Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Energy as a common good

UK

Lord Glasman’s GWPF annual lecture: energy as a common good

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has released its 2025 Annual Lecture, delivered this year by Lord Glasman, founder of the Blue Labour movement. Glasman set out a wide-ranging argument for treating energy as a fundamental common good that is required for national security, industrial strategy and AI.

The lecture highlights the centrality of affordable, dependable heat and power: “It is not only keeping the lights on, it is the defence of our borders, our sovereignty, our prosperity, our industry that is at stake.” He urged policymakers to prioritise secure domestic energy sources, including nuclear power and transitional fossil fuels, while giving control of Britain’s power grid to the Ministry of Defence.

The full lecture, Why It Is Good To Be Warm: Energy as a Common Good, is now available online to read or to watch here.

Ofgem approves £90bn of new energy costs

A record £90bn is to be loaded onto household energy bills to help pay for grid upgrades linked to Ed Miliband’s net zero blitz. Ofgem has approved dozens of investment proposals put forward by the UK’s three transmission grid operators, allowing them to build more pylons and substations across the UK before adding the cost to consumer bills.

Miliband warned about risk to AI data centres

Britain faces a surge in gas-fired power generation to meet demand from data centres unless construction of new nuclear plants can be sped up. A new report has warned that the expected boom in power demand from data centres will have to be met by gas-fired plants in the short term. Wind and solar are too intermittent to meet demand without large amounts of capacity alongside 'large-scale battery storage and fossil fuel backup systems' – such as gas or diesel generators.

Labour’s climate tsar racks up record air miles

Labour’s climate tsar has racked up air miles equal to six trips around the globe in just a year. Rachel Kyte’s trips have cost the taxpayer nearly £105,000 with flights and accommodation included.

International

Ridley: the global climate cult has come to an end

Writing for Spectator World, Lord Ridley says that climate alarmism has been a strategic mistake. He argues that it has diverted attention from real environmental problems, cost a fortune, impoverished consumers, perpetuated poverty, frightened young people into infertility, wasted years of our time, undermined democracy and corrupted science. He says the global warming craze is finally dying out. 

Equinor makes new discoveries in the North Sea

Norway’s state-owned oil and gas giant Equinor has made two new discoveries of gas and condensate in the Sleipner area of the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, which it describes as its largest finds so far this year.

Etcetera…

Maurice was on Talk TV to discuss Ofgem’s plans to add £90bn to household bills

Harry was on Talk TV to discuss BP abandoning its investment in a green hydrogen plant.

From the blog

MON, NOV 17
Fixing the electricity system

The UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world, despite paying only average prices for gas. Independent research shows that years of high energy costs have made the cost-o Read More 

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.