Letter to the editor: Should Miliband be bankrupting the country in his search for net zero ?

A good friend of mine is a retired research scientist and knowing my interest in climate change pointed me towards a book entitled ‘’Unsettled, what climate science tells us, what it doesn’t and why it matters’’, written by Dr Steven Koonin who served as Undersecretary for Science in the US Department of Energy under President Barack Obama and was actively involved in the Obama Administration’s effort to achieve the Paris Agreement among 196 countries to take real action on climate change that calls for strong transparency, ensuring countries adhere to ambitious emissions reduction goals, and setting the world on a course to cut carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases.

In the final paragraph of the conclusion to Dr Koonin’s book, he refers to something President Joe Biden said in his inaugural speech that, ‘’we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated, or even manufactured’’, which goes to the heart of what Dr Koonin has written, basically the science of climate change and he does not deny the climate is changing, is not settled and is not necessarily entirely the fault of mankind as some scientists and most politicians would have us believe, as the climate has changed naturally many times before over thousands of years.

As an example, the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) was a period of warmer-than-average temperatures, roughly from 900 to 1300 A.D., while the Little Ice Age (LIA) was a subsequent period of cooler temperatures lasting from around 1300 to 1850 A.D. The MWP saw benefits like improved crop yields in Europe, leading to population growth and new settlements. In contrast, the LIA caused climate disruptions such as droughts, floods, and expanding glaciers in mountainous regions, leading to social problems like famine and conflict.

We have only to look at the value of the UK's renewable energy industry which back in 2022 was approximately £23 billion, while the broader "low carbon and renewable energy economy" was valued at £69.4 billion, to see why some scientists and most politicians are all too willing to jump on the ‘’net zero’’ bandwagon. Globally, the renewable energy industry was valued at approximately $1.1 to $1.5 trillion in 2024, with projections indicating significant growth to over $2 trillion by 2030.

An example of this manipulation is a recent report on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) which found they pump out nearly five times more planet-heating pollution than official figures show. The cars, which can run on electric batteries as well as combustion engines, have been promoted by UK and European carmakers as a way to cover long distances in a single drive – unlike fully electric cars – while still reducing emissions, but data from an analysis by the non-profit advocacy group Transport and Environment found PHEVs emit just 19% less CO2 than petrol and diesel cars, while under laboratory tests, they were assumed to be 75% less polluting.

Finally and hopefully everyone is still with me, Jeremy Clarkson has shared a worrying update about the future of his businesses Diddly Squat and Farmer's Dog as he hit out at Labour's Energy Secretary Ed Miliband for ruining farming. He raged at the increasing cost of food in the UK, blaming Miliband for "carpet-bombing" the countryside with solar farms, saying "thousands and thousands of acres of farmland which was formerly used for growing food is now being used to grow electricity, of course, this is fine if you have a Labourite view of the world. Bankrupt the farmers, use their land to achieve Net Zero, and import all the food you need from abroad’’, continuing, "I think it's an idiotic plan, personally, but I'm not in charge, they are," as he discussed the new plan to put a green tax on shipping companies who are contributing to pollution

Robert Bishop

Broomfield Drive

Billingshurst