Iran Energy Crisis? Just Wait for Net Zero!

In the dystopian future planned for us we’ll have a lot more to worry about than a few weeks of high petrol prices

Soaring inflation, energy shortages, economic dislocation, stagflation, food shortages, cancelled flights, supply chain shocks, the worst energy crisis since, well, the last one – the list goes on and on. Yes, it’s the Iran war I am talking about.

But everything we have seen in the last few weeks is a mere foretaste of what the Net Zero zealots have in store for us.

A third of the world’s oil comes from the Middle East and about a sixth of its gas, enough to cause a market shock if it’s suddenly taken away. But a decade ago, the world’s leaders gathered at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris and pledged to “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”.

The politicians and UN apparatchiks preened themselves in the warm glow that saving the planet brings. But what did their grandstanding mean for mere mortals? According to the UN itself:

To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030.

Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, far from falling, global carbon dioxide emissions have actually risen by 8% to 35.5 billion tonnes. Meeting the 1.5°C target is said to require cutting emissions to 16.4 billion tonnes within just four years. In other words, 54% lower than now.

The last time global emissions were that low was in 1975. Imagine a world with half as much oil, half as much gas and half as much coal in just a few years’ time. The thought should terrify any sane person. Yet that is effectively what 192 MPs were prepared to vote for when the Climate and Nature Bill was tabled in Parliament last year.