The Net-Zero by 2050 Ship Starting to Sink

Reuters reports , renewable energy funds suffered a net outflow of $1.4 billion in the July to September 2023 quarter. This marks the largest-ever quarterly outflow, signaling a significant retreat from the sector.

LSEG Lipper data shows this to be the largest-ever quarterly outflow.

There was also a 23 percent decrease from the end of June of the total assets under management in the sector—now valued at $65.4 billion.

The S&P Global Clean Energy Index, comprised of major solar and wind power companies and other renewables-related businesses, is down 32% in 2023, most of that in the last three months, i.e., in free-fall. The peak occurred before the start of the Ukraine events. The smart money sold and others sold as well.

The industry stocks hardly growing from 2014 to 2020, overpromised starting about 2020, and submitted bids at prices, $/MWh, that were too low, while costs were increasing at greater rates than estimated, due to interest rates, inflation, energy/component/labor, a lack of specialized ships, plus supply chain constraints that cause costly delays

Plus, starting in 2020, the industry experienced O&M/MWh costs much greater than estimated, due to major design/engineering/quality control deficiencies, such as with Siemens onshore and offshore wind turbines.

Just google

As a result, the industry lost $billions each year, starting about 2020/2021, as reflected by the S&P index   

However, the S&P 500 Energy Index (.SPNY), which is heavy in oil, gas and coal, has had an uptrend since before January 2021, even though the governments of the US, the UK and of some European countries have been scare-mongering fossil fuels as evil, and have been restricting exploration licenses, pipeline construction, etc.

It looks like the rest of the world, especially BRICS-11 countries, is not "playing along" with Net-Zero by 2050 follies. As a result, these countries will have faster growing economies.

Skepticism Surrounds Net-Zero Goals

It is not just investors who are exiting net zero. Politicians are also raising concerns

Australian Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said net zero has “absolutely tanked it.”

His position is that net zero is a “soundbite” and “totally insane.”

It is unachievable because people will starve, if it is enforced.

“Almost everything we grow, we make, we do in our society, relies on the use of fossil fuels,” he said.

Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace agrees.

He told Tucker Carlson, “If we totally banned fossil fuels, agricultural production would collapse in a very short period of time. People would begin to starve … and half the population would die of hunger and disease in a very short period of time.”

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A 30 MW, 5 units @ 6 MW, demonstration project, costing $300 million, off Block Island, $10 million/installed MW

Governments Across the World Against the Net Zero Trend

Politicians around the world are also raising concerns.

THE UK:  Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has delayed banning new petrol and diesel cars, and residential gas heating, until 2035.

These unworkable measures had previously been delayed twice with deadlines moved from 2025 to 2030.

He announced, new gas and oil fields in the North Sea will be developed to increase production.

About 7,000 MW of offshore wind bids were awarded by the UK 4th Auction, in 2022
No bids were submitted for the UK 5th Auction, in 2023; European companies protesting low UK subsidies.
No bids were submitted for a new floating offshore wind project off the coast of Scotland.

The Pro-Wind bureaucrats and Media, in the poor state of Maine, should pay attention

He said, “We’re not going to save the planet by bankrupting the British people.”

France: President Macron has said natural gas and propane boilers will not be banned. He has also been shy about declaring a date for phasing out fossil fuels.

New Zealand: The polls are showing that New Zealand’s government is heading to increase the opposition parties in this weekend’s election.

The taxing of livestock for methane emissions and transforming sheep and cattle farms into pine plantations has caused a revolt among rural voters.

The Netherlands: The Farmer-Citizen movement has very quickly become the dominant party in the Dutch Senate and in every provincial assembly. The Netherlands is divided in 12 Provinces.

Germany: Energy planning includes reactivating its coal plants. This is the exact opposite of the ENERGIEWENDE, which started in 2000

Some of Germany’s large corporations, such as Volkswagen, Siemens, and BASF are leaving their Germany for better business climates after increasing energy cost and restrictions, due to Net Zero mania

The US: Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated, real environmentalism is about protecting natural habitats, sustaining ecosystems, and reducing pollution and deforestation. It’s not about Net Zero, he said.

Even gadfly Bill Gates now says , “no temperate country is going to become uninhabitable.”

That is quite an announcement from a lay person. I feel so much better

This is quite different from his earlier statement on Fox News two years ago when he said, “The migration, we saw out of Syria, due to their civil war, which was somewhat weather dependent, but largely due to the result of awful policies of the US in the Middle East, we’re going to have 10 times as much migration, because the equatorial areas will become unlivable.”

Australia: Whereas Australia contributes just over one percent of global CO2 emissions (a similar level to the UK), in 2022, China approved 106 gigawatts of new coal fired power capacity which gives it 243,000 MW of coal-fired capacity under construction.

In 2022, China, an industrial powerhouse, accounted for about 30 percent of global CO2 emissions.

Sweden: In June 2023, Swedish authorities abandoned its 100 percent renewable target to reach net zero by 2045

Norway: It announced, new gas and oil field in the North Sea will be developed, and approved investments exceeding over US$18 billion to develop 19 oil and gas fields.

The EU: Totally fed-up, overtaxed, over-regulated voters are turning away from Green parties and turning towards rightist parties, that are against the EU usurping more and more of the sovereign powers of the EU nations.

According to Politico, one reason is voter resentment regarding EU climate transition policies.

IPCC Tampering with Temperature Records: Australian geologist, Professor Ian Plimer has been vocal in his criticism of Net Zero.

He told ADHTV: “The fundamentals of science are you do not tamper with the original evidence. That has happened with our temperature records, where the past has been deliberately cooled, to make it look as if we’re warming more than is actually the case. That is fraud.”

Senator Ralph Babet told the Australian Parliament: Net Zero is a "complete and utter scam, designed to shut down our nation, enrich predatory Wall Street globalists.”

There are some who still cling to the Net Zero mission

Former UK PM Theresa May, who resigned in disgrace, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Net Zero isn’t a cost to be minimized—it’s the growth opportunity of the century, worth 1 trillion pounds to British business by the end of the decade.”

But investors aren’t buying it

While many renewable projects are being shelved, or delayed, such as wind projects in the US, UK, Netherlands, and Norway, because of constraints, such as skyrocketing costs, Rich Pontillo, Lead Advisory at Nasdaq IR Intelligence, told Reuters , there could be another up-cycle because of “massive” U.S. government subsidies.

NOTE: Those subsidies would be added to the huge US national debt, to enable European wind companies to build 805-ft tall wind turbines, that are known to kill whales and other sea-life

However, with a likely change of president in 2024, Pontillo will have to rethink this statement.

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