The Tories come out as PRO climate change

[noblegiraffe]

WTF. A series of policy announcements that position the Tories as pro-climate change because they think it won them Uxbridge?

This tweet by Grant Shapps announcing new gas and oil licenses to spite Just Stop Oil is just gobsmackingly awful.

It's not Just Stop Oil who are saying that we can't do this, it's international experts.

"Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director and one of the world’s foremost energy economists, told the Guardian: “If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year.” And that was 2021.

While we watch mainland Europe experience terrible wildfires and storms, with the memory of our own awful heat wave last year fresh in our minds, the government comes up with what they think are funny tweets about how the UK is going to actively contribute to a worsening crisis?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/18/no-new-investment-in-fossil-fuels-demands-top-energy-economist

Chris Skidmore, a Tory MP who actually cares about climate change has issued a statement condemning this policy being announced while parliament is on recess and has called for an emergency debate. https://twitter.com/cskidmoreuk/status/1685948524033130498?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

Duh. The same people who pay for all the other infrastructure (in the end) - the taxpayer. Like, HS2, nuclear new builds, railways, new sewage infrastructure etc. Least with renewables we'll see cheaper bills and less reliance on the global energy market.

We will only see low bills if the energy pricing market is changed & no one is proposing that.
S we will pay for the Green Energy infrastructure but shareholders will still be prioritised.

On avg we produce 42% of electricity from renewables, yet bills have sky rocketed, even now, almost 100% more than pre Ukraine war, apparently OfGem also make sure any company that losses money in one year, gets it back plus plus the following year... (900% profit increase by British Gas and many others even though they still made money the year before...)

Don't know of any private business that has that sort of price guarantee.......

It's all they've got. They've utterly destroyed the economy so the only strategy they can use is scare stories about Labour and culture war stuff that will play well on GB News's woke watch.

If it won them a general election there's few things they wouldn't campaign to do (i.e. not upset their donors).

Well they (a Tory government) shouldn't have privatised energy and water in the first place.

Renewables have really had excellent PR campaigns. Everyone seems to think they are some panacea of working together with Mother Nature instead of the monstrously inefficient, eco system destroying eyesores which don’t even deliver what we need.

this policy from the Tories is the most sensible thing they’ve done in years

The same grant Shapps who supported ULEZ until the by election?

The same Grant Shapps who is part of the party that made Kahn increase revenue of £1bil because of covid payouts to tfl?

Now apparently Sunak is "pro motorists".

What does that even mean? They are just a clutching at any straw flying through the air with the pigs that'll hopefully be flying at their chances of getting back in.

How do renewables destroy ecosystems when burning fossil fuels is destroying the planets ability to support human life?

Really?

www.climatecouncil.org.au/11-countries-leading-the-charge-on-renewable-energy/

Lol at offshore hydroelectric energy storage. The amount of carbon needed to dump that much concrete into the ocean 😂😂😂

England has issues with hydroelectric, because we don’t tend to have very deep valleys that aren’t either AONB or otherwise already populated. Because if you dam a valley you also damn it 😬.

Compared to something like the hoover dam it the snowy mountain hydroelectric scheme, it’s a different ball game. But yea, massive over production of renewable energy, in order to pump water uphill into upstream reservoirs that can then be released down through hydroelectric generators when the wind doesn’t blow. But the consequence of this is you actually need to build at least 2x the amount of generation required. That all takes building, infrastructure, maintenance etc etc.

Renewables generate around 36% of all UK electricity energy needs across the year, compares well with fossil fuels which is 42%.

@Daftasabroom

just one for you here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0707-z

There is also emerging evidence of the negative impact on marine life

it’s not all sunshine and rainbows

And the cost of renewables keeps on going down, while UK has access to cheap onshore wind. Which the tories pretty much banned under Cameron - a single objection can kill a project. It's obscene and infuriating.

instead of the monstrously inefficient

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/most-new-wind-solar-projects-cheaper-than-coal-report

Will be interesting to see if they turn against abortion. They've adopted so much of the US far right anti-woke, anti-trans, anti-environment rhetoric, that's the obvious next shoe to drop.

And the very first sentence of the executive summary (you post seemingly in support of burning fossil fuels) states:

Wind farms are a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels for mitigating the effects of climate change,

please read things before you post

@Daftasabroom

’Cleaner’ is one specific metric.
It doesn’t account for the ‘cleanliness’ of producing giant steel construction, doesn’t account for the impact on eco systems either. A measure of carbon outputs is a pretty limited picture.

@hamstersarse have you actually read an EPD for a wind farm (or anything else for that matter)?

@hamstersarse I'm guessing you're rushing off to find out what an EPD is?

In fact putting cost aside, historically nuclear is about 12g carbon/kWh, against 11 for onshore wind and 12 for offshore. That said, it’s not taking into account modern 4th gen nuclear reactors, especially what they’re looking at doing with SMR’s and molten salt reactors. Properly mass produced rather than bespoke produced small MSR would be a game changer in terms of energy production and energy security. This country has outstanding diplomatic relations with a whole host of countries that have abundant sources of uranium and thorium. Problem if you move away from PWRs is you can’t enrich uranium for weapons so there’s less research and development but the fuel cycle on modern 4th gen reactors is far above what most current reactors can achieve- something like 60% efficiency against current 30-ish %.

proper investment and research into non military based uses of nuclear fuel needs to be invested in and at great speed. The UK national grid currently requires around 72 gWh with capacity for 85 or so. If each MSR was producing half a gW, then it would require us to build 150+ around the country. If we’re serious about no ICE engines then build 300, and if we’re serious about no gas boilers then build 400. Each reactor is a safe means of consuming a zero carbon fuel, and each location would be able to act as a localised source of hydrogen manufacture, so that we could start using hydrogen cars rather than battery for longer journies.

it would create an explosive boom in construction, generate an overnight industry in fuel processing and management along with a massive education industry to support the high skill high value jobs being created. It would turn the UK into a massive energy exporter, and would allow us to achieve net zero in a way that wasn’t just on paper but actually substantially cut our carbon emissions by a staggering 90%+. There will always be some carbon produced, but that’s fine- the point isn’t to produce no carbon dioxide ever- it’s just not to produce it faster than the plants of this earth can process it back to oxygen.

It seems that the Conservative front bench are trying to create as many culture wars as they can.

There's also a disturbing "don't trust the scientists/don't listen to academics/we have had enough of experts" undertone to a lot of it.

I'm no conspiracy theorist but it concerns me that when this is taken in line with their culture war style attacks on the judiciary that there's a deeply nasty and concerning wing of the Conservatives who want to erode public trust in almost any part of society who might criticise abysmal Tory policy.

Yes they certainly are but it will be peoples lived experiences that will decide the next GE... Can i get an Ambulance/knee op/GP appointment/carers for relatives... Potholes and inflation....

I'm hoping that these are the last death throws of this awful Govt we ve had.

Labour seem to be getting jumpy over green / motorist stuff too.

If not they wouldn’t have had a go at Khan over ULEZ

Its just another culture war policy form a man who does not give a shit. He will just move to another country when he has finished trashing this one.

Lord Frost has published an article on the benefits of climate change! From the man who has given us all the benefits of Brexit