{"id":374337,"date":"2025-04-09T11:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374337"},"modified":"2025-04-09T11:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:07:09","slug":"winning-the-race-down-the-road-to-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374337","title":{"rendered":"Winning the Race down the Road to\u00a0Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Climate Scepticism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Jit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those races you don\u2019t want to win.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians are known for saying bland things. That\u2019s what they do. If they say bold or interesting things, they make enemies faster than they make friends. The exception is firebrand populists, who usually say whatever they feel, safe in the knowledge that it isn\u2019t costing them a chance to run the country. But those who run the country have to say bland things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Keir Starmer visited Jaguar Land Rover today<\/a>, in order to announce a slight watering down of the absurdly-punishing Zero Emission Vehicle mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quoth he, in part:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So today \u2013 we\u2019re going to introduce much more flexibility into EV mandates.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re going to help car companies based in Britain reach the targets in a way that supports growth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re going to cut any fines \u2013 which I do not want or expect to see \u2013 by 20% and any money that is raised \u2013 would be invested directly back into support for the British car industry.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He doesn\u2019t want to issue any fines, he doesn\u2019t expect to issue any fines, but he\u2019s cutting the size of the fines he does not want to make nor expects to make. Make sense to you? Why not just\u2026 I dunno\u2026 drop the fines that aren\u2019t going to be made, if they aren\u2019t going to be made?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also came out with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Rachel has said, we are also putting \u00a32.3 billion pounds into the British car industry, giving people tax breaks worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year to help them switch to electric.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving charging infrastructure. That is a massive factor when people are thinking about switching and our approach means we are seeing a new public charging point popping up every half an hour.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because this is the moment when we back British business and charge up the electric revolution.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

British electric cars running off clean British power, made by British workers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

British cars for British workers<\/em>! <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a wonder that the workers standing behind him didn\u2019t just get back to work at that point. Ya know. Back to making the British cars for British workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterwords, in response to a question from the Telegraph, he said<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I see net zero as a real opportunity. There\u2019s a global race on for the jobs of the future in relation to net zero, more investment is coming into this country in relation to renewables than any other sector. I don\u2019t think now is the time to step away from that race, now is the time to double down on that race.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I would like to point out that the lion\u2019s share of the investment coming into the UK in relation to renewables is for building wind and solar farms. For example, in October 2024, the PM\u2019s press office was pleased to announce a<\/a> \u201cTidalwave [sic] of clean energy investment worth billions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total announced was apparently north of \u00a324 bill. The press release helpfully lists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n