An advantage of being brought up in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s is that a cold house presents few terrors for me. A jacket and a sweater (supplemented, if necessary, by an overcoat, which can double up as a blanket during the night) can solve the problem, along with the warm glow coming from my half-Scottish heart at the thought of lower utility bills.
Nevertheless, this news (via the Daily Telegraph) is another reminder of how net zero is a step back:
Millions of families will be urged by a green quango not to heat their homes in the evening to help the Government hit its net zero target.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said people should turn off their radiators at peak times as part of a wider drive to deliver “emissions savings”.
In a document on “behaviour change” the body recommended Britons “pre-heat” their houses in the afternoon when electricity usage is lower.
It said the move would save families money, but critics suggested the real reason was that renewables will not be able to provide enough energy to cope with peak demand.
“Critics” are almost certainly correct.
A quango (for those who don’t speak British-English) is, to quote Wikipedia,
an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of “quasi autonomous NGO”, where NGO is the acronym for a non-government organization.
The CCC, explains the Daily Telegraph’s Nick Gutteridge,
is an independent body set up by ministers in 2008 to advise the Government on how to hit its climate targets.
In its latest report, the committee criticises No 10 over its “worryingly slow” action on climate.
It states that Downing Street’s support for new oil and coal exploration and the expansion of airports meant Britain was no longer a global green leader.
“No longer a global green leader.”
The CCC, it seems, still clings to some remnant of British imperial nostalgia. And, as for its “independence,” all that that means is that the CCC has become a playground for climate fundamentalists. It also advises the U.K. government on an “appropriate” level for its “carbon budgets.” It is largely unaccountable, apart from the occasional embarrassment.
The Daily Telegraph:
The use of “carbon budgets”, which set the Government legally binding targets for reducing emissions, has increasingly come under fire from Tory MPs.
Last month the head of the CCC revealed that he still has a gas boiler in his own flat even though his committee is urging Britons to switch to heat pumps.
Chris Stark said more than four years ago that he was “keen” to switch to an electric heating system but admitted that he had not been able to do so.
He also acknowledged that heat pumps were too expensive for many people and that it was “very difficult” to install them in existing flats like his own.
Oh.