Climate Policy: Stormy Weather?

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When it comes to climate policy, Donald Trump may be less of an outlier than bien-pensant Europeans — or their imitators in California and New York — like to think. Tony Blair, not the worst bellwether in certain circles, has now signaled unease over how things are going — for the second time this year. Blair’s argument does not rest on the reality of climate change, but on whether the current approach toward it makes sense. In his view, it does not. Moreover, he warns that “most people” are coming to the same conclusion….

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Climate Policy: EAT Your Greens

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There has been some talk of late that we may have reached peak climate policy madness.

I am not convinced. More on why not on another occasion, but for now consider the new (or, rather updated) report by the would-be food police of the pompously named EAT-Lancet Commission. The Lancet is a once distinguished, now somewhat disreputable and highly politicized medical journal. EAT, which was founded by a Norwegian billionaire, describes itself as the “science-based platform for food system transformation.” Science-based! It “connects and translates science to policy, business and society to make food healthy, fair and sustainable for people and planet.” Science. Or should that be #science?

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Net Zero: Fantasy Island

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Britain’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (good luck with combining those) Ed Miliband has been working to accelerate the rate at which Britain runs the “race” to net zero since assuming office after the Labour party’s election victory in July 2024. Part of that acceleration will involve decarbonizing 95 percent of the U.K.’s electricity grid by 2030, an impossible objective. The people, equipment, and resources are not there. Nevertheless, the disconcertingly exuberant Miliband exudes the confidence of a Soviet central planner of the high Stalinist era, convinced that determination, coercion, and the arc of history will overcome all obstacles…

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Decline and Fool

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Germany has slipped deeper into crisis with the collapse of its governing coalition. An unlikely union between the center-left SPD, the Greens, and the free-market(ish) FDP never made much intellectual sense, but the parliamentary arithmetic worked, so that was that.

And that was then.

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Electric Vehicles: Eurotrashed

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Sooner or later there comes a moment when central planners’ spreadsheets and targets run into reality. And it is rarely a happy moment. Some years ago, officials in the EU, UK, California, and other dim-bulb jurisdictions came up with the idea of imposing a quota system on automakers…

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Coal’s Rich Seam

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Wicked, grubby old King Coal, they said, was on his last legs.

Weeks before the signing of the Paris Climate Accord at the end of 2015, Carbon Tracker (“aligning capital market actions with climate reality”)  estimated that if the world was to meet the climate target set out in the agreement, then, according to the International Energy Agency’s “450” scenario, “the production from … existing coal mines is sufficient to meet the volume of coal required … It is the end of the road for expansion of the coal sector.”

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Doughnuts and Degrowth

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Writing in a recent Capital Letter about degrowth — an ideology revolving around the reorientation of the global (particularly in richer parts of the world) economy away from the pursuit of growth — I wanted to stress that this is not an outlier viewpoint shared only by the straitjacketed, which could be safely ignored.

And so I modestly repeated a point I had made in an earlier article on degrowth:

[D]egrowth has made inroads into the thinking of a significant cohort of scientists, economists, NGOs, activists, and writers. Signs of interest in it, if only at the periphery, can be detected in both bureaucratic and political circles, including the European Union and the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…[F]ormer Obama energy secretary (and Nobel laureate) Steven Chu…has argued for “an economy based on no growth or even shrinking growth.”

On July 2, the Guardian published an article by Olivier De Schutter. He is a Belgian academic, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. He wants us to “shift our focus from growth to humanity.”

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Electric Vehicles: Fisker Fails (Again)

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Early-stage electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Fisker, Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Of itself, that’s no scandal. Early-stage companies fail all the time. But the rise and fall of Fisker (and that of its predecessor) is a story of our times, and worth a closer look. Fisker’s predecessor, Fisker Automotive,was founded in 2007 by, to quote his X header, a “risk taker, innovation loving, protocol challenging designer and entrepreneur who turns dreams to reality & never gives up.” This modest fellow is a Danish designer well-known for his work with Aston-Martin and BMW. His name — guess — is Fisker, Henrik Fisker.

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Degrowth and De-Democracy

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The word “degrowth” was probably coined by an Austro-French philosopher — words to be thrilled by — during the eco-panic of the early 1970s, the time of The Population Bomb and all the rest. But the thinking behind the word contains elements that are far older, fantasies of timeless appeal and unchanging stupidity. There is a yearning for a lost Arcadia, a fetishization of “nature” (sorry, “Nature”), and a rejection of modernity. Some on the interwar far right with their faith in “organic” food, dislike of the urban, and distrust of free markets would have understood. Make of that what you will.

This nonsense is infinitely more toxic when intertwined with millenarian belief, another ancient failing. Our sins — overconsumption, greed, and technological overreach — have led to the “boiling” of the planet. Punishment is underway, with more to come unless averted by penance and the restoration of a more virtuous order.

And that’s where degrowth comes in.

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ESG/Stakeholder Capitalism: Letting Oil Companies be Oil Companies (or not)

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The principle that companies should stick to doing what they know best or to areas of business close to their existing areas of competence is by no means mandatory, but it’s one that any company should consider carefully before venturing into some new business area.

In November, I looked at how the Norwegian oil & gas champion Equinor (once more honestly known as Statoil) was doing with its diversification into renewables. To be fair, Equinor’s experience in the North Sea is of some assistance in building offshore wind farms, but this diversification effort has had its difficulties. Undeterred, the company, supported by its majority shareholder, the Norwegian state, which talks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to oil and gas, has plowed on: bad luck taxpayers! Bad luck minority shareholders!

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