Heat pumps, electric vehicles, smart meters, Ulez and now our cruises. There's no step too far for the eco-zealots
Source - Daily Telegraph - 28/06/23
What misery is coming next? If you thought a cruise was a chance for a bit of well-earned luxury, away from real-world problems, think again. Because we now learn that “net zero cruising” could involve switching off the air-con in your cabin, fewer stops and sleeping in dirty sheets. Nothing is out of reach for the joyless climate change zealots.
Yes, the average cruise ship will guzzle gas and emit emissions. They get through 250 tonnes of fuel per day, according to some figures. But isn’t the point of a cruise that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime treat? That’s why many on board will indulge in excess calories, before lounging in the on-board whirlpool. It’s not your average Wednesday.
But dirtier sheets and less air-con are, we’re told, exactly the sort of bizarre sacrifices that have to be made to get a greener cruise industry. And regulators will surely seize on it with alacrity. Net zero cruising could be coming our way purely because it fits the agenda and it’s theoretically possible. But will there be many customers? I have my doubts.
If anything, we ought to feel some sympathy for the cruise ship industry. After Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, it needs tighter regulations like a hole below the waterline. Globally, passenger ticket revenue for the largest lines fell around 70 per cent in 2020 on the previous year. Asking a luxury liner to make massive cuts to their energy use is like asking a Michelin-star restaurant to serve nothing but raw vegan flapjacks and carrot juice. It can be done, but rather defeats the object.
Meanwhile, back on dry British land, ministers are reportedly being told by their climate change advisors that they’ll have to halt the building of all new roads in order to meet yet another target – this time of cutting emissions by 2030. That’s on top, of course, of getting to net zero by 2050, which, unlike just about all other countries, we’ve imposed on ourselves by law.
No new roads? Aren’t our major arteries already at a standstill as they try to cope with population increases and the corresponding rise in vehicles? In 2000, there were 27.2 million cars on the road; by 2020 this had hit over 32 million. And with 600,000 additional people every year being squeezed onto our island – which means building a new city the size of Bristol annually to house them all – won’t this pressure intensify?
With the UK responsible for only 1 per cent of global carbon emissions, and the world’s biggest polluters like China and India showing no signs of sharing our net-zero obsession – in fact, if anything, they’re rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of picking up the economic slack – we must ask ourselves a simple question: why are we doing this to ourselves at this speed, and in this manner? Only when viable technologies are produced by entrepreneurs and innovators will some the biggest polluters engage in this global enterprise. In the meantime, we are driving this country into the ground.
And if the only way of achieving our targets by 2050 is to call an immediate halt to road building, dirtier sheets on some “luxury” cruise ships, heat pumps, electric vehicles, Ulez, smart meters, and a wide range of subsidies and levies and bans and regulations – is there not a risk it becomes so unpopular that the people revolt?
Net zero may well be a worthy target, but initiatives have to be sensible. And global. Millions more people simply means many more roads. Let’s get real.
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