No, I wasn’t, NI, but thank you for the clarification — I agree entirely. This is where the focus should now be going, to mitigate the impact of climate change because reducing CO2 emissions will effectively do nothing.
What we also do need to do, however, is reduce pollutants because these are very damaging to health; and people need to understand that CO2 is not a pollutant. Millions in poorer nations are being exposed to highly toxic pollutants as a result of having to cook and keep warm with open fires in unventilated spaces. Access to cheap energy would dramatically increase their lifespan and standard of living. Net zero means this is unlikely to happen, though hopefully the African nations will stick two fingers up to the extreme environmentalists, pump their own oil and grow their own economies.
One big problem with hydrogen is that it’s a very small molecule and very difficult to stop leaking, which is why it almost certainly won’t be suitable for domestic use unless mixed with natural gas. This means it could be some time before hydrogen-powered vehicles are available and the irony here is that EVs are probably going to do far more environmental damage than existing ICEs.
Siderite, I’ll bet you £10,000 that 20 years from now, when I hope we’ll both still be around, the predictions being made about global warming will be wrong. Are you up for it?
