The British government likes to advertise its contribution to cutting carbon emissions. And the figures do look good at first glance. The UK was apparently doing a good job of meeting commitments agreed at the end of 2015 well before ministers even turned up in Paris for a signing session.
UK emissions peaked 50 years ago, a time when coal was the predominant fuel for both heating and electricity generation. Though investment in its planned replacement, nuclear, petered out, the once proud ‘dash for gas’ since the end of the 1980s helped cut overall emissions. The UK’s estimated greenhouse-gas (GHG) output almost halved in the three decades since 1990, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published in February 2022. It’s a remarkable reduction and the kind of shift that is possible for any nation. As long as you omit some important information.
As activist Greta Thunberg pointed out in a briefing for Unicef in response to...