The Climate War On Food

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Is this really what people want in countries that claim to be democracies?

PA Pundits International

By Craig Rucker ~

Then they came for our food supply.

CFACT senior policy analyst Bonner Cohen reports at CFACT.org on “climate czar” John Kerry’s recent pronouncements at a Department of Agriculture summit.

“We can’t get to net-zero,” Kerry said, “we can’t get this job done unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution. So all of us here understand the depths of this mission.”

“Food systems themselves contribute a significant amount of emissions just in the way we do the things we’ve been doing,” he continued. “With a growing population on the planet – we’ve just crossed the threshold of 8 billion fellow citizens around the world – emissions from the food system alone are expected to cause another half a degree of warming by mid-century.”

Bonner fleshes out what Kerry’s words mean in practice:

“Though the Department of Agriculture has yet to elaborate on what…

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Lord Frost: Net zero route “inevitably wasteful and damaging”

Leaving aside all discussion of whether ‘the climate’ is under any sort of human control, Lord Frost forecasts national economic pain and asks: where are the viable electricity storage options?
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Lord David Frost, the former Brexit minister has voiced significant concerns regarding the nation’s chosen path towards achieving net zero emissions, reports Energy Live News.

In a speech delivered at the Global Warming Policy Foundation to an audience in Central London last night, Lord Frost expressed doubts about the viability and potential damage associated with the current approach.

Lord Frost said: “I am going to argue that the route we have chosen to deliver net zero is inevitably wasteful and damaging; that it is totally implausible that it will boost growth and much more likely that it will reduce it; that as a result governments are pursuing completely incompatible political and economic objectives, but will not be able to do so forever; that when the crunch comes they may well double down on further economically damaging measures in order to meet the goal; and, therefore, finally, that people like me must prepare for that moment when we will need to try to get onto a more rational path with a rethink of net zero methods and, almost certainly, timetable.”

Deep-sea mining controversy: hotspot teems with mystery animals

Seabed mining

There’s already friction between some of the big car firms and the mining concerns, with the car people backing a moratorium but the miners insisting they wouldn’t be able to produce enough for the EV markets without exploiting the sea bed.
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A vast stretch of ocean floor earmarked for deep sea mining is home to thousands of oddball sea creatures, most of them unknown to science, says BBC News.

They include weird worms, brightly coloured sea cucumbers and corals.

Scientists have put together the first full stocktake of species to help weigh up the risks to biodiversity.

They say more than 5,000 different animals have been found in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.

The area is a prime contender for the mining of precious metals from the sea bed, which could begin as early as this year.

Gridlock: renewable energy projects worth billions stuck on hold

Green dreamland

Quote: ‘The system was built when just a few fossil fuel power plants were requesting a connection each year, but now there are 1,100 projects in the queue’. The climate goldrush is stalling.
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Billions of pounds’ worth of green energy projects are on hold because they cannot plug into the UK’s electricity system, BBC research shows.

Some new solar and wind sites are waiting up to 10 to 15 years to be connected because of a lack of capacity in the system – known as the “grid”.

Renewable energy companies worry it could threaten UK climate targets.

National Grid, which manages the system, acknowledges the problem but says fundamental reform is needed.

The wind and solar power myth has finally been exposed

[image credit: latinoamericarenovable.com]

All the arguments here have been expressed elsewhere – usually by climate sceptics – many times, but now the national press is more willing to let the cat out of the bag. The basic problem for renewables is energy storage, or lack of it and as the Telegraph article says, ‘The necessary miracle doesn’t exist’.
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Many governments in the Western world have committed to “net zero” emissions of carbon in the near future, says The Telegraph.

The US and UK both say they will deliver by 2050. It’s widely believed that wind and solar power can achieve this.

This belief has led the US and British governments, among others, to promote and heavily subsidise wind and solar.

These plans have a single, fatal flaw: they are reliant on the pipe-dream that there is some affordable way to store surplus electricity at scale.

Heating supplier: Why are we only talking about heat pumps?

Expensive heating [image credit: the Guardian]

Because the government can claim, rightly or not, that they’re cheaper to run than gas boilers? Like electric cars, heat pumps are best suited (if at all) for financial and other reasons to certain categories of property dweller, and the rest…not so much.
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An electric heating supplier has criticised the UK’s obsession with heat pumps when it comes to meeting net zero targets, says PropertyWire.

The government offers a £5,000 grant towards installing heat pumps, and so far just shy of 10,000 have been handed out since the scheme launched last year.

Keith Bastian, chief executive of electric heating company Fischer Future Heat, said installing 600,000 a year by 2028 is ‘optimistic at best’.

The Practical Impossibility Of Large-Scale Carbon Capture And Storage

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Further to the recent Talkshop article, confirmation that carbon capture is little more than a silly game using lots of energy and incurring vast costs for minimal or even net-negative of its hoped-for results.

PA Pundits International

By Steve Goreham~

The Environmental Protection Agency is working on a new rule that would set stringent limits on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from US power plants. Utilities would be required to retrofit existing plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology or to switch to hydrogen fuel. Others call for the use of CCS to decarbonize heavy industry. But the cost of capture and the amount of CO₂ that proponents say needs to be captured crush any ideas about feasibility.

Carbon capture and storage is the process of capturing carbon dioxide from an industrial plant before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it for centuries to millennia. Capture may be accomplished by filtering it from combustion exhaust streams. Pipelines are proposed to transport the captured CO₂. Underground reservoirs could be used for storage. For the last two decades, advocates have proposed…

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Carbon capture: a net emitter of CO2 ?

CO2 is not pollution

A BBC article headline asked: ‘Carbon capture: What is it and how does it fight climate change?’ But a report last year found a Shell Oil project output more CO2 than it captured. The amount of CO2 such sites can capture is negligible anyway, and they’re relying on ‘hopium’ to bring the high costs down. Given the lack of evidence of success of CCS installations, why is the BBC – or anyone – promoting it as a climate benefit?
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The UK government has announced that the first sites in the UK to capture greenhouse gases will be in Teesside, says BBC News.

The carbon capture plants are designed to prevent carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial processes and power stations being released into the atmosphere.

The announcement was part of the government’s new Net Zero Strategy and aims to move the UK closer to meeting its legally-binding carbon commitments.
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Why is carbon capture needed?

Carbon capture power plants are part of the government’s commitment to remove carbon from UK electricity production by 2035.

Revealed: Trees planted to help achieve net zero are adding to Scotland’s carbon emissions

Sitka spruce forestry in Scotland

Another avoidable green fiasco in the name of climate obsession.
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Millions of pounds are being spent carpeting thousands of acres of land with conifers on the basis they will lock up CO2 from the atmosphere.

But a new report shows that many of the forests springing up around the country likely add to the risk of climate change, says the Sunday Post.

Vast tracts of peaty soil are being dug up and drained in order to plant trees, unleashing a torrent of stored carbon [dioxide] into the environment.

Net zero Britain will be unable to keep the lights on, MPs warn

MPs voted almost unanimously for the current energy/climate policies, but now they don’t like the look of the results. Going down the same futile route faster, in pursuit of ‘decarbonization’ targets, is their proposed solution.
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Britain will struggle to keep the lights on using only net zero electricity as the roll-out of green energy lags far behind target, MPs have warned.

Falling investor confidence and bureaucratic delays mean Britain’s efforts to produce entirely clean electricity are at risk of stalling, MPs on the cross-party Business Select Committee said.

They are calling on the government to come up with a “coherent, overarching plan” to boost green supplies — or risk missing climate targets, says The Telegraph.

Demand for electricity is expected to soar as households buy electric cars and heat pumps.

Net zero or busted: Shapps could face potential imprisonment for not having proper plan

Well-known London prison

Cue intensified attempts to reach so-called climate targets at inevitably vast public expense. An exercise in futility.
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Grant Shapps, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary has revealed during a meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Committee that he faces the risk of being sent to prison for contempt of court if he fails to deliver on the government’s net zero targets, says Energy Live News.

Shapps, who was asked about the current arrangements that support his role in achieving these targets, stated that he has the greatest incentive among his government colleagues and anyone globally to reach these exacting goals.

U.S. Net Debt To Exceed 110% By 2028 As Decarbonization Costs Mount

This is where choosing carbon dioxide obsession over proper understanding of Earth’s complex and dynamic climate could be leading the unwary.
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While the latest IMF forecasts were mostly lost in the din surrounding the start of earnings season, besides the now standard cuts to global growth forecasts, there was one standout item, says Zero Hedge (via Oilprice.com).

As National Bank of Canada points out, the IMF’s projections forecast U.S. net debt to rise from 95% of GDP in 2023 to 110% by 2028, which actually is a conservative estimate when comparing a similar, if even more concerning longer-term forecast from the Congressional Budget Office, which effectively projects hyperinflation.

But while the fate of US debt/GDP in 2050 may feel like someone else’s problem to most Americans, NBC warns that a far more pressing issue may emerge as soon as a decade from today.

That’s because unless Washington raises taxes more or slashes benefits (an unlikely outcome), the Social Security fund will hit net zero – i.e., will be exhausted – in just 10 years.

Read more here.

National Grid quits North Sea carbon capture project to focus on its ‘hard-pressed’ energy networks

Image credit: steelguru.com

No prizes for guessing why those networks are hard-pressed: step forward ‘net zero’ climate obsession. Lack of reliable electricity supply didn’t happen overnight.
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National Grid is quitting its foray into developing carbon capture and storage in the UK, in a blow to the Government’s net zero ambitions, says the Daily Telegraph.

The FTSE 100 company is abandoning its plans to develop new pipelines in the Humber region to take carbon dioxide emissions out to the North Sea.

Its National Grid Ventures arm is in talks to sell the onshore pipeline project to partners, and has already quit another phase of the project.

Carbon capture and storage is considered key to the Government’s plans to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but is not yet up and running at scale in the UK.

Power plants in the Humber region hoping to start capturing their emissions missed out on a fresh round of government support announced at the end of last month.

National Grid said it wants to focus instead on its electricity networks, which are in major need of upgrades to help cope with the rise in wind farms, electric cars and heat pumps.

A spokesman said it was “committed to managing a smooth transition” as it moved to transfer its carbon capture interests to partners.
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BP is now expected to become the system operator from end to end.

Full article here.

South Western Railway disruption after biofuel clogs engines

For how much longer?
[image credit: thecostaricanews.com]

Derailed by climate obsession? According to The Telegraph the problem is that ‘algae produced by green fuels blocks engines’, if they’re left unused for a certain period of time. Potential implications for other motorised transport here.
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A train operator has reduced services after diesel engines were clogged with biofuel, reports BBC News.

South Western Railway (SWR) said a fault was discovered on Wednesday in much of its diesel fleet at depots in Exeter and Salisbury.

It said the issue would disrupt services in the Romsey area and west of Salisbury until further notice.

BBC South transport correspondent Paul Clifton said SWR would run a fraction of normal services on the routes.

He said the issue would affect the West of England line for the next week.

Full report here.

Biden’s green spending blitz could plunge world into ‘dark ages’, warns Hunt

Subsidising net zero type so-called climate policies in the US is not only enormously expensive but globally disruptive as well, it seems. Climate protection becoming climate protectionism?
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Joe Biden’s flagship green energy policy risks plunging the world into the economic “dark ages”, Jeremy Hunt has warned.

The Chancellor urged world leaders not to put up trade barriers after the US President passed a $369bn package of subsidies to support climate and energy businesses, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has drawn an estimated $200bn in investment since it was passed last year, according to estimates from the Financial Times, and both the EU and Britain have been forced to draw up responses of their own.

It has sparked fears of a new era of protectionism, where economies are closely managed through tariffs and subsidies.

Rollout of £150m heat pump scheme branded ’embarrassing’ after installation target missed

Domestic Air Source Heat Pump [image credit: UK Alternative Energy]

A climate-obsessed government wasting money on a ‘wretched’ subsidised scheme while chasing self-imposed targets – heard it before?
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The government offered vouchers to help people pay to replace boilers with heat pumps but critics say most people can’t afford them “subsidised or not”, reports Sky News.

“It does not help people keep bills low. It takes from the poor to give to the wealthy and it is an embarrassment of a policy.”

The figures have cast doubt on the government’s target of 600,000 installations of heat pumps per year by 2028.

The Less It Warms, the Louder Is Zero Carbon Push

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The last two solar cycle minima were the lowest for a century or so. Some climatic effect would not be surprising.

Science Matters

The post below updates the UAH record of air temperatures over land and ocean. Each month and year exposes again the growing disconnect between the real world and the Zero Carbon zealots.  It is as though the anti-hydrocarbon band wagon hopes to drown out the data contradicting their justification for the Great Energy Transition.  

As an overview consider how recent rapid cooling  completely overcame the warming from the last 3 El Ninos (1998, 2010 and 2016).  The UAH record shows that the effects of the last one were gone as of April 2021, again in November 2021, and in February and June 2022  Now at year end 2022 and continuing into 2023 global temp anomaly is matching or lower than average since 1995. (UAH baseline is now 1991-2020).

For reference I added an overlay of CO2 annual concentrations as measured at Mauna Loa.  While temperatures fluctuated up and down ending…

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‘Damning’ report calls for major National Grid changes to prevent UK missing key wind power targets

More target mania. The way things are going, or not going, the climate-obsessed UK government won’t be able to hurt the national economy with expensive and unreliable electricity as fast as planned.
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With some offshore wind projects waiting years in the pipeline, a report commissioned by the government has called for an urgent upgrade to the UK’s National Grid in order to reach the 2030 target of installing 50GW of wind power, says Sky News.

The UK will miss a key target to install 50 gigawatts (GW) of wind power by the end of the decade unless major changes are made to the grid, according to a government-commissioned report.

The 50GW target is at the heart of the government’s plans to phase out more polluting types of electricity generation by 2035, while also boosting energy security.

Tim Pick, who was appointed last year as an “offshore wind champion” to independently advise government and industry on the development of the UK’s offshore wind sector, said installing 40GW of wind power by 2030 “may be achievable” – but this falls short of the target.

Sky News has previously reported that wind generators already make more electricity than the grid can handle because of a lack of cables to transmit electricity from the north to the south of the UK.

This has resulted in British consumers paying hundreds of millions of pounds to turn wind power off, and gas generators on, closer to the source of demand.

The independent report warns this is one of the major limiting factors to industry progress.

Full article here.

Key net zero climate schemes likely to fail, government told

Like many other countries, they’ve always been playing in the pie-in-the-sky league on climate policy, built on vague untestable conjectures and unreliable climate models.
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Key climate schemes trumpeted as part of the government’s net zero strategy are likely to fail, ministers were told before last week’s “green day” announcements, says The Times (via No2NuclearPower).

A leaked document by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reveals that officials told ministers they were not confident that key policies announced on Thursday — including tree planting, peat restoration and recycling targets — were realistic.

The ten-page advisory document — marked “not public facing” — was produced on February 20 for Grant Shapps, the energy security and net zero secretary.

It assessed the “delivery risk” and “delivery confidence” of each of the net zero measures proposed by Defra, which is run by Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary. Each was assessed with a traffic-light scale of green, amber and red.

Of 44 policies, 21 were marked red or red/amber, indicating they will be hard to achieve.

Iveco CEO says Euro 7 vehicle emissions regulation is ‘plain stupid’

European Commission HQ, Brussels [image credit: Em_Dee @ Wikipedia]

The motor industry gets sandwiched between climate obsession and clean air fanaticism.
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The CEO of Italian truck and bus maker Iveco has condemned as “plain stupid” the Euro 7 standards which tighten vehicle emission limits for pollutants including nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide in the European Union from 2025, reports Euractiv.

Iveco Group’s Gerrit Marx said the regulation as currently drafted by the EU required cuts in emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulates which are “technically unfeasible”.

“The effort to get there is huge. And there is no real payback,” he said.

EU countries and lawmakers are due to negotiate the proposed legislation, which is designed to apply to cars and vans from July 1, 2025 and to buses and trucks two years later, this year.