Nine years ago, on this day, October 25th, 2017, Dieter Helm produces the “Cost of Energy Review 2017”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 407ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that we have been talking about taking “cost effective action” around energy and climate for decades without ever really getting the idea of what the costs of not mitigating are, partly because those costs are discounted, because it’s the future, and mostly because we think they’re going to fall on well, obviously other generations, but other colours, colours of people (NB for the sake of clarity – nobody is accusing Prof Helm of being racist or any other -ist).
So there’s always new reviews being done and criticisms of this or that technology and this or that strategy by the current government.
The specific context was that we were seven years into a conservative regime, initially in coalition and now independent. CCS was on its ass, but being slowly revived. Coal had been pushed out of the energy mix almost entirely, but there were all sorts of debates, and still are all sorts of debates, of course, about where you put your money.
What I think we can learn from this – we’re toast.
What happened next from this is that the controversies are endless. It is only with the benefit of hindsight, and not even really then that people “agree” or “disagree” on path x or y or z.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
October 25, 1980 – Australian radio’s The Science Show talks about climate change…
October 25, 1982 – Exxon and “Climate Processes & Climate Sensitivity” symposium
October 25, 2006 – David Cameron launches “Can I have the Bill?” campaign for a Climate Act