmers are expected to take trucks and tractors to central London on Monday to protest against “substandard” food imports and labelling.

Full story (£)

SNP told 'you can't negotiate with reality' as Humza and Co realise they can't hit 2030 Net Zero target

Scottish Daily Express, 21 March 2024

After Mairi McAllan confirmed the Scottish Government may loosen the legally-binding targets it has set itself, Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said: 'She may be the first, but she won't be the last'

Campaign group Net Zero Watch has welcomed the announcement by the Scottish Government that they are considering legislating to water down their Net Zero targets.

Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan told Holyrood that, having set themselves a legally binding target of cutting carbon emissions by 75% by 2030, she and her officials were now considering a variety of options to address the impossibility of actually delivering, including legislation.

Welcoming the move, Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said: "Politicians across the world have set ruinous, utopian targets that are impossible to deliver. Ms McAllan is the first to publicly face up to reality, but she won't be the last. We have reached the high water mark for Net Zero."

Ms McAllan's humiliating climbdown came after a damning report from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said that the 2030 targets are now "beyond what is credible" to be achieved. Chris Stark, the CCC chief executive added that "there is no plan to hit it".

Under the Climate Change Act, governments can amend the decarbonisation target and the timetable for achieving it by regulation, as happened in 2020 when interim targets on the road to 2030 were slashed. It is also open to them to legislate.

Mr Montford said: "This is a purely political decision. Whatever course they take, the Scottish Government will face opposition from environmentalists, the Climate Change Committee and their Green coalition partners. But they have no option. You can’t negotiate with reality."

Ms McAllan confirmed the SNP administration was considering using legislation to weaken the legally-binding targets, a move which would infuriate the Greens and potentially bring down the coalition deal. She said: "We will carefully consider the report's recommendations and indeed, we are already actively considering the government’s next steps. I can assure the chamber that all options, including legislative action, are part of active consideration by the government in how to respond."

Full story

New report explodes myth that ‘extreme weather’ is getting worse

Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, 24 March 2024

Rising media star ‘Jim’ Dale (real name Noel Roger Dale) from British Weather Services (limited company dissolved) with a 40-year old proficiency certificate in thermometer reading from the Royal Navy can be relied upon to turn almost every bad weather event into the harbinger of complete climate collapse. Whatever the data thrown at him disproving his barking claims, ‘Jim’ carries on regardless. It is a comic tour de force, not to be missed.

Unfortunately this ‘Daleification’ of climate change is common throughout mainstream media. A recent extreme weather report written by the physicist Dr. Ralph B. Alexander notes that much of the fault for the erroneous perception that such events are becoming worse can be attributed to the mainstream media, “eager to promote the latest climate scare”. He argues that the failure by climate reporters to put today’s extremes in a true historical perspective “is contributing to the belief that weather extremes are on the rise when they are not”.

Published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Dr. Alexander argues: “Constant repetition of a false belief can, over time, create the illusion of truth – a phenomenon well known to psychologists and one exploited by propogandists. The falsehood can even become a ‘noble lie’ when exploited for political purposes.”

Of course, as regular readers of the Daily Sceptic are aware, bad or ‘extreme’ weather events are the main propaganda tools used to nudge global populations to accept the collectivist Net Zero project. It has long been realised that global warming doesn’t inspire the required levels of instant fear with temperatures rising, falling and pausing in both the near, historical and paleoclimatic record, mostly out of line with whatever the trace gas carbon dioxide is doing. It is difficult to raise the required panic when there is little more to show for 40 years of gentle warming than slightly milder winters and a substantially greener planet.

Dr. Alexander brings a vital historical perspective to the subject. Drawing on newspaper archives, he gives multiple examples of past extremes that match or exceed anything experienced in the present day. Collective memories of extreme weather are “short-lived”, he notes.

For instance, heatwaves of the past few decades pale into insignificance to those of the 1930s. The record shows that the heat wave was not just confined to the U.S. ‘Dust Bowl’ but extended throughout much of North America, as well as France, India and Australia. Major floods today are observed to be no more common nor deadly or disruptive than any of the thousands of floods in the past. Hurricanes overall have shown a decreasing trend around the globe, and the frequency of their landfalling has not changed for at least 50 years. The deadliest U.S. hurricane in recorded history killed an estimated 8-12,000 people in Galveston in 1900. As a comparison, the death toll of the category five Hurricane Ian, which deluged much of Florida in 2022 with a storm surge as high as Galveston, was just 156.

The biggest problem that Carry-on ‘Jim’ and the rest of mainstream media face in using extreme weather to push a political agenda is that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is lukewarm, or of “low confidence”, in attributing human involvement in a wide range of weather-related events.

Full story

In brief

French Council of State annuls wind turbine permits

Arizona moves to repeal Its renewable mandate

Florida is about to erase climate change from most of its laws

From our blog

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