Treasury leak reveals rift between Johnson and Sunak over costs of zero-carbon economy. With weeks to go before the Cop26 climate summit, documents show PM being warned about the risks of damage to the UK from green investment. Confidential documents leaked to the Observer reveal an extraordinary rift between Boris Johnson and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, over the potential economic effects of moving towards a zero-carbon economy, with just weeks to go before the crucial Cop26 climate summit. As Johnson prepares to position the UK at the head of global efforts to combat climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions as host of the Glasgow Cop26 meeting, the documents show the Treasury is warning of serious economic damage to the UK economy and future tax rises if the UK overspends on, or misdirects, green investment. Green experts said the “half-baked” and “one-sided” Treasury net-zero review presented only the costs of action on emissions, rather than the benefits, such as green jobs, lower energy bills and avoiding the disastrous impact of global heating. They said the review could be “weaponised” by climate-change deniers around the world before Cop26, undermining Johnson’s attempts at climate leadership on the global stage.

Observer 16th Oct 2021 read more »

At first glance, the government’s much-delayed bid to break Britain’s decades-long addiction to gas heating is well timed, as the nation braces itself for a winter energy crisis. Within months, the gas supply crunch is expected to plunge hundreds of thousands of homes into fuel poverty for the first time, lead to scores of energy suppliers going bust, bring factories to a standstill, and rip through the economy as the UK attempts to mount a post-pandemic recovery. As one energy industry leader put it last month: “There really is no part of the current energy crisis which would not be better if we were less reliant on fossil fuels.” So it comes as welcome news that as soon as this week, ministers may unveil plans for a scheme that will pay households to scrap their gas boilers in favour of a low-carbon alternative, as part of its long-awaited “heat and buildings” climate strategy. The scheme, which reports suggest could offer £5,000 to households ready to shrug off their fossil fuel dependency, may prove to be a tempting prospect for homes currently facing one of the steepest increases in energy bills on record this winter because of record gas market highs across the globe.

Observer 17th Oct 2021 read more »

Recently, the Times said ‘Contrary to the wrong turning made by the environmental movement a generation ago, there is no viable strategy for achieving a target of net-zero carbon emissions without exploiting nuclear energy’. A problem with that view is that major expansion of nuclear could deflect money that would arguably be better spent on renewables and energy efficiency- delivering more carbon savings faster and at less cost. Certainly not everyone in the policy establishment backs nuclear. For example, Lord Adair Turner, who was the first chair of the Climate Change Committee, and Director General of the CBI, has backtracked on his support for new nuclear, saying that he no longer thinks the UK needs it. The basic overall energy options now seem clear, with at one pole, renewables backed up by storage and energy saving, at the other nuclear and gas, including shale gas. The polarisation may not be complete. For example, as a concession to climate concerns, some see gas plus carbon capture and storage as a middle ground interim option. But otherwise, as illustrated by the output from Net Zero Watch, the GWPF’s new incarnation, the battle lines do seem clear.

Renew Extra 16th Oct 2021 read more »

Janet Daley: Let me say from the start that I am not qualified to make scientific judgements about the empirical facts of this matter. (Nor, of course, are some of the prominent exponents of the most extreme version of the climate campaign: Greta Thunberg does not have a degree in any scientific subject and famously withdrew from formal education to pursue her public mission.) It is perfectly possible, so far as I know, that the most cataclysmic predictions and the inevitability of the worst prognoses are objectively correct. And yet there is something about this movement that is so suspiciously imitative of an extreme religious cult that it is very hard to see how it could be compatible with the spirit of scientific endeavour. Climate campaigning, at least in its most well-publicised form, embodies everything that one would expect to see in a movement of fanatical fundamentalist fervour: the concept of original sin (industrialisation) that requires an acceptance of universal guilt which can only be expiated through self-denial and penance (sacrificing personal prosperity and freedoms).

Telegraph 16th Oct 2021 read more »

Dominic Lawson: Enough royal lectures on eco catastrophe. Prince Charles’s doomsaying is contributing to a fatalism among the young.

Times 17th Oct 2021 read more »

Johnson’s foe is mustering for the first skirmish of the net zero war. Labour will not vote against the government on green matters, so MPs on the Tory right are forming their own opposition. n London, the apocryphal saying goes, you are never more than six feet from a rat. Similarly, in Westminster you are never more than six minutes away from the foundation of a snappily abbreviated group of Tory MPs with an axe to grind. Step forward, the NZSG (Net Zero Scrutiny Group), the newest horse in a stable that includes the ERG (European Research Group), not to be confused with the CRG (China Research Group) or indeed the other CRG (Covid Recovery Group) and countless others. Unlike some of its alphabet-soup brothers, the Net Zero Scrutiny Group does what it says on the tin. Its aim is to scrutinise the government’s attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Dismiss its members as climate deniers at your peril: there are some serious political operators involved, and the group could be a real thorn in the side of Boris Johnson’s government. The serial rebel MP Steve Baker, who set up the group, worries that some of the government’s policies “seem designed to make the country poorer and colder” and wants it to change tack. He worries that the government’s proposed ban on gas boilers will be prohibitively expensive for homeowners and is concerned that our energy supply will be unreliable if the government prioritises renewables over nuclear.

Times 17th Oct 2021 read more »

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has defended the government’s handling of the energy crisis after suppliers said the system of having a cap on prices was not fit for purpose. Gas prices are at record highs, with some domestic energy supply firms failing as they pay more for gas than they are able to charge. Mr Kwarteng did not say how pressure on businesses might be eased but said keeping the cap was “non-negotiable”. The cap is reviewed every six months.

BBC 10th Oct 2021 read more »

UK energy survivors braced for burden of failed rivals’ customers. With the wave of collapse in the UK energy supply market, UK homes are facing billions of pounds of bills to bail out stranded customers. But it offers an opportunity for larger rivals who can survive the gas price storm. British Gas, EDF Energy, Eon, Octopus and Shell each have hundreds of thousands of retail accounts through the regulator Ofgem’s “Last Resort Process Supplier”. Ovo Energy, the UK’s third largest energy supplier serving 4.5 million households, continues to consider approaching Bulb, which has about 1.7 million customers.

FT 10th Oct 2021 read more »

Coalville MP Andrew Bridgen has suggested that the Government should use nuclear energy to tackle energy shortages in an interview with the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning (Saturday), The MP for North West Leicestershire suggested that a short term price cap on energy used by energy-intensive industries could be useful.

Nub News 9th Oct 2021 read more »

Russia is at “war” with Europe amid the gas crisis, a Russian energy insider has said, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to leverage the continent’s energy dependence on Russian resources. Critics say European leaders misread Russia’s long game on the gas market. The continent’s energy crisis advanced this week as gas prices hit a record high, increasing eight-fold compared to the start of the year. As Europe turned to Russia, the world’s biggest gas producer after the United States, the Kremlin mounted a days-long “I told you so” campaign to berate Europeans for rushing to green energy. In his two public appearances this week, Mr Putin chided Europe for being too short-sighted and trying to walk out on conventional energy sources too early and too abruptly.

Telegraph 10th Oct 2021 read more »

The West will be begging for more fossil fuel while virtue signalling at Cop26. PM should not be playing the clown during an energy crisis, Johnson will rue his jokes when the energy crisis bites. As the nights draw in and temperatures drop, a shocking lack of gas storage and creaking nuclear capacity means the UK really faces the prospect at least of outages. Spiralling energy prices are causing much apprehension not just on the domestic household front, but among businesses too – not least as there is no energy price cap for companies. What is undeniable is that Britain and several other developed nations are now, as energy prices spiral, pressuring the Opec oil exporting cartel and Vladimir Putin’s Russia to pump more oil and gas. Yet, at the same time, the Western world’s great and the good, led by Britain, are gearing up for their Glasgow COP26 jolly, where they’ll slap themselves on the back for signing us all up to even more ambitious decarbonisation targets.

Telegraph 10th Oct 2021 read more »

Ministers will announce plans for levies on gas bills to fund low-carbon heating within the next fortnight despite rising prices, The Times has been told. The government will publish a new strategy with a carbon pricing scheme that could push gas bills significantly higher. The strategy, which will be published before the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow next month, commits the government to cutting the price of electricity, which is significantly higher than gas. It will seek to end “price distortions” by removing green levies from electricity bills over the next decade and imposing new charges on gas bills. Ministers have been warned that average annual energy bills could reach £2,000 next year if wholesale prices continue to rise. On Thursday wholesale gas prices were ten times higher than in October last year. The government will release a series of consultations on the plans before deciding next spring how to proceed. The Times has been told that the carbon reduction scheme is likely to start in 2023. Internal government estimates suggest that it could add £170 a year to gas bills. The strategy will include measures to boost the sale of heat pumps, which extract heat from the ground, water and air. They cost about £10,000, compared with £2,000 for a gas boiler. Ministers set out plans to ensure “cost parity” between heat pumps and gas boilers by 2030, with costs falling from £10,000 to £5,000 within three years. A £400 million scheme in the spring will offer grants of £5,000 towards an air source heat pump and £6,000 towards a ground source heat pump. Craig Mackinlay, head of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of more than 40 Tory MPs, said: “This plan should be discounted and discarded immediately. We are rapidly approaching energy poverty in this country. This would only add to it.”

Times 9th Oct 2021 read more »