Blah, blah, blah

Greta Thunberg addresses Youth Climate activists

When utterances from the UK government to counter the evidence of their mismanagement and failures are perfidiously issued and reported by the BBC, press and other media; the fourth estate is failing us. They have assumed that we, the public, are either gullible or have already factored in that truth from Boris Johnson's government is an alien concept. We have seen this time and again as the government have attempted to defer blame for the mistakes in dealing with the Covid pandemic. The supposed Brexit bonanza has become a torrid avalanche of broken promises and lost trade. Now we have the PM's revelation that we are 'world leading' in terms of tackling climate change. It is more absolute piffle from our great bumbling prime minister. 

"In the UK we’ve already cut our carbon emissions in half and we have all but eliminated coal from our energy mix", according to the PM. In reality, the government have made decision after decision that has undermined progress towards carbon reduction. It is all a ploy to generate false kudos (kudos is given by others not self-acclaimed) for the UK in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, the event that should and could be an opportunity for world leaders to show that they justify their credentials as leaders. It was rightly dismissed as more blah, blah, blah by a Swedish teenager who has had the temerity to challenge the double talk of the Goliaths of governments and global businesses alike with a studied disdain.

The omens are not good; world leaders are performing like puppets of the coal, oil and gas industries, who are using familiar tactics to undermine the scientific evidence of climate change. Aviation and shipping, two of the most damaging producers of carbon are given a free rein to expand with minimal taxation on their use of fossil fuels. Farming continues to use technologies and methods that are hostile to biodiversity, the building and construction industries are still focused more on profit than becoming net zero in carbon. 

In Britain, shoddy new housing with poor insulation, outmoded heating systems and minimal standards is an indecent assault on too many households. Households who are paying over the top prices for renting or buying properties that support a long tail of business middlemen from construction companies, landowners, landlords, estate agents and surveyors. They are all lined up to benefit from the inflationary spiral stoked by market shortages of property and low-interest rates.

It might sound cynical, but the carbon footprint of COP26, with 25,000 participants flying into Glasgow is probably only exceeded as a carbon footage event this year by the competition between global business tycoons (Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Geoff Bezos) as they race each other into space. The way things are going it will be the last frontier.

Once again it was Greta Thunberg who spelt out the imperative of COP26 and admonished the party-goers. “This is not some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging,” she said. Quite right.

In 2010 the UK had the chance to make an impact and Cameron's coalition government was initially very supportive but Chancellor Osborne reduced the support for many green projects and the May and Johnson governments have drawn back even more despite all the empty slogans suggesting otherwise. The list is endless but here are some examples.

• Chancellor George Osborne never implemented the scheduled 1p fuel duty rise that had been introduced as a Green tax by the Brown government. Nor have his successors as Chancellor including Rishi Sunak. 
• The feed-in tariff rate for solar panels has fallen from 41.3p p/kWh in 2010 to 3.41p/kWh in 2020. 
• The Johnson government has scrapped the Green Homes grant scheme of £1.5bn for insulation just 6 months after its launch in 2020.
• There have been no attempts to tackle carbon emissions from the aviation and shipping industries despite transport having the largest proportion of carbon emissions 27%, of which aviation and shipping are estimated to generate 3% each and largely escaping taxation to date.
• And of course, the UK government seems keen to allow a new coal mine at Whitehaven in Cumbria and a new oilfield at Cambo off Shetland.
• The Heathrow expansion is another massive castigation on the UK claims to be leading the world on climate change.

 COP26 was going to be a hard gig in any circumstances, and but for the wise decisions to promote solar and wind energy following the Climate Change Act 2008, the UK would be languishing even further behind its intention to reach zero carbon.