Reality Checkpoint 2025
News from previous year

VOLKSWAGEN ALTERS ITS EV PLANS
Volkswagen has decided to re-evaluate its plans on manufacturing EVs because of waning demand. This puts it in line with other major car makers.

9 Mar 25

AUDI EV FACTORY CLOSES
Audi has closed its EV factory in Brussels with the loss of 3,000 jobs.

1 Mar 25

COMMONSENSE FROM SWEDEN
Sweden's Supreme Court has ruled that Greta Thunberg and other environmental activists cannot proceed with their lawsuit seeking to force the state to "take stronger action against climate change".

20 Feb 25

CANADIAN BANKS WILL NOT BACK NET ZERO
Most of Canada's banks have decided to leave the Net Zero Banking Alliance, following the US exodus from the UN-backed coalition. BMO, TD, CIBC, Scotiabank and National Bank have all left the climate group, placing their customers' interests above those of environmental activists.

23 Jan 25

BMW MOVING AWAY FROM EVs
BMW have announced a move away from EVs, saying that it's making good progress with hydrogen engines. They talk about new advanced hydrogen fuel cells, which are much lighter than their battery equivalents.

11 Jan 25

WITHDRAWAL OF ELECTRIC BUSES BY FIRSTBUS
Firstbus has withdrawn thirty electric buses from service after the discovery of some structural problems. The precise nature of the problems hasn't been disclosed, but it's probably something to do with the enormous weight of the batteries. The 30 buses are part of an order of 50, made by Alexander Dennis, which are said to do around 230 miles on a 3-hour charge.

The cost of the 50 buses was about £20 million, which means that each bus cost about £400,000. This compares with about £225,000 for a single-decker Euro VI diesel, according to Stagecoach.

9 Jan 25

E.ON BREAK-IN
The energy company E.ON gave instructions to engineers to break into a man's home to inspect the smart meter. The software in the meter suggested (wrongly) that the meter had been tampered with. E.ON thought the cover of the meter had been removed and they paid engineers and a locksmith to break into the house whilst the owner was out, after claiming to have rung him several times.

The man, Mr. Knight, from Waterlooville in Hampshire, was at work when the break-in took place. He likened the action to a burglary. He said that that if there's a reason not to have a smart meter, this is it.

9 Jan 25

J.P.MORGAN
J.P.Morgan has become the latest U.S. lender to leave the Net-Zero Alliance. The others, which have already left, are Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. All six have left since the beginning of December.

8 Jan 25

GAS BOILER BAN BY 2035
As expected, the gas boiler ban being pushed by both Conservative and Labour has had to be scrapped. It couldn't survive contact with reality.

7 Jan 25

ALARM AT FORD
Ford has said that it will be cutting 800 jobs in the UK over the next three years. This is partly because of weak demand for EVs. Sales of EVs have increased a little, but this is largely because of unsustainable discounting. When the government plan is to make what the vast majority don't want, this is the inevitable result.

Only an idiot would dream up the idea of fining a company for not selling enough of a particular product. If there is no demand, there will be no sales.

I hear on the grape vine that we're losing about 1,000 jobs a month in pursuit of Net Zero.

2 Jan 25

ALARM AT NISSAN
Nissan, which builds EVs in Sunderland, has said the EV sales rules are undermining the business case for manufacturing cars in the UK, and the viability of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of investment.

2 Jan 25

CARBON DIOXIDE & CLIMATE CHANGE, IN A NUTSHELL
CO2 concentration is 400ppm; the amount in air is about fifty to a hundred times smaller than that of water vapour, depending on the weather. CO2 is a poorer absorber of IR than water vapour so the warming effect of CO2 is less than one-fiftieth to one-hundredth of that of water vapour.

Secondly, changes in carbon dioxide lag changes in temperature at all time scales. Therefore CO2 does not warm the planet. The cart does not push the horse.

There are plenty of reasons for using finite natural resources as slowly and efficiently as we possibly can, but none of them have anything to do with climate.

1 Jan 25

EXTINCTION REBELLION ACTIVISM
At the time of writing, the lead adviser to the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is Tobias Garnett, the former legal strategist at Extinction Rebellion. This should be a cause for concern. Activists should not be advising government.

In July last year, Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion was jailed for five years by Southwark Crown Court for 'conspiracy to intentionally cause a public nuisance'.

Four other eco-activists were given sentences of four years. In the words of the judge: "Each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic".

31 Dec 24

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