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The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown grew up the son of a minister in an industrial Scottish town before ascending the ranks of Britain's Labour Party to eventually serve as Prime Minister. Since leaving office, The Rt. Hon. Brown has focused on social justice, most recently speaking out on the shortfalls in the international response to Covid-19. He joined David to talk about his concerns over increased nationalism in Europe and around the globe, how he views the United States' role in world affairs, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and how almost losing his eye sight led to a career in politics.
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Carbon sequestration has long been discussed as an essential tool in our quest for net zero. Given that we will likely rely on carbon capture methods to offset over half of the UK's residual carbon footprint in 2050, it is important to examine the options available and the feasibility of their application over the coming decades. There are two categories of carbon capture techniques: natural and artificial. The main methods in the former category involve afforestation and reforestation. Given that planting a forest the size of Greater London would over 100 years only offset the next two years of UK carbon emissions, it seems appropriate to focus mainly on the second group. From extracting carbon dioxide from seawater in Devon, to heat-powered methods at Sizewell C, there are dozens of innovative carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) methods being funded by Government net zero investments. Issues only arise when we begin to evaluate the costs of these technologies versus the benefits they provide. There are two key figures to examine. Firstly, the social cost of carbon: the present value of the damage done by a tonne of CO2 released into the atmosphere. William Nordhaus, 2018 Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences for his work on the economic implications of climate change, has called this "The most important single economic concept in the economics of climate change", and estimated it in 2017 to be $31/tonne CO2. (It should be noted that there is disagreement around this figure, because of how we weigh impacts on future generations and developing countries. Most papers put the figure around $20-60.) Secondly, is the price of extracting one tonne of carbon from the atmosphere by these methods. A report cited in 2019 by the BEIS committee stated a cost of £80-160/tonne of CO2 prevented from entering the atmosphere at gas-powered electricity plants. Assuming a reduced dependence on fossil fuels, carbon capture will likely come from Direct Air Capture (DAC), rather than being attached to a power plant. A planned British DAC plant hopes to decrease costs to £200/tonne. The International Energy Agency has stated that in the best locations and using the best technology, DAC could fall below $100/tonne. These prices must therefore fall by 50-90% in the next two decades for carbon sequestration to be cost-effective. This is unlikely since most of the cost is from the electricity required by the process, and excepting a breakthrough in nuclear fusion, the price of electricity is unlikely to fall much in the UK, if at all. If this does not happen, capturing carbon could cost more than leaving it in the atmosphere. Given the number of people still sceptical about climate change, funding cost-ineffective policies which will hurt them more than climate change will is not the way to convince them of the very real harms caused by CO2.The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report shows CCUS to be the most expensive of 31 mitigation options, and exhibiting the joint-lowest potential contributions to net emission reduction. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Government has not included any discussion whatsoever of CCUS prices across 550 pages of Net Zero, CCUS Strategy or Clean Growth Strategy documents. It is of course possible that we will succeed in reducing costs. However, there are currently no commercial applications of CCUS in the UK, and even if technology improves, the projects in Devon and at Sizewell C are predicted to bottom-out at £100 and £200/tonne of CO2 removed respectively. If new methods are to be developed and carbon capture is to become a serious and cost-effective method for reaching net zero, it is far more likely to happen in the Middle East or China, which have comparative advantages in developing this technology. Given the UK's reluctance to support large infrastructure developments within our own borders, it could be beneficial to partner with these nations and use British brains to aid them in developing these important technologies which, if successful, could then be applied here. Given these realities it appears that without significant technological breakthroughs to lower capture costs, or unlikely catastrophic climactic changes to increase carbon's costs, carbon sequestration is likely to be a net cost to our net zero strategy.

The failure to effectively target federal safety-net funding for hospitals has, for decades, lowered the quality of care and outcomes for safety-net patients, particularly for those of color. That's according to LDI Senior Fellow and Perelman School of Medicine's Paula Chatterjee, MD, MPH, writing in a recent JAMA Health Forum Viewpoint focused on the Medicaid […]

The FCC's latest attempt to resurrect net neutrality risks slowing innovation and prohibiting practices that can improve network efficiency.
The post Why Resurrect Net Neutrality? appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

We've all seen those claims around that pensions savings don't, in fact, invest in new assets, new companies. That, instead, the money just goes into buying up second hand pieces of paper which funds the rip off of the City houses (cont. pg 94).There's a reason for this: This has meant that UK-listed companies are receiving just £500m in net investment from pension funds each year.Goldman Sachs said defined benefit (DB) schemes – which pay a fixed income but are largely closed to new savers – are selling £2.5bn of shares per quarter to pay out pensions to retirees.At the same time, defined contribution (DC) pensions – which do not guarantee a specific income but depend on the performance of financial markets – are buying £3bn of equities over the same period.People eat their capital to finance their retirements. This might be done inside a pension fund, a tax wrapper or simply directly and individually. But it is not true that a pension is simply the income made from some pot of money. It's eating into that pot itself, that stock, over time. Therefore it is necessary that those assets - whatever they are, shares, bonds, direct assets like buildings, windmills, anything - be bought from the retiring generation by those now beginning to save themselves.Which is why much of the financial markets is indeed trading second hand pieces of paper. Because this generation of retirees needs to sell the things they invested in 30 and 50 years ago. Any plan based upon an estimation of the gross number is therefore going to be wrong. It is the net which matters. What is left over of the new investment after the old has been purchased? Also, any complaint that The City just trades old paper is entirely missing the point. For, obviously, people need to be able to sell what they've invested in, so there must be a market in old investments, right?

The ACLU of Northern California reports it has uncovered a geofence warrant that stretched nearly two miles across San Francisco. The warrant would have allowed law enforcement to find active cellphones across an area that included numerous private homes as well as several government buildings. The ACLU said it isn't clear what law enforcement agency…

Australia's 2023 Defence Strategic Review is very clear: Australia must change the way it plans for and acquires defense capabilities. Doing so will require a net assessment to examine the various factors that may contribute to or detract from the country's military capabilities.

Safety net hospitals were hit hard by the pandemic, and in its wake some are struggling financially despite a large influx of federal COVID relief funds.

Unfortunately, policymakers often do not react rationally when their ideas are disproven by reality; hence the FCC's new net neutrality push.

Toward the end of this month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a vote to reinstate a set of rules for internet providers. Consisting of 434 pages and resembling a 2015 order passed during the Obama administration, the new rules are expected to pass given the makeup of the FCC. If enacted, broadband companies and other […]
The post The Past and Present of Net Neutrality appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

In my post yesterday on the new OECD Economic Outlook fiscal numbers I included this chart Even if you leave off the last two observations (OECD projections based on current – Labour government – fiscal policy) recent trends have hardly been something to take any comfort in. But at least we were still a bit … Continue reading Government net debt: how does NZ compare?

The 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) is very clear: Australia must change the way it plans for and acquires defence capabilities. The DSR recognises that doing so will require a net assessment to examine the ...

Did you know there are more than 242,000km of watercourses in England? Our rivers, lakes, ponds, estuaries, and wetlands cut across and connect many landscapes, providing natural corridors for wildlife and supporting a wealth of biodiversity. However, our nation's wildlife …

LdN260 Stand der Regierungsbildung, (Interview: Jamila Schäfer), YouTube löscht Kanal "RT Deutsch", Berliner Wahlchaos, Digitaler Führerschein floppt

Europe must invest heavily in its decarbonisation. Yet the expenditures are manageable, the alternatives unconscionable.