To think that no one will give a shit about climate change when they're freezing this winter?

[Turnandfacethestrangechanges]

Just that really. When we have a choice of spanking out £650+ in January for gas and electric or slowly freezing, will people will be less sympathetic to 'green' measures?

Will net zero go out the window when we realise how bloody miserable it is to live without modern comforts and there is civil unrest as a result?

YABU - Don't be ridiculous, climate change is the most important issue
YANBU - How true, I predict a riot

People are reticent to make those sacrifices because they know that without global Government action on the issues described above, it will make no difference. It may be a political statement and make you feel virtuous but it will not fix the problem. It has to be done at an international level.

I suspect too many people are short sighted enough to want to pretend climate change is not an issue, or is an issue but we don’t have to worry about it now. I think this will almost certainly mean they will want the emissions targets scrapped. But it would be the wrong choice and it may well cost us dear in the end- and not necessarily in “20 years time so we can worry about it then” or “once I’m long gone”- both justifications I’ve been given recently.

There is obviously an issue with those who actually will have to turn off the heating- and there will need to be some sort help out in place- I suspect there will be. But I suspect a similar sentiment will come from too many of those of us who will still be able to put heating on and food on the table, clothe ourselves etc- though of course to do this there may need to be some or even significant economies elsewhere for many people in order to to do so. I don’t underestimate it, and we as a family- though relatively comfortable in the grand scheme of things- will have to make changes, so I’m not saying this as someone completely immune from the impact (though more insulated than many, admittedly).

if we all continue with trying to pretend climate change isn’t an issue/ we can safely ignore it then things are only going to get worse. There will be more extreme weather, resources such as water and food, will become more scarce or more expensive to produce- both drive costs up. The poorest will be impacted even more by this, and faster, but we’ll all suffer in the end.

I am quite despondent about it all.

Luckily, renewables are at market maturity and deploy much more quickly than eg nukes.

The absolute best thing that could be done to cut bills this winter has nothing to do with generation. It's a proper energy efficiency retrofit in our homes. It's baffling (or not) that this wasn't top of the list for energy interventions from the govt. Cuts consumption, cuts costs, cuts emissions. The very cheapest power stations are the ones you don't have to build, and our homes and buildings are incredibly inefficient.

I do not believe in climate change. Those that shout about it have houses full of luxuries made in countries choking from fumes from factories supplying the world. They also enjoy lovely holidays and electric cars that need lithium farmed by children/adults living in poverty. Reality is what ever fits their agenda for attention.

Clearly someone who hasn't spent much time in low-lying island states....

I think there are likely to be several popular 'green' policies in the winter:

Subsidize better insulation
Invest in heat pumps including training people to fit them, subsiding early uptake & promotion
Invest in domestic power sources like on and off shore wind & to a lesser extent solar

Less popular (and arguably less green) but we might get the shift - small modular nuclear plants
More investment in nuclear fusion research.

You are right that when people have more proximate and immediate worries they tend not to have less energy for more distant concerns, but I don't think people stop caring.

The earth is heading into a cooling phase.

I would much rather be a bit cold in the winter than suffer through 40+ degrees temperatures every summer for the foreseeable future. Climate change is high on my priority list, and the cost of living crisis just increases that even more in my opinion. I would gladly give up my modern comforts and live a simpler life if it means the world is saved from a climate catastrophe. Being 'green' can actually save you money in an economic crisis.

I do care about climate change But I just don’t think anything this country does will make any difference with the likes of Russia,China,USA,Japan churning out masses of pollution.

OP, you’ve got it upside down. If so many green measures hadn’t been scrapped under Cameron and Osborne energy bills would be less expensive now.
Drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea will not bring bills down as gas prices are set by the global market. Also it takes a long time to come online. Renewable energy is cheaper, and quicker to build. And yet the government is still making it impossible to build onshore wind turbines.
We’re in this mess because the government thought home insulation was ‘green crap’ and not important. That and obviously the volatile price of fossil fuels. If we go further down that route it’s not going to help anyone.
And that’s even without the climate crisis. Once we break it we can’t fix it, and there are tipping points looming like greenhouse gases released from melting permafrost. If we want, in coming decades, to have enough reliable rain at the right time to grow crops to feed us all then we should demand policies that help people struggling with bills but don’t trash the planet in the process. Not talk about scientists’ warnings about weather disasters, drought and collapse of key ecosystems like some poncy middle class fad that will just go away if we ignore it.

Climate change is high on my priority list, and the cost of living crisis just increases that even more in my opinion. I would gladly give up my modern comforts and live a simpler life if it means the world is saved from a climate catastrophe.

I believe a few billion people would say the same thing. And here is the nub. In a single paragraph we have a complete conflict.

On the point that ‘nothing we do makes much difference’. Yes, we’re small, but the UK had a key diplomatic role last year as the host of COP26. If the government decides to abandon our pledges, it sends a clear signal to all other countries and undermines international diplomacy.

Right now bugger net zero

I don't think you've understood what I've said (or what scientists say).

The earth IS warming up overall. But the world is a very very big place with many different climates and weather systems that interrelate and affect each other in all kinds of different ways. Climate is an extremely complex subject. "Overall warming" doesn't mean "every single place on earth will get hotter and will be hotter every single day."

The earth can get hotter overall and still experience colder winters, or have spots on earth that due to their geographic position relative to the arctic (in terms of arctic winds and water patterns) experience extreme cold for the first time.

The FTSE 100 - the top 100 UK companies - is disproportionately weighted to oil and hard commodities, compared to other countries stock markets.

We may be a windy island with shallow sea beds, but we have a dirty footprint also.

@ValleyOfSomewhere

Our sense of global responsibility isn’t going to be increased by never owning a passport / never leaving the village.

It’s possible to travel to Europe and N Africa by ferry, bus and train and it’s a good idea if we do sometimes.

SM is as much a force for good as bad, and if we manage to solve the climate crisis it will play a big part.

That's called Being Poor. Well, if you take out car ownership and any holidays.

It's just that there will be more previously not poor joining them.

True. However, what was agreed was not enough. Also the targets are meaningless without countries each committing to how they will meet them. And the state owned super polluting companies that are the main offenders are the elephant in the room that never gets mentioned at these summits.

Sure. My point is we can all do more by having less, not give up everything. If I believed we had to give up everything I would not be typing this reply.

Rationing in many forms is the elephant in the room. Some people will find it harder than others, but it is coming. I would rather get my family ducks in a row on that one now. Psychologically I might find it easier.

Ha - two 'elephants in the room' !!

This is satire, surely.

Hey mrs minimum wage worker. PP says you can do all these things easily. You simply are not trying hard enough.

I care, or rather I'm interested. But I'm not prepared to be cold. At any price.

Hmm why does everything have to black or white on here? I did a environmental biology degree over two decades ago and I'm utterly convinced as I was when I graduated that we are fucked beyound help. Even if everyone lived in cave from tomorrow we are fucked. Humans are not compatible with other life on this planet. It doesnt make me overjoyed but neither do I think it's a totally travesty if our species dies out, thats evolution for you. We have out evolved our habitat.

I could be sad my kids are cold in their own home and sad they might not live to old age at the same time. It's the ability to hold more than one opinion I really dont struggle with tbh.

This, ladies and gentleman, is how people get conditioned to accept poverty. To give up the hard won improvements in their standard of living over the last 200 years.

One of reason we have a fuel crisis is because we use to much of the worlds resources. Less humans would mean more to go around. Less profit and more investment in storing energy but humans dont work like do we?

I feel exactly, exactly the same way.

I honestly don't think it would be a bad thing if humanity went extinct - so many species have, why should we be special?