Lord John Randall is a person of significance in the British Conservative political scene. When current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson re-entered national parliamentary politics in 2015, the seat he took was Lord Randall’s old seat. So the following is very much a message from the British Conservative Heartland.
The conservative’s guide to acting on climate change
Lord John Randall
AUGUST 4 2020
Prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, both the UK and Australia had been grappling with the devastating effects of another crisis: climate change. As both our governments seek to reboot our economies, both nature restoration and the development of clean technologies provide great opportunities to reduce emissions while also generating jobs and growth.
In the early part of this year, the UK was submerged by winter floods, culminating in the wettest February on record. Meanwhile, we watched in horror as bushfires tore through Australia, destroying more than a fifth of the forest area and seriously imperilling over 100 species. For many, these images offered a stark reminder of the urgent need for more ambitious climate action to mitigate the threat from extreme weather events, which will become more devastating without serious climate action.
As prudent stewards of our nations’ finances, it should be axiomatic for conservatives that investing in climate action now makes economic sense, rather than bequeathing a much larger bill to future generations who would suffer the consequences of our inaction. As such, while I was environment adviser to former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, we became the first major economy to legislate for net zero emissions by 2050 – honouring our commitment, as a signatory to the historic Paris Agreement, to pursue efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Under the terms agreed in Paris, both the UK and Australia are required to submit updated emissions reduction plans – known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – to the UN this year, and the UK has already committed to delivering an enhanced NDC before it hosts the UN climate change summit in 2021.
Having the courage to set ambitious targets provides clarity for business and creates new opportunities for investment, innovation and job creation. As our Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the Petersberg Climate Dialogue last month, successive Conservative governments in the UK have demonstrated that cutting emissions is not at odds with economic growth. Since 1990, the UK has reduced emissions faster than any other G7 nation, while also topping the G7 for per capita growth in national income over the same period.
Emissions have fallen by almost 30 per cent in the last decade alone, thanks in part to our burgeoning renewable energy sector, which now accounts for 37 per cent of British electricity generation. The UK, historically a maritime nation, now has the largest installed offshore wind capacity in the world, generating over 10 per cent of our electricity and employing 11,000 people directly, with an equivalent number of jobs supported in the supply chain. This investment has revitalised many coastal and deindustrialised regions, especially along the east coast of Britain.
Under former prime minister Theresa May, the UK became the first major economy to legislate for net zero emissions by 2050. Picture: Shutterstock
Scaling up investment in offshore wind has been achieved through a market mechanism known as “contracts for difference”, whereby developers compete at auction for contracts which guarantee a fixed price for the electricity that they produce over a 15-year period – providing the necessary stability to mobilise private capital with low financing costs and to drive competition and innovation. A further expansion of offshore wind capacity, and the establishment of new auctions for less-established technologies such as floating offshore wind, could help power a clean recovery from COVID-19 in the UK.
Indeed, when it comes to fiscal stimulus measures, economic analysissuggests that green investments could provide the greatest returns. This has not gone unnoticed among political and business leaders, many of whom are calling for a clean and resilient recovery. The Australian Industry Group, representing more than 60,000 businesses, has urged the federal government to ensure that Australia’s recovery from COVID-19 also aids with the transition to net zero emissions, and believes that doing so would boost growth.
Australia has much to gain from embracing a low-carbon recovery, possessing all the attributes necessary to become a world leader in renewable energy and clean technologies. The Federal government has shown encouraging ambition in its hydrogen strategy which, if focused on hydrogen produced from renewable energy, could reduce energy costs and replace natural gas as a major export – especially if production can be achieved at the target of less than $2 a kilogram.
Additionally, tapping into Australia’s vast renewable energy potential could spark a job boom, generating three times as many jobs as the equivalent investment in fossil fuels. And as the cost of solar and wind power continues to decline steeply, Australia can gain a competitive advantage in energy-intensive industries.
It has been encouraging to see that Australia’s three Liberal state governments, in South Australia, NSW and Tasmania, are already leading the way in renewable energy. The federal government should establish its own clean energy trajectory, which will unlock vast quantities of private capital for the many large-scale wind and solar projects which are shovel-ready.
In tackling climate change and reinvigorating our economies, we must also recognise our obligation to safeguard nature for future generations. Protecting and restoring carbon-rich natural ecosystems, such as forests, can make a significant contribution to climate mitigation while providing vital habitats for endangered wildlife. The UK has recently established a Nature for Climate Fund, to invest in reforestation and other nature-based solutions to climate change. There is huge potential for natural carbon capture in Australia too, from which species threatened by habitat loss, like the iconic koala, could also benefit.
Both the UK and Australia have experienced first-hand the consequences of a more hostile climate. As governments around the world prepare to unleash further unprecedented sums of money to repair the damage wrought by COVID-19, the choices we make now will reverberate for generations to come. Green investments offer a route to a more sustainable, productive, and resilient future. I hope both our countries seize this opportunity.
The essay above originally appeared in The Canberra Times, and has been reproduced with kind permission from Lord Randall.
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Obviously zero correlation between intelligence and a seat in their lordship’s house.
I think that’s politics worldwide.
Just goes to show that mental illness is no respecter of social position. A ‘lord’ is just a susceptible to cultist delusions as the dimmest lower class ‘leftist’.
This article, from an “expert” suitably qualified on climate change: having been nothing more than a shopkeeper and only qualified with a degree in Serbo Croat; together with similar inputs from other of our equally qualified “betters” in Parliament and the Government, explains why the UK continues to descend into oblivion. They are simply useful idiots in an ever more complex scientifically and technologically driven environment, succumbing to whoever shouts the loudest, and not capable of judging what these factions are demanding, let alone what questions should be asked of them.
He talks of 30% emissions’ reductions in CO2 emissions in the UK, blithly ignoring the fact that such global emissions are ever increasing due to others’ actions in using ever more cheaper energy systems rendering us ever more uncompetitive. He even fails to mention the cost of the massive hermatically sealed greenhouse with entrance/exit air locls covering the whole of the UK, as needed to make the UK’s current Energy Policies effective and to achieve what objectives they have set – even supposing such objectives are necessary.!
He fails to rrealise that the recent UK flooding was not due to increased or changed rainfall but to the massive changes in land use since the majority of our drainage systems were built. The increase in impervious surfaces from urban spread, and the lack of river and tributory dredging and clearing, massively increase the intensity and extent of flooding even for the same raifall profile.
He talks about forest fires, yet the fact is that the extent and severity of recent forest fires in Australia and California was the result of a lack of fire break maintenance and brush clearance.
Even the IPCC has had to admit that there has been no increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
A major clear out of the House of Commons and House of Lords is needed, followed by a replacement by others suitably open minded and with a majority sufficiently qualified professionally to make the necessary judgements and to ask the relevant questions needed across a whole range of policies, and not simply climate matters, in an increasing more complex and scientifically and technologically environment.
“As prudent stewards of our nations’ finances, it should be axiomatic for conservatives that investing in climate action now makes economic sense,”
Axiomatic = ‘obviously true and therefore not needing to be proved’
What he really means is get on the gravy train as it starts to pick up steam.
It’s like a mind disease, rational thinking is being eradicated everywhere.
“Emissions have fallen by almost 30 per cent in the last decade alone”
What has that done to the climate exactly?
Co² has gone up by 6% in that same time span, so steadily you could almost set your watch by it.
Lord John Randall is NOT a person of “significant importance “anywhere.He is an insignificant mini brain puffed up with a sense of his own importance.That’s what we Brits do.We kick useless politicians up to the House of Lords hoping they will shut up and not be able to annoy us any more.Doesn’t always work!Something to consider-Well over 20,000 deaths in England and Wales alone are judged to be down to cold.In one year the figure was over 40,000. Our electricity bills are seriously higher due to green subsidies.Greta is right!
” people are DAAYING”
Essentially kicked up to the HoLs to make room for Boris Johnson in a safe seat.
Seems he followed the dictum that successful businesses only last to the third generation. He was about as stellar as an MP, achieving a good level nonentity.
Ps.Meant to say.A shining example of an exception to the “kick the duds upstairs”rule is Britain’s best ever Chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson who has never bought into the climate scam and continues to”fight the good fight “against it.Now there’s a politician of real significance.Talk to him Lord”Damn Your Eyes” Randall.
Congratulations, Lord Randall. You have won a copy of Michael Shellenberger’s book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All . I’ll send it to the House of Lords.
Perhaps we should look at Lord Randall’s career, we can then understand why we are becoming increasingly lead by inexperienced political appointees rather than experts in the field upon which these people pontificate; people who are aloud to advise governments on policy without any experience whatsoever on the subject upon which they are advising. Like Lord Debben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee, Randall has no scientific, meteorological, historical on any subject relating to Global Warming, and his only experience of business is when he took over as Managing Director of the family business in Uxbridge which failed and he was forced to close it down. Like Lord Debben, he is a professional politician who climbed through the protected ranks of local conservative agent, chairman, and later appointed as local member of parliament. All without history of success in business. He became a member of the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee and subsequently a whip in the Conservative office He was awarded a knighthood in 2014, and a peerage in 2018. These then are the people that are advising governments on matters for which they are ill-qualified. This is a man that boasts having advised Teresa May to spend £50 billion of our money on a subject for which he and she were far from qualified to adjudicate, and which accepts advice from Lord Deben to spend additional £ billions on windmills and our electricity supply system, all approved by a compliant parliament who are now afraid to oppose the government at the risk of losing their jobs, which would put most of them out of work since they have no outside professions to turn to. We all thought that Boris Johnson might start to put a stop to this unacceptable situation, but he, with his green family connections, seems to want to spend more of our money on global warming stupidity, rather than have the courage to face the reality of the situation. As a result I am one of many, I am sure, who will not give him my vote at the next general election. It seems that true parliamentary representation through our local members of parliament is now a thing of the past.
Eric,did you warn Lord Randall what he was in for when he agreed to “star” on this site?
I made it clear WUWT is a climate skeptic site and that I didn’t agree with what he said, when I asked for permission.
Lord Randall seems like a decent person, seems to spend a lot of time doing good works. Obviously I think he is terribly wrong about climate change. I’m hoping people like him can be persuaded they’ve made a mistake, once they realise the awful harm the push for renewables is doing.
…….what, and deny him what the Chinese call: his rice bowl!
Eric , I tend to agree with you about lord Randall , a decent man led astray.
If you look at the House of Lords register
https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-interests/register-of-lords-interests/?letter=R
he has no connection with the renewables industry , unlike the chair of the climate change committee , Lord Deben
https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-interests/register-of-lords-interests/?letter=D
Rather strange that Lord Randall is a trustee of a bat conservation trust whilst promoting the erection in every corner of England of those vile turbine monstrosities, said to be bat killers.
Yet another climate kook pushing fear and lies to impose green dystopian crap.
It is long past time to confront the false assumptions and deceitful claims of the climate fear mongers.
Ok looks like he’s got balls after all.And a very dashing heard as well m’ lud!Now go read a book by Tim Ball and return..We’ll be asking questions.
Ok looks like he’s got balls after all.And a very dashing beard as well m’ lud!Now go read a book by Tim Ball and return..We’ll be asking questions.
Why is my BS detector blinking?
“Additionally, tapping into Australia’s vast renewable energy potential could spark a job boom, generating three times as many jobs as the equivalent investment in fossil fuels. And as the cost of solar and wind power continues to decline steeply, Australia can gain a competitive advantage in energy-intensive industries.”
If the renewables employ 3 times as many people, then it follows that the energy will cost 3 times as much in real terms. Employing more people in green energy is really not an advantage, but a major problem, since that will increase the costs to produce anything else and reduce the number of people available to produce other things.
Of course, there will be situations where renewables are cheaper than anything else, and it’s logical to use them in those places if the intermittent nature can be accepted. Though we are seeing advances in battery and other storage technologies almost weekly, they are still not cheap enough over their working life to afford to store enough energy to last a few weeks of bad weather, so if you require power 24/7/365 you’re still going to need backup generation. Overall costs are almost certain to be more than buying that energy from the grid, unless you’re simply too far away from grid access and the cabling cost and maintenance would be too high. People I know who live off-grid using solar panels for their electrical power adjust their use of electricity to what’s available, and they also cook and heat using fuels, and of course have a generator for when there’s not enough sun. Though their cost per kWh is higher than grid, it’s cheaper than buying a grid connection.
Of course, the other question to ask would be “what anthropogenic climate change?”. As far as I can tell, looking back over just the last 1000 years, there’s no correlation between CO2 ppm in the atmosphere and global temperatures. Climate change has been a problem throughout human history, and has driven the rise and fall of civilisations, and we’ve either adapted to it or moved or died. There are obviously other things that control the global temperature and climates other than CO2. Looking back around 13000 years, the disconnect between CO2 level and global temperatures becomes even more obvious.
The first paragraph, which is intended to establish his “liberal” bona fides, says it all. It is the usual “we can have it all — yes we can” statement. By abandoning all current operating assets, completely redesigning the world economy, we can fight a problem not yet established and at the same time create lots of high paying jobs, achieve true justice and reduce costs at the same time. With all the money we will save it is going to be a Tesla in every garage and two synthetic chickens in every pot.
Randall was MP for Uxbridge when Boris finished being mayor of London and was looking for a safe Parliamentary seat. Randall obliged him by standing down and was rewarded with a Peerage – thus it is now Lord Randall, very swish as we say over here in England. He writes a load of complete rubbish here, I’m surprised at you for publishing it. Thanks to twits like him we have extremely expensive electricity from wind turbines all round the coast – and a terrible eyesore they are too!
Alan,
Never forget the added bonus of chopping vast numbers of birds and bats into nice chunks of meat for the flies and other insects to feast on! Think how avid bird lovers like me feel about people like him and our traitorous Audubon Society who continence this slaughter for the good of nature!
There will be a reckoning for this and the other atrocities of the Green Blob!
Lord Randall writes: “In the early part of this year, the UK was submerged by winter floods.”
Cor blimey! What, the whole lot of it? Glug, glug I must have drowned months ago.
This is a typical alarmist statement. There were a few bits of the UK which were flooded but the noble Lord would have foreigners think that the whole land area of the UK, including, no doubt, the Scottish Highlands, the Cambrian Mountains, the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, Dartmoor, the Chilterns, the South Downs, etc, etc was under water. And isn’t it amazing that no part of the UK has previously been subject to flooding – ever.
This clip must have been a hoax:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr8a4UTo4bM
NB. In 1953 300 people drowned in the floods. How many drowned in 2020?
Even Queen Elizabeth, the First of the UK monarchy with that name, was persuaded to take part in the Great Flood Hoax:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdpNe7y5snI
Five years later, the hoaxers were at it again,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdpNe7y5snI
And would you believe it, they were up to their same old tricks in 1968.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdpNe7y5snI
Yes, noble Lord, a few areas of the UK flooded in 2020 must have been caused by something that had never happened before.
There have been only 2 years since 2000 when the UK has not seen severe flooding – frequently setting new records for floods and rainfall.
It has seen more storms. It has seem many 1 in 100 or 1 in 300 year flood events.
It has seen more summer flash flooding.
The UK climate has clearly changed to one with more intense/slow moving rain systems causing floods.
If the flooding was being caused by record rains, you might have finally managed to make a point.
The sad reality is that while heavy, the rains have not been outside the realm of normal.
What caused the flooding was you environmentalists sabotaging the existing flood control mechanisms.
The problem is not any of the above.
The problem is that the peer seems sincerely to believe that there is something the UK or Australia can do to ‘tackle climate change’.
We are always hearing this nonsense from activists. The assumption is always that some national reduction by the UK or the US or Australia will ‘tackle climate change’. Or will help. It won’t.
These countries cannot, either collectively or especially acting individually. They can’t. They are too low a percentage of global CO2 emissions. Nothing they do will make the slightest difference.
Now China, India and Indonesia together? That would be a different matter. They could collectively, with the developing world as a whole, act so as to significantly lower global emissions.
The West cannot. The world has changed.
The numbers are in Wikipedia. Its not like this is hard to find out.
One of the definitions of Conservative is people who want to go back to the way it used to be. When the Soviet Union collapsed the communists were labeled ‘conservative’. Another definition is ‘slow to make changes just in case’. Using these definitions, the Climate Alarmists are very conservative. They believe the past was better and that we should try to get back there and if there must be change it must come slowly. It is the ‘watts up with that’ readers who are the progressives on this issue: we don’t believe the past was ideal, we are happy to use new technology like nuclear not windmills and higher CO2 may actually be a good thing for the environment.
My personal opinion is that the left embraced environmentalism as a way of bringing people of a conservative bent into the fold. I don’t believe they actually care about the environment.
Given how much damage most of the preferred solutions do to the environment, that is a reasonable conclusion to make.
Lord Randall,
As you Brits like to say: Rubbish.
From the article: “Prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, both the UK and Australia had been grappling with the devastating effects of another crisis: climate change.”
The only devastating effects of the current Human-caused Climate Change “crisis” is all the money being wasted in a vain effort to control the Earth’s temperature and reduce CO2 production.
CO2 is not a danger to the Earth or its inhabitants. Those who say it is, such as the author, are misinformed.
Man cannot affect climate. We have neither the power nor the knowledge. TO endlessly tilt at windmills as gladiators is foolhardy and self defeating. But tilt on Mikey Moorons! No matter what you do, no matter what change you make, the Earth will abide. And laugh at the ants on her skin trying to dictate to her how to behave.
It is interesting to see how often someone makes statements like this:
“Additionally, tapping into Australia’s vast renewable energy potential could spark a job boom, generating three times as many jobs as the equivalent investment in fossil fuels.”
It is usually said in a tone that suggests it’s a good thing. Economists have a different word to describe the situation – inefficient.