Over recent months, The Telegraph has pursued a new line of attack against Labour's plans to stop issuing new North Sea oil and #gas licenses: New Zealand's 'green energy disaster'.
With the help of the crew Kiwis in Climate, I pushed back. Would the editors at The Telegraph publish our letter?
Its latest offering, courtesy of Kiwi and GWPF Academic Advisory Council, Bryan Layland, was too specious to ignore. Mr Layland's claim, for instance, that our 2018 offshore oil and gas exploration ban has put the country at risk of blackouts has been debunked time and time again. According to MBIE any new offshore exploration would not be in production until after 2035, so isn't relevant to supply security over the short-term.
The truth is, as folks like Christina Hood are at pains to show, New Zealand bet its energy security on risky and unreliable gas - and we've been let down. Recent announcements on grid-scale batteries will reduce the need for gas peaking. With more investment in efficiency measures and firming options, we can get off gas. And no, not through turning to nuclear, as Mr Layland suggests.
Will The Telegraph stop misusing Aotearoa as its poster child of failed grid decarbonisation? I doubt it. There's a lack of scrutiny, both from Down Under and among Torygraph readership.
The good news is that UK should and will learn from New Zealand's example through its Mission Control initiative: a majority-renewables generation mix is feasible, desirable and inevitable. Chris Stark
As Saul Griffith, Michelle Pawson, Paul Conway, Geoff Simmons and others show in their #RewiringAotearoa report, electrifying what Kiwis drive, what we cook in and how we heat our homes could save us nearly $100 billion over the next 15 years. By focussing on the demand side and helping cut peak electricity demand, the economy wins, energy security wins, sovereignty wins, and the climate wins. Remember, a fossil-fuelled car converts 25% of the energy in its fuel into motion; EVs convert 90% of their energy into motion.
Btw, The Telegraph didn't publish the letter.
Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit Jen Purdie Marc Daalder