Sir,
Perhaps over 150 nations sent participants to COP29, but only one sent its head of state – step forward Sir Keir Starmer, ably supported by 470 ministers and officials. There are 33,150 participants, so little Britain, with 0.08% of the world’s population, made up 1.4% of participants to lead the green crusade to achieve zero emissions. Indonesia is abandoning green policies, as have China and India, the world’s greatest polluters along with the USA. Under Trump, cheap fossil fuels will be exploited, and do not expect the USSR to ever join the green cause. The host country Azerbaijan’s President told the UN climate conference that oil and gas are a ‘gift of God’. Blaming ‘Western fake news’ about his country’s emissions, saying that nations should not be blamed for having fossil fuel reserves. His country plans to expand gas production by up to a third over the next decade. The British mission will definitely achieve one net zero target at the conference. Nothing – zilch – will change. Incidentally our proud boast of lowering of emissions has only been achieved by offshoring production and importing what we used to make. As a share of GDP, manufacturing has halved since the 1990s.
The UK last had a power surplus in the 1990s, and per capita electricity generation in the UK is now only two thirds that of France and around a third of the USA. British businesses pay almost four times as much as American firms for each unit of power, and households pay three times as much. Domestic costs are around twice those of Europe. The drive towards intermittent renewables – a crusade into power rationing – forces us to spend over £3bn a year to import electricity from France (3 interconnectors, from nuclear power stations), Belgium, Norway (hydroelectric sources), Denmark and the Netherlands. Net imports of electricity were 26.3 terawatt hours (TWh) from January to September, a new record for the UK. This bettered the previous high of 24.6TWh of 2021. However, Britain has closed more power plants, so the gap is being increasingly filled by foreign supplies of up to 20% of electricity per month. Imports are forecast to supply up to a third of our needs by 2030.
The major problem, of course, is that Europe has similar weather to the UK. In a bad winter, there will be little surplus power to export to the UK – leading to deaths from cold. All hospitals have back-up diesel generators, fortunately. In the last two weeks, as with Europe, we have had little wind, sunshine or rain, a high-pressure weather system nicknamed anticyclonic ‘gloom’. Just wait for a week or two of snow and ask Mr. Miliband if he is nice and warm. Because of energy insecurity, OFGEM has given approval to 3 more costly interconnectors, to Germany, Eire and Northern Ireland; and 2 to Belgian and Dutch offshore windfarms. It looks like we are going to rely upon foreign imports for our energy shortfall for decades to come. Energy Minister Michael Shanks said: ‘Our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower requires us to make a once-in-a-generation upgrade of Britain’s energy infrastructure – which will include rolling out more interconnector projects in the future, bringing skilled jobs and investment to communities across the country.’ Just think shore substations and pylons for offshore sources, and hundreds of new onshore windfarms.
In the 1990s, we had 40 nuclear power plants, while the rest of the world had 19 – we led the world, but that expertise is lost and any new reactors have to be designed outside Britain. Gas power stations are cleaner than they have ever been and shale gas is cheaply imported from the USA. Today (13 November) gas is giving us 55% of our energy (on 20 October, it was 61.8%), yet Mr. Miliband wishes to halt gas production by 2030. Is he on this planet? Is he going to achieve another 60% of electricity by buying it from Europe at record costs? The regulator has confirmed plans for up to 18 more subsea interconnector cables by 2032, hoping that Britain will be a ‘net exporter of energy by 2030′. Utter nonsense. The director general for infrastructure at Ofgem, Akshay Kaul, stated: ‘We’ve carefully assessed all the proposed projects and only approved those ones which deliver for consumers in terms of value, viability and energy security.’ If he believes that we can have energy security from intermittent sources, I would like to drink what he has been drinking. Without cheap, non-intermittent power, we have lost international competitiveness, vastly increased bills, rising fuel poverty and will certainly suffer future energy crises. With zero growth and zero economic competitiveness, there will be zero new jobs meaning zero new money for investment and public services. Zero opportunities and zero temperatures. The Net Zero 2050 law needs scrapping – but under this government – there is zero chance. Perhaps a lesson for Wales???
Yours in despair
Terry Breverton
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