The Climate Change Committee has vastly overplayed its hand — The Telegraph

Photosynthesis: nature requires carbon dioxide

The cost of trying to make an unmeasureably small difference to the climate by demonising the essential trace gas carbon dioxide is unknown, but vast. Nevertheless most of the UK’s elected politicians regularly vote for almost anything suggested as necessary to help towards the ludicrous ‘net zero’ emissions target.
– – –
Statist recommendations from the Climate Change Committee are treated like holy grail by Parliament, says The Telegraph.

The UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) this week published a report on the outcome of COP26, predictably calling for government to “walk the talk” and implement policies that will deliver net zero by 2050.

True to form, the CCC is acting like an eco-activist NGO rather than offering balanced and independent advice. And, as usual, its recommendations are being treated as beyond questioning.

To grasp the scale of influence this independent advisory body now holds, look no further than Parliament’s decision in 2019 to wave through the net zero target without even a Commons vote.

In a move that one expert described as a “failure of politics,” our elected representatives bypassed the opportunity to scrutinise the policy and associated secondary legislation, because they relied on the CCC’s improbable assessment that net zero was “necessary, feasible, cost effective” and “achievable with known technologies”.

The economic analysis in the Committee’s 2019 Net Zero Report has been subsequently criticised for a lack of rigour and transparency. Detailed economic analysis on net zero pathways was absent, but the CCC nonetheless concluded the cost of achieving it by 2050 would be 1-2 per cent of GDP.

The underlying calculations weren’t published until long after the legally binding target had been legislated. But deference towards bodies like the Climate Change Committee allows government departments to introduce potentially costly or disruptive policies without taking full responsibility for their decisions – or full accountability if things go wrong.

This autumn it became starkly apparent that, with current technology, our small island can either be net zero or have secure and affordable energy. It cannot, at present, have both.

In guiding us towards very specific targets rather than planning for a range of outcomes over a lengthy period, the CCC is helping shut down the market discovery process, meaning we may never uncover the most cost-effective solutions to decarbonisation.

Continued here.