Is Ed Miliband’s deluded and obsessive fixation with net zero about to implode? The signs are growing increasingly day by day. That is why FairFuelUK and I are calling for a national referendum on an issue that has deep-reaching social and economic impacts on all our lives.
Politicians, even from his Labour party, Tony Blair, trade unions such as GMB Boss Gary Smith, and businesses, are questioning him about the massive cost of this myopic journey against any alleged benefits.
Yet, his thick-skinned sense of self ignores all the justified evidence opposing Net Zero. He continues to espouse his environmental mass hypnosis at every opportunity. In addition to his Environment Minister’s arrogance, our truth-phobic Prime Minister is also too vacuous to wake up to the folly of the Climate Change Committee’s arbitrary 2050 deadline.
His focus, as we all know, is on political power, and he will continue to do everything along with Miliband that pleases their global elite bosses, such as the World Economic Forum and self-centred billionaires like Bill Gates.
Keir Starmer supports the 2050 target date as crucial for climate action. He's not backing away, despite a shedload of economic evidence that Net Zero will bankrupt the economy. Reports show that net-zero costs could be off the scale of sensible and realisable funding, with some estimates at £1.4 trillion by 2050.
The popular view is now fuelling political debate to change course as a matter of urgency. That is why this issue must be put to the people, as it is too big for our current band of dishonest and inept politicos to administer.
Let’s not forget that the UK emits less than 0.8 oer cent of the Earth’s total CO2 emissions, down by 45 per cent over the last quarter of a century.
In stark contrast, China emits over 40 times more, with 34 per cent of global CO2, 262 per cent more than in 2000. Even worldwide shipping and aviation are accountable for nearly 4 times the UK’s contribution to global CO2 emissions. So why should we be forced into economic recession and impoverishment when our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution have succeeded without draconian targets and mind-blowingly expensive subsidies of unreliable landscape-bruising renewables?
Our descent into environmental subservience began six years ago, when the incumbent Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced without any opposition, little fanfare, and no public consultation that the UK would eradicate its net contribution to climate change by 2050.
After a paltry two hours of disingenuous debate in 2019 in the House of Commons, the Tory leader modified the Climate Change Act 2008. That ill-thought-out, pointless legislation meant the UK was on track to become the first G7 country to legally bind us all to the net zero fantasy and the resultant misery.
Most of the electorate was presented with somewhat sterile, fluffy, redacted evidence massively over-forecasting significant benefits to public health, economic growth, and savings to the NHS from alleged better air quality, less noise pollution, and improved biodiversity if the UK went for 2050.
But now the left-wing green chickens are coming home to roost as Miliband’s pre-election promise of cheaper energy bills is still nowhere in sight.
Grab your popcorn: Ed Miliband's deluded net zero obsession is about to implode - Howard CoxGetty Images
The absurdity of Miliband’s taxpayer-funded billion-pound obsession with believing that man can act as God to dim the life-giving Sun, using dangerous chemical spray trails in the sky, follows his nation-splitting, politically divisive plan to charge southern homes more than the north for their energy bills.
The Minister claims this would mean that people who live near wind farms or other allegedly clean power projects pay less for electricity than those living in different parts of Britain. Even Ecotricity founder and big Labour Party donor Dale Vince said, 'Tens of millions could end up paying more for their energy than they do now. It makes no sense when Labour's mission is about cutting bills for all rather than a few. In an online poll by the Independent, three out of four said zonal energy pricing was not wanted.
With the Spanish, French, and Portuguese national grids collapsing, conspiracy theories about their links to climate change policies will be in overdrive.
Remember, 2050 is an indiscriminate target date for the UK to legally cut carbon emissions until it removes as much as it produces. This aligns with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement—a contract Donald Trump, the leader of one of the world’s two leading polluters, the USA, immediately walked away from following his presidential election. It may have taken six years, but the good news is that Kemi Badenoch, the fourth Conservative Party Leader since Mrs (net zero) May, has refreshingly said it is "impossible" for the UK to meet its net-zero target by 2050. Halleluiah! In her speech, Badenoch said net zero cannot be achieved by 2050 "without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us".
At last, common sense is espoused by what you’d expect from a true Tory politician. If we had been informed in 2019 about the actual cost, truth, and ramifications of this journey to achieving net zero, there is no doubt that UK PLC would not be on the verge of a prolonged economic decline. Re-evaluating the net-zero target could bring significant financial benefits, offering hope in these challenging times.
Astonishingly, Scotland has set its target date and aims to become a net-zero economy by 2045, even earlier.AT FairFuelUK, we are respected for listening to public opinion. We do this without using expensive market research businesses that have to incentivise tiny samples of respondents to complete their surveys. In our latest public opinion poll regarding net zero and the Road User, nearly 90,000 people participated voluntarily and without reward, hardly an insignificant sample.
When asked if net zero is achievable by 2050, three out of four (75.1 per cent) said NO CHANCE! Just 4.4 per cent believe it is attainable by or before 2050. Of those 2050 net zero believers, the majority claimed cycling was their primary mode of transport.
| Total | Don’t Know | Definitely | Yes Before 2050 | Longer than 2050 | No Chance |
| 88446 | 6371 | 2427 | 1463 | 11787 | 66398 |
| 100% | 7.2% | 2.7% | 1.7% | 13.3% | 75.1% |
Over 88,000 road users also responded to the question: “Labour has brought back the ban on buying new diesel and petrol from 2030 to 2035. What do you think you will be driving in 2030?"
Four out of five current road users believe they will still choose to drive a fossil-fuelled vehicle in 2030. More people say they will give up driving (6.38 per cent) than those who plan to move to an electric vehicle (5.77 per cent). Nearly a third claim that they will be driving a self-charging hybrid.
| In 2030, I believe I will be driving | Fossil Fuelled | ||
| Self-Charging hybrid | 29,001 | 32.67% | Yes |
| Petrol | 21,198 | 23.88% | Yes |
| Diesel | 17,663 | 19.90% | Yes |
| Don't know | 6,673 | 7.52% | - |
| Will give up driving | 5,661 | 6.38% | - |
| Electric | 5,118 | 5.77% | No |
| Plug-in hybrid | 3,341 | 3.76% | Yes |
| Hydrogen | 122 | 0.14% | - |
| Total Responses | 88,777 | 100% | 71,203 = 80.2% |
Like the Independent Newspaper survey, FairFuelUK’s poll was open to all online participants and ran six weeks before March 25. This survey shows that electric vehicles will unlikely dominate car usage in the next decade.
And it is also clear that this massively unpopular transport choice will only succeed if taxpayers are continually forced to subsidise it, and for reliable fossil fuel vehicles to be made extinct. In other words, only if the Government controls our choices of road transport. Hardly democratic?
In any egalitarianism, common sense will always prevail if the people can help formulate any major political decision, or at least, you’d hope so! However, whereas the Brexit referendum was an example of democracy in action, that was certainly not the case on June 12th, 2019. When the Tories forced net zero upon us, and that state control continues today with Net Zero even more embedded in this government’s anti-freedom and control doctrines.
We are sitting on 100 years of oil and gas, sources of cheap, reliable, and secure energy that will help the UK become the world's leading economic powerhouse. We have already lowered our CO2 emissions faster than any other major economy. So why continue on a pathway to economic poverty?
The overwhelming public opinion from FairFuelUK’s In Touch with Reality opinion survey is a powerful force that cannot be ignored. It should be a key factor in shaping our energy and environmental policies. The Government must listen and step down from its arrogant position.
A referendum on net zero is long overdue. But the Miliband cult knows it would lose big time. This means democracy will continue to be crushed by our dishonest, power-driven politicians, and our wallets will shrink even more, with no demonstrable benefit to the environment.
