Eighteen years ago, on this day, July 18, 2005, the Guardian reports on energy targets being scrapped – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/jul/18/uk.housing
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 380.9ppm. As of 2023 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Blair government was in the middle of baffles, i.e. new turns about nuclear and new coal. And obviously, there is the aftermath of the illegal attack on Iraq.
What I think we can learn from this is that promises get made all the time. Then when they’re not kept there’s a period of waiting and they make new promises.
What happened next
More promises. More promises. And the decline in the UK is emissions. That gets vaunted, but it is a lot about switching from coal. And also a lot about shipping factories manufacturing overseas. If you look at consumption-based metrics, it’s not clear there has been any actual decrease in people’s in UK emissions. But I digress.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.