Not Zero
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3.6 • 5 Ratings
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
The British government has embarked on an ambitious and legally-binding climate change target: reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero by 2050. The Net Zero policy was subject to almost no parliamentary or public scrutiny, and is universally approved by our political class. But what will its consequences be?
Ross Clark argues that it is a terrible mistake, an impractical hostage to fortune which will have massive downsides. Achieving the target is predicated on the rapid development of technologies that are either non-existent, highly speculative or untested. Clark shows that efforts to achieve the target will inevitably result in a huge hit to living standards, which will clobber the poorest hardest, and gift a massive geopolitical advantage to hostile superpowers such as China and Russia. The unrealistic and rigid timetable it imposes could also result in our committing to technologies which turn out to be ineffective, all while distracting ourselves from the far more important objective of adaptation.
This hard-hitting polemic provides a timely critique of a potentially devastating political consensus which could hobble Britain's economy, cost billions and not even be effective.
Customer Reviews
Raises important questions
This book highlights how little discussion there has been about the wider impacts of the Net Zero targets in politics. Not just how much difference the UK reaching the target will make globally, especially when we are merely exporting much of our carbon emissions, but whether the ‘cure will be worse than the disease’ by making people poorer in the process. And is such focus on one metric distracting from solving other global humanitarian issues such as child and women’s education progress and reduction of the impact of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
Short sighted, defeatist, depressing
No original ideas just a tirade of criticism without alternatives for tackling environment crisis.
Why should we bother?
Is it all futile without China?
We haven’t costed the plan or have all the solutions yet so we shouldn’t even start and definitely not set targets.
This ostrich brings pessimism to a whole new level of procrastination. Such a shame that this level of analysis stops and gives up instead of proffering something useful.