Net Zero (again)

[Workingman]

In 15 years time 80% of all vehicles will be EV, 52% of homes will have heat pumps and livestock herds will be reduced by 27%.

Talk about a dreamscape from the government's (independent) advisers, the Climate Change Committee.

There is no mention of where the electricity for al the EVs and heat pumps will come from. No mention of how the EVs will charge given that a lot more than 20% of owners do not have driveways / off-street parking. No mention that well over 50% of homes (hi-rise flats, terraces, maisonettes and the likes) are not suitable to have one fitted. And no mention of what we will all be eating once there is no meat on the shelves - seaweed fritters anyone?

It is all very optimistic, but with no substance to it.

Amid a political row over the costs of net zero, the analysis concluded these two switches could save households around £700 a year on heating bills and a further £700 on motoring costs.

I would love to know the details behind those figures.

[Suff]

Flights of fancy.

The grid want to up generation from 300TWh to 800TWh and there is a significant chunk of Nuclear in that. Offshore wind which is the backbone of this is stalled and Solar which is also another very large chunk, especially for peak daytime power, is also stalled. Inherent in this are also a large number of interconnects to the mainland which are not even in a plan from any MP or civil servant. So far it is nothing more than a white paper.

Unless someone starts making some very unpopular decisions then this is on a road to nowhere. Or 2100 which is pretty much the same thing.

[Workingman]

What really bugs me is that all these press releases from QUANGOS, Think Tanks and others are reprinted almost word-for-word. Nobody ever questions the "claims, facts and figures" they are just presented as gospel.

It is lazy journalism, if it can actually be called "journalism".

[Suff]

There are clips all over the place of up to 200 US media outlets saying exactly the same thing, same words, same time, same inflection.

It isn't lazy journalism it is programmed behaviour.

Net Zero is, in my opinion, the actual goal of it, a good thing.

What we are doing? Bollocks and we are doing better than most.

[Workingman]

The UK needs a better mix of electricity production and that includes nuclear (SMRs) and small scale run-of-the river hydro. Unfortunately campaigners and politicians alike have locked themselves in to windmills and solar to the exclusion of everything else.

Hundreds of GWh of 24/7 energy flow down our rivers and into the sea and we tap hardly any of it. It is constant, a baseload, cheap to install, and relatively very environmentally friendly.

[Suff]

Apart from the river power pretty much all of that is in the white paper on Net Zero.

My problem is not that nobody has thought about it. It is that it is fantasy and there is no will to make it happen.