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Irish Times
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Judicial system is on the front line of the fight to avert climate catastrophe
Todayw seven judges of the Supreme Court will sit to hear an appeal from An Coimisiún Pleanála against a decision by Judge Richard Humphreys in the High Court last January. The case relates to the planning of a wind farm . It was the first judgment to consider in detail the nature and scope of the obligation imposed on public bodies under Section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. The legislation was amended in 2021, in what the judge described as a 'step change' from a 'have regard to' to a 'comply with' obligation regarding our climate targets. The speed at which the appeal is being heard and the number and experience of judges on the bench are an indication of how important a case it may be. Our judicial system is increasingly in the front line in the fight to avert catastrophic climate change. Last year, in the so-called Swiss grannies' case , the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of a group of campaigning Swiss women in finding that Switzerland had violated their human rights by not taking sufficient action to mitigate climate change. Similarly, a German Court, while in the end not awarding damages to the Peruvian farmer taking a case against a large German energy company for its climate emissions, still established a precedent for holding major greenhouse gas emitters liable for climate-related risks under German civil law. Equally relevant was a decision by the Northern Ireland High Court in Belfast last month to quash permission for a proposed upgrade of the A5 road, between Derry and Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone. The judge said the authorities had failed to demonstrate how it fit into plans, strategies and policies that map out a realistic and achievable pathway to a net zero target by 2050. READ MORE The number of legal challenges in relation to transport projects suggests that it, along with energy, is likely to be one of the key legal battlegrounds. The A5 decision may lead to a rethink within Transport Infrastructure Ireland, because several of its major roads projects go against everything we need to do to meet our climate targets. [ Appeal for prevention of more A5 road deaths following court order quashing upgrade Opens in new window ] Even if we get all the electric vehicles aimed for under our climate plan, we will still need a 25 per cent reduction in daily car journeys in the next five years to get on the right path. To get there, we need easy access to alternative low-carbon options, so we are going to have to reallocate road space to improve walking, cycling and public transport. In a State which has promoted car dependency for decades, that change is going to be hotly contested. The fact that better low-carbon solutions are now at hand will help. I can understand the frustration for those fighting for the new A5 road on safety grounds. Yes, that road needs to be made safe. But there is also an opportunity to build the new rail line recommended by the recent Strategic Rail Review, running from Portadown to Dungannon, Omagh, Strabane, Letterkenny and Derry. It would take cars off the road, and be a game changer for the whole northwest. In energy, the political challenge for a non-fossil fuel producer such as Ireland is so much easier because the cleaner alternative is where all the innovation, investment and savings are already happening. It is also a new economy – something we are quite good at, although you rarely hear that perspective. In 2001, the average Irish person was responsible for 19 tonnes of CO2 being emitted. That figure is now down to 10. The next reduction to five tonnes per person is imminently achievable and will be good for us as well as the environment. Last month, we stopped burning coal in our power system. More wind and solar power will similarly allow us to switch away from expensive and polluting natural gas. In transport, every time we improve the sustainable alternatives, the Irish public responds with a large increase in patronage. Look at how rural bus use went up 165 per cent over the last five years, once we started to provide a proper service. Similarly, Irish farmers showed what is possible when they used 30 per cent less fertiliser in the first year of the Ukraine war and still maintained their productivity. Our carbon tax is an example internationally of how to effectively fund the retrofitting of hundreds of thousands of warmer homes and bring people out of energy poverty. [ Striving for net zero will cost less than we thought, but it will not be plain sailing Opens in new window ] The idea, popular among those invested in the status quo, that the low-carbon solutions do not work, or are going to cost us a fortune, is perhaps what is on trial, in the end, in so many of these cases. The courts will have to independently decide between those arguing that we should protect business as usual and those asking that we respect their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and stop the destruction of our natural world. This transition has been clearly mandated by the United Nations, by our European Union and by the Oireachtas through extensive legislative provision, and well considered policy direction. Recent decisions offer some hope that it may now also have increasing judicial support.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The truth about Britain's taxpayer cash-soaked wind farm industry laid bare in scandalous detail in court papers
The Cabrach and Glenfiddich Estates cover almost 50,000 scenic acres of Morayshire at the north-eastern end of the Grampian Mountains. Owned by Christopher Moran, a colourful Tory donor who made his fortune in the City of London, they take in grouse moors, a salmon river, a pheasant shoot and some of the finest stalking ground in all of Scotland. There are also some 18 tenanted farms, endless estate cottages, and a grand 17-bedroom lodge, which once belonged to the Dukes of Richmond and Gordon and boasts a ping-pong room decorated with oil paintings by Thomas Gainsborough. Moran, who is 77, acquired this pile via two transactions, in 1979 and 1982. A keen shot, he describes his hobbies in Who's Who as 'architecture, opera, art, politics and country pursuits', and once told an interviewer that Cabrach and Glenfiddich gave him 'sanity', saying: 'In London I can work 24 hours a day. But here, I unwind.' Lately, the wealthy laird's perks have been more than just sporting. For recent events have turned his picturesque Highland seat into one of rural Britain's most prolific cash machines. Historically, this was one of the finest unspoiled views in Scotland. But today, the skyline is broken by 59 gargantuan steel turbines of the Dorenell Wind Farm. Each of them stands 126 metres tall and sits on land that has been leased by Moran to the French energy giant EDF. They were installed in 2019, and – assuming the wind is blowing – can feed 177 megawatts of clean, green electricity (enough to power 106,000 homes) into Britain's National Grid. Given the stunning location, its construction was highly controversial. Locals filed around 600 complaints, saying it would despoil the landscape, hurt tourism and provide little tangible economic benefit. EDF argued it would play an essential role in helping Britain meet 'net zero' targets. In an effort to silence critics, they offered to set up a 'Community Benefit Fund' that would distribute some of the profits to charities that help residents. Although an initial planning application was opposed by Moray Council, development was approved on appeal by the Scottish government. That, broadly, is the history of the place. And there's nothing so very unusual about it. Thanks to our deepening political love affair with wind turbines – Energy Secretary Ed Miliband recently unveiled plans to double our onshore wind capacity by 2030 – similar schemes are being rolled out, against local opposition, across the land. Yet there is something that makes Dorenell not just remarkable, but very newsworthy indeed. And it involves the thorny topic of money. First, though, a brief lesson in wind farm economics. In common with all British facilities, Dorenell generates insufficient power to make back the cost of its construction by simply selling electricity on the open market. Instead, its owners receive generous subsidies, paid for by consumers via levies on energy bills, which are supposed to help them to turn a small profit. Supporting the UK's wind, solar and other renewable power in this manner costs the grand total of £25billion a year, according to the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) charity. That's more than £850 for every household and equates to around 40 per cent of the electricity costs you are currently paying every month. So far, so eco-friendly. But what few bill-payers properly understand is where the mountain of cash they shell out each month is ending up. For while Mr Miliband's subsidy system is supposed to help developers wash their face, it's increasingly enriching a class of 'wind farm vultures', who are exploiting the rules to cream off profits at the British public's expense. Energy firms have for years kept bill-payers in the dark about this mounting scandal, filing accounts that (perhaps deliberately) keep the finances of individual projects opaque, and hiding behind NDAs and other confidentiality agreements to conceal how much cash is being diverted to already wealthy landowners via lease payments. All of which leads us back to Dorenell. Because its finances were last week laid bare, in scandalous detail, during a remarkable case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. The proceedings, which revolved around a contractual dispute, provided an insight into what is going on under the bonnet of Britain's cash-soaked wind farm industry. Take the question of profits. At one point, it emerged that Dorenell Windfarm Limited, the company that operates the whole thing, now makes almost as much money (in some years a whacking £40million) from switching its turbines off as it does from generating green energy. Later, it became clear that the firm makes millions more during these periods of downtime, via a loophole in the subsidy system that allows it to 'trade' the electricity it's not actually producing – more on which later. Take also the question of cash that Christopher Moran, who is already worth £658million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, is creaming off from all this. Court papers revealed that he's being paid in the region of £10million a year in rent by Dorenall. That's the equivalent of around £170,000 per turbine, per year. What's more, it's ten times more than locals were led to believe he'd earn from the scheme. To quote one disgruntled campaigner, it makes the £2million funnelled to the 'Community Benefit Fund' since 2020 to compensate locals for despoiling their landscape 'look like chicken feed'. Some of the other dizzying numbers cited in the litigation show how the 'green' subsidy regime every Briton is financing has created a perverse property bubble. In effect, Christopher Moran's remote hilltops, which have for centuries only been useful for farming sheep and shooting, have been turned into some of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the country. 'People sometimes wonder why a landowner would want to host a wind farm. The answer, as this court case shows, is they are being offered rents that would tempt a saint,' is how Dr John Constable, director of the REF charity, puts it. 'As a result, the green subsidies that make these high returns possible are now at an unsustainable level.' Constable points out that what happens at Dorenell is likely to be happening across Britain. For this particular wind farm accounts for little more than 1 per cent of the UK's entire onshore capacity. Details of how the public's cash is being splurged are laid bare in an 'opinion' on the litigation that was published by Lord Sandison, one of Scotland's most senior judges, on July 10. It reveals that Moran's company Glenfiddich Wind Limited, which runs his estate's wind farming operations, is suing EDF's operating firm Dorenell Windfarm Limited for 'sums allegedly underpaid' under the terms of its lease. The claim covers a three-year period from 2022 to 2024. During that time, the contract between the two stipulated that Moran's firm would be paid either a 'gross income rent' based on a proportion of revenues generated by the turbines, or a 'minimum annual rent' of £6million, depending on which was higher. In 2022, he received £8,496,981. The following year, the figure was £9,480,725, and in 2024 it reached £10,406,641. To put things another way, Moran made more than £28million by doing very little aside from owning a remote bit of moorland. But at some point, he decided the figure was around £6,196,518 less than it ought to have been under the terms of the contract, and took EDF to court. At the heart of the dispute is an argument over so-called 'constraint payments'. This term describes cash that is paid to wind farms to compensate them for either switching off their turbines, or reducing capacity, when the grid has become too full to take on more electricity. The system is designed to cope with power surges during times of high wind speeds. Initially, it was rarely used. In 2010, the first year of its existence, 'constraint' fees cost consumers £174,000. But as more wind farms have been built in remote areas bottlenecks in the grid have become more commonplace. As a result, upwards of £300million a year is now being spent under the 'constraint' scheme, which has now cost bill-payers the grand total of £1.8billion, according to the REF. What's more, critics believe wind farm operators can sometimes make more, under the rules, by switching off their turbines than from making electricity. This has created a perverse incentive to build new facilities in isolated regions such as Moray, where the strained infrastructure means 'constraint payments' are likely to be more common. Dorenell is a case in point. For according to court papers, in 2023 it received £37million in 'constraint payments', equating to half its gross income of £74million. The following year, the figure was £40million. These sums were then included in figures used to calculate Moran's rent– but Dorenell Windfarm Limited was also making extra cash from shutting down its turbines by exploiting a loophole in the subsidy system via which farms receiving 'constraint payments' are provided with 'credited energy' they can then sell on the open market. A highly-complex trading arrangement then allowed them to make millions in extra profits by selling the 'credited energy' that they'd never actually generated when prices were high. Moran thought that a portion of this extra income ought to have then found its way into his rent payments. EDF disagreed, sparking a contract dispute. In his opinion Lord Sandison appears to have largely sided with Moran, and both sides in the dispute are now considering their next steps. 'The exposure of such scale of financial returns and infighting, all whilst this wind farm development has one of the most derisory community benefit packages in the country, should be subject to the highest level of scrutiny by the Scottish government,' is how Jonathan Christie, the Chief Executive of The Cabrach Trust, a local charity dedicated to regeneration, puts it. Colin Mackenzie, a whisky historian who has holiday lets near the Cabrach and Glenfiddich Estates, describes the roll out of wind turbines across the Highlands as a 'national scandal' saying: 'The figures in the court case are astonishing and make the £2million awarded to local projects since the Community Benefit Fund opened look like chicken feed.' Moran isn't the only one to have smelled a rat about Dorenell's 'constraint payments'. Last year, Ofgem forced the operator to pay £5million into a 'redress fund' after finding that it had charged 'excessive' amounts to switch off turbines under the scheme. To critics, the grubby affair only serves to highlight how energy subsidies represent one of the most regressive wealth transfers in history, funnelling cash from poor people to some of the wealthiest in society. Christopher Moran is perhaps the very last person who might be in need of extra cash. A grammar schoolboy from a modest background, he joined Lloyd's of London in the 1960s as a 17-year-old insurance broker's assistant and within five years had acquired his first million. By the 1990s he had a car collection that extended to three Rolls-Royces and a Lagonda, plus one of largest homes in London: Crosby Hall, a medieval pile in Chelsea that was once home to King Richard III. There was also a beauty queen wife, named Helen, with whom he had two sons before divorcing in the late 1990s, a vast collection of antiques and Old Master paintings, and a contacts book that would see him host everyone from Tony Blair, Boris Johnson and David Cameron, to Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth, and an array of celebrities at his palatial residence next to the Thames. Life has not been without the occasional scandal. His City career suffered a setback in 1982 when he became the first Lloyd's broker to be expelled in 300 years for 'discreditable conduct'. A few years later, he was censured by the Stock Exchange Council and fined $2million in the US for alleged insider dealing. And in the 2000s, Moran was reported to be one of several individuals the Tories had returned donations to so as to prevent their identities from becoming public under new disclosure rules. In 2018, a newspaper probe found that one of his properties, a serviced apartment block named Chelsea Cloisters, was home to more than 100 prostitutes, earning the building the nickname 'ten floors of whores' (Moran denied having any knowledge of their presence). And in 2023, it emerged that he'd fathered a daughter named Iva via his girlfriend Emily Rae. Not that Moran is running away from controversy. To the horror of locals, he's announced plans to build 22 new wind turbines on his estate via a joint venture with a Canadian company. Given recent revelations at the Court of Sessions, we can assume they will earn lots of money from being switched off. And so the Laird of Cabrach and Glenfiddich will get even richer, Scotland's Highlands will become less beautiful, and you and I will be forced to pay for it.
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Tall turbines plan for Hockney's Bigger Trees inspiration Rudston
Residents have shared their views on plans to build tall wind turbines in East Yorkshire countryside made famous by artist David Hockney's Bigger Trees proposed wind farm by Ridge Clean Energy (RCE), near Rudston, would have six turbines, each almost 500ft (152m) tall. Together, they could power about 24,000 local resident said the turbines would be an "eyesore" from her kitchen window, while another described them as "the way forward".RCE project manager Richard Barker said the company had received "mixed opinions as you would expect with something like this". He added: "But what we want is to engage with people, have them come along. We can introduce the project, our proposals and they can give us their opinions," he company wants to expand the nearby Three Oaks Energy Park in Haisthorpe, with access to the site from the A614.A formal application has yet to be submitted, but developers are promising a £5m community benefit fund should it go area, known as Hockney Country, became famous through the artist's painting Bigger Trees, inspired by Woldgate Woods, which he often passed on his way to his studio in Bridlington. At a meeting about the plans, resident Michelle Foster said: "I don't want it."It's going to be an eyesore out of my kitchen window. They haven't given us enough notice."Diane Trudgett, who lives in Rudston, said the view from her bungalow would overlook the turbines."This is why we moved here," she said."We saw a book of Hockney paintings when we used to holiday and we would come to see the village. Then we decided we were going to move to the village because of the paintings and the views."Hockney previously described wind turbines as "big ugly things" that he wouldn't paint. The BBC has approached him for a comment on the latest proposal. However, some residents think the turbines are a good idea."I think [the plans] are good. We need to move with progress now," resident Sue Ezard Marven, who lives just under 1.2 miles (2km) from the proposed turbines and would be able to see the site from his garden, said it was all about "balance"."It is the way forward and the sign of the times but there are already quite a few turbines around this area," he said."It's getting that balance right between completely destroying the visual impact of the countryside to benefitting the environment." Enthusiastic push By Paul MurphyEnvironment CorrespondentFor many years, the upland landscapes of East Yorkshire felt like the poor relation to big-hitters like the Dales or the North Yorkshire David Hockney's decision a decade or more ago to draw inspiration from the rolling Wolds changed all of work Bigger Trees, which featured Woldgate Woods, brought global attention to this quiet corner of rural have been attempts to build wind turbines here before, but they met with fierce local opposition from those who wanted to protect "Hockney Country".Hockney himself was among the objectors. The Ministry of Defence also expressed concerns about risks to low flying time feels government has embarked on an enthusiastic push for more green energy and for it to be built more planning process is being streamlined. As the deadline looms for Net Zero objectives, ministers want faster decisions and less 500ft (152m) tall machines have the potential to dominate the local landscape but they will also come with what developers describe as a community benefit fund worth £5m over the 40-year life of the residents, businesses and politicians must now decide whether this is a price worth is one of the biggest onshore turbine proposals in England for several with a government doing everything to encourage this industry this could just be the beginning of a raft of onshore wind proposals. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Times
BP offloads US wind farms worth $2bn
BP has offloaded its American onshore wind farm business in a deal that analysts estimate could be worth more than $2 billion. The sale to LS Power should help the FTSE 100 oil and gas group towards its target of $20 billion of divestments by 2027. It is seeking to shore up its heavily indebted balance sheet, including through asset sales of $3 billion to $4 billion this year. The sale of the US wind farms began in September last year, with BP saying at the time that the assets were 'not aligned' with its plans for growth in its solar venture Lightsource BP. Murray Auchincloss, chief executive, then pledged in February to 'fundamentally reset' BP's strategy, has abandoned most of the green energy goals set under his predecessor Bernard Looney and refocused the company on focus on oil and gas. BP declined to disclose the value of the wind farms deal but promised to give further details as part of its second-quarter results in early August. Irene Himona, analyst at Bernstein, said: 'Using 2024 average global renewables transaction multiples as a reference point, we estimate the deal consideration could reach circa $2.2 billion or above.' She estimated that BP was 'on track to meet or exceed the mid-point of its 2025 goal, with circa 74 per cent of the target achieved, post the completion of today's deal'. BP is also looking to sell its Castrol lubricants business and a stake in Lightsource BP. It has already announced a deal this month to offload its petrol stations in the Netherlands for an undisclosed sum, thought to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. BP has global operations including drilling for new oil and gas discoveries and retailing fuel and Marks & Spencer convenience food. It reported underlying profits of $8.9 billion last year. Its US wind farm business comprises ten operational wind farms that were mostly built or acquired in the mid to late 2000s as part of BP's first push into green energy. Lord Browne of Madingley, when chief executive, established 'BP Alternative Energy' in 2005 as the oil giant promised to go 'Beyond Petroleum'. BP wholly owns five of the wind farms, in Indiana, Kansas and South Dakota, and has 50 per cent stakes in five others in Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Idaho and Hawaii. They have a total generating capacity of 1.7 gigawatts and BP's share is 1.3 gigawatts. William Lin, BP's executive vice-president for gas and low-carbon energy, said: 'We have been clear that while low-carbon energy has a role to play in a simpler, more focused BP, we will continue to rationalise and optimise our portfolio to generate value. The onshore US wind business has great assets and fantastic people but we have concluded we are no longer the best owners to take it forward.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- The Guardian
Clean energy should be a priority, not wuthering 'Brontë country' nostalgia
Re Simon Jenkins' article (Ed Miliband would let a turbine farm destroy Brontë country. We need net zero, but at what cost?, 14 July), there might be good reasons for opposing a windfarm on the Yorkshire moors, but Emily Brontë isn't one of them. Nor is the 'turbulent romance' of Wuthering Heights an appropriate filter through which to view the Pennines. The Brontës' local landscape would have changed considerably in their lifetime. They would have seen the rapid industrialisation of nearby towns such as Bradford and Halifax, and the mills that sprang up along the river in Haworth. They would have recognised the benefits of the expansion of the railways despite the impact on the countryside (their brother, Branwell, worked as a railway clerk). The 'historic Brontë village of Haworth' where they grew up was not a rural idyll, but a breeding ground for cholera and typhoid. The Brontë sisters must have applauded the campaign by their father, Patrick, for improved sanitation there, leading to the creation of a local reservoir that doubtless affected the countryside but also saved lives. We cannot afford to cordon off parts of the UK as a nostalgic theme park ('Brontë country'). Nor should we romanticise the lives of a family who grew up in an unimaginably unhealthy environment and died young as a result. The clean energy produced by windfarms is vastly preferable to the polluted environment that Emily Brontë endured, and it is likely that she of all people would have understood why a clean environment should be our first priority. Jane MiddletonBath Some of what Simon Jenkins writes about windfarms in beauty spots, on the necessity to protect the scientific importance of such areas, is unlikely to ruffle many feathers, but much of it sounds more like the Miliband neighbours he references. Only a day tripper wanting to see the moors and dropped off for 20 minutes on a pleasant spring day 'strolls' on the Pennine Way. If you haven't walked to Top Withens on a raw winter day, with sleet biting your cheeks, the wind wuthering, and water being blown uphill instead of flowing down, you cannot understand why the Pennines is such a great place for a windfarm. My great-grandchildren will still be able to walk the Pennine Way, with or without BoddenWakefield, West Yorkshire Simon Jenkins misunderstands what net zero is when he labels it 'a political ambition rather than a plausible target'. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says clearly: 'From a physical science perspective, limiting human-caused global warming to a specific level requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions, reaching at least net zero CO2 emissions'. And both the IPCC and the UK's Climate Change Committee are clear that it is not just plausible but achievable, with the latter's recent seventh carbon budget providing 'an ambitious, deliverable pathway for the UK to reach net zero by 2050'. So net zero is a scientific concept that is required to stop climate change. Indeed, net zero not only can but must be met if we are to avoid ever more dangerous impacts long into the Redmond-King Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit Simon Jenkins asks what landscapes we will lose in the bid to achieve net zero. He ought, rather, to ponder what will be left of them if we don't achieve this CaplanOxford Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
