Our Take: The UK shows why following only the advice of climate scientists isn't a good idea with Doug Sheridan

For economists there has always been a direct link between economic growth and rising energy consumption—the more energy a country can consume, the richer its population becomes.

Our Take: The UK shows why following only the advice of climate scientists isn't a good idea

with Doug Sheridan

Jonathan Leake writes in the Telegraph, Britain, it claims, has almost halved its GHG emissions from 800 MT in 1990 to just 417 MT tonnes in 2022. It’s a staggering decrease—a faster decline than almost any other advanced nation. And it is a fact that is used regularly by politicians to trumpet the UK’s progress.

But can a nation whose population has grown by several million in the past two decades, with each citizen consuming more than ever, really have cut emissions by such a massive amount? Sadly, no.

In addition to the CO2 pouring from Britain’s homes, vehicles and remaining smokestacks, there are another 350 to 400 MT produced on the UK’s behalf but in other countries. If you add those two figures together, you get Britain’s overall carbon footprint, which now total around 750m to 800m tonnes.

It is a marked fall from 1990 when the UK’s consumption emissions totaled 1 BT tonnes, but nowhere near the 50% cut claimed by Sunak.

For economists there has always been a direct link between economic growth and rising energy consumption—the more energy a country can consume, the richer its population becomes.

Jorge León, SVP for oil and energy research at Rystad Energy, says, “We have seen many energy intensive industries closing down in Europe because of the high energy costs. This is a broad macroeconomic environment where things are not looking great, where output is decreasing. Our declining emissions reflect that.”

Meanwhile, Myles Allen, Oxford University’s professor of geosystem science, who served on the IPCC, says the real discussions about emissions should be around ending them completely.

“Achieving net zero should mean, from 2050, no one can be allowed to sell stuff that causes global warming,” he says. “So anyone who sells a product that causes global warming would need to explain how they are going to stop it causing global warming—whether through its production, use or disposal—by 2050."

Our Take: The UK shows why following only the advice of climate scientists isn't a good idea. Note just how oblivious Prof. Allen seems to the economic plight of Britain. Faced with declining living standards, his answer seems to be to work to ensure that other countries commit the same kind of economic policy mistakes. Pain all around, apparently.