The Driver
It’s beginning to dawn on our political leaders that net zero by 2050 is probably not going to happen and banning the sale of internal-combustion-engine vehicles by 2030 will cause disruption and hardship for the British people. That great thinker Theresa May (remember her?) decided to write the net zero target into law and for Britain to ban ICE before anyone else, by plucking the 2030 date out of relatively clean air, purely for political gain – well, that didn’t work – without pondering that this Paris (dis)agreement will sadly make little difference to global warming. And at what cost?
With no real scrutiny these vainglorious policies were enacted to make Britain appear the ‘world leader’ in decarbonising, particularly with respect to road transport. But who are we trying to impress when we know that Britain produces only around 1% of worldwide carbon dioxide? None of this will make any difference except to Chinese manufacturers who can’t believe their luck that UK leaders are doing their damnedest to offshore and make its citizens colder and poorer.
Octane is not anti-electric vehicles per se, but we cannot support the trashing of our home industries and businesses just to satisfy virtue-signalling nonsense where politicos think they appear to be ‘getting down with the kids’. Britain’s carbon emissions per head are now lower than in 1859 when the traction engine was invented, and nitrogen oxide levels are 78% lower than 50 years ago. Britain has had a thriving automotive industry for around 130 years, which should remain free to evolve organically, not constrained by political diktat, nor risk being terminated at the cost of some 180,000 immediate jobs, and around 600,000 in the wider automotive supply sector.
The good news is that it looks like we have hit peak green: Germany’s coal-fired power stations are online, Sweden is watering down its green laws and even that cockerel Macron has asked the EU to slow legislation down. Just the other day the Germans told the EU to reverse the banning of ICE by 2035, with its transport minister declaring: ‘What’s the point in electric cars if the power that drives them comes from burning coal?’
The really good news is that collective industry is ahead of politicians and the greening of our world is happening a lot faster than predicted, so there’s re
