It turns out that when we stopped using coal we replaced it with wood-burning power stations and importing more natural gas. And then industrial energy use declined due to industry moving overseas, rather than any change to production methods. So nothing really became greener. The increase in electricity generation from wind, hydro, and solar is paltry.Wing Commander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2024 8:50 amSpot on, James. It’s all smoke and mirrors.Shortshift wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2024 6:35 pm Net zero is a nonsense anyway, as it relates to zero carbon arising from production (not from consumption).
As the UK hardly manufactures anything anymore, it is relatively easy to attain the quoted net zero objective. But since our consumption continues unabated (well, plus or minus) all we are really doing if offshoring our carbon creation to the other countries that are doing more and more manufacturing. It's a classic sleight of hand.
Quite ridiculous.
James
The Tories claimed that we had one of the best records for reducing harmful emissions. I always thought that was mostly because we completely decimated our once great coal mining industry, plus, as you say, we exported almost all of our manufacturing, mostly to South Asia where labour is (was) much cheaper.
And China is merrily building scores of new coal-fired power stations to more than replace those that have been shut down in the UK & elsewhere.
Cheers,
But we are re-using shopping bags quite often so I still feel we’ve done everything we could.