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A campaign group says that Ed Miliband’s decarbonisation efforts will cripple Britain’s defence plans. The remarks come in the wake of today’s publication of the Strategic Defence Review, which outlined the Government’s intention to rearm the UK, with up to six factories being built to supply munitions and related fuels and explosives. Net Zero Watch, which campaigns for rational energy and climate policies, has pointed out that Britain’s high energy prices, and its rapidly declining chemicals industry mean that the plans of Defence Secretary John Healy are likely to come to nothing. Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said: ‘A secure supply of munitions relies on secure domestic production of petrochemicals to make explosives and fuels. We cannot have national security if Ed Miliband is allowed to continue with his crazy plan to shut down the North Sea and to block onshore production of shale gas and coalbed methane.’
And Mr Montford also warned that high energy prices meant that all defence goods produced in the UK were going to be expensive. ‘Some estimates suggest that artillery shells procured in the UK are costing four times as much as the Russians or the Chinese pay. In any conflict, those cost differentials are potentially fatal. Net Zero is a real threat.’
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