Land loss in the countryside to solar panels is nothing compared to loss due to flooding, drought and plant disease - Yorkshire Post Letters

Peter Rickaby (No Common Sense, February 25) is mistaken in what he considers common sense, confirming that common sense is not always obvious.

Solar farms, national energy infrastructure which we all use and essential to the net zero Paris target to control global heating, will sit on around 0.1 to 0.3 per cent of land, less than half that used to play golf. Unlike golf courses, solar farms can still be grazed and even used for crops according to trials currently running in Cornwall.

Loss to the countryside is nothing compared to loss due to flooding, drought, and plant disease exacerbated by warming.

There are not “millions of square miles” of roof space. The economics just doesn’t work out, however sensible roof panels are for some people and businesses: retrofitting roofs is always much more complex and expensive.

Peter thinks that North Sea oil and gas can provide the UK with abundant cheap energy. It can’t. The North Sea is in overall decline due to exhaustion. Oil and gas from any expensive new fields will be sold at world prices, otherwise they won’t happen. Any Trump-like reversion to fossil fuels will leave us vulnerable to continuing high energy costs set by nasty dictatorships and unstable world leaders, compared to the safety of investment in cheaper renewables.

Peter thinks that net zero is a minority interest. This is untrue. According to YouGov, 75 per ceng of the adult UK population support government policy. There is less faith that the world will achieve its climate targets, but that should make us redouble our national and diplomatic efforts.

We already see the disastrous effects of climate change nationally and globally. Whatever Ed Miliband’s failings, he and the government are right to pursue net zero, here and globally. This is in all of our interests. Changing the structure of a familiar energy system across the planet was never going to be easy.