Saudi Arabia exports oil. Who does he plan to export electricity to – Ireland perhaps? The green lobby obviously wrote his script, but nobody told him ‘carbon’ theories of climate don’t cut the mustard. And how does his plan work if Scotland leaves the UK? Something’s blustery other than the weather.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to make a “big bet” on renewables, turning the UK into the “Saudi Arabia” of wind power, reports BBC News.
Speaking via video link to a climate roundtable discussion at the UN in New York, Mr Johnson said the country held “extraordinary potential for wind”.
He said the UK should embrace a range of new technologies to achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
The UK holds the presidency of the UN climate conference, known as the COP.
But because of the coronavirus crisis, the annual gathering will not take place this year. It has instead been postponed until November 2021.
The British said the UK had an ambitious agenda for the meeting and called on other countries to be “similarly ambitious”. He praised the recent pledge by China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
Mr Johnson reiterated his government’s pledge to “build back greener” after the Covid-19 pandemic, through a green industrial revolution. He promised to deliver thousands of new jobs in the process.
As regards wind power, Mr Johnson said: “We’ve got huge, huge gusts of wind going around the north of our country – Scotland. Quite extraordinary potential we have for wind.”
On the question of new technologies, the Prime Minister also said he wanted the UK to take the lead in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, in which greenhouse gas emissions are captured from sources such as power stations and then stored underground.
Mr Johnson said this was a technology he “barely believed was possible, but I am now a complete evangelist for”.
He said the country would also be investing in renewable hydrogen fuel technology “for trucks, for trains, even perhaps for planes – for vehicles that aren’t readily capable of being moved by electric batteries”.
Like many other countries, he said the UK government was also thinking of bringing forward the date for phasing out new petrol and diesel cars.
It’s thought that date will be 2030, with 2035 for plug-in hybrids – but this has not yet been confirmed. This would help accelerate the take-up of electric vehicles (EVs).
The government would be continuing its ongoing investments in solar power and nuclear energy: “I do think nuclear has to be part of the mix,” the Prime Minister said.
Full report here.
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
September 24, 2020 at 01:06PM