Mainstream environmental sources (UN, PBS, NPR, academic studies) push the opposite message: consumption is a primary driver of emissions (production, transport, waste), so the most effective path is buying less repair more, choose second- hand, support responsible companies, and reduce overall throughput. Individual “green shopping” can’t outpace systemic overconsumption.

Western countries (like the UK or Germany) aggressively push de-industrialization, high energy costs, and restrictions on domestic production to cut “their” emissions.

But everyday consumer goods (shoes, batteries, lamps, electronics, clothes) are simply imported from places like China, where manufacturing is far more carbon-intensive (coal-heavy grids, fewer environmental controls).

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From The Conservative Woman

By Ivor Williams

Yeah, it’s a loaf of bread just out of the oven, still in its tin and a symbol of a particularly ridiculous aspect of emissions reduction. I guarantee surprise, anger and a certain amount of rueful head-shaking when I explain.

You may have wondered about the many contradictions in our daily life that are so obvious that no one seems to see them. The elephants in the room are so numerous and so big we’ve got used to seeing the view only between their legs. For instance: we poor folk in the UK are being dragged painfully and expensively towards an era of emission-free electricity generation by 2030.

Translation: no coal, oil or gas. By then your life will depend on the wind always blowing, the sun always shining, on hundreds of miles of new pylons, more wind and solar farms, a vast quantity of huge-capacity batteries in or near all towns and cities, and lots of money from a government already spending too much on everything else. Nuclear will not be ready, and even when it is it won’t be anything like enough for full-scale backup. Maybe we should focus on the elephants.

China produces half its energy from coal. It also throws out one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, is second to the US in oil consumption, and third behind the US and Russia for gas. Its energy policies have always been geared towards providing constant, cheap and reliable power. That is why it now manufactures much of what we used to do ourselves.

I went shopping last August and bought a Lakeland stand mixer, a desk lamp and a DAB radio. All made in China.

India uses coal for three-quarters of its electricity generation. This is another country which understands the need for cheap, constant and reliable energy. It is one of the world’s largest coal producers.

I went shopping last September and bought a bird feeder, a slow cooker and some garlic. All made or grown in China.

In the United States over half their power comes from coal and gas, natural gas production is at record levels, and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) exports will double by 2030.

I went shopping last October and bought a pair of shoes, some Boots batteries and a John Lewis lamp. All made in China.

Germany is the fourth biggest user of coal, generating over 40 per cent of its power from that plus gas mostly imported from the USA.

I went shopping last November and bought a Russell Hobbs kettle, a Tesco toaster and an electric whisk. All made in China.

Well over half of Russia’s energy generation comes from coal and gas. It also exports coal, oil, LNG and gas to China, India and many EU countries, where Hungary, Slovakia, France, the Netherlands and Belgium are the top buyers.

There you have the top five users of coal. One other country, Indonesia, is the world’s largest coal exporter. A long time ago my geography teacher told me we had enough coal under our feet to give us cheap, constant and reliable electricity for 400 years.

I went shopping last December and bought a Hewlett Packard laptop, a set of electronic kitchen scales and an LED spotlight torch. All made in China.

The only remaining UK coal-fired power station was shut down in September 2024. In its place we have Drax, burning trees mainly from North America, producing four times more emissions than the coal plant, yet its output is categorised as ‘renewable’.

One of Labour’s biggest union backers, the GMB, has warned that their Net Zero policies are ‘the most destructive industrial calamity in our nation’s history’. The UK is to buy steel from China because ‘it comes from an electric arc furnace and so meets green aspirations. As I said above, more than half of China’s electricity comes from coal.

About one third of the gas for your central heating is provided by our North Sea oilfields. Another half arrives by pipeline from Norway’s North Sea operation, which is to ‘re-open dead oil and gas fields close to British waters’. We can use their North Sea gas but not ours because emission-free energy by 2030 means that no new licences for exploration in this area by the UK are being issued. Fracking could have provided us with around 20 per cent of our energy needs for 30 years but is banned.

Now for a report from a government advisory body existing happily in their own fantasy land. The UK Climate Change Committee’s June 2025 Progress Report’s first doubtful claim was that ‘a predominantly home-grown energy supply system . . . will reduce household bills.’ They cautiously didn’t say when.

Their second claim was true, but they obviously didn’t ask themselves why: ‘The UK,’ they wrote, ‘should . . . be proud of its place among a leading group of economies demonstrating consistent and sustained decarbonisation . . . greenhouse gas emissions have more than halved since 1990.’ Of course they have: they’ve all gone to China.

Last month, I went shopping and bought a loaf tin. Yes, that one in the photograph. Made in China. A simple loaf tin like those in the 19th century that we made in their tens of thousands and sold to the world for pennies. (Old pennies, of course. One of those used to buy you a stamp.)

I actually bought all those items. I have therefore helped the UK to bring down its emissions. If you want to join me then get spending but make sure nothing you buy is labelled ‘Made in Britain’.