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Ineos: UK’s Industrial Future Is Bleak If Energy Prices Don’t Come Down Soon

Blow For Green Tories As Climate Sceptics Party Wins Another By-Election



Ukip won a landmark victory in Rochester and Strood today, overturning a Tory majority of 10,000 to secure its second MP. David Cameron’s failure to hold a seat the Tories won four years ago with 49 per cent of the vote is a major blow for the prime minister, who visited the seat five times in the run-up to yesterday’s poll. --Laura Pitel, The Times, 21 November 2014
Plans for the government to donate (sic) hundreds of millions of pounds to a new Green Climate Fund could lead voters away from the Tories in an upcoming by-election. Senior Tories fear that the contribution has jeopardised the party’s chances of obtaining votes from potential UKIP supporters – skeptical of climate change claims and opposed to foreign aid. --Nicholas Reilly, Metro News, 17 November 2014 David Cameron is to hand at least £650 million to help undeveloped countries cope with climate change on the day the Conservatives will fight a crucial by-election battle with Ukip. The prime minister had hoped to avoid attention being drawn to the UK’s contribution to the Green Climate Fund until after the Rochester & Strood by-election, according to government insiders. The timing is deeply awkward for Mr Cameron, highlighting controversial commitments to both foreign aid and green measures, with Ukip set for another coup in winning its second parliamentary seat. --The Times, 17 November 2014 Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos chairman, claimed that a glut of cheap domestically produced shale gas could solve the country’s energy and manufacturing crises and secure the future of the UK’s largest privately owned company. Mr Ratcliffe warned that its plastics manufacturing plant at Runcorn, in Cheshire, which employs 1,300 workers and uses as much electricity as Liverpool, would eventually have to close. If Ineos cannot cut its energy bill with domestically produced shale gas, he said that the group’s future in the UK, along with the rest of the country’s remaining industrial base, was bleak. --Tim Webb, The Times, 21 November 2014

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Around 3.5 million older people are worried they will not be able to stay warm this winter. An older person dies every seven minutes from cold weather each winter, and those living in the coldest homes are hit most by excess winter death rates and illness, according to Age UK. A third of over-65s are concerned about how they will heat their homes this winter and 70 per cent have fears over the high cost of energy, according to new research from Age UK. Escalating energy bills is one of the main concerns over the winter months for around five million over-65s, the research says today. --Yorkshire Post, 11 November 2014 Subsidies that will cost households £14 a year and hand energy companies windfall profits to keep the lights on will be “challenging to defend politically”, a credit rating agency has said. Companies will receive the payments to stop them closing power stations, even though in many cases they would remain open anyway. Moody’s suggested that politicians could scrap the capacity market subsidy scheme if there is another backlash against green energy levies. --Tim Webb, The Times, 21 November 2014 It is right for rich countries to assist the developing world in their efforts to adapt to climate impacts, but they should not burden them with costly decarbonisation schemes. The UK and other rich nations should no longer fund decarbonisation in the developing world. In the short to medium term, developing countries need access to plentiful, cheap and reliable electricity. Britain should therefore press for the Green Climate Fund to help poor countries adapt, rather than waste billions on costly and ineffective decarbonisation measures. --Benny Peiser and Daniel Mahoney, City A.M., 21 November 2014


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Guest Column Dr. Benny Peiser -- Bio and Archives

Items of notes and interest from the web.


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