Guest essay by Eric Worrall
A shortage of coal powered EV charging points has allegedly forced COP26 organisers to deploy diesel generators, though they plan to fuel the generators using recycled chip fat.
Shock, horror! COP26 has an electric car problem
22 October 2021, 7:35pm
If absurdity were a source of renewable energy, the COP26 climate change summit might achieve its aim of saving the planet. Yesterday Mr S brought news that local lawyers are set to join rail engineers, transport operators, catering staff and refuse collectors in timing industrial action to coincide with next week’s eco-jamboree. Now Steerpike learns of a fresh crisis afflicting the UN conference: there’s not enough places to power the luxury electric cars needed to ferry delegates around the city.
Some 240 Jaguar Land Rover vehicles including its I-PACE SUVs will be laid on by the UK government to move the 120 visiting heads of state and their entourages between their hotels and the SEC venue. Unfortunately a lack of charging points means the fleet now has to be re-charged by cooking oil-powered generators. A COP26 spokesperson has confirmed that the substitute generators may have to run on hydrogenated vegetable oil – recycled cooking oil – derived from waste products.
Compounding the problem is the lack of hotel capacity in the city which means longer energy-zapping journeys to get to the conference centre. The numbers of temporary generators provided and their locations have yet to be finalised, but there is speculation sites could include the Gleneagles Hotel, 47 miles from Glasgow.
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Read more: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/electric-cars-shortage-shock-at-cop26
I only visited Glasgow once, when I missed the turnoff on the way to Edinburgh, so sadly I don’t have any detailed anecdotes about the wonders of Glasgow.
Maybe I should have given Glasgow a chance, but a Glaswegian work colleague used to tell lots of colourful and rather scary stories of doing beer deliveries to Glaswegian pubs where the tables and chairs were concreted to the floor, so patrons couldn’t pick them up and throw them at each other, or how everyone took a hatchet to the cinema, so they could wave it about while screaming abuse at the movie screen, while watching reruns of “Braveheart“, so I was a little nervous about hanging around.
No doubt a vast smoke cloud from burning chip fat recharging all the eco-friendly EVs will add to the interesting experiences which await delegates.
Note: My former Glaswegian work colleague also told me some good stories about Glasgow. Like the time some English racist thugs decided to go on an Asian stomping tour up North. The tour ended abruptly in Glasgow, when they attacked a couple of Asian looking people in the pub, and everyone else piled in and defended the Asians. What the racists didn’t realise was if you were born in Glasgow you’re a local, doesn’t matter what your skin colour is.
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This is even more embarrassing. I’m afraid of these kind of politicians. In a world still without alternatives to fossil fuels, this lady says this https://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/cop26-nicola-sturgeon-says-continued-oil-and-gas-extraction-is-wrong-3431461
Sturgeon just allied the SNP with the Scottish Greens to keep her majority in Holyrood. The price she has to pay is giving up on Scottish oil and gas reserves; the one thing that the SNP previously admitted will keep an independent Scotland solvent (just barely). It’s early days but this could backfire and erode the SNP’s core independence supporters. It’ll be interesting to see if either Sturgeon or the SNP politically survive this alliance.
Indeed?
It’s been my experience that hydrogenated recycled chip fat thickens when it is really cold outside.
Sounds like lots of fun in Glasgow this year. snicker snicker.
Now, that is a proper precautionary principle in action!
Keep in mind, that for sport, these characters throw cabers so they flip end over end while in the air, I’d sure hate to be on the receiving end of a concrete weighted chair or table.
C’mon, you know somebody will uproot one every now and then.
I presume their TVs also suffered some outbursts of frustration? Glasgow sounds like a good location for a television/monitor outlet.
I’ve heard that the oil used to fry battered Mars Bar doesn’t carry the same smell as the usual Fish Shop oil.
What kind of ‘gas’ mileage would you get with an EV is you charged your EV with a gallon of gas?