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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 11h

True, but not saying that hardly helps No10 here!

Reposted by Adam Bell

Tom Haddon @tomh-analyst.bsky.social · 12h

Ah, NESO Winter Outlook day. That wonderful time when even though the *actual report* states barely anything of concern, grifters get to invent totally made up scenarios that imagine all ICs are unavailable at once because a lack of wind turns off French nuclear....or something.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 14h

Perchance they avoided saying it on purpose...

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

There is an alternative. /fin www.greenpeace.org.uk/resources/po...

Power Shift: Read the Report - Greenpeace UK

How the government can bring down bills and bolster net zero by curtailing the power of gas, using a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model.

www.greenpeace.org.uk

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

This means they'll be able to charge much more to largely sit there for much of the year, and enjoy 15-year contracts for doing so, while charging us through the nose when they do in fact run. /4

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

Essentially what they're going to do is remove the price limit in the Capacity Market - the tool Government uses to ensure we have enough capacity to keep the system stable - for new build gas plants, as well as a bunch of other assets. /3

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

You can be assured that it will very rapidly extend to older plants as soon as Government realises that they'll need extensive refurbishments to stay current. /2

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

The Government has snuck out a new wheeze to raise energy bills by letting new build gas plants extract even more rents. /1 assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68db9e...

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

smdh the Egyptians beat us to this nirvana by literal millenia

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

Instead, this report has now got more coverage than it otherwise would and No10 look like pantomime villains. Someone was always going to leak this, it is too important to think otherwise. Now you have the Streisand Effect for your complicity in global collapse.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 15h

Incredibly poor bit of media management from No10. If you don't have a response to a report, just shove it out the door and say, "We continue to consider the appropriate response," and the story dies in a day.
www.thetimes.com/article/d739...

No 10 blocks report on impact of rainforest collapse on food prices

Downing Street has vetoed release of an assessment that says the loss of the Amazon ecosystem could drive up food inflation as well as lead to mass migration

www.thetimes.com

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

I would genuinely love to see an interviewer properly take her to task on her apparent about-face from the choices she made herself in office to what she's doing now.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

The thing that gets me is that they were in charge for almost the whole time the Act has been in force, and only now is it an issue. If they were going, "From our experience in Govt we know that the CCA is inadequate in X way for Y reasons," that would be a good debate!

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

I'm doing some thinking about how you could improve the prospects for heat decarbonisation to be as enduring as electricity and road travel, centring the consumer as much as possible. More soon... /fin

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

The areas where progress would slow are heat decarbonisation, where the consumer case for heat pumps is not straight forward, and on industry and air travel. /6

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

The direction of travel on surface transport is clear: electrification. Electric cars are better to drive and cheaper to run. Consumers will eventually switch to them en masse. /5

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

Electricity would be largely decarbonised, albeit possibly with about 10-15% of gas by volume. Wind and solar are now forever; they are cheap enough to be deployed without support, and AR7 will buy enough to ensure they are a feature of the system for decades. /4

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

However, it is worth noting what would happen if the Conservatives did indeed repeal the CCA once they got into office and then made no further interventions in climate policy. /3

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

If they think our climate policy is Stalinist then they must embrace their new identity as tiny Stalins. /2

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

This is really good. Nothing about the CCA has obliged the Government to go down the centrally planning route the Conservatives now decry. Moreover, the Conservatives were in office for all but two of the first 17 years of the CCA. /1

Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 2d

FACTCHECK: What the Climate Change Act actually means for the UK – and what is a load of old nonsense

Really enjoyed putting this together with colleagues, inc learning new things about the fascinating backstory to the Act

Feat. OG authors of the Act & more

www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-wh...

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

I lived in Newham until about a year ago. It is simultaneously one of the youngest and the poorest boroughs in London. Just compare the council tax revenue between it and, say, Wandsworth. Without this funding, tens of thousands of children will find their lives harder than they otherwise would.

Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 2d

Some of London’s poorest areas could see their share of the children’s services funding formula halved under Labour’s plans to reform local government grants.

By me, for Politics Home: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

London Councils Face Losing Half Their Share Of Children's Services Funding

Some of London’s poorest areas could see their share of funding for children’s services halved under Labour’s plans to reform local government gran...

www.politicshome.com

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

Unless she thinks she'll become a deity if she believes in herself really hard, of course.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 2d

This is the maddest thing I have read today. How you could read Small Gods and have the same kind of misplaced self-belief as Badenoch is beyond me.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 2d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 3d

Am very much enjoying the reports from the Margaret Thatcher Cosplay Convention.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 3d

A party conference where Margaret Thatcher's clothes are on display, but where no-one seems to have realised that none of them could write or deliver anything like her speeches in terms of depth of policy engagement and thought:

Speech to Conservative Party Conference | Margaret Thatcher Foundation

www.margaretthatcher.org

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 7d

Ah - in that case I think the right thing to do is apply prices when consumers can actually make choices. We have a paper coming out soon looking at whether we should front-load carbon costs onto boilers rather than onto gas.

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