Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Are blackouts inevitable?

UK

Are blackouts inevitable?

Energy expert Kathryn Porter warned that the UK faces a very real risk of blackouts. There appears to be little interest in the subject in Westminster.

Labour reeling

Everybody was bashing Labour this week.

The chief executive of British Gas issued a stark warning that Labour's plans could render energy unaffordable, predicting the net zero transition might end in "complete and utter failure".

Energy company boss Mark Lappin – a Labour activist – lambasted his own party's policies, saying the party had its "head on backwards," risking the North Sea oil and gas industry's death, harm to workers, and zero emissions gains.

And even green energy bosses are now telling Miliband he is getting it wrong.

BBC on the ropes

The BBC, reeling from the scandal over its doctoring of footage of President Trump, announced a review of climate coverage, although details were thin on the ground.

A former BBC journalist, Iain Macwhirter, said that the rot at the BBC could be traced back to its infamous decision to drop any semblance of impartiality on climate.

The Great Green Bait and Switch

Eco warriors seem to have been victims of a huge bait and switch from the Government, which indicated that it would introduce pay-per-mile charging on battery cars to make up for the loss of road tax income. At the same time, it said it would charge business rates on EV charger bays and cancel or scale back heat pump subsidies. And the London Mayor has indicated that they will also now be subject to the Congestion Charge.

International

Fossil fuels are not for turning…

Writing in Bloomberg (£), Javier Blas noted that while the current climate COP in Brasil endlessly discusses turning away from fossil fuels, fossil fuels are not for turning.

Unlike the Australian liberals…

…who have jettisoned their commitment to Net Zero by 2050. Unsurprisingly, the International Energy Agency is saying that oil and gas demand is going to continue to increase for the time being.

Etcetera…

Writing in the Critic, our Campaign Director Maurice looked at how the “enemy within” uses linguistic tricks to corrupt debate on climate. Clear thinking and common sense are the antidote, he argued.

And on Talk, NZW director Andrew Montford said that the COP30 conference in Brazil was now mostly an irrelevance.

Professor Gordon Hughes had a very important article on his Substack outlining some of the issues with the Energy Charter Treaty, which will be one of the major barriers to reversing Net Zero.

GB News had a wide-ranging interview with Professor Mike Hulme, who is now a voice of relative reason within the climate science community.

The London-based Net Zero Watch is a campaign group set up to highlight and discuss the serious implications of expensive and poorly considered climate change policies. The Net Zero Samizdat is a newsletter summarising the latest issues - for more information, please visit the website at www.netzerowatch.com.