NetZero is stupid, yet it is the policy objective for nearly every Western government. 

It is leading to the deindustrialization of wealthier countries, the further impoverishment of poorer countries, and the immiseration of billions of people. 

And to top it all, it is an impossible dream only embraced by people who think that you can wish things into reality. It is no more credible than the belief that boys can become girls, or that "real" communism has never been tried. 

Solar and wind power have grown to a mere 3.5% of primary energy production. The levelised cost of renewable energy – which measures of the net present value of electricity produced over a plant’s lifetime – has declined sharply over the years. But this has not resulted into…

— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) February 28, 2025

Almost no media outlet willingly platforms anybody who challenges the transnational elite's orthodoxy, so imagine my surprise to see a column written by Englishman Edward Chancellor, an economist and former finance guy, explaining the facts of life. He's not making the case againg climate alarmism, but rather against the policy prescriptions that obviously will never work. 

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The pursuit of net zero carbon emissions has been a resounding failure. Despite trillions of dollars spent on renewable energy, hydrocarbons still account for over 80%, opens new tab of the world’s primary energy and a similar share of recent increases in energy consumption, according to The Energy Institute. Coal, oil and natural gas production are at record highs. Emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise inexorably. The financial markets were already losing confidence in the energy transition before Donald Trump returned to the White House. A more realistic approach to climate policy is urgently needed.

Solar and wind power have grown to a mere 3.5% of primary energy production. The levelised cost of renewable energy – which measures of the net present value of electricity produced over a plant’s lifetime – has declined sharply over the years. But this has not resulted into lower electricity prices. In fact, as the share of the energy mix provided by renewables has risen, electricity prices have tended to increase. That’s because wind and solar power are intermittent. Since storing energy in batteries is uneconomic, traditional sources of power are still needed as backup, which is expensive.

After decades of policy prescriptions that aim to drop fossil fuel use to zero, their use in the economy has only grown. 

Even if NetZero were a smart idea--newsflash, it isn't--it is not going to happen any time in our grandchildren's lifetime unless Doc Brown's Mr. Fusion becomes reality soon. 

NetZero makes people poor, while transferring wealth to countries that make nods to decarbonization but continue to build coal plants, like China. 

Germany and the United Kingdom, which get a relatively large share of their electricity from renewables, also suffer from the world’s highest electricity costs. This is partly due to the Ukraine war, which exposed the risks inherent in Europe’s historical dependence on Russian gas and domestic bans on hydraulic fracturing. High energy costs have crippled domestic manufacturing. German industrial production is down 15% from its peak, according to Andy Lees of MacroStrategy Partnership. German chemical company BASF (BASFn.DE), opens new tab last year announced it was scaling back, opens new tab domestic production. Britain’s last remaining blast-furnace steelworks at Port Talbot closed last October. “The European Union and the United Kingdom present the sternest warning against attempts to force emissions reductions while neglecting the physical realities that distinguish hydrocarbons from modern renewables, such as wind and solar,” Chris Wright, then the CEO of Liberty Energy, wrote, opens new tab last year. Wright is now the U.S. energy secretary.

Don't worry, though. No danger of China using its profits and know-how from building all our stuff to threaten our security. And if they do, at least the CO2 level in the atmosphere will be ever so marginally lower. 

The People’s Republic currently consumes more than half the world’s annual coal supply and last year started construction of coal-fired electricity plants with an output equivalent to twice Britain’s total generating capacity. India, which like China gets most of primary energy from coal, is also rolling out many new coal-fired plants. Meanwhile Trump last month signed an executive order to withdraw the United States, the world’s second-largest producer of greenhouse gases, from the Paris Agreement for the second time. The president wants to increase domestic production of oil and gas. His administration hopes cheaper energy – which includes some forms of renewable power - will encourage a U.S. manufacturing renaissance. It also plans to increase exports of natural gas, much of which will end up in Europe.

The energy expert Vaclav Smil has likened, opens new tab the costs of the planned energy transition to those incurred by a nation fighting total war for decades on end. The era of zero interest rates created a sense that the supply of capital was infinite and its cost negligible. Rising interest rates dispelled that illusion. The economics of wind and solar power, with their large upfront investment costs and relatively low operating expenses, have been upended. Wood Mackenzie calculates, opens new tab that every 2 percentage point increase in the risk-free rate raises the levelised cost of renewable electricity by around 20%.

Financial markets have got the message. The S&P Global Clean Energy Transition Index is down around 65% from its peak in early 2021. Over the same period, the S&P World Energy Index, comprised of oil and gas producers, has nearly doubled. Orsted (ORSTED.CO), opens new tab, the world’s largest wind farm operator, recently slashed its capital spending plans and dropped its targets for delivering renewable energy.

NetZero is and always has been a fantasy sold to people who have been paralyzed with fear over climate catastrophes that are nowhere on the horizon. Whether you are worried about anthropogenic climate change or not is irrelevant in understanding this basic fact. If, in fact, climate change caused by human beings is a problem, you should be looking elsewhere for policies that might work. 

This one is a loser and always was.