Net Zero: turning tides

By Pete North - July 27, 2023

Twitter is a very different animal under its new management. The usual censorship is creeping back in and my restored account didn’t last very long (quelle surprise!). But one thing’s for sure, climate scepticism is firmly on the map. It is no longer a niche domain for nerdy bloggers. It’s going mainstream.

Though it could well be the Musk effect, it’s also as much to do with the pivot from Covid scepticism. The dynamics are similar – where there is widespread media fear-mongering, misrepresentation of the science, an over-reliance on flawed computer models and question of integrity surrounding the media and their chosen experts. There is no putting this genie back in the bottle. The #ClimateScam hashtag frequently trends – especially since the UN report on climate disinformation complained about it. Rookie move!

It was always going to heat up like this. Until recent years, there was no real collision point between climate policy and mainstream politics. Net Zero, however, demands a series of expensive transitions to unproven and unpopular technologies at a time when people simple cannot afford it and there is no headroom for more increases in taxes and bills. Net Zero is now a vote loser for Labour and the Tories. The tide is turning – though not as quickly as we might like.

One of the reasons we know the tide is turning is because the media fear-mongering is becoming more shrill. There is too much political and financial capital invested in the climate scam for them to allow a change of political direction. This is now a fight to the death. It’s one they’re going to lose, but it will do untold economic damage in the meantime.

The problem with Net Zeros there isn’t a single aspect of it that makes anyone better off unless you were super rich to begin with. It has become a corporate parasite’s charter and more people are waking up to it. The fallout of the war in Ukraine and Covid lockdowns have permanently changed the political landscape, and the public can no longer afford the narcissistic delusions of their political elites. We’re seeing now open acts of defiance, with Mayor Khan increasingly finding his ULEZ spy cameras going missing. Where Net Zero can be opposed, it will be.

Moreover, industry itself cannot sustain Net Zero measures. Supply chain costs have skyrocketed and the future is uncertain for the wind industry, while gigafactories only ever make the news when they’re on fire or going bankrupt. Meanwhile demand for EVs is tailing off and no there no appetite for ripping out gas boilers at great expense. The upcoming ICE ban is set to be a major point of dispute.

But as a reader points out, Tata had said it’s plans for their gigafactory are dependent on the ban on new ICE from 2030 being maintained and car manufacturers are complaining about the billions they’ve sunk into EV development being wasted if it doesn’t go ahead. The politico-media establishment has put great store in the so-called green recovery and green jobs. They’re not going to u-turn until the situation gets desperate – and much is contingent on politics over in the EU. Across the EU, Net Zero polices are causing havoc, from the auto industry to agriculture.

From here I expect we will gradually see a gear shift. Until now, politicians who’ve questioned the wisdom of Net Zero have merely questioned the wisdom of arbitrary targets while holding the line that we need to reduce emissions. Questioning the science of global warming is politically off-limits for the legacy media. But that’s changing. We need this out once and for all.

This, ultimately, is the big one. The political turbulence of the last few years will not be resolved until this matter is settled. It could even be make or break for the EU. In the Twentieth century the European Community found its purpose as vehicle for peacebuilding and reconciliation, but as WWII fades into the mists of time, it has found renewed purpose in saving the planet. Net Zero is the EU’s root command and influences every aspect of its legislative output. Nothing is sacred. But it’s also proving wildly unpopular when people wake up to the real world consequences.

Worse still, the EU can’t wait to get its hooks into Ukraine, where a flattened country is a blank slate for “green recovery” policies. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have both called for a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine underpinned by the principles of the EU’s Green Deal.

As the war intensifies, it’s uncertain, says Euractiv, when its residents will return. But when they do, “there is an enormous opportunity for the city built solely to produce coal to be completely replanned around renewable energy generation and other sustainable economic activities to future-proof Ukraine, contribute to national and European security, and further Ukraine’s integration with the EU.”

That sounds innocuous enough to the uninitiated, but in truth it paves the way for EU eco-corporatism. Coal mining will be outlawed and God help Ukrainian agriculture. It may be enough to ensure Ukraine never recovers. Ukrainians who like the idea of home heating might be better off with Putin.

It is unlikely the EU can or will respond to popular sentiment about Net Zero measures when the agenda is so deeply entrenched and similarly entrenched in the international organisations who form the basis for EU regulatory systems. Even if the “far right” sweeps the boards at the next Euro-elections, the parliament is only capable of dictating the pace – never the destination.

Closer to home, there is another reason to believe the sentiment is changing. The BBC no longer enjoys the same levels of trust it once did. Its BBC Verify project is widely mocked and derided, while GB News is eating into its audience share. The BBC hasn’t covered itself in glory lately and its long term future is in doubt. As BBC and Sky climate reporting becomes ever more obvious in its bias, crossing the line into pure propaganda, branding sceptics as conspiracy theorists, it will continue to lose audience share. This year its been particularly difficult for the BBC to hold the propaganda line when we’re experiencing the wettest July in a decade.

As we argued during Brexit, exit from the EU was never enough to put the country back on the right track. We often remarked that EU membership was a symptom of a broader malaise on the domestic governance front, coupled with the emergence of global governance. Brexit was really just a beachhead, and the war for democracy isn’t won until we defeat Net Zero and environmentalism.