General UK Climate News and Stories

[8ball]

Fuck sake.

Rishi Sunak considering weakening key net zero policies Rishi Sunak considering weakening key net zero policies

Delays to things that weren’t going to happen anyway <shrugs>.

 

[danny la rouge]

Delays to things that weren’t going to happen anyway <shrugs>.

Well, sure, but it’s depressing to see that at a time the oceans are warming and there’s less ice than ever at Antarctica, you’d think the superficial fiddling would stay in place at least for the optics.

 

[8ball]

Well, sure, but it’s depressing to see that at a time the oceans are warming and there’s less ice than ever at Antarctica, you’d think the superficial fiddling would stay in place at least for the optics.

I think the optics in this case are angling for votes from people who are against ULEZ and 20 mph zones and suchlike.

 

[toblerone3]

This is electoraly inept even in the shortest of short terms. It will lose them more votes than it gains.

 

[platinumsage]

The problem with the car and boiler deadlines is that they were made without any accompanying plan to achieve them, something like Norway's BEV plan, or some kind of clue as to how a pensioner might heat their Victorian house when their boiler breaks down in winter and they're told they can't replace it.

 

[lazythursday]

The problem with the car and boiler deadlines is that they were made without any accompanying plan to achieve them, something like Norway's BEV plan, or some kind of clue as to how a pensioner might heat their Victorian house when their boiler breaks down in winter and they're told they can't replace it.

For once I absolutely agree with you. The deadline is important for stimulating action, especially in the private sector, but there was always going to need to be government investment alongside and initiatives targeted those most in need. And basically our government hasn't been interested in doing any of that. Local / mayoral authorities have been doing their best at cobbling things together in the absence of serious government action but it was never going to be enough.

However what Sunak should have announced is that programme of action - perhaps minor tweaks to deadlines where absolutely necessary - not just kicking the can down the road - probably illegally.

 

[magneze]

This is electoraly inept even in the shortest of short terms. It will lose them more votes than it gains.

100% this.

 

[8ball]

This is electoraly inept even in the shortest of short terms. It will lose them more votes than it gains.

I guess they have some focus grouping or some guff from a think tank or something leading them to think otherwise.

Maybe it’s just to shore up existing support due to turnout concerns…

 

[platinumsage]

I think the optics in this case are angling for votes from people who are against ULEZ and 20 mph zones and suchlike.

They won’t have to appeal to those lot to make use of this electorally. They’ll probably just use it to attack Labour for needing to raise taxes and/or make working people poorer by sticking with these deadlines, while singing about other 2050-related stuff the Tories may or may not be doing.

 

[stavros]

I guess they have some focus grouping or some guff from a think tank or something leading them to think otherwise.

Maybe it’s just to shore up existing support due to turnout concerns…

C4 News showed a poll they'd done today, of about 2,000 I think, where the proportion of 2019 Tory voters who said they were more likely to vote for them after today's announcement was a little more than those who said they were less likely to vote for them, although both were a lot smaller than the "it makes no difference" cohort.

Johnson's climate credentials were largely bluster, like virtually all his politicking. That said I think he did it in part to try to be remembered as a great leader, who'd be looked back on with fondness. Given that climate change and its associated effects, including mass migration, are likely to be amongst the very most pressing issues of our lifetimes you'd think that the likes of Sunak, and those gunning to most likely replace him after the next GE, would want to have some of that legacy.

 

[LDC]

Channel 4 had a program presented by Chris Packman on last night about whether the time is right to break the law over taking action on climate change. Worth a watch, Andreas Malm was a good addition, Roger Hallam less so.

Chris Packham: Is It Time to Break the Law? review – the bravest, most anguished TV of the year

This extraordinarily honest eco-documentary sees the nature presenter wrestle with an existential crisis – and he’s so desperate he risks his entire future

www.theguardian.com

 

[stavros]

Channel 4 had a program presented by Chris Packman on last night about whether the time is right to break the law over taking action on climate change. Worth a watch, Andreas Malm was a good addition, Roger Hallam less so.

Chris Packham: Is It Time to Break the Law? review – the bravest, most anguished TV of the year

This extraordinarily honest eco-documentary sees the nature presenter wrestle with an existential crisis – and he’s so desperate he risks his entire future

www.theguardian.com

I plan to watch that later. It'll certainly be a break from his 1980s roots.

 

[bimble]

This is electoraly inept even in the shortest of short terms. It will lose them more votes than it gains.

what makes you think so?

 

[toblerone3]

I don't have access to any special information but I feel that the announcements will just play into the narrative of government that doesn't care about the environment is generally going down in flames and cannot be trusted looking after the long term economic interests of country. It will not provide any immediate financial relief to people deferring investment in vehicles or cleaner heating systems. By the time that people are forced to change the broader economic damage and lost investment that the Tories ungreen messaging will create will have outweighed any short term payment deferrals. They will lose votes in the Tory heartlands to the Lib Dems and voters in the 'blue wall' in the north will be unimpressed. I wouldn't even be surprised if the Tories lose Uxbridge to Labour in the next election.

 

[Signal 11]

How a thinktank got the cost of net zero for the UK wildly wrong

Imagine demanding an “honest” debate over the cost of net zero in a report full of errors that even a schoolboy would be embarrassed about. Then imagine getting coverage of your report in the Sun, Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Spectator. [...] On Wednesday, Civitas published a pamphlet on net zero [...] Along with Civitas, 55 Tufton Street also houses the climate-sceptic lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation
[...]
Unfortunately the report’s author has confused power capacity in megawatts (MW) with electricity generation in megawatt hours (MWh). As a result, he presents a distinctly unrealistic “£1.3m per MWh” figure for the cost for onshore wind power. The true number is around £50-70/MWh – more than 10,000 times lower. He then compounded his embarrassment by mixing up billions with trillions.

 

[Artaxerxes]

‘Detached from reality’: anger as Rishi Sunak plans to restrict solar panels

Climate campaigners dismiss government argument that move will improve food security

www.theguardian.com

Rishi Sunak plans to restrict the installation of solar panels on swathes of English farmland, which climate campaigners say will raise bills and put the UK’s energy security at risk.

Last year, then prime minister Liz Truss attempted to block solar from most of the country’s farmland. The plans were deeply controversial and unpopular, and were dropped when she left office.


However, solar panels in the countryside are disliked by many rural Conservative MPs, and the Observer can reveal that Sunak and environment secretary Thérèse Coffey have revived plans to put new restrictions on this form of cheap renewable energy.

 

[stavros]

This has the feint air of greenwashing, but nonetheless an interesting piece about Coca Cola making bottle tops from carbon dioxide in the air.

 

[Storm Fox]

The Met have arrested and charged Greta Thunberg. Greta Thunberg charged with public order offence after London oil protest

Am I being paranoid, or does this have a certain 'targeted' feel about it? Aren't most protesters who aren't being violent arrested, moved and then de-arrested?

 

[lazythursday]

The Met have arrested and charged Greta Thunberg. Greta Thunberg charged with public order offence after London oil protest

Am I being paranoid, or does this have a certain 'targeted' feel about it? Aren't most protesters who aren't being violent arrested, moved and then de-arrested?

According to Just Stop Oil 138 non violent climate activists have spent time in prison in recent years so an awful lot who aren't de-arrested.

 

[Storm Fox]

According to Just Stop Oil 138 non violent climate activists have spent time in prison in recent years so an awful lot who aren't de-arrested.

Fair enough.

 

[GarveyLives]

"The UK is responsible for almost twice as much global heating as previously thought when its colonial history is taken into account, analysis has revealed ..."

British empire’s past emissions ‘double UK’s climate responsibility’

 

[teqniq]

You could not make this shit up:

Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho Meets And Praises Climate Science Denier Reform Candidate

The UK government’s most senior climate minister has publicly celebrated a petrol campaigner who wants to “scrap net zero” and claims “man is not responsible for global warming”. In a post from her official X account on Tuesday, Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net...

www.desmog.com

 

[hash tag]

Believe this and you will believe anything
“New oil and licences strengthen our ability to get to net zero, they strengthen and support our climate leadership.”

‘Grossly irresponsible’: UK hands out 24 new North Sea oil and gas licences | Environment | The Guardian

 

[editor]

Interesting expert commentary from Oxford University:

One recent analysis, for instance, found that transitioning to lower meat diets in the UK (defined as <30g meat per day – roughly the weight of a slice of bread) would be the climate equivalent of taking 8 million cars off the road (in addition to other environmental benefits such as improving air quality).

Another analysis, focusing on the global scale, indicated that removing livestock agriculture entirely (albeit unrealistic) could sequester 330 – 550 Gt CO2, which is equivalent to 6 – 10 years of GHG emissions from all human activities.

Expert Comment: Why Veganuary: The environmental benefits of a low and no meat diet | University of Oxford

 

[GarveyLives]

The Met have arrested and charged Greta Thunberg. Greta Thunberg charged with public order offence after London oil protest

Am I being paranoid, or does this have a certain 'targeted' feel about it? Aren't most protesters who aren't being violent arrested, moved and then de-arrested?

17 October 2023: International environmental and climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, together with Greenpeace activists Jeff Rice and Peter Barker and Fossil Free London activists Lars Kebbon and Joshua Unwin are among over two dozen people arrested by Metropolitan Police officers, led by Superintendent Matthew Cox, while protesting at the 2023 Energy Intelligence Forum near the InterContinental Hotel in Mayfair.

Greta Thunberg, Jeff Rice, Peter Barker, Lars Kebbon and Joshua Unwin were then charged with “failing to comply with a condition imposed under section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986”. The Metropolitan Police had demanded protesters move from the road on to the pavement.

(Source: as stated in image)

(Source: as stated in image)

(Source: as stated in image)

(Source: as stated in image)​

2 February 2024: At Westminster Magistrates' Court, District Judge John Law said conditions imposed on protesters (by the Metropolitan Police) were 'so unclear that it is unlawful' which meant 'anyone failing to comply were actually committing no offence'.

District Judge John Law said the protest was 'throughout peaceful, civilised and non-violent' and criticised evidence provided by the prosecution about the location of where the demonstrators should be moved to - saying the only helpful footage he received was 'made by an abseiling protester'.

District Judge John Law added: 'It is quite striking to me that there were no witness statements taken from anyone in the hotel, approximately 1,000 people, or from anyone trying to get in.

'There was no evidence of any vehicles being impeded, no evidence of any interference with emergency services, or any risk to life.'

District Judge John Law dismissed the case against each of Greta Thunberg, Jeff Rice, Peter Barker, Lars Kebbon and Joshua Unwin because there was no case to answer.

(Source: as stated in image)

She who laughs last laughs longest

Outside court on the first day of the trial, Greta Thunberg made a statement alongside some of her co-defendants in which she said:

"Even though we are the ones standing here, climate, environmental and human rights activists all over the world are being prosecuted, sometimes convicted, and given... penalties for acting in line with science.

"We must remember who the real enemy is, what are we defending, who our laws are meant to protect."

"History's judgement against those who deliberately destroy and sacrifice... resources at the expense of humanity, at the expense of all those who are suffering the consequences of the environmental and climate crisis... and at the expense of future generations, your own children and grandchildren will not be gentle."

After dismissing the case, District Judge John Law said he would grant defence lawyer Raj Chada’s request for the government to pay his legal fees and Greta Thunberg’s travel costs.

 

[teqniq]

This piece by George Monbiot could go in a number of places but I've put it here because it focusses on protests related to climate change and the government's response:

In a world built by plutocrats, the powerful are protected while vengeful laws silence their critics | George Monbiot

In the UK and around the world, those who challenge rich corporations are being hounded and crushed with ever-more inventive penalties, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

 

[Artaxerxes]

Sunak stands with net zero and climate conspiracy group at farming protest

Demonstration against Welsh Labour policy included No Farmers No Food campaign calling for end to climate measures, and Welsh Tory leader

www.theguardian.com

Don't think the farmers are going to get thrown in jail for blocking roads

 

[PR1Berske]

Some facts and graphs from the Met Office about the month we've just had: warmer, wetter, duller, as climate change just gets worse. Almost all the replies are dullards and nobs.

 

[Signal 11]

^ Same information on the website here.

The average temperature in England for February 2024 was 7.5°C, topping the previous record of 7.0°C set in 1990. Wales saw an average mean temperature at 6.9°C for the month, marginally ahead of 1998’s record of 6.8°C.

The UK experienced its second warmest February, averaging 6.3°C, but not surpassing February 1998’s figure of 6.8°C. The UK’s 10 warmest Februarys on record in a series from 1884 now include 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2019.

It was also a wetter than average month, with the south of England experiencing its wettest February since the series began in 1836. Many parts of southern England recorded well over twice the average rainfall.
[...]
It was also a duller than average month for much of the UK, with Wales and parts of the south of England particularly dull, though not record-breaking.

 

[2hats]

Almost all the replies are dullards and nobs.

Apropos of which, I see that professional village idiot, Toby Dunning-Kruger Young, has embarked on yet another drive to showcase his ignorance with this new piece of clown journalism.

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