Sweden has had enough of NetZero, tack så mycket*

* that would be “thanks so much” in Swedish

And they HAVE had enough. The Swedish jettisoned the EU’s climate agenda this weekend, preferring to do it their way.

Meanwhile in Sweden where net zero plans envisioned by the International Energy Agency (IEA) — which are the basis of Canada’s own net zero efforts — “are dangerously expensive and will result in painful reductions in living standards for all but the richest, as well as national… https://t.co/bPndIJdLsy

— Thomas Beyer (@ThomasBeyer) June 24, 2023

Last Tuesday, the Swedish government adopted what they’re calling a 100% fossil-free policy, vice renewable. What does that open them to pursuing, vice that which is tying many other EU member nations up in knots?

Why, nuclear, of course.

Sweden’s parliament on Tuesday (20 June) adopted a new energy target, giving the right-wing government the green light to push forward with plans to build new nuclear plants in a country that voted 40 years ago to phase out atomic power.

Changing the target to “100% fossil-free” electricity, from “100% renewable” is key to the government’s plan to meet an expected doubling of electricity demand to around 300 TwH by 2040 and reach net zero emissions by 2045.

“This creates the conditions for nuclear power,” Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson said in parliament. “We need more electricity production, we need clean electricity and we need a stable energy system.”

Sweden’s parties agreed a deal in 2016 that new reactors could be built at existing sites. However, without subsidies, it has been seen as too expensive. The new right-of-centre coalition says new reactors are essential to power the shift to a fossil-free economy and has promised generous loan guarantees.

As Texas, California, Germany and Britain – to name a few – are finding, wind and solar are too inherently unstable to rely upon and without expensive continuing government subsidies, ALWAYS underwritten by the taxpayer, it’s too damn expensive for everyone but the companies pulling in the cash.

…Observers said the decision implicitly acknowledges the low quality of unstable wind and solar, and is part of a general collapse of confidence in the renewable energy agenda pioneered in the Nordic countries and in Germany.

British lobby group Net Zero Watch, which describes the net zero roadmaps of Western nations as ‘utopian and unsustainable,’ welcomed the move. In recent weeks it blasted the Bank of England for spending £150,000 to measure the carbon footprint of plastic bank notes.

It says the net zero plans envisioned by the International Energy Agency (IEA) — which are the basis of Canada’s own net zero efforts — “are dangerously expensive and will result in painful reductions in living standards for all but the richest, as well as national weakness, societal instability and the eventual failure of the decarbonization effort.”

In that regard, Sweden came to the only logical conclusion, it said.

“Living close to Russia focuses the mind, and the Swedish people not only wish to join NATO, but also to ground their economy in an energy source, nuclear, that is physically sound and secure, unlike renewables which are neither,” said Dr. John Constable, NZW’s energy director.

The Swedish move now has people who have been royally unhappy with the uber expensive British pivot to Green schemes pointing to the Scandinavian country, and saying “Why can’t we do it?” Especially in light of soaring electric costs, rolling blackouts, skyrocketing inflation, and now word of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reinstating a suspended “green levy.”

Talk about making friends and influencing people! Enough already.

Households will pay a £170-a-year green levy on energy bills in the coming days, with Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt accused of “slyly” shifting costs back to consumers.

The Telegraph has learned that the two-year suspension of green levies announced last autumn is to end from the beginning of July, after just nine months.

The cost of the levies was shifted from consumer bills to be funded instead by the Government, following a year-long campaign by energy firms and MPs amid spiraling gas, electricity and food prices last year.

It will again be imposed on consumers, although there has been no formal announcement. Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was business and energy secretary when the costs were taken away from consumers last year, said: “Green levies are part of the problem behind the UK’s particularly high electricity prices. They ought to be abolished but should fall on general taxation until that can happen.

The ambition for net zero must not make us cold and poor.

Yet, it is. Appreciably colder and poorer every year.

@RishiSunak If green agenda is supposed to be cheaper & so good, it should be funding itself, why are people expected to fund it? Sweden have plans to defer net zero and green projects they were right about lockdowns and are correct, being green is costing the country too much https://t.co/QgmyQ7ZCV4

— lsteph (@chitchattee) June 25, 2023

As Brendan O’Neill said, it’s an elite war on the working class. None of the flights of fancy ever affect THEM, the believers – the Davos crowd.

Just us bug eaters.

…Greens openly campaign to deprive working-class communities of well-paid work. They’re trying to prevent the building of a coalmine in Cumbria in north-west England that will create 500 good jobs and produce 2.8million tonnes of coal a year. Well, what do the rights of coal miners matter in the face of the graduate set’s religious conviction that the End Times are near? These people make Thatcher look like a rank amateur when it comes to packing coal miners off to the Job Centre. ‘Coal not dole!’, leftists cried in the Eighties. ‘Keep coal in the hole!’, greens cry today.

EU-imposed eco-regulations in the Netherlands threaten to put thousands of farmers out of work. Irish farmers fear 56,000 jobs could be lost to the irrational demands of the Net Zero cult. Danish truckers are fuming about a new green fuel tax that could shrink their pay packets. The eco-clerisy’s ceaseless war on the car is making it more and more expensive to drive. As author Michael Lind says, the ‘15-minute city’ – where local councils enforce new rules and infrastructure to discourage driving – is a ‘working-class nightmare’.

In the wake of Sweden’s decision, calls for Scotland to turn around are being heard as well. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (recently arrested in the course of a campaign finance investigation) put her small country on the path to wrack and ruin with her wholesale rush to renewables. She’s left quite a legacy, considering she was also really good at cutting her country’s throat as she did it.

The Scottish and UK governments are facing calls to “follow Sweden’s lead” after the Scandinavian nation cancelled its targets for “100% renewable energy”. Sweden is often held up by the SNP as an inspiration for a Scexit Scotland.

…”The United Kingdom has every reason to follow Sweden’s lead but should go further. A small population in a large country such as Sweden can afford to reject fossil fuels, relying on nuclear and hydro and biomass, but the United Kingdom, and other substantial industrialised economies need to face the facts, and understand that only a gas to nuclear pathway is viable to remain industrialised and competitive.”

…In fact, Scotland relied on more nuclear power to generate its electricity than any other UK nation in 2021, thanks to Torness in East Lothian and Hunterston B in North Ayrshire.

The Nuclear Industry Association said the two nuclear power stations had “generated enough electricity to power every home in Scotland for almost 60 years“.

The NIA added: “They have saved 400 million tonnes of carbon emissions, making them the most valuable clean energy assets in Scottish history. But with the retirement of Hunterston B in January of this year after 46 years of service, and Torness due to finish generating power within the decade, Scotland will lose vital clean power.”

Since the Scottish Government is opposed to new nuclear projects, there are no replacements for either station.

Brilliant.

It’s going to take serious pain for countries who have cut their noses off to spite their faces proving how Gaia-friendly they were, earning those carbon-neutral tickees as they swore fealty to the Green Gods. Sweden was already in fine shape with their hydro-electric, what wind they did have, and existing nukes.

They could see the writing on the wall and it made no sense to them to jump off with the rest of the eggs.

Let it glow.