By Paul Homewood

No Comment!!

Fossil fuel production in China soared in 2022, with coal and gas hitting record highs, as environmental targets took a back seat to energy security after a tumultuous year for prices.
That swamped some good news for the climate from the steel sector, where China cut output for a second consecutive year to make good on its promise to rein in emissions from the worst-polluting industry after power generation.
The world’s top coal mining nation dug up nearly 4.5 billion tons of the dirtiest fuel last year, an increase of 9% on 2021, the statistics bureau said on Tuesday. Production of cleaner-burning gas rose 6.4% to 218 billion cubic meters, while crude oil rose above 200 million tons for the first time since 2015, helping to cut China’s reliance on pricey imports.
As early as January last year, President Xi Jinping had flagged that China’s ambitious climate goals shouldn’t clash with its economic objectives, which include securing adequate supplies of commodities. Energy security became an even bigger priority after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the following month put a rocket under international prices.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-17/china-posts-record-fossil-fuel-output-as-security-trumps-climate?mc_cid=0506884dc5&mc_eid=4961da7cb1&leadSource=uverify%20wall

BTW – the idea that China has cut steel production to reduce emissions is an absurd statement. The drop is mainly a reflection of much slower economic growth last year, amidst heavy COVID lockdowns, and a weakening of the construction boom of recent years.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/8qoKbCh

January 17, 2023 at 11:50AM

According to the World Economic Forum, scientists say the climate will collapse by 2030 unless we have global governance.

via Real Climate Science

https://ift.tt/yjiTOrq

January 17, 2023 at 11:47AM

via Watts Up With That?

https://ift.tt/P4cB63t

January 17, 2023 at 11:15AM

London, 17 January 2023 – After the much lauded battery start-up Britishvolt collapsed into administration, Net Zero Watch has reiterated its warning that the Government’s policy of green interventionism and Net Zero dogmatism is a recipe for economic and political disaster. 

Described as a ‘gigafactory’, the collapsed EV battery factory was meant to be a symbol of levelling-up and would show how a green “planned economy” could herald an industrial renaissance.

The then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, claimed last year that “Britishvolt’s plan to build a new gigafactory in Northumberland [was] a strong testament to the UK’s place at the helm of the global green industrial revolution.” Those plans are now in utter disarray.

UK Government ministers had committed £100 million to the battery project, apparently without a sound business plan, because it aligned with official rhetoric on Net Zero. 

The company blamed Britain’s “ballooning energy costs” for its predicament, and its ultimate collapse.

In recent months, BMW has announced it is moving manufacturing of the electric Mini from the UK to China, where manufacturing is powered by cheap coal. Other carmakers plan to slash the number of electric vehicles they manufacture because rising prices and the spiralling cost of electricity makes them increasingly unaffordable for drivers.

 Dr Benny Peiser, Net Zero Watch’s director, said:

This fiasco was utterly foreseeable and was indeed foreseen by us and other analysts — but not by complacent ministers and incompetent civil servants. BMW’s China exodus and Britishvolt’s collapse won’t be the last casualties of the government’s green command and control economy.”

via Net Zero Watch

https://ift.tt/b5rdDHL

January 17, 2023 at 08:55AM