By Paul Homewood
More propaganda from Harrabin:
Three-fifths of new cars must be electric by 2030 to meet greenhouse gas targets, ministers have been warned.
Homes also need to be built to a higher standard, the Committee on Climate Change – the official watchdog – says.
The government says the UK is cutting emissions faster than any other G7 nation – and the committee agrees there has been a big shift under Theresa May.
However, it says the UK will fall short of its ambitions unless ministers do more to turn pledges into reality.
The warning comes less than a week after the prime minister launched a 25-year plan to protect the environment, including eradicating all avoidable plastic waste by 2042.
The committee agrees the government’s recently-published Clean Growth Plan is a big improvement, and says the UK has been a world leader in cutting emissions so far.
But it argues that the plan still doesn’t offer detailed policies to meet legal carbon targets.
Carbon capture from industry must be made to happen, it says, and wood and plastics should be banned from landfill in order to re-use them.
More trees should be planted to soak up carbon dioxide, with a view to creating 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of new woodland by 2025, and farming must do more to cut emissions.
‘Major change’
Industry, too, is urged to take greater responsibility.
The committee’s chairman Lord Deben, told BBC News: "If you’re going to sell an electric car your dealers have got to understand these things, so training dealers is essential.
"If you’re running a big fossil fuel company, you have to start thinking about the realities of when, not if, because it is not if any longer, we use a lot less fossil fuels."
He also criticised construction firms for only doing the "absolute minimum" required on building energy efficient homes.
The committee points out that better insulated homes would cut people’s bills as well as tackle climate change, and calls for more incentives to encourage "able to pay" households to install efficiency measures.
Lord Deben said the Clean Growth Strategy had "changed the tone" of the government on the issue.
"These issues have been put into the centre of government policy – that’s a major change."
But, he said, ambitions alone are not enough.
"The strategy doesn’t deliver enough action to meet emissions targets in the 2020s and 2030s," he said.
"The government’s policies will need to be firmed up as a matter of urgency and supplemented with additional measures if the UK is to deliver on legal commitments and secure its position as an international climate change leader."
He added: "All departments now need to look at their contribution towards cutting emissions – including the Department for Transport."
The committee wants 30% to 70% of new cars to be ultra-low emission by 2030, as well as up to 40% of new vans, as part of efforts to phase out sales of conventional petrol and diesel versions by 2040.
Currently, fewer than 5% of new car sales are "alternatively fuelled", which also includes hybrid models.
Prof Michael Grubb, from University College London, said: "There are plenty of good ideas out there on low-carbon energy, cutting emissions from buildings, clean transport and more, but as the committee rightly points out, concrete plans need to be put in place, and soon.
"The government is making all the right noises on support for the low-carbon economy, but these must be turned into action: we need a year of decision-making."
Richard Black, from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, agreed: "We’re not on track to meet emissions goals that kick in in just five years’ time.
"That leaves ministers little time for enquiries and consultations – they’re going to have to put new policies in place fast."
Mr Black suggested quick-win policies including: cutting company car tax for electric vehicles; repealing the ban on onshore wind power (the cheapest form of electricity generation), and re-starting the programme for Zero Carbon Homes.
‘Ambitious’
A business department spokesperson said: "The scrutiny of the independent Committee on Climate Change plays an important role.
"The UK has reduced emissions on a per-person basis faster than any other G7 nation, and our clean growth strategy is the next ambitious milestone in our work to de-carbonise the UK.
"We have always said it is only the start of a process.
"Our proposals will continue to evolve – whether in response to costs of renewable energy coming down, improved evidence about climate change, wider trends in technology or the economic opportunities delivered through our industrial strategy."
It’s obviously too much to expect Harrabin to use his critical faculties.
For instance:
1) How much is this all going to cost?
The Committee on Climate Change has for years been extremely reluctant to reveal just how much we are going to pay for this obsession with climate change.
Given that Mr Gummer is so keen to force the country down this path, surely he has duty to tell us the cost first? And the BBC also has a duty to make sure that he does.
2) In particular, Deben has an obsession with electric cars. The reality is that very few people want to buy them, even with massive subsidies, because they simply are not up to the job.
Meanwhile, billions would need to be spent to provide even a very minimal coverage of charging points. And billions more to equip the electricity infrastructure to cope with it. Where does he suggest this money comes from?
And if more EVs do appear on the road, where will the Treasury get the money from to replace lost revenue from fuel duty? Not to mention the even greater subsidies Richard Black demands.
The reality is that for all of this to happen by 2030 is pie in the sky stuff.
3) Deben also moans about construction firms only doing the "absolute minimum" required on building energy efficient homes.
But insulation and other energy efficiency schemes don’t come free. It is the house buyer who ends up paying. First time buyers find it hard enough to afford a new house, without such eco-nonsense.
4) In a way though, Deben hits the nail on the head when he says that while the Clean Growth Strategy had "changed the tone" of the government on the issue, ambitions alone are not enough.
"The strategy doesn’t deliver enough action to meet emissions targets in the 2020s and 2030s," he said.
As some of us have been pointing out for a while, the Clean Growth Strategy will do little to achieve carbon targets. Instead it is little more than a distraction from the real problems.
We have already made the easy savings in CO2 emissions, such as by phasing out coal. To even hit current carbon budgets, never mind reach the 2050 target, will entail massive costs, damage the economy, hit standards of living, and risk undermining the economic infrastructure of the country.
5) Despite the fact that the UK has been cutting emissions faster than any other G7 country, Deben wants us to go even further, to secure its position as an international climate change leader.
I fail to see how this can in any way benefit the country. And given that global emissions will carry on rising at least until 2030, any savings we make will be no more than spitting in the wind.
6) Deben also says that carbon capture from industry must be made to happen.
Again, this is a pipe dream for a process that does not exist in anything like a industrial scale. Even if it did, it would impose such large costs on industry that it would amount to economic suicide.
7) Harrabin gives full space to supporters of decarbonisation policies, such as the ECIU (which he fails to inform us is no more than a lobby group for such policies, and not the objective “Intelligence Unit” he presents it as)
Nowhere are any alternative voices allowed to appear.
8) Finally there is misinformation about onshore wind, which Harrabin allows his former BBC colleague Black to propagate:
“Repealing the ban on onshore wind power (the cheapest form of electricity generation)”
As I am sure both Harrabin and Black know full well, there is no “ban” on onshore wind power. After the 2015 election, the Conservative Government merely carried out its manifesto promise to allow local councils to have the final say in planning decisions, rather than the unaccountable national infrastructure regime, which was previously allowed to overrule the wishes of local people.
As for his “cheapest” claim, this is palpable poppycock. If it really was cheapest, new wind farms would still be being built without the subsidies now withdrawn.
New wind farms built prior to the ending of subsidies via the Renewable Obligation scheme in 2016, (or already in the pipeline at that time), earn about £41/MWh in subsidy. This is on top of the market price for electricity, currently around £45/MWh.
Larger schemes recently constructed, or due in the next year or so, have also been awarded CfD contracts of between £85.02 and £89.23/MWh, giving them a similar return.
Both subsidy schemes have now been withdrawn from onshore wind, which is why new developments have rapidly dried up.
It is the job of the BBC to fully and impartially report stories like this one, and not act as an echo chamber for the green lobby.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
January 17, 2018 at 11:09AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 