ICAEW ££

The £10 cup of tea? The supply of electricity is unlikely to meet demand, warns Professor Roger Kemp

There is little doubt the climate is changing. Over the past 30 years, the world has seen increasing numbers of record-breaking storms, winds, droughts and floods superimposed on natural climate cycles and a gradually increasing global average temperature.

Although humans may not be responsible for 100 per cent of the increase, the scientific consensus is that agricultural activity and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are among the largest contributors.

Politicians have produced eye-catching initiatives to reduce carbon emissions – but most,
conveniently, are not scheduled to take effect until after their term of office. Although advice was
sought from scientists on the targets in the 2008 Climate Change Act, there is no evidence of serious
consultation with engineers to assess whether the targets were likely to be achievable. Nor was
there much understanding of their implications.

Figure 1 shows energy flows in the UK economy in 2008 (the date of the Climate Change Act). The
two large users of fossil fuels are road transport (petroleum products) and heating (predominantly
natural gas). Any strategy to reduce CO2 emissions must tackle these uses of fossil fuels.
The recent UN conference in Lima has agreed the first steps of a process that has the possibility of
avoiding the worst effects of climate change, but few independent scientists are optimistic it will be
strengthened sufficiently to be effective.

There is a scurrilous rumour that, at the EU Council of Ministers which agreed the 2020 renewable energy targets, Tony
Blair confused 20% of the UK’s electricity being provided by renewables – which he was briefed to support – with 20% ofthe UK’s energy being produced by renewables – which was what he signed-up for

When Putin cheats in his election he doesn't have the full resources of a £6bn/year broadcaster that British people all pay for , at his disposal.
Unlike #CrookedHillary

eg the hit piece it Radio Times saying it would be good if Trump were shot
..and Trump and Brexit are all due to xenophobes.
I'm guessing a #BbcStopTrump staff member thought up the narrative and then portrayed it as a message that was told to him by a Senior near-senile old broadcaster who had a boat named after him

“I mean, that’s why we’re in the mess we are with Brexit, is it not?”
“Do we really want to live by this kind of referendum?”
"politicians getting up and saying, ‘We’ve had enough of experts’ is so CATASTROPHIC,”
Brexit : "not scared to call it xenophobia” driven by a “primordial fear”
“I can’t think of a single problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve if there were less people”.
(I would have though more problems would be solved if science researchers came from a pool of 5bn people rather than a pool of 1bn , but maybe I'm more imaginative than him
... And strangely I disagree with him as to which Tribe ..is full of anger, hate and intolerance)