Delaying the switch away from fossil fuels is unpatriotic and a guaranteed route to economic failure - Andy Brown

One of the reasons why we are still pushing our luck beyond any reasonable limits is because there is a lot of money to be made from owning or selling fossil fuels. BP and Shell have both just recorded exceptionally high profits. Both they and some very nasty oil states like Russia and Saudi Arabia gain from persuading us to fuel our civilisation by burning fossils.

There is a wall of money available to fund misinformation about the risks of adopting new and more sustainable technologies and, despite the frequent allegations, no gravy train whatsoever behind explaining the basic scientific truth that carbon dioxide traps heat and we have to stop pumping it out.

One of the biggest myths we’re being sold is that the climate has always naturally changed so we don’t need to worry if we alter it a bit. The fossil record does indeed provide us with examples of significant climate change in the past. On every occasion it happened it was accompanied by mass extinction events that wiped out entire species.

Living with the consequences of a chaotic changing climate is not something anyone sensible would wish to face or wish to inflict on their children. It interferes with food production and causes floods, fires and extreme winds. ‘Drill baby drill’ may result in much larger profits for oil companies but it also inevitably results in ‘burn baby burn’ locally and internationally.

Britain has seen some astonishingly high temperature records in recent years. Summer temperatures have peaked at over 40 degrees and even more remarkably temperatures in February have reached record levels of over 20 degrees. That is not normal and they are certainly not records that anyone sensible would wish to see broken again.

Last summer there were wild fires on dried out Yorkshire moors that took months to put out and caused serious economic damage to farmers. This year there have already been astonishingly early outbreaks of further moorland fires.

Thanks to the amount of CO2 we are pumping out scientists now know that things are going to carry on getting worse for decades. Trying to limit that damage makes a lot more sense than hoping it won’t happen.

Another big myth is that Britain would be foolish to act because other nations like China won’t do anything and we can’t afford to waste money in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

As it happens China is moving incredibly fast to decarbonise its economy. Not because of a moral choice but because of a hard headed economic calculation about where its best self interest lies.

Only a select few businesses and states make money out of clinging to the old technology. The real money comes from being the first to develop more efficient machines that are cheaper to run than the versions that rely on fossilised technology.

So China has had fleets of electronic buses for decades and is now deploying electronic trucks. The dreadful air quality in their cities is significantly improving as over 50 per cent of their drivers save a fortune by fuelling their cars with electricity available locally and nationally through a well planned network of cheap public chargers.

Because they made a determined effort to be the first adopters they now have some exceptionally competitive car firms able to produce sophisticated vehicles at rock bottom prices.

Their drivers are filling up with tanks of electricity regardless of what happens on the Straits of Hormuz for a few quid whilst most British drivers are queuing up in petrol forecourts to hand over a lot of money.

There are, of course, a whole string of horrible aspects to the Chinese government but it is beyond doubt that planning to invest in cutting fuel consumption has improved the Chinese balance of payments, increased its growth rate, cut the cost of living for its people and given it a huge competitive advantage.

Almost every form of zero carbon technology requires up front planned investment but results in major reductions in running costs. Using solar power and wind energy whilst storing off peak production in batteries cuts the cost of living and makes a country more self-sufficient.

Delaying the switch away from outdated technology and being cautious about investing isn’t wise caution. It is a guaranteed route to economic failure that comes with the significant downside of making the climate crisis more severe.

I would go so far as to describe trying to hold our country back from adopting new technology and new approaches as being deeply unpatriotic. It isn’t just important for the planet to go green. It is vital to our economic success as a nation.

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley.