The Kakistocracy

David King has a whimsical Quadrant piece on Australia as a Kakistocracy, entangled as it still is in Net Zero and the the ludicrous folly of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

The whole piece is well worth reading as we in the UK wonder if Miatta Fahnbulleh will turn out to be merely another servant of the UK Kakistocracy and  just as absurdly destructive as Ed Miliband.

An Ironic Blessing of ‘Atrocious Science’

While the tide finally seems to be turning in regard to realization of the futility of “Net Zero” – not only on economic grounds, but also because there is compelling scientific evidence that if accomplished it would have negligible effect on climate – there is an obstinate vocal rump who cannot, or just do not want to accept the scientific reality. Not least amongst them are our Chris Bowen and the UK’s Ed Milliband, two ministers driving policy agendas that amount to economic euthanasia.

The case against anthropogenic emissions having a material effect on climate spans observational data, theoretical analysis, and empirical (laboratory) testing ( see The Science is Settled); counter arguments appear to rely entirely on computer modeling of temperature even though model predictions have failed to match observed temperatures in both forecast and, surprisingly, hindcast. Sadly, persistence with with decarbonization/net zero policy agendas suggests that my earlier assessment that the Lucky Country is now a Kakistocracy (Green Idiocy’s Consequences) is increasingly apposite. These agendas have polluted our taxation systems, education priorities, corporate reporting obligations, research funding priorities, and more.

Eco-friendly flats

 

Gamble as we say, not as we do

 

Labour to introduce affordability checks for gamblers

Labour is set to forge ahead with financial checks on gambling customers who suffer heavy losses, setting up a clash with bookmakers who oppose the move.

The Gambling Commission is expected to confirm proposals on Tuesday morning to introduce financial risk assessments on online gamblers who lose large sums, including those spending more than £1,000 in a single day.

Political theatre collides with reality - reality wins

Mannheim says goodbye to the 2030 climate target – political target fails due to reality

According to a recent assessment by the city administration, Mannheim is saying goodbye to its climate target for 2030. The Committee for Environment and Technology was informed about this on 9 June 2026. The city wanted to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent compared to 1990. By 2023, however, it had only achieved a reduction of 40 percent. Now there is a lack of money, personnel and sufficient possibilities for intervention. Industry in particular is largely evading municipal control. Existing projects are still running, but the central target no longer has a reliable basis.

Climate target was based on political assumptions instead of secure planning

The municipal council adopted the climate protection action plan in November 2022. At that time, SPD Mayor Peter Kurz led the city administration. The plan included 81 measures and more than 300 individual activities. Mannheim wanted to become a European pioneer city. However, neither all the financial resources nor the necessary technical capacities had been determined. Politicians declared a desired result to be the goal before they had fully secured its implementation.

Reality wins, as it will in Ed Miliband's shabby little huckster's theatre, but we're still paying the price of admission. Maybe he'll change the scenery and rewrite the ending if the audience becomes too restless.

Or maybe Andrew Burnham will do something constructive.

Or maybe pigs will learn to fly.

Out on the tiles

Deadly danger: Employers' liability insurance association warns of solar boom risks

A total of 74 workers died on German construction sites in 2025. Of these, 26 died as a result of a crash. 15 of these fatal accidents occurred on roofs. The employers' liability insurance association therefore warns of additional dangers due to the boom in photovoltaic systems. This is because more and more fitters, electricians and maintenance workers are working on hard-to-reach roof surfaces. Missing fuses, brittle components and unsuitable access can have fatal consequences there...

Photovoltaic systems take more workers to dangerous heights

Roofs have long since ceased to protect buildings from wind and precipitation. They now also serve as locations for photovoltaic systems and other technical facilities. As a result, assembly, maintenance, repair and cleaning work increases significantly. However, many solar panels are located in areas that are difficult for workers to reach.


When we had a new roof last year, the roofer told us we should contact him before installing solar panels as he'd come across a number of dodgy solar installations. Cowboy installers drilling through roof tiles for example, or not replacing tiles correctly.

Not that we intend to have solar panels on our nice new roof.

Chris Uhlmann on Australia's energy transition

 

It’s impossible to say anything polite about Mr Miliband’s politicking

Andrew Montford has an interesting Net Zero Watch piece on the cynical way Ed Miliband disguises the costs of Net Zero.

The cynicism of the Secretary of State

Ed Miliband’s decision, announced towards the end of last year, to move three quarters of the cost of Renewables Obligation subsidies to general taxation was a move of profound political cynicism. In this post, I’ll try to explain why.

At first sight the move was an attempt to relieve the cost-of-living burden on consumers, albeit a moderately duplicitous one in that it simply shifted the burden from a household’s electricity bill to its tax bill. However, the decision to move only three quarters of the cost seemed strange – why not all of it?

The whole piece is well worth reading as yet another insight into Keir Starmer's choice for the role of Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

It’s impossible to say anything polite about Mr Miliband’s politicking. The story reveals a man whose objective has been to screw the public, to disguise the fact that he is doing so, and then to leave a depth charge for the next government, apparently for his own entertainment. It’s the kind of thing that might seem clever to a student politician, but is simply unbecoming for a minister of the Crown.

Another one goes up

Huge recycling centre fire by railway near London Bridge sparks travel chaos

Huge plumes of smoke can be seen for miles over south London after a waste dump fire brought rush hour to a standstill.

Thick black smoke pours out of a recycling centre between London Bridge and Dartford shutting all lines between the stations on Monday evening.

A train driver told passengers the fire erupted at a factory around 5.30pm.

Commuters stuck at London Bridge reported a ‘strong smell of burning around the station’.

A cynical chap is bound to wonder if recycling centres are sustainable.

Dodgy EV Fire Data

Filed under "What could possibly go wrong?"

New proposals to cut bills with community batteries

• Families and businesses could benefit from cheaper energy through the use of community batteries.Families could save on bills by storing cheaper renewable able electricity and using it when demand is highest
• Call for evidence launched to explore how community batteries can be rolled out at to support working people, including renters or those living in flats, to save money
• Part of the biggest investment in community energy in UK history, giving people a stake in local clean power projects and reducing reliance on volatile fossil fuels

A call for evidence launched today (Thursday 4 June) will seek to unlock barriers so shared battery storage can be rolled out across the UK, helping communities store locally generated renewable energy and pass on the savings to households.

Green Data Centres Go AWOL

 

Government slammed for failure on hyperscale data centre emissions

The Scottish Government faces urgent calls to address "major shortcomings" in its data centre policy, as Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) alleges a critical failure to account for the emissions of hyperscale AI facilities in assessments of "green data centres" and their contribution to climate targets.

Kat Jones, director of APRS, branded the situation "pretty shocking". The government’s NPF4 national planning framework states that "green data centres" will have an "overall negligible impact" on Scotland’s emissions reduction goals.


A chap is bound to wonder what a "green data centre" might look like within the strange, mysterious and eerily mystical minds of Green folk.  

  

Use of an abacus, as illustrated in
Margarita philosophica (1503)
Source

Floaters

Labour plans to blanket lakes with floating solar farms

Ed Miliband is preparing to blanket reservoirs and lakes with solar farms as part of Labour’s push towards net zero.

The Energy Secretary will launch a consultation to make it easier to build floating solar power plants, after a report that hailed their potential as a clean energy source.

Floating solar schemes use the same panels as land-based projects but are mounted on platforms floated in freshwater bodies such as reservoirs, lakes, quarry lakes and industrial ponds.

There is a hint of desperation about this, but also revenge against those who know Net Zero can't work and Ed Miliband is mad or bad and probably both.

Investing in Indulgences

Paraguay expects over US$1 billion in Singapore carbon credit investments

Paraguay's government expects investments from Singapore in carbon credit projects to exceed $1 billion, Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Rolando De Barros said on Wednesday, as a delegation from the Asian nation visited Asunción led by Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu Hai Yen, accompanied by 20 business executives.

De Barros said President Santiago Peña received the delegation and expressed confidence that if “all processes of interest with Singapore are completed, more than $1 billion can be generated between both governments,” without specifying a timeline for the investments, EFE reported.

A chap is bound to wonder if Ed Miliband has looked into this. Would it be cheaper and less destructive to replace the entire UK Net Zero policy with bits of paper purchased from Paraguay?

A shining example of net zero policy.

Hydrogen boiler scheme handed £25m taxpayer cash uses tech that 'is not proven'

The two-year H100 pilot in Methil, Fife, by SGN, was previously hailed by John Swinney as a “shining example” of net zero policy.

A hydrogen boiler scheme handed £25million of taxpayers’ cash has been branded an unviable “policy misstep” after UK ministers admitted the technology is unproven. The two-year H100 pilot in Methil, Fife, by SGN, previously hailed by John Swinney as a “shining example” of net zero policy, has seen 300 homes switch to hydrogen for cooking and heating...

Prof Baxter claimed he was asked to leave when he tried to raise his concerns at a meeting of the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster in 2022. He added: “Hydrogen for home heating was a misstep that should never have progressed beyond early exploration."

Follow the money. Such a useful phrase.

Hot Topic

Victory for the Mail on Sunday as emergency services start tracking cause of fires in hybrid cars

Emergency services are overhauling how they investigate accidents involving hybrid cars after The Mail on Sunday revealed that motorists are three times more likely to die in hybrids than in petrol cars...

A total of 122 people died in hybrid car crashes in 2024, compared with 777 in accidents involving petrol cars, according to Department for Transport figures analysed by the MoS.

But as hybrids are outnumbered by almost 20 to 1 on Britain’s roads by petrol models, that means hybrids are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash. Previously, the Government did not accept that there is a problem.

Imagine a world

AI's arrival complicates Big Tech climate goals, and some worry it's locking in more fossil fuels

Tech companies set ambitious climate goals at the start of the decade, promising to slash emissoins [sic] that contribute to global warming

The race to deploy artificial intelligence is complicating tech companies' commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most of which come from the burning of gas, oil and coal and drive climate change. They say they must be flexible as they rush to build sprawling data centers that can consume more power than entire cities...

Tech companies say they’ve made significant progress on emissions through energy-efficiency measures, buying renewable energy credits and power from sources that don't emit greenhouse gases and requiring suppliers to reduce their own emissions.

Imagine a world -

Imagine a world where a global scam is so deeply embedded that huge businesses feel obliged to purchase renewable energy credits while knowing quite well that these credits are as genuine as medieval indulgences.

That's our world.

Bust before take-off

UK net-zero airline goes bust before take-off

EcoJet Airlines, the Scottish start-up promoted as the world’s first zero-emission regional carrier, has collapsed into voluntary liquidation without ever operating a commercial passenger flight.

Founded in Edinburgh in 2023 by prominent Labour Party donor Dale Vince OBE, who has given more than £5 million to the party, alongside former pilot Brent Smith, EcoJet aimed to retrofit existing aircraft such as Twin Otters and ATR 72s with hydrogen-electric powertrains developed in partnership with ZeroAvia...

The company, described as a start-up with no material assets, has no ongoing operations; shareholders agreed to fund the liquidation to ensure employees received full statutory entitlements.

All planned flights were formally cancelled.

Sustainable haircare interventions

The solution to Britain's climate crisis? Hairdressers, scientists say

Scientists are calling on an unexpected warrior in the fight against climate change – the humble hairdresser.

Experts say the UK's hair stylists are emerging as 'powerful, under–recognised influencers' in tackling the climate crisis.

New research shows that hairdressers are seen as confidantes or even counsellors, and are uniquely placed to hold influential conversations about global warming.

Aren't these 'powerful, under–recognised influencers' the same people we used to think of as gossips? 

For their study, the team also ran a nationwide intervention in 25 salons using 'Mirror Talkers' – eco–tips placed on salon mirrors to prompt sustainable haircare interventions.

I hope somebody is making this stuff up. I'm off to the kitchen for a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Hot Renault

 

The gold-rush mood is over

The gold-rush mood is over: solar and wind farms are becoming a loss business

In Germany, the gold-rush atmosphere for solar and wind farms has been over since 2025. Falling electricity prices are depressing revenues, while interest rates and construction costs are rising. At the same time, long grid connection waiting times slow down projects, which is why budgets and schedules are shifting. In addition, a draft bill to amend the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) is causing unrest because new plants are no longer to receive compensation in the event of curtailments due to grid overload and could thus become a loss (handelsblatt: 20.02.26).

Gold rush mood ends in cost shock – solar parks hardly pay off anymore

The industry came from years of high profits, but the calculation is now tipping quickly. A few years ago, the LCOE (Levelized Costs of Electricity) – i.e. the total electricity generation costs of a plant over its lifetime – were 3.5 to four cents per kilowatt hour. Developers are currently reporting five cents and more, while the revenue side is not keeping pace. The EEG remuneration for large photovoltaic parks was 5.23 cents in 2025, and direct electricity supply contracts are also significantly lower in some cases, according to Eneritis. This means that new investments quickly become negative business.

It's a dilemma for Ed Miliband, as even he must take note of what is happening elsewhere in the world. For example we have this from the same source -


China to connect 52 new coal-fired power plants to the grid – largest expansion in a decade in 2025

China pushed ahead with the expansion of coal-fired power in 2025 and commissioned 52 large units (≥1 GW each). This is shown by the CREA/Global Energy Monitor report. It is the highest figure in ten years, in which fewer than 20 such large units were connected to the grid. The trigger was the power shortages in 2021 and 2022, when factories had to cut production and a city introduced rolling shutdowns. Beijing therefore took advantage of security of supply through the massive expansion of coal-fired power plants. The consequences range from more stable industrial electricity to higher climate risks, because new coal-fired units later achieve long service lives.