Letter to the editor: No to net zero

I should like to ask Emma Harrison Beesley ( Letters in the County Times in December ), why she thinks the UK has a responsibility to lead (the World) on climate action. The UK produces barely 1% of global emissions.

The World’s top five polluters are China, the USA, India, Russia and Japan, with China producing more pollution than the following four countries combined. Does Emma seriously believe that anything the UK does will cause others to follow, with President Elect Donald Trump recently quoted as saying that on assuming the Presidency he will withdraw the US from the Paris Accords, rip up President Bidens green agenda and increase fracking. Please consider a few facts.

The first is so called ‘’green energy’’ which is never green, take for example the Drax Power Station in Yorkshire, which burns biomass ( compressed wood pellets), primarily imported from North America and recently reported to be the largest single source of carbon pollution in the UK. A recent report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies showed research has revealed that wood burning stoves are the UK’s biggest source of the most dangerous type of air pollution, namely particulate pollution known as PM2.5, which can reduce lung function and is a cause of asthma, particularly in children.

In any event,the notion of renewable energy as our saviour from environmental doom is captivating yet misleading. Many people, including our present Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, imagine fields of wind turbines and solar panels generating clean electricity with no downside. This vision, however, ignores the complex reality behind so-called clean energy. Yes, renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydroelectric power do provide alternatives to fossil fuels and can significantly reduce carbon emissions when in operation. But it's crucial to remember: 'clean' energy is not synonymous with 'absolutely perfect' or 'free of environmental impact.' The process of manufacturing, transporting, and maintaining these technologies often involves the use of resources and results in environmental consequences that are sometimes overlooked.

China produces 86% of the World’s solar panels and even those produced in the UK contain 40% of materials sourced from China.

Less than 5% of the UK’s energy supply comes from Solar while, due to the Government closing power stations, we import between 15% and 20% of our electricity from abroad just to keep the lights on, at a cost of £250 million per month. Last Wednesday, the National Grid issued an alert for traditional electricity providers to bolster output, as due to a lack of windpower and no solar due to hours of darkness, the power market came very close to a blackout.

According to a recent report in The Daily Telegraph, in a bizarre twist wind farms were actually paid almost £400 million to turn off their turbines in 2024 because of a system known as constraint payments.

There are over 41 million vehicles in the UK of which only 1.3 million, or just over 3% are fully electric. Analysis by Green Flag, the breakdown provider, shows that the average age of cars on the UK’s roads is now 9.4 years, so people are not only not rushing to buy electric, but most are simply not in a position to buy any new car, let alone a pricey electric one. Electric cars not only depreciate quicker than petrol or diesel, but a replacement battery can start in excess of £5000. The 40 million petrol and diesel vehicles will still require petrol and diesel, so why import oil from abroad when we can produce much of our own.

All the heating engineers I know wouldn’t touch ground source heat pumps, due to the cost, the noise, the lack of reliability and the need for electricity to operate in any case.

The last reported figures from DEFRA show that of the food we consume in the UK, 46% is imported, although this is now likely to be higher, which a walk around any Supermarket will show. With the Labour Government intent on concreting over what remains of our countryside with housing, solar panels and wind turbines, imports of food will only increase further.

Finally, in 2013, Sir David Attenborough, probably the World’s most renowned naturalist, said that the biggest threat to the planet is overpopulation. The UK and England in particular, is one of the most densely populated countries in the World and continuing to get worse. As a result, the UK is one of the World’s most nature depleted countries and here in the South we live in a water stress area due to the continuing development of large scale housing estates, which also account for the regular discharge of sewage into our rivers and coastal waters.

We are not and will not be a good example for any other country to follow and the rush to net zero will simply bankrupt this country.

Robert Bishop

Broomfield Drive

Billingshurst

West Sussex