There was a wonderful comedy answer from Lord Bourne to a question from Matt Ridley in the Lords yesterday. Ridley was inquiring about the abatement costs of various renewable energy technologies and was told this:
...based on support provided through the renewables obligation, the estimated abatement cost in 2014 was £65 per tonne of carbon dioxide for onshore wind, £121 for offshore wind and £110 for solar PV.
When Ridley pointed out that these costs were in excess of most estimates (and all sensible estimates) of the cost of global warming, Bourne was only able to tell him that the cost of renewables is coming down.
My Lords, it is fair to say that there is a decline in the cost of renewable generation technologies. The steepest decline is in solar PV. On my noble friend’s point about the fact that the last leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, had a policy on energy that was not in the interests of the country, I am pleased to say that one of the first actions of the new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change was to write to the energy companies to say that we look forward to seeing a reduction in bills consequent on the fact that the last leader of the Opposition is not now Prime Minister.
Note that there was absolutely no attempt to rebut Ridley's point. The government therefore appears to be tacitly admitting that the cost of its renewables policy exceeds the benefits.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Bishop Hill
It has been suggested that the abatement costs quoted are a bit of a fiddle:
It might be interesting to probe this possibility a bit.