Over three years ago, Professor Sir Dieter Helm appeared on BBC Radio 4’s lunchtime programme “You and Yours”. I transcribed the interview, and you can read it here. In that interview, he laid bare the fact that it’s the drive to net zero that’s making energy bills so high, and that it will continue to do so (“going forward we are gonna have higher costs. We really do have to think through how people can pay, and who pays”).
He is, of course, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and the author of an independent review published in 2017 in which he “put forward his proposals on how to reduce costs in the power system in the long-term whilst ensuring the UK meets its climate change targets.” He is certainly no climate sceptic (let alone a dreaded “denier”), and he believes that global “decarbonisation” is necessary. However, he is a realist, not a starry-eyed dreamer who thinks that the UK can successfully decarbonise in short order without causing itself economic harm, and he speaks his mind without fear or favour. Perhaps that’s why his 2017 report has pretty much being ignored both by the Conservative government that commissioned it and by the current Labour government, which is made up of starry-eyed dreamers with little understanding of reality. I assumed that the BBC wouldn’t repeat the exercise three years ago when he was allowed to broadcast a few home truths, but, thankfully, it appears I was wrong. My thanks go to Jit for drawing to our attention his interview on the BBC Radio 4 World at One programme earlier today, and for noting that his comments were not subject to push-back by the interviewer. I missed the interview at the time, but having caught up with it, I think it’s sufficiently important to be shared with Cliscep visitors. It seems it was deliberately positioned after a report about the Scunthorpe steel works, which is under threat of closure by its Chinese owners. Here it is:
Edward Stourton (ES): Sir Dieter Helm is a professor of energy policy at the University of Oxford. Good afternoon.
Sir Dieter Helm (DH): Good afternoon.
ES: What’s happened? Why?
DH: Well, the dependency on primary steel – blast furnace steel – remains. We are going to have to buy steel, particularly if we want to have a serious defence industry, rail and so on. What we have got in the UK is the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, and that – together with the cost of labour and so on – makes it very hard to compete against other suppliers: China, other developed countries etc. And therefore the economics run out and we have the government in a position where if it wants to carry on producing the stuff – and after all, you know, this stuff is going to be produced, so the carbon emissions aren’t going to be avoided around the world – we either have to throw it a large subsidy or we have to give it competitively-priced energy, and look to some of the other economic costs that the plants have to make them world-competitive again.
ES: Before we explore those options and the significance of what’s happening, just briefly, why are our energy prices so far out of line with everyone else’s?
DH: Well there are lots of reasons for that. Everybody else is hit by the gas price, as we are, but we have a sprint towards net zero for electricity by 2 30 [sic – 2030], in about 58 months’ time, and we have about 25% of the bills being levies or charges for part of our transition, and we, with Germany, end up trying to go fast towards wind and solar, ending up with very high prices, and the consequence is that large-scale industry leaves. Grangemouth is another example, Port Talbot is another example, and we end up importing the stuff that we would have otherwise produced here.
ES: We heard one of the people in Scunthorpe there refer to “the best steel in the world”. Where does this leave us, in that case, in terms of a steel industry? Is this the end of such a thing?
DH: It effectively is, because – and we’ll, I think, be the only one of the G7 countries that doesn’t produce primary steel – I mean, the plan is to electrify this, but one has to be very careful here. When you think about electrifying, say, Port Talbot, you don’t produce primary steel like blast furnaces do – the high-grade, high-quality steel that’s required for defence as well – you produce lower-grade steel using recycled materials, and that’s quite good for the building industry. But, you know, in the end of the day, if you’re serious about building tanks and submarines etc., you need primary steel, and to be dependent on other countries to provide us this stuff seems to me to be at least inconsistent with the defence requirements, but also more generally a very questionable position to get to. And electrifying steel won’t solve that need for primary steel any time soon. You need blast furnaces for that.
ES: And as you suggest, there is an irony in this trend happening at exactly the moment when we are being told that we need to build more armaments, tanks, and so forth.
DH: Yes. Well, we’ve been flattered by, you know, the perception or story that our emissions are falling very sharply. I mean, what we’re doing in decarbonising is decarbonising territorial emisions in the UK. And one of the ways you get your emissions down really quickly is to close your heavy industrial energy-intensive and carbon-intensive industries and import the stuff instead. It makes absolutely no difference to climate change – the emissions happen somewhere else, like China, as opposed to here – but our numbers get flattered. So every time you hear how wonderfully we’re doing, look at what’s happened to aluminium, fertilisers, petrochemicals, steel, and then imagine a world in which you suddenly decide “Well actually, you know what, we need quite a lot of that stuff, how are we going to build the tanks, who’s gonna send us the steel to make these things?” Are we going to ask China to do that?
ES: So it’s not just a climate change question, as you were talking about earlier. It is also, if you’re right, a national security issue.
DH: Oh, it’s definitely a national security issue. I mean, if you want to stop causing emissions through the process of, you know, closing steel, then stop buying steel. But, you know, it’s not as if we’re going to consume less steel as a result of closing these plants. We’re not gonna use less petrochemicals because Grangemouth gets closed, and we’re definitely not using less fertilisers because we closed our fertiliser factories. You know, if you want to genuinely cut these emissions, at least in the short- to medium-term, you’ve just got to stop using them. And we have a policy to go in the opposite direction. And defence is about the most energy-intensive and carbon-intensive industry you can think about. And steel, and blast furnaces are part and parcel of that frame. So nobody else I know as a primary military world power would dream of not having their own blast furnace steel at home.
ES: Sir Dieter Helm, thank you very much for joining us this lunchtime.
As Jit commented: “I’m sure it ruffled a few feathers among some listeners.” But is anybody listening in the Government?
Climate Scepticism 
Thanks for this Mark.
I’ve put up a couple of comments in various places suggesting that now that the main opposition party has cast doubt on the net zero caper, the BBC might have to give airtime to the likes of Prof Helm in the interests of impartiality. Hopefully Prof Helm’s contribution to WATO is a start.
I heard a report on this morning’s Today Programme that the first swallow had been spotted over Yorkshire. Could be a good omen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for transcribing that, Mark. It was also good to hear the point about territorial emissions getting an airing. I’m quite sure that many of the public are unaware about just what a giant accounting trick territorial emissions are – many of us are probably under the impression that they capture our impact on the atmosphere, when as I noted the other day, they most certainly don’t.
The interview compares favourably with one I caught the end of, I think yesterday on PM, with Emma Pinchbeck. When challenged that the political consensus for Net Zero was cracking, she basically rounded off her comments by claiming that we’re going to Net Zero anyway because we need to avoid – the old favourite – “volatile gas prices.” Evan Davies did not challenge her on that.
The thought occurs that maybe – just maybe – those people whose jobs are dependent on Net Zero are the ones claiming it is inevitable & cheap & easy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stupid, and malevolent.
“Miliband launches net zero crackdown on boats”
Telegraph link.
LikeLiked by 2 people
For me, the best takeaway from Prof Sir Dieter Helm’s ‘Cost of Energy Review’ is:
“*The FiTs and other low-carbon CfDs should be gradually phased out, and merged into a unified equivalent firm power (EFP) capacity auction. The costs of intermittency will then rest with those who cause them*, and there will be a major incentive for the intermittent generators to contract with and invest in the demand side, storage and back-up plants. The balancing and flexibility of markets should be significantly encouraged.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Labour considers using terror laws to nationalise British Steel
Jonathan Reynolds proposes radical move after government talks with owner Jingye collapse”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/29/labour-consider-use-terror-laws-nationalise-british-steel/
Terror laws could be used to nationalise Britain’s last steel blast furnaces after their Chinese owner threatened to shut them down.
Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, has raised the idea of using the Civil Contingencies Act as a way of rapidly nationalising British Steel, The Telegraph understands.
Introduced in 2004, the act allows ministers to invoke extraordinary powers in the event of a national emergency such as war, an attack by a foreign power or an act of terrorism.
The unprecedented move is being considered after Jingye, the Scunthorpe plant’s Chinese owner, announced plans to close both blast furnaces there after talks with the Government collapsed.
It is understood the company has suggested it could start shutting down at least one of the blast furnaces within a matter of weeks, with the second closure following as soon as June. Such a move could be irreversible once taken, unions have warned.
It would leave Britain as the only G7 nation without the ability to make new steel and trigger the loss of up to 2,700 jobs. Unions have urged Mr Reynolds to step in and nationalise the company to stop the blast furnaces from being closed.
Nationalisation has previously only been considered by the Government in the event that the company becomes insolvent. Jingye is not in financial distress.
However, amid cross-party warnings that losing the ability to make virgin steel poses a national security threat, Mr Reynolds is said to have discussed using the Civil Contingencies Act as a way of blocking Jingye from closing the Scunthorpe blast furnaces.
The move would effectively grant ministers the ability to write temporary laws that give them control of British Steel without needing to rush a bill through Parliament, although that would likely need to be done afterwards to make the change permanent.
However, the act has never been used before – even during the Covid pandemic – and invoking it risks spooking businesses and triggering a court battle with Jingye.…
What an absurd mess. The Government, it seems (if the Telegraph report is true) is considering using emergency powers to deal with a national security crisis that it – the government – itself created. At what point, if ever, is Ed going to be sacked and his massively dangerous net zero crusade dumped? Surely even government ministers can now see that it’s net zero that’s holding back growth, it’s net zero that’s damaging business, it’s net zero that’s putting the security of the state at risk, it’s net zero that’s giving us crippling energy prices, and – as Sir Dieter Helm (and Jit) – observe(s), all we’re doing is exporting our emissions (and jobs and security) in an attempt to make our territorial emissions go down, while making no difference to global emissions at all.
LikeLiked by 3 people
From the Telegraph on that small boats story:
Also from the Telegraph, re. the opinion of Trump’s Energy Secretary regarding the “aggressive” UK push to Net Zero:
Andrew Montford thinks Miliband is “utterly, utterly insane” for what he’s doing to canal boat owners and small fishing boats operators. I think he is stupid, insane and utterly, utterly malign:
Evidenced by the fact that it’s not only boat owners who are being targeted: councils are targeting home owners with wood burners and no doubt very soon generating your own electricity at home with a petrol or diesel generator will also be outlawed. Off-grid living is not Net Zero compliant.
LikeLiked by 3 people
“Net Zero is sending British steelmaking to the scrapyard
Labour is putting its eco-delusions ahead of jobs and defence.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/01/net-zero-is-sending-british-steelmaking-to-the-scrapyard/
...Labour is caught in a vice. The ‘green transition’ to steelmaking with no fossil fuels will be, according to management consultants McKinsey, a ‘significant’ challenge. Although EAFs could, in principle, be powered completely by renewables, ‘there is likely not sufficient scrap [metal] to meet global demand’. Two widely touted routes to ‘green’ steel – hot briquetted iron and direct reduced iron – will require green hydrogen, which is not currently being used anywhere at scale. ‘However’, McKinsey notes laconically, ‘much progress remains to be made’ with these technologies.
While we await that much-vaunted progress, threats to national security and blows to the economy are already coming thick and fast. Labour may want Net Zero, but protecting Britain’s population and boosting living standards will require a whole lot more CO2.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“British Steel could decide to shut Scunthorpe plant in days”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5rlvkzq2xo
Decisions taken within the next few days will determine whether British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant stays open, the BBC understands.
The plant’s Chinese owner, Jingye, has cancelled two cargo shipments of coking coal for the site’s two blast furnaces and it has not yet paid for iron pellets that are scheduled to arrive next week.
Without coal and iron ore, the blast furnaces will shut down within weeks.
Last week British Steel launched a consultation on the proposed closure of its two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, putting up to 2,700 jobs at risk….
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Government considers nationalising British Steel”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vnz4jy97no
The government is considering nationalising British Steel as fears grow among ministers that the company’s blast furnaces in Scunthorpe could run out of raw materials within days.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has sought to reassure workers at the Lincolnshire plant that the government would consider nationalisation if necessary.
Reeves spoke to trade unions over the weekend to explain the government’s outlook on the steelworks’ future. It is understood she told them she was acutely aware of the steel industry’s strategic importance to the UK....
Really? You have a strange way of demonstrating your awareness:
…The government has offered £500m of support to partly fund a switch from blast furnaces to what are known as electric arc furnaces.…
Reading the observations of politicians, as expressed in the BBC article, regarding the possible fate of Scunthorpe, it’s sadly all too obvious that there is a lot of cluelessness in Parliament.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The BEEB has cheered on the Whitehaven deep coal mine plans officially dropped & this government made sure it never happened.
Wonder what kind of planet killing coal it intended to supply –
Welcome to West Cumbria Mining
“Premium High-Quality Steelmaking Coal For use by steelmakers as a direct replacement for USA coals. It has highly attractive properties for steelmaking, including ultra-low ash and very low Phosphorus. With excellent existing infrastructure, this can be delivered on a ‘just-in-time’ basis to Europe, using a variety of vessel sizes up to Cape or by rail to UK steelmakers.”
At least you can eat headless chickens when they finally fall over.
LikeLike
“British Steel solution is within reach, minister says”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgrggwxzd2jo
The minister in question being Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary. The BBC article has been opened up to a Have Your Say, the highest-rated comments being these (in order):
The decision to leave coking coal in the ground in Cumbria was a mistake. Legal activists and government zealots only consider UK emissions and ignore the global emissions from steel imports from China. We need good steel for 80% of our rail network and for major construction projects and house building. Weapons grade steel can’t be made from re-cycled waste.
And
I’m with the centre-right of politics who believe British steel is of such strategic national importance it should be nationalised !!!
Paradoxically a left-wing Labour government is resisting and believes it should be left to the private sector with a £500m sweetener. Which it’s Chinese owners have rejected.
A serious G7 country the UK aspires to JUST HAS to produce it’s own steel !
And
Anyone who doesn’t believe in nationalised steel needs their head checking. We can’t rely on potential adversaries for steel for submarines, warships, or even major projects like bridges. We should have nationalised everything, like Norway, and put the profits in a sovereign wealth fund.
LikeLike
You really couldn’t make this stuff up. This is the government that finally killed the Cumbrian coal mine whose coal was intended to be used in steel -making. Surely, if he has any integrity, Miliband must now resign?
“Government offers to buy coal to keep British Steel going, sources say”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp311nr7w34o
The government has offered to buy the coking coal that is essential to keep steel production going at British Steel in Scunthorpe, the BBC has been told.
British Steel has been warning for several days that the raw materials needed to keep its plant’s two blast furnaces operational are running out.
Sources said the government was putting the offer in writing to British Steel’s Chinese owner Jingye, which will decide on whether to accept it.
Separately government sources said the materials need to be paid for within the next two days or production will cease at the British Steel plant within weeks and cannot be restarted. The Department of Business and Trade did not comment...
LikeLiked by 2 people
John Crace, writing in the Guardian, is for me something of a curate’s egg – good in parts. He seems to enjoy being sarcastically critical of everyone, which I find a bit cheap and tiresome, yet he is capable of making some very good points, including points which I would not have thought fit in very well with the grinding net zero Guardian narrative:
“The steel crisis has made the UK business secretary look like an innocent abroad
Who thought the Chinese government had anything but Britain’s interests at heart? Everyone but Jonathan Reynolds”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/12/the-steel-crisis-has-made-the-uk-business-secretary-look-like-an-innocent-abroad-jonathan-reynolds
…It has to be said that Jonny looked fairly ropey. Not getting much sleep in the last few days, I guess. But he was bewildered by the irrationality of the Chinese. The rest of us were bewildered by Reynolds’ own shortsightedness. Surely it was completely rational of the Chinese to do everything in their power to de-industrialise a rival country. To make the UK the only member of the G7 without the capacity to make its own virgin steel is the stuff of dreams for Beijing. Making the business secretary look like an innocent abroad.…
LikeLike
If you want a laugh (you’d have to laugh or you’d cry) try this:
“Rightwing media falsely blame Ed Miliband for UK steel crisis, experts say
Net zero and clean energy can actually help save the steel industry, experts point out”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/14/rightwing-media-blames-ed-miliband-uk-steel-crisis-net-zero
LikeLike
“ArcelorMittal’s pullout plunges German green steel in doubt
Despite being offered billions in subsidies, steel giant ArcelorMittal has suspended plans to transition to green steel production in Germany. Is this an isolated case — or a warning sign for the entire industry?”
https://www.dw.com/en/arcelormittals-pullout-plunges-german-green-steel-in-doubt/a-73303680
Steel is the backbone of German industry — but it’s also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for nearly 7% of Germany’s CO2 emissions.
As Germany has pledged to become carbon-neutral by 2045 — five years earlier than the rest of the European Union — the steel industry must cut up to 55 million metric tons of CO₂ annually, which is roughly 30% of all industrial emissions, according to the German Steel Federation lobby group.
In order to make German steel production significantly more sustainable, the previous government comprising the Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business FDP had embarked on policies encouraging the use of hydrogen with huge state subsidies.
Green hydrogen produced with renewable energy is planned to replace coal in the industry.
One of the steelmakers who had initially applied for government subsidies was Luxembourg-based steel conglomerate ArcelorMittal, under a corporate plan that intended to make the company’s two German steel works carbon-neutral by 2050.
The German government supported the plan, offering €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) in subsidies to facilitate the transition to hydrogen-based steelmaking.
But in June, ArcelorMittal announced it was halting the decarbonization plans at its sites in Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt, and that it would hand back the subsidy grant.…
Lots of reasons, but basically cut-price competition (think China) and the impracticality of expensive green hydrogen that can’t operate at scale. Well worth a read.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course, this is a complex story, but if electric arc furnaces were profitable, then perhaps this wouldn’t be such a mess:
“Government prepares to take over UK’s third largest steelworks”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0yd0829m4o
The government is preparing to take control of the UK’s third largest steelworks in a bid to save the business and protect 1,500 jobs.
Managers have been lined up to take over Speciality Steels UK (SSUK) in South Yorkshire which is owned by Liberty Steel, a court heard.
The future of the company, which uses scrap metal to manufacture steel, has been uncertain for some time and it could be wound up over its large pile of unpaid debts.
It comes after ministers seized control of British Steel, in Scunthorpe, earlier this year to prevent the last plant in the UK producing virgin steel from closing.
SSUK is home to the UK’s largest electric arc furnace which are more energy efficient and are thought to be pivotal in the industry’s energy transition.
But the company has faced financial troubles for sometime and has been unable to buy the scrap metal needed to produce steel after Liberty Steel’s main lender collapsed and unpaid debts mounted.
A High Court judge is set to decide the fate of SSUK.…
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Calls for limits on scrap steel exports to boost UK furnaces
Bulk of UK scrap steel is exported, which industry groups say could cost up to £5bn in lost revenue and 20,000 jobs”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/26/calls-for-limits-on-scrap-steel-exports-to-boost-uk-furnaces
Metals recyclers are at loggerheads with the British steel industry over a call to limit lucrative scrap exports so steel can be reused by UK furnaces.
The British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) claims a ban on scrap steel exports to less wealthy countries could cost £5bn in lost economic activity and as many as 20,000 jobs. Steelmakers in the UK are keen to retain the metal to melt down into new steel.
The bulk of the 5.6m tonnes of steel made in the UK in 2023 was made in Port Talbot and Scunthorpe, in carbon-heavy blast furnaces that rely on iron ore dug from the ground. However, both sites are expected to upgrade to much cleaner electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which use greener technology to melt scrap and produce steel.
Currently, four-fifths of the UK’s scrap steel – from old cars, buildings and bridges – is exported via scrap yards and is often melted down in EAFs overseas.
However, UK Steel, a lobby group, has called for the government to limit this trade as it expects demand for scrap will surge by 70% as early as 2027 as Port Talbot, owned by Indian conglomerate Tata Steel, switches on its new EAF. The group forecasts demand will then triple by 2050 compared with 2023 levels.….
Did politicians not see this coming? Of course they didn’t. They don’t know how the world works.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That makes no sense (but then it is the Graun).
If scrap steel is sold to new EAFs in the UK, instead of being exported, how is that going to “cost up to £5bn in lost revenue and 20,000 jobs”? The new customers should pay the market price and there will be savings in shipping. In addition, they expect demand to surge which, as even the Graun should know, is likely to raise prices.
LikeLiked by 2 people
MikeH,
The mainstream media are awash with various claims (often based on dubious studies) that if we do X it could add £billions to the economy, but if we don’t do Y it could cost the economy £billions.
However they try to dress it up, it’s usually pie in the sky. I have long since stopped taking any notice.
LikeLike
MikeH beat me to it. The quoted statements make no sense, or am I missing something?
Partial quote – “Currently, four-fifths of the UK’s scrap steel – from old cars, buildings and bridges – is exported via scrap yards and is often melted down in EAFs overseas.”
Note the “often melted down in EAFs overseas.”. Wonder which “less wealthy countries” use EAF.
LikeLike
“The price of energy and the system costs of renewables”
https://dieterhelm.co.uk/energy-climate/the-price-of-energy-and-the-system-costs-of-renewables/
…This economic reality is one reason why the UK has been de-industrialising in the face of high energy prices. It also explains why territorial carbon production emissions in the UK have fallen without having a 1-to-1 impact on climate change. Switching to imports does not mitigate climate change, and getting to net zero territorial emissions will not necessarily have even a positive impact on global warming.
In response, it is argued that carbon leakage (firms based in the UK closing down UK production) has not been quite the problem it is claimed. This is disingenuous; it is not so much that firms are leaving, but rather that energy-intensive industries are not coming to invest in the UK. This is a pattern reflected across Europe. Energy-intensive industries prefer the US, China, India and the Far East.
The upshot is that, if the UK really wants to stop causing climate change (a claim that the Climate Change Commission erroneously made about its advocacy of a 100% net zero target in its advice on the 2019 Climate Change Act Amendment), then the target should be carbon consumption not carbon production. It cannot be repeated too often that climate change is global, and it does not matter where the emissions take place. Making the steel in China rather than in the UK does not reduce global emissions. In practice, it probably increases net emissions above what they otherwise would have been.
Expensive energy reduces competitiveness and worsens the already dire state of the current account of the balance of payments. It makes UK citizens poorer, as well as more reliant on external supply chains, not least steel for defence purposes.…
LikeLiked by 1 person
The written summary below a recent Dieter Helm podcast:
British energy policy, once heralded as a pathway to cheap, secure and decarbonised power, has instead resulted in some of the highest energy costs globally. Despite the optimism of Ed Miliband and before him, Boris Johnson, Britain’s energy system is heavily dependent on foreign supply chains, finance and ownership. The shift to intermittent renewables like wind and solar has doubled infrastructure needs, while long-term contracts lock in elevated prices until at least 2045. Offshore wind, particularly in Scotland, suffers from grid constraints, leading to payments for unused generation. The government’s approach to nuclear, with its “let’s try one and see if it works” perspective, rather than a fully fledged nuclear programme, has followed an inefficient and costly path, further entrenching high costs.
This trajectory poses serious risks to the UK economy. Energy-intensive industries are closing, and few new ones are emerging, as high energy prices deter investment. Britain’s apparent success in reducing carbon emissions masks a growing reliance on imported carbon-intensive goods. Without radical policy reform – renegotiating contracts, restructuring pricing, and rethinking energy strategy – Britain faces a future of permanently high energy costs and diminished industrial competitiveness. What is needed now is not our politicians flying off to yet another COP, this time in Brazil (with access by a new road cut through the Amazon rainforest), but honesty and humility in global climate discussions, urging leaders to learn from Britain’s missteps rather than emulate them.
LikeLike
“British energy policy – not cheap, not home-grown and not secure”
https://dieterhelm.co.uk/energy-climate/british-energy-policy-not-cheap-not-home-grown-and-not-secure/
A simply superb critique of the insanity of the UK’s current energy policy.
LikeLike
Dieter Helm interviewed on UnHerd. Worthy of a watch, even if I don’t agree with all of it. Worthy of a main post perhaps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dieter Helm was just on PM on R4, saying in abbreviated form most of what he said in his essay, and on UnHerd.
Net Zero scepticism has just had a prime time airing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Business secretary backs shift to electric arc furnaces at British Steel plant
Move would secure future of steel production at Scunthorpe but raise questions over future of blast furnaces”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/16/peter-kyle-backs-electric-arc-furnaces-british-steel-scunthorpe
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, has backed a shift to cleaner electric arc technology at the state-controlled British Steel plant, raising questions about the future of the UK’s last remaining blast furnaces.…
…A shift to electric arc furnaces at Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, would secure the future of steel production at the plant – under emergency state control since April – as the UK tries to meet its target of net zero carbon emissions.
However, it would also raise doubts about the fate of blast furnaces that employ thousands of people, and the UK government’s previous pledges to preserve Britain’s primary steelmaking ability, producing steel from iron ore.…
...The UK has relied on blast furnaces to produce primary steel, but they generally vent huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Electric arc furnaces, by contrast, use electricity to melt down scrap steel, not iron ore.
The government is considering investing in a separate facility to turn iron ore into direct reduced iron (DRI), which is compatible with electric arc furnaces. That DRI could then be produced using clean hydrogen, preserving primary steelmaking ability with much lower carbon emissions. However, industry sources have cast doubt on the financial viability of such an arrangement....
LikeLiked by 1 person
A rather brief report on the BBC website:
“Metals recycling company files for liquidation”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr4dx41k3vxo
Credit to the Guardian for a much more detailed report:
“More than 650 jobs at risk as scrap metals giant files for liquidation
Unimetals, which operates at 27 UK locations, files winding–up petition after failing to find a buyer”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/24/jobs-at-risk-scrap-metals-liquidation-unimetals
…The scrap metals industry generates billions of pounds of revenue each year by recycling metals such as steel, aluminium and copper that can be made into new products.
The switch to electric arc furnaces that melt down recycled steel has given added hope for the sector’s longer-term prospects….
But:
…Unimetals struggled earlier this year as the supply of excess scrap and steel was higher than demand, denting prices.…
LikeLike