2024
Volume 24, Number 1, pp. 24-30
Demarcation of the absurd in net zero
Henry Matthews
Science Consultants International, Postfach, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
A critical appraisal of the ideology and practicality of “net zero” (anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions) is made. The focus is on the UK since it is the first country to have enshrined the achievement of net zero in law. The resulting policies (so far) enjoined are, however, contradictory, which is the main source of absurdity, alongside promotion of the idea that each individual citizen must contribute to the goal, at his or her own expense, while giant corporations are allowed to operate as they did before enactment of the net zero law, unless it suits them on economic grounds to do otherwise. Yet without general assent from the population, net zero will never be achievable; the increasing perception of absurdities make assent less likely, especially if actions contrary to individual self-interest are required, without an obvious gain in collective interest. If anything, the tide is already receding, with more and more investors questioning costly and unprofitable commitments to net zero (and environmental–social–governance (ESG) issues more generally) by the firms in which they have invested. Another source of absurdity is the overestimation of technological capabilities by policymakers so ignorant of science and technology that they are unable to themselves appraise their feasibility, and hence are readily persuaded by promoters of a particular technology. A major example is carbon capture and storage. As for carbon footprint (of the capital equipment used to avoid emitting carbon dioxide, such as a wind turbine with a dynamo), it is simply ignored when inconvenient. Estmates vary widely; according to some of them, installations such as photovoltaic panels will never offset their carbon footprint in their lifetime. Meanwhile, most entrepreneurs simply view net zero as a new feature of the commercial landscape from which, possibly, profits may be extracted in some way or another. There already seems to be a dim perception by governments that general approval of net zero requires moral assent of the kind more associated with religion than economics. This paper concludes with a suggestion that the consequential application of multi-objective optimization couild be used to rationally resolve the mass of contradictions inherent in net zero and, finally, that the emission of carbon dioxide is just one of many polluting diseconomies, all of which need to be addressed in an equitable fashion for the good of humanity.