All the march to Net Zero will do is add zeros to your bills – and that is going to cause mass resistance
YOU may remember the chaotic dying days of Theresa May’s government in June 2019, as the former Prime Minister tried to avert a “no deal” Brexit.
What you perhaps don’t remember is that in the midst of all this, Parliament nodded through a piece of legislation which will have even longer-lasting implications — the adoption of Britain’s legally binding target to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050.
Remarkably there wasn’t even a vote.
May forced the measure through as what is known as a statutory instrument, with the minimum of debate.
Nor was there much discussion in the country at large as to what it would mean to try to eliminate our carbon emissions.
Ever since, the main political parties have stuck rigidly to net zero, believing that public opinion is firmly on their side.
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And true enough, whenever members of the public have been asked about the net zero target — in isolation — they have tended to support it.
Making people poorer
We all, of course, want a cleaner Earth and to tackle climate change — and eliminating carbon emissions sounds a generally virtuous thing to try to do.
Yet as a Sun/YouGov poll today shows, support for net zero rapidly drops away when people are asked specific questions about what impacts they are prepared to accept on their own lives.
In fact, there is a very clear message for all politicians trying to drive us towards net zero — if you try to achieve it by making people poorer, you are going to meet mass resistance.
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Asked simply: Do you support the Government’s efforts to achieve net zero, 65 per cent of people say yes, rising to 80 per cent of Labour voters and 82 per cent of Lib Dem supporters.
Asked whether the Government should continue to take action to achieve Net Zero “even if this increases the cost of living”, however, and support falls away dramatically to just 20 per cent.
Even among Labour and Lib Dem voters, only 30 per cent and 32 per cent say they are prepared to accept a higher cost of living to achieve it.
Young people are often claimed to be especially concerned about the planet, yet among 18 to 24-year-olds, just 22 per cent say they are prepared to accept a higher cost of living in order to meet net zero.
Nor are young people impressed by the tactics of campaigners Just Stop Oil.
Only 28 per cent believe the protest group is justified in trying to block roads, and 47 per cent say it is not justified.
Barring the invention of multiple miracle technologies, there is no way that Britain can get anywhere close to net zero without it having a serious impact on the cost of living.
Forcing us to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, for example, will cost each household up to £10,000 — and it might not even heat your home adequately, as many early adopters are finding.
An electric car will cost you half as much again as a petrol or diesel one and, at current electricity prices, will cost you more to run even before you take into account the fact that electric cars are very lightly taxed in comparison.
Nor should you believe people who try to tell you that wind and solar are a far cheaper way of generating electricity than using gas.
If we are going to have an electricity grid powered by wind and solar, and no gas to provide back-up, as happens at the moment, we will need to invest in hugely expensive energy storage to cope with times when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.
But these costs are just the beginning.
It is going to be extremely difficult and expensive to decarbonise steel, cement, plastics and agriculture, which promises to push up the price of food and almost everything else.
Driving an electric car might not involve any carbon emissions, but manufacturing an electric car involves substantially more emissions than making a petrol or diesel car, thanks to their batteries requiring large quantities of rare metals.
Try to decarbonise that and it threatens to put the cost of motoring beyond the reach of the masses.
The Government recently proposed a £120-a-year levy on energy bills to pay for developing hydrogen technology.
What do hard-pressed householders think of that?
Rapidly falling apart
Today’s poll shows that 33 per cent approve and 41 per cent disapprove.
No wonder it now seems as if Energy Security and Climate Secretary Grant Shapps may drop the idea.
Yet the Government still seems determined to plough ahead with its plan to ban new gas boilers — a move which has the approval of 32 per cent of voters and the disapproval of 47 per cent.
The proposed ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 has similarly little support, with 37 per cent approving and 50 per cent opposed.
For years, climate evangelists in the Government have tried to sell us the lie that net zero will actually save us money.
That claim is rapidly falling apart as it becomes clear just how difficult and expensive it will be.
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Any political party which attempts to push ahead with net zero at any price is doomed.
- Ross Clark is the author of Not Zero: How An Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (And Won’t Even Save The Planet).
