Reality Checkpoint 2025
News from previous year

PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT
Italy is to withdraw from the agreement. America has already done so.

26 Jul 25

NEW NUCLEAR IN INDIA
10 new 700MW nuclear stations (PWRs) are to be built in India, giving a combined continuous output of 7GW. Unlike the UK, they have recognized 'economy of scale', instead of building expensive one-offs.

18 Jun 25

WHAT CLIMATE EMERGENCY?
From Chris M...
Stories involving any kind of crime, violence, scandal, or disaster, always get the breaking coverage and become front-page news. You could argue that the online news space is just one big money-spinning tabloid at this point. And as consumers, we tend to be drawn into all this by our innate curiosity and yes, our penchant for the scandalous and macabre.

When you actually read the IPCC AR6 climate report (I'm not talking about the summary for policy makers, which is put together by politicians), nowhere does it say there is a climate emergency; in fact it says they can't find any evidence to support the notion that there is an emergency. But it suits politicians, news outlets and the "Green blob" to make us think there is. At the end of the day it's all about money.

4 Jun 25

NET ZERO WILL CAUSE JOB LOSSES
The TUC has said that tens of thousands of jobs in core sectors will be lost unless the government acts to reduce the UK’s industrial electricity prices.

Unions are recognizing that Net Zero is a disaster for jobs. They should be asking for this unwise project to be abandoned.

26 May 25

ANTI-CAR SCHEME SCRAPPED
A £3 million green road scheme has been scrapped after it increased traffic on nearby roads. Southampton City Council installed a gate in January which only let through buses, bicycles and taxis. But following a backlash from residents (1,882 fines were imposed as a result of the scheme) and a policy review, the council has decided to abandon the project.

17 May 25

SOLAR FARM ALERT
Chinese malware in the form of cellular radios has been found hidden in American solar farms. The devices were located inside the inverters which convert the DC current from the panels into AC for the Grid. Cellular radios can switch off equipment remotely. This poses a threat to Grid security, and Reuters have been informed that the equipment would give Beijing the ability to inflict blackouts. It is likely that similar devices are hidden inside solar farms in the UK, and action needs to be taken. British solar farms use inverters from a variety of sources, including Chinese suppliers, which dominate the market.

17 May 25

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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