No relevant engineering backgrounds to manage the energy industry

From the video description - During a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, Rupert Lowe confronts a panel of civil servants from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for having no relevant engineering backgrounds to manage the energy industry.

A low-grade script

Andy Burnham vows UK will hit net zero target despite Jackdaw gasfield approval

Andy Burnham has said he will not “abandon the responsibility” of fighting the climate crisis after the government approved the Jackdaw gasfield, pledging to block new North Sea licences and keep Britain on track for net zero by 2050.

That's the headline, but it's worth teasing out the language used by the UK Prime Minister, Andrew Burnham and his Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Miatta Fahnbulleh. 

It is not the language of sincere political leaders aiming to convey important information in an honest and responsible manner, it's a low-grade script.

But we expect that.

Burnham

• Said - he will not “abandon the responsibility” of fighting the climate crisis
• Said - he wanted to make the transition to a greener future “on our terms”
• Said - I want to be clear that our determination is unwavering,
• Said - he was conscious of the “acute global instability” affecting energy security and wanted to treat oil and gas workers with more dignity.
• Said - he is “personally committed to confronting” the challenges of the climate crisis.
• Said - Britain has just emerged from its hottest summer on record, during which we had nurses collapsing on hospital wards, bus drivers working in intolerable conditions and families losing everything to wildfires
• Said - More extreme weather is forecast in the months ahead.
• Said - The climate crisis is no distant threat. It is here, on our doorstep, affecting people’s lives and livelihoods.
• Said - I am personally committed to confronting it, and I will not abandon the responsibility we have to future generations.

Fahnbulleh

• Is - "really concerned” and “quite sad” about the breakdown in consensus about the climate crisis.
• Said - I think it’s a sad place where Reform has gone and got to.
• Said - But I’m even sadder about the Tories because they know better
• Said - It has been really painful and tragic to watch that consensus burn
• Said - It’s people’s livelihoods, it’s their jobs, their communities
• Said - Even if you don’t care about climate – care about that, you’ve got to take action.

Reject the straightforward, and...

Europe suffers deadliest summer on record after extreme weather

Europe experienced its deadliest summer on record in 2026, with elevated temperatures claiming more than 50,000 lives in towns and cities across the continent, according to a landmark study.

Researchers estimated that two-thirds of these excess deaths – exceeding 32,000 – can be directly linked to climate change intensifying the extreme heat.

In the UK, urban areas recorded around 4,500 excess deaths, with 2,500 of those attributed to the heightened severity of heatwaves driven by global warming, according to the paper published in Nature Health.

To a question put to him by Duke Ngai as to what should be done in order to render the people submissive to authority, Confucius replied, "Promote the straightforward, and reject those whose courses are crooked, and the thing will be effected. Promote the crooked and reject the straightforward, and the effect will be the reverse."

Analects of Confucius

Visions of imbecility

London Green councillors encourage people inspired by the protests in France to join demonstration

And on Sunday, the Hackney Greens shared an image urging those "inspired" by French chaos to join a march against austerity held the day before the Budget.

Florence Schechter, the cabinet member for finance, resident services and digital, promoted the "March against Austerity", to be held in central London, on her social media...

She said: "To speak to people who are inspired by protests is not an endorsement of violence...

"Austerity is not just a topic: people are dying as a result of governments' decisions to cut spending and make our communities pay their debts, in France and here in the UK.


The professor remained looking at his wife with an air of stupefaction, as if she had opened up to him visions of imbecility of which he had not even dreamed.

Stephen Crane - Active Service (1899)

Twaddle Wins Again

Pathetic: Miliband's deluded protege signals she'll oppose crucial oilfield despite gas green light

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh was poised to reject plans to exploit the Rosebank site – just hours after approving production at the Jackdaw gas field...

Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary and former energy secretary, is said to be staunchly opposed to the new drilling. Ms Fahnbulleh said: 'One is a gasfield that caters for the domestic market, while the other is an oilfield that is mainly for export.

'It is right that we judge each application in its own right, and it is absolutely critical that the decision is consistent with our climate obligations, our carbon budgets and the end destination we need to get to with the energy transition.'


Ms Fahnbulleh seems to have learned the script, but it would be interesting to know what "the end destination we need to get to with the energy transition" might be. Somewhere expensive and cold in winter presumably.

I've no idea if there are investors genuinely willing to exploit the Rosebank site though, not with a large Labour majority in the HoC.

Woefully unprepared

Exceeding key climate target is now 'imminent and unavoidable', United Nations warns

The warning comes as a group of British MPs warned this summer's record heat and intense wildfires exposed how "woefully unprepared" the country is for the growing risk of blazes.

Exceeding a key global climate target is now "imminent and unavoidable", United Nations (UN) scientists have warned.

It coincides with a new report by MPs today that said Britain urgently needed new equipment to cope with the growing danger of wildfires, driven by global warming.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the world would soon blow through the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, reaching at least 1.7C even in a best-case scenario.

Being woefully unprepared is much more than a British problem. India also seems to be woefully unprepared for the coal supply bottlenecks already occurring in a major expansion of its coal-fired power plants.

Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here, although British MPs are woefully unprepared when it comes to learning lessons. As are most voters.

India plans up to 150 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants

India may have to expand its coal-fired power plants much more than previously planned. 

This was stated by Ghanshyam Prasad, chairman of the state electricity authority CEA, in October 2026 in New Delhi. By 2035, additional plants with a capacity of 105 to 150 gigawatts could be necessary. Previously, the planning provided for only 97 gigawatts. The background to this is the sharp increase in electricity demand, weak hydropower generation and a lack of storage capacities for renewable energies. At the same time, the coal stocks of existing power plants are shrinking, while significant supply bottlenecks are already occurring.

Gas v Twaddle

A Grauniad piece demonstrating yet again the absurd depths environmental twaddle can plumb whenever its fans feel thwarted. 

Jackdaw North Sea gasfield to get go-ahead in blow to climate campaigners

The Jackdaw gasfield will be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, signalling Andy Burnham’s commitment to the North Sea fossil fuel industry and threatening to trigger a row with climate campaigners and Labour MPs.

Tessa Khan, the executive director of the anti-oil campaign group Uplift, said: “Jackdaw will provide around just 2% of our gas demand for roughly 10 years. It has been oversold and won’t stop the overall decline in North Sea jobs, as it will be largely unmanned and operated remotely.”

She added: “Labour’s climate credibility is on the line. No new oil and gasfields are compatible with safe climate limits.”

The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that virtue-signalling twaddle still has a firm grip on the political arena, the media and within the government machine.

A poll by Savanta for the climate group E3G and seen by the Guardian shows that nearly a third of voters say they would be less likely to vote Labour if it gives the go-ahead for more North Sea oil drilling.

That includes almost exactly a third of those who voted Labour at the last election, and around half of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Ellie Mae O’Hagan, the UK energy programme lead at E3G, said: “After a summer of deadly heatwaves, the public has made up its mind: more drilling is the wrong answer.

“If the prime minister wants a decade in power to change the country, he should invest in heat pumps and solar, not tax breaks for the oil and gas companies driving up our bills and polluting the planet.”