Governments across Europe are telling people and businesses to reduce energy use. Do they know something we don't?

[cakeorwine]

It feels like Covid again. Warning signs of an issue. But no action taken.

I know there are people who will reduce usage because of the increased costs.

But there is still a lot of waste and things where energy usage can be reduced to ensure that we have enough gas and electricity available during a demanding winter.

The media has advice on reducing use. There are schemes to encourage people to use electricity outside of peak time.

But shouldn't the Government be leading on this?

As I said, not my circus not my monkeys

and I’ll be long dead by the time climate change really bites. No, I don’t have children so nothing g to think about there.

by not having children I’ve already done more than my fair share to save the planet so I’ll just crack on living how I want to

Fucking hell, I'm wheezing 🤣 😂 💀

The government cap is saving me 3i per year. I’ll still pay many thousands of pounds for fuel (more
than the cap because I use more) but ill
pay £3k less for it.

ill probably use the savings on a holiday

Yes, 100% correct.
We have globally reached point of per capita consumption reduction but in absolute terms still going up due to population increase.
UN has projected to stabilise by 2100- although USA, India and China are the wild cards- and projections not very reliable.
I think we are cross posting a bit due to time lag.

@Liebig
Love Delbert btw. Great cartoon.

*Dilbert
damn you auto correct

A couple of things.

No government is going to willingly reduce consumption or tell people to stop consuming, at least in anything other than the short term.

The economic and financial model we operate within is predicated on the above point holding true and, indeed, the opposite being the norm i.e. more consumption.

There are no replacements for fossil fuels.

Climate change in its simplest form has been known about for well over a century, and really started getting traction in the '60s when Big Oil looked into it. The Club of Rome wrote their report on resource limits in '72. These are not new developments, and successive gov'ts globally cannot claim ignorance. They simply follow what the system commands, and anyway, no one wants to be an unwashed hippie when they could be using credit cards to consume.

You can fill in the rest, but it's pretty much a straight line from there to here and I can extrapolate it to an arse puckering moment not too far from now.

You should see my office. Adorned one wall with my calendars over the years of Dilbertisms.

But yes, I agree to your last post, we in the West are basically past our collective peaks, with the likes of the UK first over the hill as we started this whole party anyway. Europe and the USA are just behind us, but as I understand it, the developing world is now peaking and even China is now going to see prosperity fall, even if nominal GDP output rises. An ever larger portion of growth will simply be debt fuelled emptiness. In the UK, every £1 of debt financing has been getting progressively lower returns (I think we're at 25p now).

The economic and financial model we operate within is predicated on the above point holding true and, indeed, the opposite being the norm i.e. more consumption.

Exactly. Our whole economy has been privatised because it provides ‘a bigger economy’ with more money moving around and much larger percentages of it heading straight into the bank accounts of certain sectors of society. Quoting statistics of energy breakdowns does nothing to change the point that more could have been done, but the focus has been on making the economy look bigger and tying us into a globalised world for the benefit of economists and politicians instead of moving towards the country working within its constraints. This country is built now on status symbols and signalling.

You are wasting your time trying to tell someone like me that most people would be more green if they could, not while there are so many unnecessary Chelsea tractors on the roads!

The Anti Growth Coalition destabilising the country??
How dare they.
The government are elected to manage the country and5hey should get on with the job instead of continually looking for others to blame.
Too much 'I'm all right Jack' and 'It wasn't me' from this current and previous administration.

So do we but I will still be trying to reduce energy as much as possible

@liebig. Exactly!!!! I am that person in red. Blue people really annoy me. Why can't they just learn from my wisdom!!! 😂😂😂😂

Paynes Politics (podcast) this week cover the anti-growth coalition really well, pointing out that local Tory councillors are among the strongest elements of the AGC, opposing local infrastructure developments (like onshore wind, or new roads). Basically AGC is vast majority of the British population and includes many local Tory activists. Well worth a listen.

One reason that we are consuming less energy is that things are becoming more efficient - so less energy is wasted.

Light bulbs
Electrical devices
More insulation etc in homes

So less energy is needed to achieve the same job

Truss was right to not spend £15m on a leaflet lecturing the British poor on how to be poor

It's not about lecturing 'the British poor to be poor'

It's about everyone taking responsibility and working together to ensure there is enough to go around.

On another thread re everyone talking about what they like their home to be I doubt you’d get much shift with just information

People know, they are just settled with preference also influenced by cost

I was working in our County Hall the other day on a day when I didn’t need a coat outdoors yet the heating was on! I had to sit by a radiator and I was absolutely boiling. Surely councils should be thinking about energy use. The building is massive, it’ll be costing them a fortune.

That yells for a poster. Maybe a national design competition?

Rory Stewart is strong on this as well on his podcast. The most obvious obstacles to growth are immigration constraints and the Green Belt, which puts Truss at odds with the precise people who put her in place. She's on an impressive mission to alienate absolutely every segment of the UK population, piece by piece.

But the campaign was lecturing the poor on how to be poor better. Have you even read what the Tory ministers who wrote it said about it? And the ideas in it? I posted a few of them.

Have you read the OP?

It's about Governments across Europe telling people to save energy.

This is what the OP is about.

It feels similar to what happened with Covid - and a Government ignoring the warning signs.

I was responding to noble giraffes response to your question shouldn’t the government be leading on this:

“noblegiraffe · Yesterday 18:07
But shouldn't the Government be leading on this?

They had a campaign all lined up, signed off by Rees-Mogg but Truss pulled the plug as she thought it was too nanny state.”

And your response to that was implied you thought the campaign was actually a good one that should have been put out by the government.

I disagreed for good reason. It all links back to your OP and the Government be leading on this question.

I don't think enough has been said about this tap dancing plan.

After all, if we all take it up, we'll work up a sweat and won't need the heating on so much. Problem solved.

They just need to get <insert names of popular well known dancer celebrities> to do a scheduled daily dancing session or too to get the nation dancing and away we go.

This isn’t about the climate crisis. It’s that Europe has not secured proper energy resources and has been overly reliant on Russian gas.

And your response to that was implied you thought the campaign was actually a good one that should have been put out by the government.
I disagreed for good reason. It all links back to your OP and the Government be leading on this question

A well thought out campaign by Government explaining the issues and the concerns should be done.

There are 2 issues here - helping people to save money - and reducing the amount of energy we use, and spreading out the time we use energy. Energy blackouts are potentially on the horizon

And yes, there are people out there who don't know how to save energy. Turning off lights which consume little energy is a classic example.

It's clear on here that there are people who don't know.

A well thought out campaign - with effective TV adverts, clear graphics - and a reason for doing it could work.

The reason needs to be key - is it to save money for an individual, to save energy, to reduce the risk of blackouts or to 'stick it to Putin'.

What is the motivation? I am sure the Number 10 Nudge unit could help