Happy New Year!

Some reflections on 2023, and the current state of climate (and more) politics.

I am still working on a deep dive into Net Zero economics, which I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of for a few weeks now, interrupted by Christmas. So I haven’t been able to put much new up on here recently. However, here follows some observations on 2023, as is the tradition on this day of the year.

Net Zero scepticism, if not climate scepticism, has exploded, and is now a fixture of the mainstream, albeit a minor part. Former ministers and broadsheet news media began to find their sceptical voices in '23. This is largely confined to the centre-right, but this may be a consequence of the realities of power -- a Labour government is going to inherit the same problems of their own making, and they will find it difficult to sustain the consensus. The GMB's interventions shows that the broad left's support of the Miliband set's preferences cannot be taken for granted. However, independent media and analysts are still very far ahead of the mainstream, which has yet to form robust critiques of green ideology, except in extreme (e.g. XR/JSO) cases, and is still inclined to apologise for climate alarmism, and/or tinker with policy. The cross-party Westminster consensus on climate holds for now.