Britain is leading the West 'off the cliff' with its green energy tantrum that forgets what really matters to flourishing civilisations

Sky News AU

12-05-2025

Few things unite the political class across the Western world like the shared delusion that the energy transition is going according to plan.
Governments have announced sweeping targets and bold timelines, aiming to phase out fossil fuels and rapidly decarbonise entire economies.
But while the political messaging has been clear, the practical consequences have not.
Energy bills are rising, power grids are increasingly fragile, and voters across multiple countries are beginning to question whether this vision of the future has been built on sound foundations.
Far from a seamless transition, we are now confronting the reality that we need energy policies that actually work.
Because right now the West's energy "transition" isn't a transition at all—it's a tantrum.
In our haste to slap solar panels on every roof and outlaw gas boilers like we've lost our minds, we've lost sight of the fundamentals: energy must be cheap, reliable, and plentiful.
It isn't just about emissions charts or ministerial press releases.
It's about national security, economic stability and human flourishing.
And even beyond the West, you've got to ask: what's the point of all this moral grandstanding if China, India, and Indonesia are gleefully firing up coal plants at full speed?
Who's actually being played here?
In Britain, we're practically leading the charge off the cliff.
Policymakers have decided that by 2030, gas should make up just five per cent of our electricity supply—a target so detached from reality it borders on self-sabotage.
When the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, gas plants become our reluctant saviours—at astronomical cost.
During a recent cold snap, two plants were paid nearly £12 million (AUD$24.8 million)in a single night just to keep the grid from collapsing.
Apparently, this is what progress looks like.
Industrial energy costs in the UK now stand at AUD40c/kWh—the highest in both the EU and the G7.
The US equivalent?
A mere AUD20.5c.
Two decades ago, our prices were on par.
In that same timeframe, Britain went from being a net energy exporter to importing over 40 per cent of its energy needs.
Meanwhile, the United States became a net exporter.
This isn't just a policy failure; it's an object lesson in what happens when ideology trumps pragmatism.
Australia, too, has committed to 82 per cent renewables by 2030.
Admirable on paper, perhaps.
But wholesale electricity prices there surged 83 per cent year-on-year in Q4 2024.
Government handouts have attempted to cushion the blow, but even energy executives, such as Alinta Energy CEO Jeff Dimery, have warned that subsidies are no substitute for actual reform.
As in the UK, Australians are increasingly paying more for less.
Canada fares no better.
It spends nearly three times more on fossil fuel subsidies than on renewables, a fact rarely acknowledged in its self-congratulatory environmental rhetoric.
A 2024 study revealed widespread concern over the affordability of the transition, particularly in rural and industrial communities.
Even Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent election campaign chose economic messaging over climate evangelism—a revealing shift.
Canada's energy strategy has become less about green progress and more about political survival.
And while the West congratulates itself, China, India and Indonesia are building coal plants like there's no tomorrow.
Literally.
In 2024 alone, China began construction on 94.5 GW of coal-fired power—its highest total since 2015.
India added 4 GW, Indonesia 1.9 GW.
We are sacrificing economic competitiveness in the name of climate leadership while the world's largest polluters barely blink.
Let's also dispense with the idea that renewables are guilt-free.
One tonne of rare earth metals—critical to wind turbines and EVs—produces up to 2,000 tons of toxic waste.
Solar panels rely on intensive mining for precious metals, often under questionable environmental and labour conditions.
We're not reducing global harm; we're outsourcing it, then patting ourselves on the back.
Back at home, the human and economic toll is becoming impossible to ignore.
In the UK, energy bills routinely top £2,000 a year (AUD$4,116) per household.
More than 90 per cent of homes rely on fossil fuels for heat, most of them poorly insulated.
British industry is paying the price, too.
The steelworks at Scunthorpe have become a symbol of policy failure, with the government forced to prop it up as carbon taxes and high energy costs crush competitiveness.
Labour loves to blame tariffs for the state of our steel industry, but we've done more damage ourselves than Trump ever could.
INEOS halted energy-efficiency upgrades at its Grangemouth site after facing a £15 million (AUD$31 million) carbon emissions bill.
Meanwhile, carbon taxes and high input costs are bleeding our manufacturers dry.
The British steel industry is being crushed under the weight of policies that were supposedly designed to help it.
Unsurprisingly, public sentiment is shifting—at least among those who bought into this farce in the first place.
In Britain, 71 per cent of households say they'd drop support for net zero if it meant higher energy bills.
In Australia, the nuclear debate was a major talking point in the recent federal election, with voters weighing up whether the green dream was worth the growing price tag.
And in Canada, economic concerns have quietly overtaken climate in the national conversation.
Voters aren't stupid—they know when idealism collides with reality.
And then there's the government's own mixed messaging.
How can we claim to prioritise energy security while the UK hits energy producers with a 78 per cent windfall tax?
The standard corporation tax in the UK is 24 per cent, yet companies are being penalised for keeping the lights on.
Unsurprisingly, domestic investment is drying up while our dependence on imports grows.
Again.
Since 2010, the UK has spent around £300 billion (AUD$617 billion) on renewables and low-carbon schemes.
Fifteen years on, energy is more expensive than ever.
At what point, pray tell, do we start seeing the cheap, clean power we were promised?
Or was that always just another political fairy tale?
The fantasy of the transition is seductive—clean skies, happy voters, and a world powered by breezes and sunshine.
But energy policy has to exist in the real world, not in press releases.
We need to stop treating it like a lifestyle choice and start treating it as a national security issue.
That means nuclear.
That means natural gas.
That means policies grounded in physics, not PR.
The energy transition, as it's been sold, is a fantasy.
And fantasies—however well-intentioned—make for terrible policy.
Esther Krakue is a British commentator who has regularly appeared on Sky News Australia programs, as well as on TalkTV and GB News in the UK. She launched her career with Turning Point UK, with whom she hosted a show featuring guests including Douglas Murray and Peter Hitchens.