When will our political leaders learn to take expert advice seriously?
It is now clear that our Government did not heed urgent medical advice on the Covid pandemic rapidly and consistently enough, and many people paid the price.
The world’s climate scientists are unanimous that unless we transition from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy in this decade we can expect climate chaos, collapse of ecosystems and agriculture and the end of civilized life by 2100. Yet UK political leaders are strangely reluctant to talk about this as an Emergency!
The current energy market is dysfunctional; oil and gas companies operate a cartel, rigging the markets by manipulating and restricting supplies to ensure high prices and obscene profits. We are being taken for a ride by fossil fuel companies.
Britain is surrounded by enormous natural energy resources; our tides are among the highest in the world; wind, waves and sea currents are strong. The sun pours energy on us, even in our northern latitudes. We have the potential to be energy independent, generating all our power from our own wind, water, solar and geothermal resources by proven technologies.
Renewables and electrification are surging ahead in many countries. US states and cities have wider powers than is the case in our highly centralized UK and many are implementing ambitious local roadmaps towards 100% renewable energy. China is the world’s highest emitter of greenhouse gases, but their hugely ambitious solar and wind electricity programmes are on track to out-compete the fossil fuel industry. They have 600,000 electric buses and 100,000 km of electrified rail track. Japan’s railways are almost all electrified. Britain is lagging behind, yet an electrified transport system is an obvious first step towards industrial renewal.
Warm homes are another, and here Britain could lead the way. At a former fracking site at Kirby Misperton in north Yorkshire a team of former fracking engineers have formed a company called CeraPhi. They are flowing down cold water, passing it over hot rocks and pumping up hot water to be used in a district heating project. This first project is in its final testing stage. Research by Durham University has identified many other potential sites, a lot of them in areas on the Government’s index of areas in need of investment for levelling up.
At Cop28 the IMF head pointed out that the world is subsidizing fossil fuel production by trillions of dollars every year. Stop these damaging and wasteful subsidies and tax breaks. Turn off the money taps that are pouring crazy public money into the pockets of the favoured few, and even into the new oil and gas projects that are still being licensed and given 100% tax relief on development costs, and use this money for the investment that is desperately needed into renewable energy, affordable energy-efficient homes, decent wages, the NHS.
Resource Inland Revenue adequately, so they can collect all tax due. They suspect multinationals underpaid by £5.6bn last year.
Shut down off-shore money havens that enable tax dodging.
Sources:
IPCC Synthesis Report, March 2023. This is the final section of the latest, very long and technical IPCC Report, and is an accessible summary of the world’s scientists’ main findings and recommendations, intended for policy makers who are not themselves scientists, but need to understand the climate emergency.
Frequent CCC reports to the UK Government.
CeraPhi Energy Ltd
Well of hope: Ex-fracking site offers potential for geothermal breakthrough - article by Jillian Ambrose, Guardian 6th November 2023
Manifesto – Dale Vince, Manifesto, Penguin Books, 2023 (https://amzn.eu/d/8e2xddm)
No Miracles Needed: How Today’s Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air – Mark Jacobson, Cambridge University Press, 2023
