Net Zero's Dirty Secret | IEA Interview

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of green regulations on the UK's industrial base and energy sector.

In this episode of Free the Power, the IEA’s occasional series looking at free market solutions to problems in climate and energy policy, IEA energy analyst and COO Andy Mayer speaks with Catherine McBride, CEO of the Great British Business Council and lead author of the report Premeditated Industrial Destruction . They discuss how three quarters of UK energy is not electricity but oil, gas and coal, and why decades of green regulation have quietly hollowed out Britain’s industrial base. The conversation takes in the collapse of the chemicals sector, the carbon border adjustment mechanism, flawed emissions accounting, and why the UK’s claimed 50% emissions cuts shrink to 19% once imports are factored in. Catherine and Andy examine the specific industries that have been lost or are disappearing, from aluminium smelting and titanium dioxide production to ceramics and cement, and why highly productive industries are being replaced by low-productivity service jobs. They debate the role of the emissions trading scheme, the windfall tax on North Sea producers, and how the Government’s planning and licensing regime has made the UK uniquely hostile to domestic energy extraction compared…

People in this episode

Host: Andy Mayer

Guest: Catherine McBride

Topics covered

• energy policy
• climate change
• industrial decline
• emissions trading
• UK energy
• green regulation

Keywords

• net zero
• UK energy
• industrial destruction
• emissions accounting
• energy extraction

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Great British Business Council, Institute of Economic Affairs

Books & works: Premeditated Industrial Destruction

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