{"id":1822,"date":"2023-07-01T09:51:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T09:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecosocialist.scot\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2023-07-01T09:51:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T09:51:15","slug":"climate-change-committee-report-none-of-this-is-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecosocialist.scot\/?p=1822","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change Committee Report – None of this is Working"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Small, editor of Bella Caledonia<\/a>, reports on the latest report of the government’s Committee on Climate Change and exposes the latest incarnation of climate denialism and pandemic disinformation at the heart of Westminster.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n
\n

John Gummer\u2019s latest (and last)\u00a0Committee on Climate Change\u00a0<\/a><\/span>report has just dropped and it\u2019s damning. It says we\u2019re falling behind and nowhere close to enough\u00a0<\/span>on<\/span>\u00a0all fronts in tackling\u00a0<\/span>the climate crisis<\/span>\u00a0and this is caused by the total vacuum of political leadership at the heart of the British government. The headlines are: \u201c<\/span>UK has made \u2018no progress\u2019 on climate plan, say government\u2019s own advisers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Incredibly fewer homes were insulated last year under the government-backed scheme than the year before, despite soaring energy bills and a cost of living crisis. There is pitiful progress on transport emissions, and no coherent programme for behaviour change (there\u2019s a surprise).<\/p>\n

The report also found:<\/p>\n

The number of homes receiving energy efficiency improvements under the government\u2019s Energy Company Obligation scheme more than halved, from 383,700 in 2021 to 159,600 in 2022. At least 1m to 2m homes should be upgraded each year to meet net zero.<\/p>\n

Homes are still being built that will need to be retrofitted with low-carbon heating and efficiency measures, because the government has not yet brought in its promised future homes standard.<\/p>\n

No decision on whether to use hydrogen for home heating will be made until 2026, leaving households and boiler companies in complete limbo.<\/p>\n

Emissions from transport have remained \u201cstubbornly high\u201d as the government has \u201cmade a political choice\u201d to allow an increase in road traffic, instead of encouraging people on to public transport.<\/p>\n

There is no clear policy to decarbonise steel production, or emissions from other heavy industries.<\/p>\n

In a letter from\u00a0Lord Deben (Gummer), Chairman of the Climate Change Committee<\/a>, to Rishi Sunak about the 2023 Progress Report he bemoaned \u201cThe failure to act decisively in response to the energy crisis and build on the success of hosting COP26 means that the UK has lost its clear global climate leadership.\u201d This idea of the success of COP26 or of Britain\u2019s \u2018climate leadership\u2019 is a Tory myth and an appeal to national hubris. He also complained about the \u2018Inaction has been compounded by continuing support for further unnecessary investment in fossil fuels.\u2019 Like, No Shit Sherlock.<\/p>\n

The illusion of action, the mythology that meaningful change is underway is laid bare.<\/p>\n

Climate Denialism and Pandemic Disinformation<\/h3>\n

Meanwhile (h\/t to Leo Hickman) a letter to the Daily Telegraph has revealed for the first time the names and numbers of the tiny grouping of climate-sceptic UK parliamentarians who call themselves the \u201cNet Zero Scrutiny Group\u201d. There\u2019s no surprises:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Telegraph splashed with a\u00a0front-page \u2018scoop\u2019<\/a>\u00a0from the \u201cNet Zero Scrutiny Group\u201d clearly designed to distract from the Committee on Climate Change\u2019s damning report But as John Bye has pointed out there\u2019s an interesting crossover between the Net Zero Scrutiny Group and the\u00a0All-Party Parliamentary Group \u2018Pandemic Response and Recovery\u2019.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

This crossover includes such luminaries as Esther McVey (Chair), Sammy Wilson (Vice Chair), Iain Duncan Smith, Baroness Foster of Oxton, and Lord Strathcarron.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The APPG group has some interesting backers. As Byline Times reported the group is \u201cbeing funded and managed by Collateral Global \u2013 the successor organisation to the \u2018Great Barrington Declaration\u2019 (GBD), established by two of its co-founders, Oxford epidemiologist Professor Sunetra Gupta and Ministry of Defence contractor Alex Caccia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GBD is a pandemic disinformation group\u00a0backed<\/a>\u00a0by the Koch climate science denial network, known for promoting a \u2018herd immunity by natural infection\u2019 approach to the Coronavirus crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Baroness Foster was conferred a Life Peerage after a nomination by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of the 2020 Political Honours. In January 2021, she was elevated to the Lords as Baroness Foster of Oxton. Not to be confused with Baroness Fox (aka Claire Fox, aka Claire Foster), also a great Koch enthusiast, also present.<\/p>\n

This convergence between the far-right, libertarian conspiracism and climate denialism is not a coincidence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n