Not a single country has signed up to Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘clean power alliance’ since he launched it last year, according to The Times. Starmer billed it as ‘bold’ initiative designed to boost renewable energy. It even featured in Labour’s manifesto. Although admittedly that doesn’t mean much nowadays...
Labour insists the coalition is still a “priority,” though confusion over what the alliance is actually for and a chronic lack of leadership in Whitehall has spelled doom for the project. Starmer addressed the climate-crusader congregation (after jetting there) to insist that the UK is “doubling down” on the fight against climate change, despite admitting that the “consensus is gone” both across UK parties and internationally. Now it’s time to fly 5,000 miles home empty-handed…
The Guardian is busy promoting its main exclusive story today: “NATO rearmament could increase emissions by 200m tonnes a year, study finds.” A corker…
Apparently the costs of responding to armed threats to the West are doubled by the resulting “climate action.” Miliband will be reading closely…
“For every dollar invested in new hardware, there is not only a corresponding carbon cost but also an opportunity cost to potential climate action, critics say.”
The Guardian’s report has only looked at NATO countries. Russia and China are off the hook…
“Recent estimates of the social cost of carbon – a monetary indicator of the damage of CO2 emitted – put it at $1,347/tCO2e, suggesting the annual cost of Nato’s military buildup could be as much as $264bn a year.”
Naturally the recommendation will be that western allies should pay for a carbon offset for every rifle they buy from now on. Clown show latest…
Austria’s version of Just Stop Oil, desperately named “Last Generation”, has had to shut down, citing a lack of “success” as their excuse. For three years the climate crusaders created chaos across the country through the familiar eco-warrior tactics – blocking roads and hurling paint at artworks. They even thought to march through residential streets of Vienna at 4:30 a.m. with bells and bullhorns to disturb unwitting citizens. Now they’re facing their own wake-up call…
After mounting legal issues over their useless and disruptive actions, Last Generation have been forced to give up – their remaining assets to be used to finance the costs of “criminalisation and investigations”. Guido can only hope JSO will be next…
Reeves announced a 3% increase in the top rate of the energy profits levy — a.k.a. the North Sea windfall tax—bringing it to a staggering 78% and stretching its tenure to 2030. On top of that, she’s stripping away the investment allowances. This policy will carve out a £5-7 billion gap in the national accounts as the regime loses £2.2-6.2 billion in annual income, while still bearing the £2-3 billion yearly cost of decommissioning existing projects. Reeves, naturally, is happy to blame the Tories for the black hole in the books, yet conveniently sidesteps the fact that she’s busy digging a fresh one…
Labour’s sheer ignorance in this climate-crusader policy may be linked to their dubious choice of tax advisor, named by City A.M.: Heather Plumpton, a rainforest historian under the employ of the Green Alliance, a group bankrolled by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and renewable energy firms. Back in 2022, Plumpton pitched, on behalf of the ideological climate lobby group, a proposal to ramp up North Sea taxes to Norwegian levels (78%), sans the generous investment incentives that make Norway’s steep rates somewhat bearable. Now Labour have taken it on. Guido can’t help but wonder the lefty outcry over ‘Government being bought by corporate interests’ if it were oil companies lobbying to raise taxes on renewable energy sources instead…
George Monbiot has released a new video on Double Down News praising that ecological champion…China. After claiming that the West has always criticised it in order to peddle “the old yellow peril myth” and mocking world leaders for talking about the threat from China on a state level, Monbiot touts the country’s green credentials. Everything else is waved away with a “China is doing some bad stuff”…
“It’s massively investing in green infrastructure and green industries and if there’s one thing we should be concerned about it’s that we’re being completely left behind by China’s investments… We are being left behind in the fossil age.”
Monbiot finishes: “China, for all its faults, puts us to shame.” News to anyone who thinks lowering emissions is a good thing…
Last time Guido checked, China, while building some solar farms, added a record 47 Gigawatts of coal power in 2023, which is double the amount from the rest of the world combined. That’s the equivalent of two new coal plants every week, as the country accounted for a whopping 30.9% of carbon emissions in 2021 and is currently rated “highly insufficient” on climateactiontracker.org. Guido didn’t realise George was such a fan of carbon…
Monbiot goes on to say how brilliant it is that the “French government is training every single public servant in ecological principles. 5.6 million people everyone who works for the state in any capacity at all is going to have ecological training.” More powerpoints for bureaucrats, that’ll solve climate change…
Eco-warriors cheered on the Just Stop Oil activists – or “Whole Five Truth” as they’ve lovingly dubbed them – sentenced yesterday. Despite their wails and chants of “we love you”, the eco-terrorists were still landed with record sentences. Unsurprisingly, morally righteous Labour MP Clive Lewis was one of those attending the solidarity protest. As was bird-sniffing presenter Chris Packham…
Packham hasn’t shied away from parroting his concern of climate change in the past, so standing with his brothers from Just Stop Oil isn’t a total shock. Though his concern for the climate only goes so far. Last week, Packham posted on X an article pushing to stop carbon capture tree planting near Peebles in the Scottish Borders. An opposition group (SRAG Ltd) have been granted permission to take Scottish Forestry, which is behind the climate-change friendly project, to court. For Packham, it seems in a toss up between saving the climate and making sure investors don’t get more money than deemed appropriate, the climate gets it…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”