Last year Guido reported the news that the Government was refusing to publish the “over 220,000 specified data points… organised over 100 Excel workbooks” it had produced on calculating the cost of a net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 policy. The work, completed in 2019 prompted then Chancellor Philip Hammond to write a letter to Theresa May citing the greater than £1 trillion cost of Net Zero. Despite Hammond explaining it would leave certain industries “economically uncompetitive”, the policy was rushed through with next to no debate in the dying days of the May administration…

Yet now the Information Commissioner’s Office has finally ruled that the Treasury needs to release the underlying cost calculations. It was ruled that the public interest was not given sufficient weight in the Treasury’s original decision to withhold. In a lengthy contemplation of the case, the Information Commissioner’s decision notice, seen by Guido, finally concludes that “the public interest favours disclosure” of the cost calculation. The Treasury has 28 days to appeal or put up…

Andrew Montford, Global Warming Policy Forum, which won the decision says:

“This is a major embarrassment for the Treasury. It appears that it cobbled together a few numbers on the back of an envelope, and simply emailed them off to the Prime Minister without a blush. After Parliament’s decision to adopt the Net Zero target without any meaningful scrutiny, and without consideration of the economic and engineering implications, it is becoming clear that the whole project is misgovernance on a historic scale.”

A trillion-pounds is completely off the scale…