Rishi Sunak should reject proposal to quadruple tax on heating homes
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) yesterday published its review of the COP26 conference and the key outcomes of the Glasgow Climate Pact.
It latches on to the agreement’s wording that countries should “phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” recommending that the UK Treasury should increase VAT from 5% to 20% on natural gas for home heating and hot water.
Reduced rates of taxation are a perfectly legitimate means to reduce the cost of living and encourage economic growth. In this sense they are not only “efficient” but compassionate and humane.
They are quite different from the real subsidies consumer have to pay via their energy bills and which are given to wind farm investors and other renewable investors, now costing consumers £10 billion per year.
Since the CCC’s proposal for an increase in taxation on natural gas would be applied to the household bill after the imposition of other climate related levies, the overall effect on the cost of warmth and hot water to households would be severe.
The fuel poverty charity National Energy Action has warned that average domestic energy bills have already soared by over £230 per customer compared to last winter. It warns that the government’s plan to further raise the so-called price cap in April could see the average combined domestic energy bill increase by a further £550 per year.
Dr John Constable, the Net Zero Watch energy editor, said:
It has long been clear that Lord Deben and his Climate Change Committee give too little thought to the cost implications of green policies, but this proposal for a huge increase in the cost of household heating and hot water suggests a degree of indifference bordering on cruelty.
It would also be, of course, politically suicidal. No government would long survive the imposition of this new heating tax.”
Dr Benny Peiser, Net Zero Watch director, said:
The Climate Change Committee’s proposal to quadruple the tax on gas heating is deeply concerning for people across the country, adding insult to injury for millions of families who are already struggling to keep their homes warm this winter.
Rishi Sunak should reject this ill-conceived plan and make every possible effort to reduce the burden of energy costs at this difficult time.”
Harrabin Lies About UK Emission Targets
By Paul Homewood
Harrabin is an utter disgrace:
The UK is "nowhere near" meeting emissions targets enshrined at the Glasgow climate summit, official advisers have warned.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) says that, at current rates, the UK will be contributing to a disastrous temperature rise of 2.7C by 2100.
It says this could – in theory – be brought down to just under 2C.
But this could only happen if ministers agree tougher policies, and if other nations slash emissions too.
Hinkley Point C: Chinese nuclear plant fault may delay UK power plan
By Paul Homewood
Key safety components in the UK’s first new nuclear power station for 30 years may need to be redesigned and the project could be delayed after defects were detected at a similar reactor in China.
Latest Hydrogen Costings
By Paul Homewood
The EU publishes a quarterly report on European gas markets, which includes a section on hydrogen:
I have added the plots for natural gas (very roughly!!), but the actual figures for August are:
Eu/MWh
Natural Gas – 44.30
Alkaline Electrolyser – 179.00
Steam Reform (incl CCS) – 76.00
BEIS Respond To Net Zero Petition
By Paul Homewood
There has been demand building for a referendum on Net Zero. A petition was organised a few weeks ago, but because of virtually no publicity, it has only collected 19000 signatures.
(You can sign up here)
As it got above 10000 signatures, the government had to issue a response:
National referendums are a mechanism to endorse major constitutional change; debates about national policy are best determined through Parliamentary democracy and the holding of elections.
The government made a key manifesto commitment to reach “Net Zero by 2050 with investment in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and pollution”. It was one of the top six pledges in the government’s manifesto, alongside policy commitments to help achieve the target. The net zero target was passed into law by Parliament with strong cross-Party support.
It is clear that public concern about climate change is high, having doubled since 2016, with 80% of people in the UK either concerned or very concerned (BEIS Public Attitudes Tracker Wave 37, 2021). We also know that people and businesses recognise that change must happen – 80% of respondents in a recent survey believe the way we live our lives will need to change to address climate change (BEIS, Climate change and net zero: public awareness and perceptions, 2021). In the same survey, after being provided with information on net zero, 78% of all participants said they strongly or somewhat supported the net zero target.
Moving away from fossil fuels and towards net zero gives us the unprecedented opportunity to:
– Create and secure thousands of well-paid, quality jobs across the UK, helping to level up the country. Tackling net zero will create thousands long-term jobs in our reindustrialised heartlands.
– Build a more secure, home-grown energy sector based on nuclear, wind, hydrogen and solar that is not reliant on imported fossil fuels, providing consumers with affordable, reliable energy for warmer homes and workplaces.
– Reduce harmful pollution which contaminates our air and our natural environment to improve our health and wellbeing, as well as that of future generations.
– Attract investment into UK businesses and industry, revitalising our industrial heartlands while driving down the costs of key technologies – from electric vehicles to heat pumps – to reduce bills and give the UK a competitive edge. Since the launch of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan we have secured £5.8bn in green foreign investment.
Recent volatile international gas prices have demonstrated that we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. We need to protect consumers and businesses from global gas prices by increasing our domestic energy security through clean power that is generated in the UK for the people of the UK.
Taking action on climate is also crucial to strengthening the UK’s place in the global economy as we Build Back Better from the pandemic. The whole world is trying to capitalise on the benefits of going greener, investing in innovative new technology, building new industries, and creating quality jobs in sustainable sectors.
Our transition to net zero we will be tech-led using the best of British technology and innovation – just as we did in the last industrial revolution – to help make homes and buildings warmer, the air cleaner and our journeys greener, all while creating thousands of jobs in new future-proof industries.
Transitioning to net zero is not about telling people what to do or stopping people doing things; it’s about giving them the support they need to do the same things they do now but in a more sustainable way.
We must seize the moment to get a head start on this worldwide green industrial revolution and ensure UK industries, workers and the wider public benefit. Taking action now will put us at the forefront of large, expanding global markets and allow us to capitalise on export opportunities in low carbon technologies and services.
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/599602
The nonsense they have written actually proves just why a referendum is needed!
Deep freeze in Arctic Europe sends power prices soaring
By Paul Homewood
It’s so cold, even Norwegians refuse to ski!
On the Finnmark plateau, between Kautokeino and Karasjok, temperatures dropped down to -35°C on Sunday. The forecast for the coming week shows a temperature anomaly for the last days of November of 10°C below the reference period 1961-1990, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute informs.
Coldest out is Nikkaluokta near Gällivare in Norrbotten with -36°C.
In times of climate change, the current freeze comes in sharp contrast to last fall, when meteorologists reported about the hottest October and early November ever measured, with an average of 6,7°C above normal across the Arctic.
Cold weather even sweeps the coast of northernmost Norway where the Arctic waters are kept ice-free by the warm Gulf Stream. In Kirkenes, on the border to Russia, the thermometer read -25°C on Saturday outside the Barents Observer’s office.
On the Kola Peninsula, Sunday November 28 came with temperatures from -18°C to -30°C the news online Severpost reported.
Further east in the Russian Arctic, quickly accumulating sea-ice on the Northern Sea Route has created a critical situation as a number of ships have been trapped in thick sea-ice for several weeks.
At the ski resort Ruka near Kuusamo in northern Finland, this weekend’s opening of FIS Cross-Country World Championship is deeply troubled by the frost. With temperatures below -20°C, the start of the competitions was in jeopardy. Norway’s team withdraw from the race, arguing it was too cold to ski.
Extreme freeze over northern Scandinavia causes energy prices to soar to a record high. The main reason is high consumption combined with ice formation on rivers with hydropower plants in northern Sweden. The northern regions of Norway and Sweden are closely linked together in the same electricity grid.
Low production in Sweden pushes prices up, also in northernmost Noway. On Sunday, a kWh came with a price-tag of 1,92 kroner/kWh (€0,19/kWh) on the spot market, the highest cost for electricity inside the Arctic Circle since 2010. Current prices are up to 10 times higher compared to the average daily over the three first weeks of November.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2021/11/deep-november-freeze-sweeps-across-arctic-europe
And it’s not just the Barents Sea, the situation is now getting critical at the other end of Siberia:
The quickly accumulating sea-ice on the Northern Sea Route is creating a potentially critical situation along Russia’s east Arctic coast. For several weeks, a number of ships have been trapped in thick sea-ice.
Several ships have also been waiting to sail into the area. For many days, the Tiksi, Yamal Ibris, I. Trubin, Polar King and Arshenevsky were located in the Kara Sea awaiting icebreaker assistance to their destinations. On board the ships was thousands of tons of equipment needed by local authorities and companies in the Chukotka region.
However, none of the ships will reach their destinations. In mid-November, they all turned back westwards and are now about to make it to Arkhangelsk where the cargo will be unloaded.
According to regional authorities in Chukotka a replacement will come in early January when nuclear-powered container ship Sevmorput will bring the cargo to destination.
Arctic River Discharge Growing
By Paul Homewood
AMHERST, Mass. — A civil and environmental engineering researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has, for the first time, assimilated satellite information into on-site river measurements and hydrologic models to calculate the past 35 years of river discharge in the entire pan-Arctic region. The research reveals, with unprecedented accuracy, that the acceleration of water pouring into the Arctic Ocean could be three times higher than previously thought.
The publicly available study, published recently in Nature Communications, is the result of three years of intensive work by research assistant professor Dongmei Feng, the first and corresponding author on the paper. The unprecedented research assimilates 9.18 million river discharge estimates made from 155,710 orbital satellite images into hydrologic model simulations of 486,493 Arctic river reaches from 1984-2018. The project and the paper are called RADR (Remotely-sensed Arctic Discharge Reanalysis) and was funded by NASA and National Science Foundation programs for early career researchers.
https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/809497
The key thing about this study is not that river flows are greater than previously estimated, but that they have increased over the period of the study, 1984-2018:
Atlantic Hurricane Season 2021
By Paul Homewood
http://rammb-data.cira.colostate.edu/tc_realtime/season.asp?storm_season=2021
The Atlantic Hurricane season has now officially ended, with a count of seven hurricanes, spot on the 30-year average.
Of these four were major, slightly above the average of three.
Holier Than Thou Ed Davey
By Paul Homewood
There have been many accusations of MP sleaze being bandied around Parliament lately, particularly concerning second jobs.
Ed Davey is one of those who have jumped on the bandwagon. It is therefore ironic that he himself is now under investigation by the Standards Commissioner, for what he claims is an “oversight”!
Regardless of the reason for the investigation, it is factual that he has been earning huge sums of money for very little work- £19500 every three months for just 30 hours work:
One of his nice little earners is with a an investment manager that specialises in solar power. Ed Davey was of course Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change in the Coalition.
I wonder what services he might be offering that could possibly be worth £18000 a year for effectively one week’s work?
Audi Leasing Costs
By Paul Homewood
Quick update on the Audi e-tron costs, with a look at leasing rates:
Over 36 months, and assuming 10,000 miles pa, the total lease cost is £35209 v £21739 for the e-tron and Q5 respectively.
Including VAT, the costs rise to £42250 and £26086, meaning the electric car is £16164 dearer. This corresponds closely to what we know about the outright purchase prices.
These costs include service, maintenance and tyres. Interestingly the extra added on for these is £33.40 and £25.85 per month for the e-tron and Q5 respectively (excl VAT).
In other words, maintenance costs are actually higher for the e-tron, which runs counter to everything we have been told by proponents of EVs.
I personally am not surprised by this, as I find most of my maintenance costs revolve around tyres and breaks. Given the fact the the e-tron weighs about a quarter more, those costs will inevitably be higher.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 