Net zero drive will help UK reach energy independence - not more North Sea drilling: Yorkshire Post Letters

A senior politician said: 'We need to be more self-reliant than we have been to date, going further and faster to produce renewable energy here in the UK. There was always going to have to be a shift away from importing gas in order to meet our net zero ambitions by 2050 but this must now happen as a matter of urgency. It is no longer simply an environmental issue - energy independence should be viewed as part of our national security.'

This was not Ed Miliband, following Trump's present ill-planned and illegal war on Iran, but now Shadow Chancellor, Mel Stride, talking in 2022 following the energy crisis after Putin's attack on Ukraine. With present petrol prices rocketing and the threat of our gas and electricity doing the same, the necessity to move to national energy security as fast as possible with the cheapest form of energy - renewables, is even more pressing.

But what does Mel Stride's boss, Kemi Badenoch, say? Just like Trump's best fan Nigel Farage, she says we should ditch Net Zero and grant more gas and oil licences in our North Sea waters. These may be 'our' waters but the fast-diminishing supplies of gas and oil in the North Sea are certainly not 'ours'. They belong to the international companies who sell them on the international wholesale markets for the highest price they can get. Even Shadow Secretary of State for Energy, Clare Coutinho, has said that granting more licences wouldn't bring bills down.

The independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) has just released a report confirming that the cost of achieving Net Zero by 2050 is the equivalent of cost of one single fossil fuel shock such as that Mel Stride related to. The CCC stated that each pound invested in Net Zero will yield between £2 and £4 in benefits. Nigel Topping, chair of the CCC said: 'In the light of current world events, it's more important than ever for the UK to move away from being reliant on foreign volatile fossil fuels, to clean, domestic, less wasteful energy'.

As Mel Stride so rightly said in 2022, and Ed Miliband has been constantly stressing, we should be 'going further and faster to produce renewable energy here in the UK... It is no longer simply an environmental issue - energy independence should be viewed as part of our national security.'

Julian Briggs, Stannington View Road, Sheffield.

Most older people view climate change as a serious risk.

Six out of 10 older people in England view climate change as a serious risk, with only one in 17 (5.8 per cent) dismissive of climate change concerns, according to a new study led by UCL researchers.

This will come as no surprise to many of us of a certain age. It chimes exactly with my own experience among friends and neighbours.

What strikes me, however, is the gap between our concern and our politics. I am 69, a pensioner, and deeply worried about the direction we are heading. So are most people I know. Yet too often we hear that older voters are an obstacle to climate action – a lazy assumption this study firmly dispels.

The one policy that would make an immediate, tangible difference to millions of households – properly insulating our homes – remains stubbornly underfunded and hard to access.

It would cut energy bills, reduce emissions, create AI-proof, skilled jobs for our young people and protect older people from the cold and heat that increasingly threaten our health. It is, frankly, a no-brainer.

I will be voting, as will many of my friends, for whichever party offers the most credible and ambitious programme on climate change – and home insulation in particular. Politicians who assume that grey hair means green scepticism would do well to read this study carefully.

Mark Edon, Morley, Leeds.

Electric vehicles are either a similar price or cheaper than their diesel equivalents. EVs are very much cheaper to maintain and service, and they also cost pennies to fuel. They tow a caravan like a beast and dual motor AWD options are superb on wet grass, mud, or sand too. The UK caravan clubs both regularly vote them tow car of the year. Stopping a long trip for a quick break every two or three hours is good driving if you care about the safety of your passengers.

I‘ve been driving EVs for 10 years and towing a caravan with them for three. At first I put my savings into getting a newer car, then into solar, then a house battery, and now I’m fuelling my car and heating my house for pennies whilst paying off my mortgage much quicker and I’m around £40,000 better off in total so far.

The future of caravanning is electric.