Tag: Andy Burnham

Aviation Biofuel Net Zero Climbdown

Is Net Zero increasingly coming down to earth? Little by little, the driving force behind Government policies seems to be throttling back. The latest is that Burnham’s Labour Government is to ease Net Zero airline fuel quotas involving sustainable (or synthetic) aviation fuel (SAF).

Satirical illustration about aviation biofuel targets being scaled back, featuring a plane, used-cooking-oil truck, airport worker, net-zero roadmap, and officials discussing a biofuel policy climbdown.
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From The Daily Sceptic

By Sallust

Airplane flying over an airport beside a biofuel tanker truck

Is Net Zero increasingly coming down to earth? Little by little, the driving force behind Government policies seems to be throttling back. The latest is that Burnham’s Labour Government is to ease Net Zero airline fuel quotas involving sustainable (or synthetic) aviation fuel (SAF). The Telegraph has the story:

Ministers are preparing to back down on quotas for the use of synthetic fuel by airlines, after warnings about how much they could increase costs for holidaymakers.

The Government has been told the mandate, which is due to come into force on January 1st to reduce emissions from planes, would force passengers to pay an extra £25 for short-haul flights.

Under the rules, airlines would face large fines if they failed to hit targets for the use of synthetic fuel, even though it is virtually unobtainable, with just one refinery out of 600 worldwide producing it.

This comes hot on the heels of another climbdown:

It is the latest Net Zero retreat by Andy Burnham, who is keen to prioritise measures that ease the cost of living. Earlier this week it emerged that he had ordered a halt to new wind and solar power subsidies to try to reduce household energy bills.

As with so many Net Zero ‘initiatives’, just seems to come down to loading more costs onto consumers:

Some airlines have already added fare surcharges to cover the additional cost of SAF, which is two to five times more expensive than standard jet fuel.

The latest round of SAF rules, due to come into force on January 1st, would require airlines to use a new synthetic fuel known as electro-sustainable aviation fuel (e-SAF). It says they must then incorporate at least a 0.5% mix into their total fuel uptake by 2030.

Overall, airlines must use at least 10% SAF by the same year – the toughest requirement anywhere in the world.

Richard Holden, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said the move was “yet another Labour climbdown” that showed the Net Zero drive was “falling apart”.

Although manufacturers of SAF such as Synhelion are gushing in their enthusiasm for the fuel, which can be made from waste oil, cooking coil and even animal fat, the fact remains that it costs several times much as conventional jet fuel.

That presently is a function of scale, but it seems that bringing the cost down isn’t going to come anything like fast enough for the real world of politics. Unlike the original production of oil, which had time to grow with a new market, the industry of new fuels must confront an already enormous existing market which much cheaper sources of conventional fuel already supply.

Governments have tried to force the change unnaturally fast with the use of quotas and other coercive tactics, keeping prices high and meeting resistance.

This is probably the central problem for Net Zero policies for everything from heat pumps to aviation. It seems some politicians are waking up to this.

At the same time the debate appears to be shifting from the dogma of ‘offset the climate catastrophe at any cost’, to averting a widespread self-inflicted social and economic disaster.

The Telegraph reports additionally that “Burnham is also preparing to cut quotas for sales of electric vehicles (EVs)”.

The Telegraph’s story is worth reading in full.

Dale Vince: Ed Miliband Has Turned Net Zero Toxic

Green energy tycoon Dale Vince has blamed Ed Miliband for the “toxification of Net Zero” and branded him unfit to become Chancellor.

From The Daily Sceptic

By Will Jones

Green energy tycoon Dale Vince has blamed Ed Miliband for the “toxification of Net Zero” and branded him unfit to become Chancellor. The Telegraph has more.

The Labour donor accused the Energy Secretary of putting “ideology before the economy” and questioned whether he had a grasp of “even the basic notion of value for money”.

Miliband’s spending record in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) demonstrated his economic incompetence, Vince told the Telegraph.

In particular, the green energy entrepreneur criticised the decision to commit tens of billions of pounds to heat pumps and carbon capture technology, the latter of which remains largely unproven on a global scale.

“It’s about economic competence,” he said. “It’s about having an understanding of even the basic notion of value for money. I question whether he has that when you look at spending decisions like carbon capture and storage.

“It’s madly uneconomic so this makes me question whether he’s putting ideology in front of [the] economy. We need something else from a Chancellor and someone who is more business-like.”

Since his appointment as Energy Secretary in July 2024, Miliband has committed to spending billions of taxpayer cash on green energy technologies as part of his mission to achieve clean power by 2030.

Vince, who runs clean power firm Ecotricity, described these investments as a “terrible waste of money” and said he hoped Andy Burnham could “fix” things if the MP for Makerfield entered No. 10.

He said: “They’ve kind of led to the toxification, or enabled the toxification, of Net Zero, and the idea that it’s about spending vast sums of money subsidising technologies that only people with money can afford, like heat pumps and new electric cars, and being out of touch with reality.

“It adds to the feeling in the country that this green energy Net Zero stuff is driving bills up. It is a false narrative but the previous administration has enabled that and I hope Andy can fix it.”

Worth reading in full.