With COP26 fast approaching, Net-zero appears to be the ultimate environmental and political prize at the heart of this government’s agenda. All else, it appears, is to be subsumed to meet it. But is it practical or affordable? Writing in last week’s Telegraph, Fraser Nelson has his doubts:
“It’s easy to say you want green factories, less pollution and snug insulation by 2050. Such declarations can be made at any primary school assembly. My daughter went along to one last week, dressed in green as a “zero hero” with her class reciting the nation’s new environmental goals. But in politics, a higher standard of debate is expected.
Ever since net zero was set as Britain’s great national goal – an Apollo mission for our time – we have heard almost nothing about the price tag. Ministers promised that they’d get around to telling us before the Cop26 summit, but there’s still no word. And there are now just 16 days to go.”
And though the cost of wind and solar power has fallen, the gap between what we need and what renewables can provide is as wide as ever: and depends of course on the sun always shining and the wind always blowing.
"The Prime Minister sees in net zero a foreign policy, an industrial policy, a soft-power policy and a narrative that may win over voters who still resent him for Brexit. It deserves some frank discussions about how much it will cost.
Until that conversation takes place, there is no net zero strategy – just a wish list, a whole bunch of questions and a country in dire need of some answers.”
The full article can be read here with a link to the original beneath it:
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