climate change

It would mean households and businesses across the country would pay different amounts for electricity depending on which zone they were in, with prices determined by how close they are to generators such as wind farms and the quality of local grid infrastructure.

Advocates say the changes will result in overall savings for every household by forcing developers to locate wind and solar farms closer to where they are needed. This should reduce the need for new power lines and therefore cut bills.

It would also potentially eliminate market quirks that can see wind farms paid to switch off when the grid is congested, or see power sent abroad via interconnectors even when it is needed domestically.

If you slice up the national market into regional ones then it’s possible for each regional market to have the same problems as the national one. Like sending across interconnectors and switching off wind when there’s a local surplus instead of only when there’s a national one.

The claim simply does not work.

Look, EVs might be lovely things, might not be. Save the planet or strand us all as the ‘leccie runs out. But this?

In their letter to the Chancellor, carmakers insisted they remained committed to EVs in the long run and believed the switch would boost economic growth, but “only if the conditions are right and the consumer can afford it”.

Why would the switch increase economic growth? As I say, could be good or bad, but the link to economic growth from the switch seems tenuous – as in, not there.

Rich countries could raise five times the money that poor countries are demanding in climate finance, through windfall taxes on fossil fuels, ending harmful subsidies and a wealth tax on billionaires, research has shown.

Developing nations are asking for at least $1tn (£750bn) a year of public funds to help them cut greenhouse gases and cope with the impacts of extreme weather.

But why in buggery should we?

This is all just a dressing up of the old one. We’re rich, they’re not, we must give them oodles. New excuse, same demand. If it’s about the wealth then the answer is that the only exuse for poverty these days is bad government. So, get your house in order. If the excuse is about climate then our jobs, as rich and tech advanced, is to generate the tech that they can use. Job done.

Ministers are set to impose heat pump targets next year in a move that will lead to a “boiler tax” on households, industry sources have said.

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, is expected to introduce the policy from April, despite warnings that it will drive up the cost of a new boiler.

Under the plans, boiler makers would be hit with hefty fines if they fail to achieve targets on the number of heat pumps they have to sell every year. Manufacturers have warned that it would force them to add up to £180 to the price of a boiler, although campaigners have accused them of profiteering.

We will fine you if you do not sell enough of X. Or, more accurately, if the propostion of X and Y that you sell is not to our liking. The mindset is obviously that manufacturers determine what it is that consumers buy. Which is not, in fact, the case at all. It’s a very lefty view of the world, we’re all just pawns in the hands of suppliers. But that is what they’re running with. Fines for the wrong proportions.

Same on EVs. Just a weird logical construction.

So, just bought a quick trip back to the home town. Mother reaches another age milestone etc.

True, there are two legs to the flight. But one of them was €17. I’ll pay more than that for the (round trip) from airport to destination on the bus. I’ll pay more than that in derv from home to the airport at this end. Would, if I used the motorway, pay more than that in tolls on it.

This is one of those wonders of this age. At which point there are those campaigning against it and demanding that this be stopped, right now.

Fuck ’em.

But, please, someone else has to the Swedish bird.

‘Horrendous’: rise in tourism stokes local tensions in Lake District town
Cumbria police are objecting to plans in Bowness-on-Windermere for a new bar amid residents’ complaints about antisocial behaviour – but some don’t see a problem

Of course a holiday overseas is terrible – climate doncha know. Now staycations are out too.

Just stay on your pods and Tarquin and Jocasta will send you TikToks of these other places.

Effective flood management means slowing the flow – attenuating flood peaks by holding back water where it does the least harm, and releasing it gradually. In some cases (such as the Somerset Levels) the most effective option would be to stop draining and farming the land altogether, and allow it to revert to marsh, greatly reducing costs while restoring wildlife habitats.

Given the climate change driven spread of dengue, malaria and other agues, is this really a wise idea?

Electric vehicles (EVs) are losing value at an “unsustainable” rate as a slowdown in consumer demand sends used car prices tumbling, leasing companies have warned.

The British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association (BVRLA) warned that so-called fleet operators, such as car leasing firms and rental companies, are having to swallow large losses when reselling EVs because of “accelerated, exceptional depreciation”.

OK. They were expecting 40% depreciation, they’re seeing 65%. Capitalism, eh?

So, they’re going to have to charge the leasers more. Which will, obvs, make leasing less attractive and so reduce the sale of new EVs. Which is a problem, as this is the vast majority of the EV market.

Mr Keaney said: “We need to accelerate the take up by consumers of used EVs and therefore new EVs in the marketplace. To do that, we’re going to need to have some targeted incentives. That’s just the plain truth.”

Ah. Please Mr. Ed can we have some taxpayers’ money?

Err, no, bugger off.

Rapid intensification of Hurricane Francine is a sign of a hotter world
Oliver Milman
The storm’s winds increased 35mph in 24 hours – something that global heating is only making more common

So, yeah, we said that global warming would cause more hurricanes. But this is different, right? Climate chaos means the hurricanes are heating up faster.

Lads, make sure you get this message out, right? Because it’s embarrassing having to explain why the more hurricanes didn’t turn up……

Bill payers are to spend as much as £150 per household on new wind turbines as Ed Miliband oversees a record-breaking expansion of green energy.

The numbers here are such a mess – deliberately – that it’s near impossible to say that bills are going to go up or down overall.

It is possible to say that this subsidy ‘ere will increase bills…..but so much else isn’t ceteris paribus that total ‘bills? As I say, I think this is deliberate.

But the thing that confuses us. The Sec of State, Mr Miliband, keeps telling us that renewables are much cheaper than fossil derived electricity. It would, obviously, be great if this were true for that would mean we’ve solved climate change. At those 2012 prices it’s also, just about, possible to make that claim – sure, there are a couple of experimental technologies but the big volumes there etc.

Except that the actual prices to be paid are that 2012 price plus 40% inflation plus those other costs and any future inflation to boot. Which is – at least as far as we understand it – significantly above the current gas derived electricity price.

Which is the bit we don’t understand. Why are prices so deliberately reported in this manner? Why are all the announcements of prices 33% below** the actual price being paid and so not comparable with current market prices? We’re sure there must be a reason for this other than trying to gaslight*** us all. We just can’t think of any that is other than that attempt to gaslight****.

All those prices of that ‘leccie you see reported from that ernewables auction. That’s in 2012 £. Actual prices are 40% higher than that. Why would people do this if it wasn’t to mislead?

And not that Iam a petrolhead to start with, but:

And as if that were not challenging enough, he is also charged with navigating Aston Martin’s transition to electric propulsion while maintaining its appeal to luxury car buyers who are loath to wave goodbye to the internal combustion engine.

That task just got harder after the Government said it would go ahead with plans to bring forward a ban on new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2030. That’s just four years after Aston Martin plans to put its first electric model to market.

The government are being insane, of course.

However, and this is tentative here as I’m not a petrolhead, despite having mused a little about thinking about an old version of something like one of these.

I can, roughly, see an electric Rolls or Bentley working. They are, sa far as I get it, a living room – possibly a salon, or drawing room even – on wheels. The aim is to whick you somewhere in luxury. It’s entirely possible that an EV does this better than an ICE. The luxury, no noise, 3 tonnes of housing on wheels.

But an Aston? I thought not just part of but the point was 12 cylinders of roaring testosterone? The noise being a large, if not the, point? So how does that work with an EV?

Now, obviously, I could be wrong with this. But of the varied car brands that will be able to make the move to EV I’d have thought Aston would be one of, if not the, which would fuind it most difficult?

A handful of wealthy polluting countries led by the US are spending billions of dollars of public money on unproven climate solutions technologies that risk further delaying the transition away from fossil fuels, new analysis suggests.

Throwing money at potential solutions to society’s biggest long term problem is bad d’ye see? Bad when it’s being thrown at things that might allow fossil fuels – or hey, even capitalism! – to continue.

Because for some at least not allowing capitalism to continue is the point….

A 20-month prison sentence handed to a 77-year-old woman for a climate protest on the M25 is disproportionate, unjust and a waste of resources, the Green MP Carla Denyer has said.

In a letter to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, Denyer called the jailing of Gaie Delap three weeks ago “an example of an ongoing and serious problem with disproportionate sentencing for climate activists”.

Some might call that trying to overcome the rule of law…..

Our first discovery was that, in the UK, various new electric cars lose 50 percent of their value in the first 12 months. Yes, you read that right—some EVs depreciate by 50 percent in a single year.
Now, this cannot be said of every EV, but Cap HPI data provided to WIRED by Parkers, a respected UK online car resource, revealed how six different EVs are all projected to halve in value after 12 months and 10,000 miles. These include the Audi e-Tron GT, which plummeted by 49 percent from £107,675 ($138,000) to £54,700 ($70,100), and the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which fell by 52 percent from £59,325 to £28,575. According to the data, a Polestar 2 would also lose 52 percent of its £52,895 sticker price in just 12 months.

No way do fuel savings make up for that….

However, its ventures into new technologies and regions have hit the company hard this year, with Mads Nipper, group president and chief executive of Ørsted announcing a total of 3.9bn DKK of impairments.

The FlagshipONE project would have used renewable electricity to produce hydrogen that could then be combined with CO2 to produce methanol.

The aim was to produce 55,000 tonnes of methanol a year, enough for one large container vessel, making it a large-scale pilot project.

Mr Nipper said the company had been unable to secure long-term contracts to buy its e-methanol at a viable price.

Why not carry on and upgrade it to jet fuel?

Mr Miliband said the Government would bring bills down over the course of this Parliament, by bringing more wind and solar power into the mix.

Where are all those truth in politics campaigners?

The current danger from climate change justifies the biggest taxpayer investment in wind and solar farms in British history, the Government will say on Thursday.

At that point it’s not the danger that is the justification it’s the profits. So, build ’em, leave them subject to market forces and make a fortune.

Not that we need the taxpayer to do that of course. But the very fact that some other justification is being used is a hint that the cheaper and cheapest claims are not true.

Under Labour’s green energy plans, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are being relied on to strip up to 30m tonnes of CO2 from UK emissions each year by 2030 – and more than 100m tonnes by 2050.

If they cannot be made to work then the UK will have almost no hope of achieving its legally binding target of hitting net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

So the legally binding plan is more of an aspiration then?

Not only did they point to the amount of investment at risk, but also stressed that the Government’s overarching goal to capture up to 30m tonnes of CO2 by 2030 is way off track.

Driving this underperformance is the fact that four key carbon capture projects are already years behind schedule, the NAO said, which is without recognising the untested technology and uncertain costs.

Crucially, it also warned that the £20bn of public money set aside to develop CO2 capture is unlikely to be enough – and far more may be needed.

Thing is there’s not actual guarantee that it can be made to work. “Work” here meaning physically work at something within shouting distance of economic cost. So running the whole national plan on something that may or may not work is, umm, it’s a bit of a risk, isn’t it?

Still, the National Planners know best, eh? Must be so, we’d not have a GOSPLAN if they didn’t now, would we?

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, and her daughter, Chelsea, appear to think so. Too Small to Fail, the early childhood initiative of the Clinton Foundation, is encouraging writers and producers to infuse stories with a “compelling narrative” about young children and climate change.

McKay says: “There is no one way to make films, shows, music or write books about something as violently and globally transformative as climate breakdown. So I’m always wary of ‘this is how you do it’ approaches.

“We’re talking about 8 billion people reacting to oil companies destroying the entire livable climate. We need stories in hundreds of different languages, reflecting a thousand times more cultures experiencing varying degrees of awareness and emotional processing.”

The worldwide number of passenger jets will double to 50,000 planes over the next 20 years as more people embrace flying in defiance of climate campaigners, according to a Boeing forecast.

Rather, as more climb up to that bourgeois pleasure of being able to go to the beach for two weeks.

The world’s getting richer – huzzah! – therefore more people will be doing rich world prole style things.