Originally published in the Herald.
Patrick Harvie is set to penalise owners of fossil fuel boilers in a shake-up of energy efficiency standards under a “massive transition” to how people heat their homes.
The Greens minister has insisted that millions of homes will need to clean up heating systems “at a pace and scale that is consistent with Scotland’s legal climate targets”.
Scotland has pledged to cut 1990 levels of carbon emissions by 75% in just seven years’ time, while the nation has a legal net zero target of 2045, five years ahead of the UK.
One of the biggest challenges is replacing fossil fuel gas boilers in homes with climate-friendly heating-systems such as heat pumps, with Mr Harvie previously admitting the costs could total £33bn.
From 2025, certain trigger points such as the sale of a home, will mean properties will need to meet EPC band C energy efficiency standards, while new fossil fuel boilers will be banned in new buildings from next April.
Ahead of the shake-up, Mr Harvie is set to reform EPC standards so they are more appropriate for driving the improvements needed to reach net zero.
It is understood that this could include taking account of the type of heating system, raising the possibility of those with an old fossil fuel boilers receiving a lower rating than those who have installed a heat pump.
Currently, EPC ratings take account of how costly it is to heat a home, but the reforms could also include the fabric efficiency and the type of heating.
Statutory advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), wrote to Mr Harvie in February, calling for an overhaul of the EPC system.
The body warned that domestic EPCs should be clearer and focus on four metrics – energy use intensity, fabric, heating system type and cost of heating.
Writing exclusively for the Herald on Sunday, the zero carbon buildings minister said his government wants “all homes to reach new energy efficiency standards by no later than 2033”.
He said: “Improved energy efficiency is essential but nowhere near enough.
“We can’t insulate our way to zero carbon buildings.
“To do that we need to change the way we heat homes.
“To meet our 2030 targets alone, more than one million Scottish homes will need to change to a climate-friendly heating system: a massive transition – as big as the shift from coal to gas last century, but in a shorter timescale.”
The Scottish Government has introduced rules that mean from next April, newly-built homes and other buildings coming forward for a building warrant will need to have a green heating system installed.
Mr Harvie said: “Scotland’s construction industry is building the future we need right now.
“But, of course, the biggest challenge we face is bringing existing properties – 2.5 million homes, 100,000 other buildings – from fossil fuel heating to climate-friendly heating.”
The Greens co-leader said that “for most people”, the transition will mean “either a very energy-efficient heat pump or another modern form of electric heating”.
He added: “For some households, it will mean drawing on a heat network – systems of pipes used to transfer heat from one central source to nearby homes, schools or offices.
“My job is to support that kind of shift at a pace and scale that is consistent with Scotland’s legal climate targets.”
Mr Harvie has stressed that “in every country making this transition, regulation is needed to steer choices about energy use and heating systems”.
He said: “Scotland is no different.
“It’s what our manufacturers and installers need as well, with the prospect of thousands of skilled, secure jobs for decades ahead.”
The minister has insisted that “we are not asking households to make this transition by themselves”, amid concerns over costs.
He said: “The package of support provided by the Scottish Government is already the most generous in the UK.
“We updated the Home Energy Scotland scheme last December and we will be launching a new warmer homes Scotland scheme in the Autumn.
“We have provided specific funds for public buildings, heat networks and social landlords and I am excited by some of the plans I see coming forward.”
Hr Harvie has previously stressed that around £33bn will be needed for Scotland’s buildings to install heating systems that meet net zero targets, the bulk set to come from the private sector.
His Greens co-leader and fellow government minister, Lorna Slater is drawing up an investment plan to lever in “responsible private finance” to plug a £20bn funding gap for nature.
The Herald revealed that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was lobbying the City of London for investment to reach climate targets.
The Scottish Government is expected to publish the interim report from the green heat finance taskforce, a technical group set up to look at potential ways to fund the transition to net zero.
Mr Harvie has warned “the challenge is daunting but the prize is huge”.
He added: “Not just in making sure that Scotland meets the climate emergency head-on but in securing our energy future; providing the jobs and skills we need and making us all less vulnerable to volatile fossil fuel prices.
“We can’t do it entirely alone and the UK’s Climate Change Committee has highlighted that the UK Government must equally to rise to the challenge.
“But I am confident that Scotland has the ambition and the will to make it happen.”
In his letter to Mr Harvie in February, the outgoing chairman of the CCC, Lord Deben, warned that the present EPC ratings are “not fit for purpose”, adding that they “do not provide the clear information people need to understand the energy efficiency of their homes”.
Lord Deben and the CCC has suggested reformed EPCs to include six ranked categories for the type of heating system.
He said this would provide people “with a clear hierarchy of heating system types, giving clarity on the merits of different heating technologies”.
Scottish Conservative shadow net zero, energy and transport secretary Douglas Lumsden, said: “Patrick Harvie’s plans will be deeply concerning for homeowners reliant on gas boilers.
“The Green minister is typically acting like he knows best by ploughing ahead with these plans. This is hugely naïve considering he has put in a pitiful amount of the funding required to support homeowners to replace gas boilers.
“Penalising them during a cost-of-living crisis is simply unacceptable. While we all want to see a just transition, policies must be fair and measured.
“Patrick Harvie must be fully upfront about what his plans to overhaul these ratings will mean for homeowners in reality.”
MY COMMENTS
This is the height of irresponsibility, making announcements way in advance of even the flimsiest of estimates of the huge cost and with no idea of what support will be available and even, at this early stage, trying to push all the cost onto the private sector. In case you have any doubt the “private sector” is you the homeowner. In these times of crisis in terms of the huge cost of living increases this has all the makings of another Green disaster as they push completely flawed commands on a market that is completely incapable of funding their wish list.
The priority must be to better insulate our homes, that lowers emissions and offers the householder a benefit in terms of lowering costs . Much more work is needed to go down the Heat pump route, they are currently very expensive, both to purchase and to fit. Forcing more people onto expensive electric heating will also go down like a lead balloon.
This is just another example of how our current electoral system allows a Party with very little support to inflict huge costs and pain on the electorate. The last mistake involved the drinks industry and cost them millions, this latest announcement will make that look like pocket money.
Of course we need to lower emissions but “plans” like this, written on the back of half a fag packet and vague on every cost should not be launched until a properly costed plan can be published in detail. The only “certainty” in Harvie’s “plan” is the arbitrary dates and deadlines he has insisted you must fund and implement. I can’t wait for his tenement plan?
The Greens will drag the SNP to the bottom of the swamp. They are fascist in outlook and have no respect for any other view than their own.
I am, as always
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Don’t know if it was ironic or not but this was highlighted immediately below your post on WordPress
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As ever, the people are the problem. The solutions provided by our corrupt and incompetent politicians are guaranteed to be unworkable and unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of people. What will be the outcome for those who cannot comply?
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Revolution?
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I like your way of thinking Lorna. Bring it on.
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If Lord Deben (who might not be 100% accurate when declaring an interest in matters) was to say to me that the sun rises in the east, I would go outside at sunrise to make sure that he was telling the truth!
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The Greens keep on saying that the price of not doing anything will be higher. Most Greens that I have come across are middle-class and well-heeled. Most politicians have not a scoobie what it is like for people on a low income. They either never knew or have forgotten. Yes, this will end up another white elephant with the tax-payer collecting the bill. Undoubtedly, the planet is changing and terrible consequences do await if we do nothing. However, fiddly wee things are not going to cut the mustard. ALL countries need to get together – and they must include America, China, Russia, et al – and agree to cut emissions across the board and to fund them from central government. What is the point in forcing people into penury here to replace a boiler if China is going to open new coal mines and burn even more fossil fuels? Mony a mickle maks a muckle, right enough, but not in this context. It has to be world-wide to close the hole in the ozone layer: a muckle maks mony a mickle.
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He is unbalanced. He has no conception of people struggling without him adding to it.
Sent from Outlook for iOShttps://aka.ms/o0ukef ________________________________
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So let me get this right. 2.500,000 households are going to be forced over the next seven years to rip out their gas or fossil fuel heating and retrofit either a super efficient heat pump or a full electric hearing systems.
Quite how you retro install heat source heating be it ground source or water source into the million or so flats be they tenements, high rise flats, or just low rise three storey apartment I have no idea. Looks like these household will be forced into very very very expensive electric heating.
If folks thought their energy bill were unaffordable just now, then things are going to get worse. But does the pie in the sky loon ball Harvie care? Of course he has no idea.
Or what of the reality of ripping out and retro fitting some 2,500,000 homes? That’s over 350,000 homes a year,
How is that going to be achieved. Is the country going to be one big building site.
Or the cost. At around an average £14,000 per household how are these households going to afford to rip out and retro install Harvie’s Heating. Or pay for the electricity.
In fact will there even be the infrastructure to provide all this electrical power. It’s not just house heating but power for cars too.
Will the infrastructure cope. Don’t know but here’s an interesting thing. Due to inadequacy of transmission infrastructure, or more simply wires big enough to transport all the power produced, and the inadequacy of power storage, such as pump storage schemes, our deregulated private corporate bean fest is currently being paid to turn wind generation off when demand exceeds supply.
Obviously wee Harvie doesn’t know anything about that either. But yes, the so called profit driven power market has failed our country big time.
Anyway, the wee bastard is going to force us all to change, to pay what people can’t afford, in a country already be set with huge power prices, soaring food prices, and frankly collapsing living standards.
Tell you something, Harvie and his hapless SNP are gone next election.
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So how can we ensure that this ridiculous notion is cancelled?
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If the SNP can’t commit to a YES alliance with one policy – independence – then it could well be time to go for the jugular. The SNP/Green clown car (electric, charged by diesel generator) looks to have left the road …
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“The Greens will drag the SNP to the bottom of the swamp. They are fascist in outlook and have no respect for any other view than their own.”
It is probably mere coincidende why Mr Harvie reminds me of the old chicken farmer Heinrich Himmler.
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duncanio: I think Herr Himmler was a bit taller, and I’m not sure he was into ‘twans’ either, up to his oxters, but otherwise…
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Gosh! So insane, so high up!
One question. How is the huge new requirement for free electricity going too be met?
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“I can’t wait for his tenement plan?” Neither can the world, Iain. What we need is an “old-fashioned”, joined-up insulation programme, something many of us are about to rediscover, come mid-October.
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I’m increasingly of the opinion that the green agenda isn’t actually about saving the planet, rather than driving people into penury. It’s about control and removal of freedoms. According to what Al Gore said in the 80’s the oceans should be all dried up or London should be under water. They keep changing the narrative. The Earth has actually gotten greener due to higher CO2 levels, but they report this with a qualifier “for now”. There’s a Greenland ice core that shows the Earth was much warmer in the past and that also doesn’t fit the narrative so it’s buried or spun to suit. We need to wake up, they lie about everything, without exception. They need panic and infighting in order to prevent us all joining our heeds and turning on them, our “leaders”.
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I tend to agree with you. When you do a bit of research and listen to other experts you actually find real solutions for the environment. Now why allow companies to pollute water and soil? Why are we still using pesticides? Why are most solutions presented not natural solutions? Carbon capture for example well there’s certain mosses that we have in Scotland that do that as well as pick up metals.
Now I have watched two ladies in Ireland and they have transformed their gardens planting trees and other plants and one has introduced bees recently.
Myself I have been growing herbs, planting more plants that attract pollinators, tell my neighbours alternatives to weed killer so not to kill them. I have made my own perfume too using essential oils, filtered water and a wee bit alcohol.
Now naturally when you take natural resources the obvious is to replace what you take so it regrowth. We are seeing trees cut for those big ugly wind turbines. Each time I pass one they give me a feeling that they don’t belong. 😄 I heard that they even use oil so they run. Back in time there were wooden ones if you look into the book of inventions that the Qutar government I think funded, I think it was there I saw them, if I am wrong it’s as I research a lot and don’t always offhand remember the source.
I also heard that the resources for batteries are only available in a couple of countries and obviously if your foreign policy stinks then yer fecked unless you have an alternative. When the new renawables can’t be recycled anymore they go into landfills and pollute the soil and water, there’s studies in the USA where this happened.
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Why are various celebrities and wealthy people not elected to make choices for everyone else lecturing and dictating narratives and fear upon the masses whilst they swan about on their jets and such doing what they like? Why are people promoting fake meat in labs that they might have invested in and frankinstein foods as the saviour?
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I’ve a tiny back garden that I have tried to make as near to a tiny woodland as possible, there’s an Elder tree growing at the bottom with a small Apple tree next to it, I’ve honeysuckle climbing everywhere and various shrubs and plants (mostly native). I have resident Masonry Bees who moved in to an insect hotel that’s expanded to many. These insect hotels only work if you have flowering plants nearby when they emerge in late spring, early summer. To that end, I have red and blackcurrants that time it perfectly. I came accross an auld Doocot, the kind you sometimes see standing on a pole. I placed it on the ground and enlarged the entrance, and I have a resident Hedgehog that scoffs all the slugs and snails. I of course have bird feeders and it gives me endless pleasure.
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Worthwhile watching if you have not already. There’s even madness about the idea of trying to block the sun. People need to wake up to what’s happening because it effects us all.
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Harvie and his equally reality disenfranchised zealot Slater are fronting for these initiatives, but let’s be fully cognisant, this is Scot Gov policy.
That they should even be mentioning Heat Networks is alarming. These are a feature of old Soviet Union planning. In theory, they can supply low value, “waste” heat from heavy industry to local housing. In practice, in the likes of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakstan, they supply waste heat from small power stations. These power stations are fuelled by … fossil fuels.
It may have escaped the attention of Scot Gov, but thanks to the “Thatcherite revolution” we have precious little heavy industry and those vestigial remnants are located far from housing.
In any case, due to existing legislation and incentives, heavy industry has to a great extent already utilised low value heat for office heating, raw material pre-heating, etc..
This bears all the hallmarks of a Civil Service denuded of a competent scientific and engineering base.
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When I lived in Estonia these “district heating systems” were in operation. I was lucky my flat was opposite a big hospital and we were near the start of the system so my flat was always warm, too warm in the summer. On the other hand people further away had freezing houses, not least because when the pipes run between apartment blocks this was achieved by above ground pipes, this is a country that can have up to minus thirty degree temperatures.
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This has disaster writ large all over it. Pie in the sky nonsense.
Our community hall is heated with these air source heat pumps and they don’t work very well. In the winter when temperature goes down below freezing the hall is freezing cold because they have to heat the cold air first. We now have a back up system of two electric bar heaters on the wall at each end of the hall. Maybe ok for a bit of background heat but not too efficient. In fairness we’ve had these heaters a few years now, maybe the new ones are better, still not a great system though. First homes need to be very well insulated so we don’t lose heat that way.
Does that idiot Harvie not realise that we are in crisis now with the cost of living, which does not look as if it’s going to come down very quickly. The fact that the other idiot Slater is drawing up the investment plan fills me with dread. Bottle return scheme anyone.
The sooner we can rid ourselves of these nonentities the better.
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Sorry but we do need to do something drastic about climate change. Doing nothin is not an option.
Sent from Outlook for Androidhttps://aka.ms/AAb9ysg ________________________________
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Nobody is suggesting doing nothing what we need is some joined up thinking, not irrational diktat with no prospect of success.
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Why is doing nothing not an option.? If we all did nothing, all transportation would cease, all industrial and commercial activity would be at a standstill and we would meet our targets.
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And you honestly believe that kind of logic doesn’t put ordinary voters off? Lots of green voters not that bothered about independence but will vote green who are promoting independence. How are you proposing to get independence?
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What if people can’t comply? If the costs are as Harvie says they are 33 billion and there are 2.5 million homes and buildings then the costs might be as high as 13k per home. What will happen if people cannot comply? The Scottish governments budget might be higher than 33 billion but the discretionary spend is less than 5 after standing commitments are taken care of. Once you factor in the spending that it doesn’t want to cut there will be precious little to lessen the costs.
I assume that you can afford to pay upwards of 10k to make your home compliant? What of those who can’t? Do they need to sell their home to someone who can and rent it back off them?
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Now let me think. ‘What is more likely to put people off voting for Independence’? Political parties imposing massive costs on people or folk asking questions about it?
The Green party have tried to impose unpopular and incompetent policy making on the Scottish public already and have had to ditch those policies. You are arguing that we consent to the demands of a relative handful of green voters (who by your own admission don’t care about Independence) and suffer the implementation of policies that will have far reaching effects particularly on those least able to afford it.
What you seem to want us to do is keep quiet and go along with a mantra ‘doing nothing is not an option’. Whihc is simply code for being forced to do something you may or may not agree with.
What are the penalties for people who cannot comply?
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https://www.hoover.org/research/flawed-climate-models
There’s presentations from people saying that the computer who makes the predictions are flawed.
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https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/doomsday-predictions-rely-on-flawed-climate-models
Here’s more.
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Why is the Scottish Government allowing this transistorised misogynist free rein?
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While I fully appreciate we need to do something to prevent global warming heat pumps are costly and having fitted one in my house it has been a gross disappointment especially in winter when under 7 degrees it losses efficiently and fails to keep my house warm . To keep the house warm on such days I need to burn my fossil fuel wood stove, which the Greens are also trying to stop. Prehaps the Greens should prioritise independence so we could have cheap electricity. Scotland with a population of 5 million generates enough Green clean electricity for 25 million homes so why are we paying so much. Prehaps to save the planet the Greens need to save us first.
Dissolve the Union.
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Yes, I have heard that they are not very efficient in actually heating, and, therefore, a waste of money in a climate like Scotland’s which is cold for at least half the year. This requires much more investment in science and technology at university level where the ideas for the future are rooted and will flower. What is the point in creating, quite deliberately, illnesses that the NHS has to fix, with all the associated cost, inability to work, etc., because we will see a rise in respiratory diseases brought about by the cold and wet conditions, a surge in arthritis, etc. Before madcap schemes are ventilated, every eventuality needs to be factored in and heeded, especially cost. Thatcher did the same: no proper analysis of the likely long-term consequences of her policies, let alone a plan for dealing with unforeseen consequences.
The thing I always notice when abroad in a warm and dry climate is the dearth of people on mobility scooters and on sticks, the lack of older people crippled by arthritis and awaiting hip and other joint replacements. Here, the pavements are crammed with mobility scooters and people with skeletal disabilities, heart problems, soaring MS cases, massive rises in cancer cases, in even relatively young people. Keeping warm and dry as cheaply as possible is a necessity for the very young and the old; for everyone, really. Patrick Harvie will discover that fact for himself one day. If you and your Greens cause another major scandal costing shed loads of wasted money, through your hare-brained schemes, we will do something about removing you all, and the SNP can go to hell in a handcart.
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Wise words, Alastair.
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Duncanio. We need not look as far afield as Her Himmler to witness the alliance between the environmental movement and Facism.
Conservative MP Reginald Dorman-Smith is an example of this once seemingly incongruent relationship. Dorman-Smith was appointed Minister for Agriculture by Chamberlain due to his Presidency of the National Farmers Union, but was dismissed immediately when Churchill formed his coalition government.
Dorman-Smith was a member of English Array (later English Mistery, [sic]), a Right-wing ecological group that promoted a government based on “the secret of race”.
Dorman-Smith’s ecological beliefs were informed by the bizarre, occult based, pseudo-science theories of Rudolph Steiner. In this, he was a fellow traveler of Heinrich Himmler.
Historian of English Mistery, Dan Stone states: “The slaughter of primitive peoples as a way of venting the Englishman’s excess energy, has been long a mainstay of British imperial thinking.” In this we may infer that “Englishman” is exclusive of Celts.
Churchill wanted Dorman-Smith taken out of political influence entirely and he was appointed Governor of Burma on 6th May 1941. Tellingly this was four days before Rudolph Hess parachuted onto Eaglesham moor.
While the Scottish Greens may describe themselves as of the Left, in modern terms this has become functionally meaningless. The “Left” the Greens refer to is the Poststructuralist, identitarian, pseudo Left.
Like Dorman-Smith, the Scottish Greens tend toward the ultra-authoritarian and eschew science.
There has long been an intimation of Malthusianism to the Scottish Greens. They have an as let undisclosed agenda to depopulate the planet (a process already naturally underway). In fairness, they appear to practice what they preach. The eight Green MSPs admit to a total of one offspring in their Wiki entries.
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Good points Viv.
I had never heard of Dorman-Smith but the analogy is a good fit for the likes of Harvie, Slater and Chapman.
“While the Scottish Greens may describe themselves as of the Left, in modern terms this has become functionally meaningless. The “Left” the Greens refer to is the Poststructuralist, identitarian, pseudo Left.”
How on earth did the Ecology Party of the 1970s comprising mostly bearded, long-haired, Open University lecturer types evolve into the narrow-based, insightless, crazed, maniacs of the Scottish Green Party of today?
In any event all zealots should, at all costs, be kept well away from any positions of authority, power or influence.
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How did the ecological movement of the 70’s morph into its present, ultra-authoritarian manifestation?
I believe Die Grünen may be the perfect case study. Die Grünen of the 70’s and 80’s conformed to your characterisation. Remember Atomkraft Nein Danke?
Die Grünen of the present German coalition government are wholehearted cheerleaders for the military / industrial complex. Quite the transformation.
In this, the subtle tradecraft of the US State Department can be detected by those who care to look.
Closer to home, it’s illuminating that obscure, backbench MSP Patrick Harvie was inducted into a three week trip to the States in 2010 under the State Department’s, International Visitors Leadership Program. Why would the avowedly Neoliberal State Department identify “radical” Pat as a “future opinion leader”?
I sometimes imagine a young novice State Department operative looking at these long haired hippies and anarchists and wondering “How are we supposed to recruit these people?”. Only for an experienced, old hand to tell them; “Listen, wait ‘till the political stipends start to appear. The careerist carpetbaggers won’t be far behind.”.
Sound familiar?
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Viv: spot on. The hard left is as totalitarian as the far right. They are two sides of the same coin. I’m not sure that they want to depopulate the Earth, though, for themselves and their allies, the ‘twans’. What they actually want is to have babies, but not by females. I wonder how they justify to their own consciences the vast amounts of investment in AI, artificial wombs, etc. which could be spent on saving the planet by investment in new science and technology that actually does what it says on the tin. Lowering the population can be achieved almost overnight, as can increased levels of GDP, by affording education and employment and opportunities to women and girls, in every part of the planet ( a long known fact) while the Greens, in common with other hard left and far right groups, want to remove all rights from biological females and actually erase them from all public life and from reproduction itself. It would appear that punishing certain groups in society for existing is part of the programme: the poor, the unemployed, the disabled, the sick and females and children.
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“Oh brave new world which has such people in it.” Aldous Huxley’s nightmare scenario of Tots in Bots was a work of fiction. Now it sounds like a blueprint.
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While I agree there will be a huge cost to decarbonising Scotland’s existing housing stock, it is essential that this is done and it requires political will and power to do so.
This change should be top of any Green agenda. The most worrying line in the article was-
“The Herald revealed that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was lobbying the City of London for investment to reach climate targets.” Because with any private finance the consumer will pay heavily for the profit of shareholders.
We can only access the level of public finance required to make change through independence.
Change is urgently needed (for the sake of the plant) and only possible in an Independent Scotland.
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Her lobbying the City for investment show how much faith that charlatan had in her “independence plans”
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What is the optimum level of C02 in the atmosphere? At what point does decarbonising go from having a positive to a negative impact on the nature?
How will we know when we get there? Will there be costs? Will people be willing to pay them? If policies become unpopular, their implementations proved to be harmful how will those policies be enforced?
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Prehaps all the hot air generated at Hollyrood from the Greens and the SNP colonial administration can be recycled to keep us warm this coming winter. Maybe they should try something different and novel like campaigning and pushing for independence. Prehaps they could even use the mandate. Yeah , Pigs can fly.
Dissolve the Union.
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
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We had a wood pellet boiler which in theory with RHIs should have cost nothing to run for 1st seven years the boiler was completely unreliable and the installer went bust cost a fortune in repairs so it got binned and replaced with a Kerosene one.My brother has a new built house with an air source heat pump and solar panels it works really well but his house is also insulated to the highest standard. I’d hate to have to give up the Kerosene boiler and spend £20,000 replacing it.
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Andy, these costs are ridiculous. What percentage of us can afford that?
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The need to move away from fossil fuels is urgent and evident, however Scotland has a large stock of good quality older residential buildings, many are tenements in the larger cities and will not be easy to convert heating away from gas. We also have a large stock of more recent residential buildings from the 1950’s 1960’s and 1970’s many in flat blocks with mixed ownership through the “right to buy” schemes of the 1980s and 1990s. The buildings need massive envelope improvements that cannot be realistically funded by current owners.
At this point Harvie and his co-campaigners have no solutions to these very specific and very Scottish issues. Penalising owners of these properties is not an acceptable process without there being a clear solution with appropriate funding and guidance to planning authorities.
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If the mantra ‘doing nothing is not an option’ wins out regardless and we find we can’t afford to comply what will be the penalties?
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The most environmentally thing anyone can do is to take care of what you already have, not trash it and manufacture replacements. The bulk of resources are taken up at the point of manufacture. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t improve manufacturing practices and develop new technologies, but it’s typical of Britain as a whole that the responsibility is always dumped on ordinary people, not the leaders of industry or politics (Cf: “Just Stop Oil” have never knowlingly inconvenienced a government minister or an oil executive).
The Scots Greens don’t actually care about the environment or ordinary people at all. They are ideologues with extreme authoritarian tendencies, and they are actually driving climate denial.
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@SoupCruncher sounds lovely. Now if we all did a wee bit it helps us. We are a part of nature not apart from it and I think that we instinctively know when something doesn’t feel right being presented to us. Like the feeling I get close up to those turbines.
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Well the greens are taking the SNP down a dark path, you would think that they could choose their friends more carefully, stupidity on stilts.
Incase folk have missed this. The House of Lords are trying to give Westminster the power to take over Scottish laws…….
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You do know that we are carbon and also you need a certain level of carbon in order for our plants and greenery to be healthy. If you breathe out carbon dioxide the trees and plants take it in and give oxygen to which you/we require.
Have you researched hemp and it’s funcion and grows faster than trees?
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Have you wondered why all these solutions being presented are at a high cost to people, all these taxes where are they going? Why all of a sudden is it becoming criminal almost for being a biological woman and using the correct terms for our natural functions?
There’s alternatives to plastics as well but the thing is that there’s fear of losing industry, people might have loans to repay to banks for businesses that invested in things we know that are damaging the environment. If you fear carbon and want it to net zero just remember what you/we are.
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. Given Scotland’s history with hemp am wondering if it had a lot to do with the enlightenment. 😄
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Obviously we need to compromise with people so that there’s no a huge crisis from changing. We don’t even need to use it for everything either but as the song suggests if we open up our minds to create new industries that really are environmental it creates a new cleaner economy.
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https://www.thenational.scot/politics/21263962.cannabis-scotland-surprising-crop-key-component-nations-agriculture/
Some information on Scotland.
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So Patriarch Harvie doesn’t think insulation is the answer? Unfortunately it is the only answer in the short term because heat pumps don’t operate well in uninsulated houses!
If a house is not adequately insulated, the pumps may need to work harder to maintain the desired temperature. Consequently, this increases the energy consumed, thereby raising utility bills and doing heehaw for emissions nor your fuel bill.
I’m all for reducing man made climate change but not at the cost of hypothermia for much of Scotland’s population given we have a high proportion of poorly insulated housing stock and huge numbers in fuel poverty.!
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If you think that insulation is the answer, you are very semi-detached. I would think that the majority of Scots are cliff-dwellers, who’s insulation options run to double-glazing. There is nothing new about that, and you don’t get a government grant (or you might live in a ‘window preservation zone’, which are pretty widespread, will double the cost of double-glazing and half it’s efficiency).
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“Wait ’till the political stipends appear. The careerist carpet baggers won’t be far behind.”
As an old unrepentant leftie myself, I sadly acknowledge the truth of that.
Howard Spring was a Welsh Author of the 1930’s. He wrote a book entitled, Fame is the Spur which describes the little compromises and betrayals that lead to high office very well. A hard read I think for modern tastes. It’s also a hefty tome. He makes Dickens seem like Hemingway.
There’s a story i heard once, about the radical liberal lawyer, Haldane.
He found himself on a train leaving Glasgow in which the recently elected Red Clydesiders were also travelling to take thier newly won seats in the house of commons.
As the stains of the Red Flag faded away and the train pulled out of the station he found himself in the same carraige as these firebrands. The topic of conversation? Not policy, not Socialism, but expenses.
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Nothing has changed 84k wages from the Westminster parliament, 250k expenses and then there the money from the lobbiest to look after their interests, energy companies and big pharmaceuticals. The real reason UK,Ok Government won’t impose a windfall tax. Sinn Fein saw this coming how politicans are bought and sold, how did we think our politicians would be above the colonial coruption of our masters pretend democratic circus. A theatre for fools who cannot see through the smoking mirrors to visualise the real picture.
Our MPs have enriched themselves becoming a large part of the problem willing quislings at their peoples expense a barriers to our quest for independence.
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Ambition bereft of reality is mere day-dreaming, Patrick! Nice work if you can get it, and some, like yourself, clearly have, thanks to our half-arsed, imported electoral system.
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I have little time for Harvie, but this is all a bit of misrepresentation, probably seeded by Harvie’s own communications shortcomings. The general intention is that if you have a gas-fired central heating system, at some point the boiler will have to be replaced with an electric combi boiler, as the sale of gas-fired boilers will probably be abolished. If you have a cosy newly-built main-door house, it should come with a heat pump. (But no doubt Harvie has dreams of giant heat-pumps plumbed into Soviet-style district heating). The government isn’t as clear on this as it is on abolishing the sale of petrol and diesel cars, probably because they are incompetent, don’t have a real plan, and don’t know what they are doing.
As far as cost goes – we have all had our free lunch, and now we have to pay for it. Economics and ecology both come from the Greek word for household management, and they are highly intertwined.
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That evil, self aggrandising, unenfranchised, mysogenistic skunk (apologies to skunks), Harvie and his equally thick headed cohort Slater, along with all their gong banging climate change buffoons need to do some reading. – if reading is not outside their very limited capabilities. Particularly ‘ Unstoppable Global Warming – Every 1500 Years’ by S Fred Singer and Dennis T Avery.
Is Harvie going to pay the tens of thousands to each household for these, very expensive to run, heat pumps? NO? I thought not.
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In the period when Alex Salmond was FM we had installed in our home – cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and a combi boiler, no charge to us.
The period of Sturgeon”s term as FM has effectively yielded nothing of individual benefit to the population at large.
There is no reason why heat pumps adequately size in capacity, should fail to provide adequate heating. Heat pumps are powered by electricity, Scotland has an abundant potential to provide the power source.
But… our renewable energy is syphoned off to England, cashiered, and then “sent” back to us at inflated cost .
As regards Harvie’s grand heating scheme – I cannot imagine an experienced supervisor would engage Harvie and Slater… but then neither Sturgeon nor Yousef have the. experience, and therein lies the problem – expediency, and politicians allowed to assume an authority that should not be available to them.
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This subject is far too important to be left in the hands of someone like Patrick Harvie. The Greens have already proved they are not competent. Just where do these people think we are supposed to get the money for new heating systems? Of course they say there will be government help but that only ever applies to those already receiving benefits. They forget about the vast majority surviving on limited means.
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It is very disheartening to hear yet again, “Soundbite Policies.” Did he learn nothing with the mismanagement of oil heating systems in rural areas just last year?
Since 2007 the SNP have been in power and yet we still have no “Energy Plan” which has been decided with input from many experts in the various fields involved. It seems all decisions are based solely on personal preferences or the effect of lobbyists.
Denmark invested in Wind Turbines yet we have invested so little in Tidal energy which would be suitable for many areas where diesel is the only form of electrical generation presently.
To reduce carbon emissions and provide the energy we require will need investment in schemes which benefit the whole of Scotland not only those for the central belt where there is an infrastructure which can be adapted.
Many businesses wish to reduce their carbon footprint yet many regulations in force prevent this. Is there any sign of the Scottish Government or their agencies working with industry to achieve this?
When you travel abroad and see the local energy suppliers, districts or communes with various types of energy available with prices reduced due to their size and ability to haggle, you can see the opportunities to have multiple suppliers in Scotland.
The promised Scottish Energy Company is where?
Data centres produced so much heat they are water cooled. The water can be used to heat homes, hospitals, care homes if we planned it properly.
District heating could use the methane from council landfills.
No one thinks beyond we’ve always done it badly, so we’ll do the same again.
I know energy is reserved but surely we can begin to build a proper infrastructure with the various options available. Look further ahead and we need more reservoirs for storage and energy production, desalination plants using our excess electricity supplies. New building regulations with meaningful minimum standards of insulation (tax incentives for higher perhaps). Remove VAT from insulation.
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Aye George, all very laudable, however, regardless of energy being a reserved entity and a desperate requirement for proper infrastructure nothing changes until Scotland dissolves this corrupt union with England, NOTHING is going to change in Scotland’s favour.
An Independent Scotland free of the colonisers shackles will legislate for and on behalf of its already impoverished citizens, something which is anathema to those at Westminster charged with keeping us ‘forever in our place’. DISSOLVE THE UNION!!
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Robert,
I don’t disagree with you but by never speaking about the benefits of independence in other than meaningless phrases, like fairer society, where is the vision which can inspire, motivate people to actually cast their vote for independence.
In such a resource rich country to not have an Energy plan to engage with the people about what independence could bring us is pathetic and says how parked our policitians are to the status quo.
You could add, ports, transport, housing, health and more.
If those who say they wish independence and have the power to make the case don’t show the benefits why would anyone vote for it?
So many open goals have been missed in the last nine years where someone could and should have spelled out in what way we would change the imposed policies and the benefits which accrued from not following neoliberal policies.
Doing a Starmer and trying to be unionist won’t bring independence. Westminster will never give consent (not that it’s required). Giving a vision of how we regulate and change the market. How we build the infrastructure to provide that vision. Give people hope!
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Completely agree.
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In response George, the single reason none of which you suggest needs doing has been addressed (and I agree unequivocally on those points) is that corruption lies at the heart of Scottish politics and the institutions incorporated therein.
The case for Scotland’s Independence is crystal clear and on this blog alone it has been thrashed out time and time again by the numerous guest contributors and following commentary in great detail. What is missing is a party in power and a leadership committed to delivering that which you propose. Wishing and hope will never deliver Independence from our colonisers as long as the corrupt remain at the helm.
The vision George lies before us and that in no way is a meaningless phrase, however until the corrupt are exposed for their treachery the status quo will continue to destroy Scotland’s opportunity. The people are sovereign and the corrupt have yet to realise that!
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