The Case Against Net Zero – a Fourth Update
Unachievable Disastrous Pointless
Posted on 08 Aug 24
by Robin GuenierIn
In October 2008, Parliament passed the Climate Change Act requiring the UK Government to ensure that by 2050 ‘the net UK carbon account’ was reduced to a level at least 80% lower than that of 1990. (‘carbon account’ refers to CO2 emissions and ‘other targeted greenhouse gas emissions’.) Only five MPs voted against it. Then in 2019, by secondary legislation and without serious debate, Parliament increased the 80% reduction requirement to 100% – thereby creating the Net Zero policy.i
Unfortunately, it’s a policy that’s unachievable, potentially disastrous and in any case pointless – and, importantly, that’s the case irrespective of whether or not human caused greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to a rise in global temperature.
1. It’s unachievable.
Many vehicles and machines (used for example in agriculture, mining, mineral processing, building, heavy transportation, commercial shipping and aviation, the military and emergency services) and products (for example cement (and concrete), high-grade steel, plastics – all needed incidentally for the construction of renewables – nitrogen fertilisers, insecticides, pharmaceuticals, anaesthetics, lubricants, solvents, paints, adhesives, insulation, tyres and asphalt) essential to life and wellbeing require the combustion of fossil fuels or are made from oil derivatives; there are no easily deployable, commercially viable alternatives. Our civilisation is based on fossil fuels; something that’s unlikely to change for a long time.ii
Wind is the most effective source of renewable electricity in the U.K., but: (i) the substantial and increasing costs of building the huge numbers of turbines needed for Net Zero, (ii) the complex engineering and cost challenges of establishing a stable, reliable non-fossil fuel grid by 2030 – not least the need to cope with a vast increase in high voltage grid capacity and local distribution, (iii) the enormous scale of what’s involved (immense amounts of space iii and of increasingly unavailable and expensive raw materials, such as so-called ‘rare earths’) required because, unlike fossil fuels, the ‘energy density’ of wind is so low and (iv) the intermittency of renewable energy (see 2 below) make it unlikely that the UK will be able to generate sufficient electricity for current needs let alone for the mandated EVs (electric vehicles) and heat pumps and for the energy requirements of industry, rapidly expanding AI (artificial intelligence) and huge new data centres.iv
https://cliscep.com/2024/08/08/the-case-against-net-zero-a-fourth-update/
