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Sunak’s climate back-pedalling “just so cynical” – Cambridge economist

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https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/net-zero-policy/sunaks-net-zero-backpedalling-just-so-cynical-cambridge-economist/?cf-view&cf-closed

Energy Monitor talks to leading climate change economist Dimitri Zenghelis about an open letter from 100 economists lamenting UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s recent net-zero U-turns.

One of the many occasions UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
One of the many occasions UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.

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So, what’s behind Sunak’s net-zero moves then?

It’s got nothing to do with cost; it’s pure politics. It’s dog-whistle stuff. He thinks he can turn this issue into an identity politics story. Hence, the “seven bins”. He’s talking about these cosmopolitan elite liberals with their fetishistic recycling (hence the seven bins) and how they’re wanting to take away our cars – from hard-working people who don’t have access to transport. It’s another “us against them” story.

It is true that if you live next to public transport in central London, you can afford to legislate against dirty vehicles, but if you live in a suburb with a terrible bus line, and you can’t afford the latest electric vehicle, yes, it is potentially quite punitive. So, this has to be done in a very careful and fair way. But just removing legislation that doesn’t impose costs sends a signal to the electorate that you’re taking a position, but to businesses that you absolutely haven’t a clue what you’re doing. Because on the one hand, you’re saying you’re committed to net zero by 2050; and on the other hand, you’re providing absolutely zero policy certainty because even when you do apply policies, you then rescind them. It’s economic short-termism.

Sunak’s playing politics with people’s livelihoods, and he’s selling it as if he’s actually trying to help people’s livelihoods instead of actually grappling with the issues of net-zero disruption and figure how we make it easier for people to adjust, how we support people in making their house as energy efficient as possible and transition to heat pumps, how we support people with bad public transport who at the moment can’t afford electric vehicles. But he’s thinking of what happened with ULEZ [Ultra Low Emission Zone] in the Uxbridge vote and what those culture wars can do to turn around his chances in the upcoming election. And if the economy suffers, well that won’t be his problem, because he probably won’t be in government by then. It’s just so cynical.

It’s hard for him to argue this is what economists are saying when both the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] and the Treasury have provided numbers that show the cost of delaying this transition is more expensive than the cost of pursuing it, as has the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC).

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[This is only a short excerpt of the article]

https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/net-zero-policy/sunaks-net-zero-backpedalling-just-so-cynical-cambridge-economist/?cf-view&cf-closed

Continue ReadingSunak’s climate back-pedalling “just so cynical” – Cambridge economist

How Rosebank threatens the UK’s carbon budget

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Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)

https://www.energymonitor.ai/industry/weekly-data-how-rosebank-threatens-the-uks-carbon-budget/

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In February this year, the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) wrote a letter to government in which it claimed that more domestic oil and gas extraction would have “at most, a marginal effect on prices”, recommending instead that the best way of reducing exposure to volatile energy markets is “cut[ting] fossil fuel consumption, improving energy efficiency, [and] shifting to a renewables-based power system”.

Meanwhile, research from campaign group Uplift reveals that gas from undeveloped UK oil and gas fields in the North Sea, including Rosebank, will deliver at most three weeks of energy to the UK per year, while oil would provide up to five years of oil demand, even if none of it were exported. In reality, most production from North Sea fields, along with Rosebank, which is joint-owned by Norwegian state oil major Equinor (40%), Canadian Suncor Energy (20%) and Israeli-owned Ithaca Energy (20%), is likely to be exported abroad, as is currently the case with 60% and 80% of North Sea gas and oil, respectively.

Further analysis of data from GlobalData reveals just how far burning oil and gas from Rosebank would threaten the UK’s climate targets. According to GlobalData, Rosebank contains the largest untapped oil and gas reserves of all proposed North Sea fields, with 370 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Using US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conversion figures – according to which one barrel of oil emits 0.43 tonnes (t) of CO₂ when burnt and 1,000 cubic feet of gas emit 0.0551t of CO₂ when burnt – Rosebank is likely to release 155 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (mtCO₂) into the atmosphere over its lifetime.

However, in a “balanced” net-zero pathway, as per the CCC’s sixth carbon budget, emissions from fossil fuels fall 75% by 2035 from 2018 levels. In total, emissions from “fuel supply” – predominantly made up of fossil fuels – amount to 298mtCO₂-equivalent (mtCO₂e) between 2023 and 2050, meaning lifetime emissions from Rosebank are equivalent to more than half of the UK’s remaining carbon budget for total fuel supply.

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Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.

https://www.energymonitor.ai/industry/weekly-data-how-rosebank-threatens-the-uks-carbon-budget/

Continue ReadingHow Rosebank threatens the UK’s carbon budget

Leaked UK government plan to protect against climate heat ‘very weak’

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/17/new-uk-government-plan-to-protect-against-climate-heat-very-weak

[Guardian] Exclusive: Document ‘falls far short’ of what is needed to safeguard lives and livelihoods from heat, drought and storms, say experts

The government’s plan to cope with the climate crisis has been condemned as “very weak” by experts, who say not enough is being done to protect lives and livelihoods.

Responding to the document, which was leaked to the Guardian, one highlighted its failure to adequately protect people in the UK from extreme heat. The heatwave in 2022, when temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time, led to the early deaths of more than 3,000 people, wildfires, buckled rail lines and farmers struggling with drought. Southern Europe is in the grip of a searing heatwave.

Another expert said there was a “yawning gap” in measures to restore nature, which is a vital part of adapting to climate change.

The National Adaptation Programme is expected to be published on Tuesday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is required by law to produce a plan every five years. In March, the government’s official advisers, the Climate Change Committee, said its publication would be a “make-or-break moment”.

Ministers have been criticised for years over the failure to make adequate plans for the impacts of global heating. The CCC said in March that the UK was “strikingly unprepared” and that there had been a “lost decade” in action on adaptation. It said heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms would intensify in the coming years until carbon emissions reached net zero.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/17/new-uk-government-plan-to-protect-against-climate-heat-very-weak

Continue ReadingLeaked UK government plan to protect against climate heat ‘very weak’

UK should quit ‘climate-wrecking’ energy treaty, say official advisers

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/10/uk-should-quit-energy-charter-treaty-climate-change-committee

The UK should quit a controversial energy treaty to stop it delaying vital climate action and triggering huge taxpayer payouts to fossil fuel companies, according to the government’s official advisers.

The energy charter treaty (ECT) is a system of secret courts that enables companies to sue governments over policies that would cut their future profits. Companies have sued over phasing out coal-fired power stations, ending offshore oil drilling and banning fracking. The UK’s Climate Change Committee said Britain should withdraw from the ECT because recently proposed reforms did not go far enough.

The UK and Japan are the only major economies not to have committed to exiting the ECT. France, Germany, Spain and others have already said they will leave and the EU is set to pull out en masse after saying that staying would “clearly undermine” climate targets.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/10/uk-should-quit-energy-charter-treaty-climate-change-committee

Continue ReadingUK should quit ‘climate-wrecking’ energy treaty, say official advisers

Just stop the need for Just Stop Oil, says climate adviser

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https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/climate-energy-nature/2023/06/climate-change-committee-report-oil-net-zero

Protest by Just Stop Oil
Just Stop Oil protest

A scathing report from the independent Climate Change Committee has condemned government’s slow progress.

Lord Deben, the outgoing chairman of the UK’s climate advisory board, is not a personal fan of the protest group Just Stop Oil. “I do not think it promotes the cause which we all have,” he said this week. But as his Climate Change Committee (CCC) released its new report, he called on the government to listen to the group’s demands and remove the need for protest in the first place.

“Governments and oppositions ought to recognise why it happens,” he said. “It happens because a very, very large number of people, many of them young, really do feel that their whole lives are threatened because governments are not leading, not taking up the challenge, not moving fast enough, not keeping [a 1.5C limit to global warming] within possibility, not, in other words, doing what they ought to do if they are to meet the needs of our population and the population of the world.”

Deben was speaking at a press briefing for the CCC’s latest progress report, released on Wednesday (28 June). The statutory document says that the current Conservative government is failing to make sufficient progress towards the UK’s legally binding net-zero goals. Energy and climate experts described its findings as “damning”.

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https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/climate-energy-nature/2023/06/climate-change-committee-report-oil-net-zero

Continue ReadingJust stop the need for Just Stop Oil, says climate adviser