15 November 2024

Flop 29

The headlines

UK

• Nature always has the last word

• Subsidy piled upon subsidy

• And tax piled upon tax

• Lords of obfuscation

• Red Ed’s dead heads

International

• Flop 29

• Exeunt stage right

• A brief glimmer of sanity

• Eco-policy fail

• Ford flops

In the media

From the blog

• Starmer’s energy fantasy

• Another windfarm surpasses £1 billion in subsidy payments

UK

Nature always has the last word

Grandstanding at COP29, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would cut its carbon emissions to 81% below 1990 levels by 2035. Nature appeared to be laughing at him, as renewables generators across the UK fell idle, hit by a sustained “dunkelflaute”. (See also blog posts, below)

The lack of renewable electricity made Mr Starmer’s other eye-catching announcement for the week – a ban on gas boilers in new homes from 2027 – look rather foolish.

Subsidy piled upon subsidy

As if they weren’t already being generous enough to windfarms, the government announced a bonus subsidy scheme for windfarms. The Clean Industry Bonus is worth £27 million per megawatt of capacity, and may add as much as 10% to the handouts already awarded in the AR6 CfD auction.

And tax piled upon tax

The chancellor will remove the EV exemption from the luxury car tax.

Lords of obfuscation

The House of Lords debated the cost of renewables. Or at least Lords Frost and Moynihan did. Most other attendees wanted to talk about anything but, and obfuscation and cant became the order of the day. Labour peer Lord Rooker surprised everyone with some very sceptical remarks about Net Zero.

Red Ed’s dead heads

Ed Miliband’s team of advisers was revealed to be headed by an ex-adviser to Extinction Rebellion. The rest appeared little better.

International

Flop 29

COP29 was launched in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the newly elected Donald Trump casting a shadow over the whole affair. The country’s president got things off to a lively start by describing oil and gas as “a gift from God”, proceeding to lecture European attendees on their hypocrisy (and not without good reason). With many prominent national leaders failing to attend, few paid much attention. Ed Miliband tried to take centre stage. Even less attention was paid.

Exeunt stage right

President-elect Donald Trump and Argentina’s Javier Milei both indicated that their countries would soon withdraw from the Paris climate treaty. Trump is going to focus on a gas-to-nuclear strategy, as long promoted by us at Net Zero Watch.

A brief glimmer of sanity

A court in the Hague overturned the decision of a lower court that had ruled that Shell had to do more to reduce its emissions.

Eco-policy fail

The floods in Valencia turned out to have more to do with EU-promoted removal of dams (to encourage rewilding) than the climate.

Ford flops

Ford became the latest car manufacturer to scale back its EV ambitions, this time in its German factories.

In the media

To mark the COP, Harry Wilkinson was on Sky News and Andrew was on Talk. Both also discussed Mr Starmer’s new target, Harry appearing on GB News and Andrew on Talk again.

Andrew was in The Daily Sceptic, discussing the various House of Lords debates on Net Zero.

Francis Menton discussed energy ideas for the incoming Trump administration.

Talk’s Mike Graham invited the Shadow Secretary of State Claire Coutinho to confirm the Conservatives still wanted to achieve Net Zero, and failed to elicit a response one way or the other.

In a true novelty for the mainstream media, an insightful article about hurricane and hurricane-damage trends appeared in the Washington Post. Roger Pielke Jr applauded.

From the blog…

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