Humans can do little to nothing to affect the world’s so-called “greenhouse gases.” It’s no surprise then that the UK government’s efforts to reach net zero are futile in terms of changing the climate.
However, the Government’s policies are actively disastrous for the economy and are leading us down the road to poverty and serfdom.
We must reverse Net Zero policies before it is too late, David Turver writes.
UK Labour Members of Parliament (“MPs) like Tris Osborne spend a lot of their time claiming our energy system is secure and the National Energy System operator is forever boasting about how much of our electricity comes from wind and other renewables (see Figure 1).
Prime Minister Starmer is also signing us up to EU net zero rules that we will likely mean we have to decarbonise even faster under ever more draconian government dictats.
In his book ‘Road to Serfdom’, Friedrich Hayek warned of the dangers of the tyranny that inevitably results from government control of economic decision-making through central planning. The UK energy system is certainly hamstrung by central government control, so what has it done for our energy security and the performance of our energy system? Just how far are we down the road to serfdom?
Energy Prices
First, let us remind ourselves of one important performance metric, namely energy prices. As we have covered before, UK industrial electricity prices are the highest in the developed world, see Figure 2.
Figure 2 - International Industrial Electricity Prices (p per kWh)
UK industrial electricity prices at 26.63p/kWh are the highest of the 25 countries reporting data to the International Energy Agency (“IEA”). UK prices are three and a half times more than Canada that has the cheapest industrial electricity prices at 7.43p/kWh. Our prices are also 2.4 times those of Korea and 63% higher than the IEA median. The UK fares slightly better on industrial gas, with prices slightly below the IEA median, but still six times higher than Canada.
According to the same IEA data, the UK has the second-highest domestic electricity prices, some 45.8% above the IEA median and 2.4 times those of the US. UK domestic gas prices are more competitive, 2.49% lower than the IEA median but still 3.2 times those of Canada and 1.5 times the price in South Korea.
UK energy prices are certainly nothing to boast about.
Overall Energy Consumption
Our World in Data (“OWID”) shows us that UK primary energy consumption is down 29% from its peak in 2005, see Figure 3.
Figure 3 - UK Primary Energy Consumption (TWh)
Slightly different data from the UK’s Energy Trends (Table 1.3) shows final energy consumption down 19.9% overall since peaking in 2004 (see Figure 4).
Figure 4 - UK Final Energy Consumption by Sector (mtoe)
We can see from the detailed sector data that industrial consumption is down 40.7% and domestic consumption is down 31.1%. Transport energy consumption is down a more modest 5.9% and other users (mostly service industries) are up a modest 1.2% since 2004. The first three quarters of 2025 show a further reduction in energy consumption compared to 2024. It is unlikely that the reduction in industrial energy consumption is a result of some efficiency miracle because ONS productivity data shows that hours worked in the Manufacturing and Mining & Quarrying sectors are down 20.7% and 12.4% respectively since 2004, indicating that industry is contracting.
In addition, as shown in Figure 5, “fossil” fuel dependency has fallen from 91.2% in 2007 to 75.2% in 2025. The UK flipped from being a net energy exporter to an energy importer in 2004.
Figure 5 - UK Fossil Fuel and Import Dependency (%)
Import dependency rose sharply to 48.2% in 2013 before falling back to 28.4% in 2020 and then rising again to 43.8% in 2024. Being dependent on imports for more than 40% of our energy does not indicate strong energy security. Recent events in the Middle East demonstrate that, given our continuing high dependence on hydrocarbons, we should be doing all we can to exploit domestic resources to maintain energy security.
As might be expected with falling overall energy consumption, energy use per person is falling too, as shown in Figure 6 (again from OWID).
Figure 6 - Per Capita Energy Use by Country
UK energy use per capita is below that of China, the EU27 and the other G7 countries. In fact, looking at the detail, UK energy use per person is also lower than Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkmenistan. We are on a rapid descent to third-world country status. This energy austerity is another way of describing the road to serfdom.
Electricity Generation
Net Zero supporters claim that we might expect primary energy use to fall because switching to electric vehicles (“EVs”) and heat pumps is more efficient than petrol cars and gas boilers. This should lead to increased electricity consumption even though overall energy consumption may fall. How does this claim stack up when we look at UK electricity data?
Energy Trends Table 5.1 provides data on UK electricity supplied over time, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 - UK Electricity Supplied (TWh)
UK electricity supplied peaked in 2005 at 385TWh and has since fallen 21.4% to less than 303TWh in 2024. However, the first three quarters of 2025 show a slight uptick in total electricity supplied compared to the same period in 2024. The overall electricity supplied picture flatters our domestic electricity generation performance, though, because it includes net imports, which have been rising substantially, as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8 - UK Net Electricity Imports (TWh)
Net imports reached a record 33.4TWh in 2024, or 11% of total electricity supplied. Being reliant upon the kindness of strangers supplying electricity over interconnectors does not look like robust energy security.
Figure 9 shows an international comparison of electricity generation per capita (from OWID).
Figure 9 - Annual Electricity Generation per Capita (kWh per person)
UK electricity generation per person fell from a peak of 6,657kWh in 2003 to just 4,110kWh in 2024, before recovering slightly in 2025. This is lower than China, the EU27 and the other G7 nations. The UK’s 2024 electricity generation performance was worse than Belarus, Bulgaria, Chile, the Czech Republic, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Malaysia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Uruguay.
We might expect the increasing number of EVs and heat pumps to increase demand for electricity in the UK, but there is little sign this is happening. Instead, electricity generation and supply are falling in both absolute and per capita terms. Another indication that we are on the road to serfdom.
Impact on Economic Performance
Of course, expensive and scarce energy and electricity have an impact on economic performance. We can see just how far we are down the road to poverty by comparing the change in energy use per person and gross domestic product (“GDP”) per capita since the Climate Change Act came into force in 2008, as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10 - Energy Use per Person vs GDP per Capita
The UK has reduced energy consumption by 2.4% per annum. This is more than Canada, the EU27, Japan and the United States. As a result, GDP per capita has virtually stagnated, growing at just 0.4% per annum, lower than the EU27 and all the other G7 countries except Canada. By contrast, world GDP per capita has been growing at close to 2% per year, and energy use per person has increased by about 0.5% per annum. Asian countries like South Korea and China have increased energy use even faster and have accordingly grown much faster. The UK’s energy consumption per person is much lower than that of many other poorer countries, so we can expect the UK economy to at best stagnate if we maintain this energy austerity.
Emissions
Of course, the whole purpose of our rush to Net Zero is to play our part in reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases. However, emissions data from OWID show global emissions soaring as UK emissions decline to little more than a rounding error, see Figure 11.
Figure 11 - Annual CO2 Emissions per Country
Whatever the UK does to further reduce emissions will make no difference to the climate. On a per capita basis, the picture is even worse, as demonstrated in Figure 12.
Figure 12 - Annual CO2 Emissions per Capita
Not only are UK emissions at 4.53t per person, a little more than half those of China (8.66t/person), but UK emissions are also below the world average of 4.73t/person. We are destroying our economy while the world continues to benefit from cheap and abundant energy, and ignores our alleged “climate leadership.” All our attempts to reach net zero are futile in terms of climate and actively dangerous for our economy, leading us down the road to serfdom.
Conclusions
We have, by some measures, the most expensive energy in the developed world. As a result, our overall energy consumption, electricity consumption and generation are all declining. This is particularly evident in the industrial sector where energy consumption has declined over 40% from the peak. Hours worked in the productive sectors of the economy have declined too, indicating severe industrial contraction.
Because of reduced oil and gas production, partly due to punitive taxes and effective bans on drilling, the UK has become a net energy importer. The increased penetration of intermittent renewables has made us dependent upon interconnectors for electricity supply too. Far from Net Zero policies delivering energy security, we are less secure than we have been for decades, perhaps centuries. Recent events in the Middle East demonstrate the importance of energy security. We should be doing all we can to exploit domestic resources.
All this is impacting UK economic performance, with GDP growth all but stagnating as energy consumption falls along with emissions. Far from falling behind on renewables installations, it is evident that we have already fallen behind on energy consumption and economic performance. Our energy consumption per person is already behind many countries that we would regard as the third world, and our economic performance is heading that way too.
The notion that we are doing this to demonstrate some sort of climate leadership is for the birds. Our absolute emissions are but a rounding error in the global scheme of things and we already emit less per person than the world average. The world is not following our example, and they are reaping the benefits of cheap and abundant energy. Net Zero is simply futile virtue signalling, yet Starmer wants to sign us up to even more stringent European Union (“EU”) Net Zero rules. Who would have guessed that rigid state control of energy would lead us down the road to serfdom? We must reverse Net Zero policies before it is too late.
About the Author
David Turver is a British retired consultant, chief information officer and project management professional. He publishes articles on a Substack page titled ‘Eigen Values’ where he writes about contentious issues such as climate, energy and net zero. You can subscribe to and follow his Substack page, ‘Eigen Values’, HERE.
Featured image: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband view and tour Excalibur, an offshore jack-up platform for wind turbine construction and maintenance on 25 March 2024 in Holyhead, Wales. Source: Getty Images
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Wait, you’re telling me you don’t have dozens of emotional support NetZero CDs stolen from the West Allis Burger King held together with two whistles on lanyards?
A Change.org petition is calling for reforms to address the bias of Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, in approving Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects related to renewables.
The petition argues that Miliband’s strong advocacy for renewables may undermine his impartiality in making decisions on individual projects, including those involving compulsory purchase.
The issue highlights a growing divide between the UK government’s clean-energy goals and the concerns of rural communities, who are seeing large areas of land being allocated for solar farms and other renewable energy projects, threatening food production and rural identity.
To destroy rural areas and rural life, Miliband’s net zero crusade is going to cost taxpayers and bill payers trillions through levies, subsidies, grid upgrades and potential stranded assets.
A July 2025 Change.org petition, now approaching 6,000 signatures, lays bare a fundamental irony at the centre of British energy policy.
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, who has evangelised renewables as “the cheapest and fastest” route to energy independence and prosperity, retains final quasi-judicial authority over Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (“NSIPs”) that exist to realise precisely that vision, prompting the question of whether such certainty can coexist with the impartiality the law demands.
Authored by Catherine Makinson for the Lincolnshire Against Needless Destruction group, the petition invokes the apparent bias test from Porter v Magill UKHL 67. Would a fair-minded observer conclude there is a real possibility of partiality?
It argues that Miliband’s sustained advocacy, evident in his July 2024 Guardian article, September 2024 Energy UK keynote and July 2025 onshore wind strategy foreword, where renewables are repeatedly framed as the unequivocal economic and security panacea, amounts to predetermination, undermining open-minded assessment of individual applications, including those involving compulsory purchase.
The petition calls for targeted reforms, recusal from relevant cases, enhanced parliamentary scrutiny or amendments to the Planning Act 2008. It endorses net zero as a “worthy” goal while insisting that quasi-judicial duties under the Localism Act 2011 require detachment from preconceived ministerial conviction.
This insistence on detachment stands in ironic contrast to the very advocacy that has galvanised rural opposition, where communities perceive their landscapes as collateral in a policy presented as universally beneficial.
This modest yet persistent grassroots campaign, advancing through parish networks, village groups and regional opposition rather than institutional channels, illuminates a growing divide between Westminster’s clean-energy certitude and the tangible burdens borne by rural communities.
The Planning Act 2008 sought to expedite infrastructure of national importance. Yet it entrusts one minister with sweeping discretion to alter landscapes, often with scant effective restraint.
The outcomes are increasingly visible.
Lincolnshire has approved eight solar NSIPs in the past eighteen months, with nine more awaiting determination. The Fosse Green Energy scheme south of Lincoln illustrates the pattern, proposing to cover over 3,000 acres with panels for up to sixty years and affecting villages from Thorpe on the Hill to Bassingham.
Lincolnshire County Council has objected on grounds of irreversible industrialisation, productive soil loss and erosion of rural identity. Campaigners warn that such projects contribute to a broader threat, estimating up to 89,975 acres of best and most versatile farmland at risk across the county from large cumulative solar developments.
The same dynamic manifests in Northamptonshire with the Green Hill Solar Farm (EN010170), a 500 MW proposal spanning approximately 2,965 acres (1,200 hectares) of greenbelt, best and most versatile farmland, and rural countryside, comparable in total footprint to Heathrow Airport. This multi-site scheme extends across a roughly 20 km radius, encompassing areas from Lavendon to the south and Earls Barton to the north, among other parishes, and includes solar arrays, battery storage and mitigation land.
Now under examination at the Planning Inspectorate, with submissions due by 27 March 2026, the project has drawn strong objections from local councils and residents, who cite greenbelt erosion, industrial-scale rural incursion, threats to food production and profound changes to scenic vistas. One representation posed the question plainly, “Is this really necessary?”, a view echoed by Northamptonshire County Councillor Adam Brown, who warned that once the countryside is lost, it is lost forever.
These local episodes are not aberrations but manifestations of broader structural forces. The pattern is unmistakable across the East Midlands and Yorkshire regions, eight large-scale solar NSIPs have been approved in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire alone over the past eighteen months, with at least nine more in the pipeline.
Key examples include the Tillbridge Solar Farm (approved 14 October 2025, 500 MW on some 3,000 acres near Gainsborough, the UK’s largest solar NSIP at the time), Gate Burton Energy Park (approved 12 July 2024, 500 MW with battery storage), Mallard Pass Solar Project (approved 12 July 2024; 350 MW across Lincolnshire and Rutland), Cottam Solar Project (approved 5 September 2024, approximately 600 MW straddling Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire) and East Yorkshire Solar Farm (approved May 2025, 400 MW).
One might reasonably ask whether this accelerated succession, celebrated in policy circles as evidence of decisive progress, reflects genuine case-by-case impartiality or bears the imprint of a predetermined national mission, ironically accelerating rural “industrialisation” despite guidance intended to protect prime farmland.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on flooding and agricultural resilience projects a 23 - 25 per cent reduction in UK farmland by 2050 from competing demands, potentially diminishing per capita domestic food output by up to 39 per cent.
Given global uncertainty and extreme geopolitical volatility and Britain’s reliance on imports for roughly half its calories, such losses raise acute resilience concerns that are scarcely alleviated by claims that solar occupies a mere 0.1 per cent of land. Despite departmental guidance to prioritise non-prime sites, the clustering of approvals lends weight to the petition’s contention that ministerial predisposition shapes both location and outcome.
This predisposition assumes greater irony against the statutory and rhetorical context. The Climate Change Act 2008 fixed the 2050 net zero target; the current government has accelerated it with a 2030 clean power ambition that Miliband has pursued with notable fervour. His public statements, renewables as “the cheapest and fastest” means to energy independence, align seamlessly with policy yet sit awkwardly alongside the requirement for case-by-case impartiality.
The 2020 Westferry Printworks case underscores how ministerial words and actions can render decisions liable to quashing on bias grounds, irrespective of pecuniary interest.
The fiscal dimension deepens the irony still further, as these proliferating NSIP commitments, each locking in significant infrastructure and land use, amplify the scale of projected expenditures. The Climate Change Committee now projects net costs from 2025 to 2050 at £108 billion (under 0.2 per cent of annual GDP), a striking reduction from prior estimates, attributed by critics to methodological sleight-of-hand involving optimistic assumptions on technology costs and borrowing.
In contrast, David Turver’s 13 January 2026 Institute of Economic Affairs briefing, drawing on National Energy System Operator pathways, estimates gross expenditures of £7.6 trillion for the preferred Holistic Transition route (exceeding £9 trillion with residual carbon levies), or £7.2 - 10 trillion in less ambitious scenarios.
Assumptions, such as offshore wind at £53/MWh by 2035, have drawn scrutiny, with coverage in corporate media expressing concern, while rebuttals from LSE Grantham and others defend the methodology but sidestep demands for comprehensive gross transparency.
These figures are compounded by warnings that the 2030 clean power target may prove unattainable without substantial additional investment or trade-offs.
A February 2026 Wood Mackenzie report indicated an extra £75 billion in renewables spending could be required by decade’s end to avoid missing the goal, while the Tony Blair Institute’s analysis the same month criticised rushed decarbonisation for risking entrenched high energy prices, contrary to pre-election promises of bill reductions, and for poorly sequenced implementation that heightens costs and vulnerabilities.
Such assessments introduce a further layer of irony. Commitments framed as the pathway to unassailable affordability and security now confront warnings that the very speed of deployment may necessitate billions more in unforeseen expenditure or force difficult trade-offs.
These trillions represent cumulative liabilities for taxpayers and bill payers through levies, subsidies, grid upgrades and potential stranded assets. The Office for Budget Responsibility identifies the transition as a principal long-term fiscal pressure.
This fiscal reality sharpens the irony still further. A minister who proclaims renewables’ unassailable economic superiority presides over a consenting regime that commits vast resources and landscapes to that pathway, even as credible analyses expose far higher costs and communities register deepening resistance.
Yet this accumulating evidence of costs, risks and landscape impacts has elicited surprisingly limited scrutiny at Westminster, where the clean-energy imperative continues to command broad consensus.
Parliamentary response has been muted. Hansard records no major debates on constraining the Department or Miliband’s NSIP role though isolated interventions persist, such as Conservative MP Victoria Atkins January 2026 criticism of shire “industrialisation” and Reform UK’s 2025 manifesto proposal to abandon net zero for £30 billion in annual savings.
Public sentiment evolves in parallel. A February 2026 King’s College London/Ipsos poll indicates support for achieving net zero before 2050 declining to 29 per cent (from 54 per cent in 2021), with outright scepticism or rejection rising to 26 per cent (from 9 per cent).
Amid this convergence of multi-trillion commitments, irreplaceable farmland losses and ministerial conviction, the petition’s insistence on impartiality stands as a necessary corrective. It presents a measured challenge to net zero’s institutional architecture, not repudiation of the objective, but implementation of safeguards, independent adjudication, rigorous bias scrutiny and transparent cost auditing to protect decisions from the appearance of predetermination.
Net zero is elevated to the status of an unassailable national priority, yet rural communities are asked to make profound, often permanent sacrifices of landscape and productive capacity on its altar, in service of a policy whose economic premises face sustained, evidence-based scrutiny.
These sacrifices on the altar of net zero, measured in irreplaceable acres across proliferating NSIPs and liabilities borne by the public in trillions, render demonstrable neutrality at the highest level indispensable for maintaining trust, ensuring legal defensibility and securing enduring legitimacy.
The petition, modest in scale yet rigorously constructed, distils this imperative and merits serious consideration. To proceed without safeguards risks the irreversible erosion of rural living and the very character of the British countryside. In an endeavour of such magnitude, procedural fairness is not an incidental virtue, it is foundational.
Readers may wish to review the petition here at Change.org
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Every minute counts: Doctoral Research that is closing the overshoot gap
ALT
Since joining us in October 2024, Neil Gow, our first fully funded Hydro Nation Chair doctoral researcher has been identifying new opportunities within Scotland that reduce ecological overshoot, whilst also being financially viable.
A Doctoral Researcher at the University of Stirling, Neil’s doctoral research project ‘One Hour Region’, is a collaborative endeavour, with supervision from Andrew Tyler and Deryck Irving at the University of Stirling Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
In our latest fireside chat, Neil joined our Programme Co-ordinator, Imogen Salt, to share more about his journey to his PhD and successes to date.
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Q: We always like to start with asking if you have a favourite water body and, if so, which one and where is it?
There is a lochan near my home which has been naturally dammed by an ancient raised beach. It is a peaceful, unspoiled, remote location, where few ever venture. Aside from the beauty of the spot, the raised beach reminds me that in the grand scheme of things we live in a dynamic and powerful natural world, which has and will survive change, whether we as a species keep up or not.
What a beautiful choice! It is inspiring to think how places can connect us to the planet’s history and its ability to adapt and endure.
Q: So, you started your doctoral studies at Stirling in October 2024, what was your previous education and where?
I studied Sustainable Rural Development through the University of the Highlands and Islands, earning a 1st class honours degree and a masters. My degree programmes covered a broad perspective of sustainability issues, from economics to ecology and society. My research included measuring sustainability at regional levels in rural Scotland as well as exploring the challenges of domestic decarbonisation. Following my studies, I was able to put the theory into practice, working on the Scottish Government’s Carbon Neutral Islands programme, which performed carbon audits of islands to chart opportunities for reducing impact while benefitting local communities.
Q: That sounds incredibly interesting, and I imagine provides a great foundation for the research that you are undertaking at Stirling. Can you give us a summary of what your doctoral research is about?
My research is titled One Hour Region, with a view to understanding the role of the Forth catchment in ecological overshoot, and the influence that the water sector has on this. (The ‘hour’ is a reference to Earth Overshoot Day, and what it would take to move this date by an hour). In practical terms, I am looking at the regenerative resources available within the catchment, or biocapacity, the demand for these resources, and assessing what contributions Scottish Water’s activities could be making. The aim is to ultimately identify where value can be created while also reducing ecological pressures.
Q: What’s the non-scientist explanation of Earth Overshoot Day, and why is it important?
Earth Overshoot Day tells us how quickly we use nature each year, compared to how fast it renews. A basic example is harvesting wood from a forest verses how quickly the wood grows. We ‘overshoot’ when we have used up the amount which can safely be renewed in that year. This is looked at for a range of resources, such as crops, grazing, and fishing, as well as the amount of nature needed to absorb waste, such as excess carbon emissions.
In 2025, Earth Overshoot Day was measured to be 24th of July, suggesting that after this point we are depleting our natural reserves. This is important because every year that the world overshoots, we further reduce the ability for nature to provide for us in the future.
That’s a clear and powerful way to put it! Earth Overshoot Day really highlights the urgency of living within nature’s limits - when we overshoot, we’re borrowing from the future and reducing the planet’s ability to sustain us. It’s a stark reminder that every action we take to reduce consumption and emissions truly matters.
Q: How did you get into this area of research?
In my experience, sustainability efforts on a local scale can often be disconnected from the absolute resource balance that we actually have. Likewise, the big picture metrics about the overall balance of our environmental resources, such as Earth Overshoot Day, the Planetary Boundaries Framework, or Ecological Footprint, can be difficult to translate to local contexts. When I saw that this research aimed to explore this in the context of real-world activity for such an important resource as water, I couldn’t pass it up!
Q: The research sounds invaluable for helping people understand the linkages between local actions and global impact. What do you enjoy about research?
I like picking things apart to see how they work. Finding the trade-offs and synergies. Particularly in the vague field of sustainability it can be easy to miss the bigger picture and how interconnected systems can be. Ultimately, I enjoy exploring new perspectives which encourage us to challenge our long-held assumptions about what is and what could be.
Q: Have you made any interesting discoveries in your doctoral research yet?
Early analysis shows that the footprint of the Forth catchment is effectively many times larger than its actual size. So, it is dependant on far more than it could naturally provide itself. This is perhaps not entirely surprising given the population density – more than a quarter of the population of Scotland live in the catchment. But its water resources also serve even more than this via the Loch Katrine aqueduct, which makes the region even more strategically important.
Q: Woah, it really shows how complex and far-reaching the Forth catchment’s influence is. What is the role of your doctoral research in the Hydro Nation Chair Programme?
My research overlaps with several HNC themes, but is particularly relevant to HNC Priority Theme 1: Advancing Systems Understanding. By analysing and visualising the scope of influence on different aspects of our supply and demand for nature, we can enhance our knowledge and decision-making capabilities to meet some of the inevitable challenges we will face in an increasingly resource-constrained world.
Q: We are looking forward to hearing more about your research as the PhD progresses, it could have huge implications for how we think about water resource management in Scotland. If you could change public perception on one thing in the water industry, what would it be?
We take clean water and sanitation for granted in this country. I have spent time in parts of the world where this is not so readily available. Even in Scotland, I come from an area where many people rely on private water supplies which run dry, turn brown from peat runoff, and require expensive or laboursome maintenance. So, I would change the perception that water is cheap and plentiful. Because it is not just the water itself, but the resources required to provide that water and sanitation come with a footprint of their own.
Q: A very valuable lesson! Our final question, as you are now in the second year of your PhD, is there any advice that you would give to someone considering Doctoral Research?
Your life experience is invaluable, so trust it and use it. I spent years in the ‘real world’ before going down this path, and it has helped keep me grounded. I think there is a risk in the academic world sometimes to get lost in a bubble where you miss some of the ugly real world data. It may not process well, nor fit neatly within our methodologies, but it can tell us invaluable information about how the world really works.
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Dispatches from the Policy Frontier: Canada’s Quiet Revolution in Green Power
One might forgive the casual observer for mistaking Canada’s Budget 2025 for just another fiscal ledger—deficits tallied, borders fortified, the usual choreography of statecraft. Yet, tucked amid the columns, lies a narrative of transformation: the steadfast upholding of Clean Electricity Regulations, a pledge to craft a “Made-in-Canada” sustainable investment taxonomy by 2026, and exploratory forays into green and transition bonds. Here, Ottawa is not merely allocating funds but architecting a bridge from the country’s storied oil sands to a net-zero horizon by 2050—leveraging hydroelectric bounty and critical minerals to court private capital in an electrifying world. It’s a reminder of federalism’s delicate art: harmonising Alberta’s resource grit with broader ecological imperatives, all while eyeing the global stage where clean energy is currency.
In this, there’s a understated wit to the enterprise—a superpower of maple and moose positioning itself as Europe’s cooler, wetter analogue in the climate race. And for we islanders across the Atlantic? It stirs a gentle introspection on Britain’s public life, that peculiar brew of empiric resolve and existential drizzle. Our own energy saga, laced with the ghosts of pit villages and the hum of Humber turbines, feels all the more poignant: might such a taxonomy offer a salve to our polarised parliaments, coaxing a society wearied by fuel poverty and fiscal austerity towards investments that whisper of shared futures rather than shouted divides? In an age where the lights flicker both literally and figuratively, Canada’s blueprint suggests that progress need not be a gale, but a steady, illuminating current.
