Essay by Eric Worrall

Lord Stern hopes artificial intelligence will play a role in achieving a green technology “tipping point”.

Climate targets ‘may mean higher taxes’

By Dharshini David
Global trade correspondent, BBC News

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Lord Stern told the BBC: “We must have growth and we must drive down emissions, and it’s investment in the new technologies that’s going to get us there.”

He added: “I’m not arguing for delaying investment in health and education. We have to pursue those at the same time. 

“If we have to tax a little bit more, so be it. If we have to borrow a bit more for the really tremendous investments, then we should do that.”

His words come as the country grapples with a cost of living crisis and the UK is facing the highest taxes relative to income since the Second World War.

The government is also under pressure, from some quarters, to cut taxes.

However, Lord Stern says more public investment could help jobs and the environment.

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He is optimistic that a tipping point in key green technologies – including energy generation, car batteries and fertilizer manufacture – is achievable within a few years, with artificial intelligence playing a key role.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64597981

In my opinion, the unaffordable utility bills Britons are paying today are Lord Stern’s fault.

In 2006, Lord Stern published the Stern Review, a report which convinced British politicians across the spectrum to embrace green policies which led to the horrifying utility bills Britons are facing today.

By “artificial intelligence” I think he means magic – AI is rapidly becoming the magic sauce people advancing preposterously infeasible proposals use to make them seem plausible.

I’m not sure how the British people feel about more utility bills and taxes, on top of the eye watering rises they have already endured, but I suspect they will make their views known to Lord Stern and his friends in due course.