I cant say how happy I am that Simon is an actual ambassador for climate change, his practical and intelligent approaches to topics will surely be a force for good. Thanks Simon, glad I subbed all those years ago. (will donate when i can).
Not surprised by the reaction of the press to the 95% goal. It's a common theme that conservative pundits (and therefore sometimes the mainstream) adopt to discredit non-extremist progressive policies. As long as conservative governments are in power, the policy is too ambitious. Once there's a power shift, the policy is not ambitious enough and a betrayal of promises. It fuels disillusion in progressive voters, making them regret their choice at the polls.
On the one hand it's not unreasonable to think that clean means 0% FF. On the other hand I think the previous target was 0% by 2035 so shifting that to about 5 years away was very ambitious. I think 5% is a very reasonable target for that timeframe. If they had said 95% FF free by 2035 in the manifesto I don't think anyone reasonable would have had a problem with that. But I suppose it's possible they didn't have the ability to get the report that led to the 5% figure until they were in government.
@@adrianthoroughgood1191 The compromise of "low carbon" energy and just to 95% make it a good stretch goal. It'll be difficult but not entirely absurd.
Politicians as Pop Stars is the New 'Feudalism of Four': Pope - King - Sherif - Scienter. Each requires 10% of your base income. So here's my question. The Homeless are Zero Carbon. That's worth 'Carbon Credits' to al-Goreia's Carbon Cap & Trade Scheme (legal name). Why can't Homeless sell their carbon credits? Here I am, hudded around the electric radiator. as winter rages. I stand in the snow to ride the bus. I eat cold rice and pulses. That ought to be worth US$100 a week in carbon credits!! *Why can't the Poor sell their carbon credits?*
@@batbite_ Bruh, trans right is absolutely nothing compared to the issue of climate change, come on, really? It's not like he's said the most transphobic shit ever, judging by the way you phrased your comment, so do you really care that much? Jesus christ
@blackflash9935 labour should be the ones who stood up for queer people against tory bigotry but he has abandoned supporting lgbtq rights and it's quite a personal issue to me tbh. I of course still think it's good to be slightly more progressive on climate change than he could be.
Honestly so true. People can disagree with the politics itself as much as they want but it's so refreshing having a competent government. Many of the controversies of this gov have either been 1) something the Tories were already planning to do bc it's probably really a good idea (think I remember hearing tories plan to cut winter fuel payments), or 2) something that isn't that big deal when you start thinking beyond the headlines (starmer handout controversy)
@@EvHocks I do think this cuts both ways though. They're competent, but they're competently managing a Capitalist system that is fundamentally (and possibly irreparably) flawed. That's itself a different problem.
Better than the last is all they've done. They are NOT competent. Competent would be massively investing in as much solar as the country can borrow the money for, immediately, kitting out all government buildings with solar and setting up a sovereign wealth fund. It would be buying our own wind farms instead of letting private companies own them. It would be building the interconnector that was supposed to land near Portsmouth and come up to Lovedean and was cancelled because moronic NIMBYs wanted the road closures not to happen while they dug a few trenches (not even that many) and wanted higher priced electricity and less capability to sell our abundant clean energy. They can't even work out that their figure of 4,000 elderly people dying if they don't get winter fuel payments, means cancelling any of those is probably a bad idea... all we can really hope is they don't do another Brexit (which they are also responsible for since they didn't bother campaigning hard against it), that they don't torture anyone this time as Labour did last time, that they don't start two wars that got us nowhere, and that if they do occupy any dictatorships, they actually have a plan to occupy them like we did Germany and put them back on the right track and not abandon them to terrorists. Franky our best hope is that they do very little at all and stop causing damage.
@@EvHocks”competent”, I think you need to become competent at looking at what’s going on. Cancelled elections? Repeatedly wasting our money on other countries?
I totally get that Starmer is a politician and all, but I am kinda sad that he didn't really answer the question you asked. Cause you could have everything run on low-cost, clean energy.... that energy is still held by only a tiny handful of private corporations. Corporations that are massively profit driven, and very likely see a reason to lower those prices. And this isn't just a problem in the UK, but across the globe. Ofc a government won't always do things well, but saying "we want lower prices" whilst that power is still in the hands of profit driven corpos is not gonna work
Fortunately, with plans to nationalise the energy sector, this issue of price hiking for profit will be less of an issue. Additionally, as the question Clark asked was quite technical, it is understandable for the PM to not answer the question directly as he was likely not briefed on the specifics.
Starmer didn't answer the question, because he didn't know. He obviously will have only prepared answers to the "suggested questions", and as came out in Miliband's answer the final decisions in that space have not yet been made.
Starmer is a lawyer he has zero understanding of STEM or the nature of reality. There is now way on earth any PM understands the basics of the energy sector or electricity pricing. Partly because it's a crazy system that makes zero sense. They probably all think natural gas is a good idea - they're letting British Gas go ahead with their insane hydrogen plan after all.
8:27 I'm impressed how thoroughly they decided brief him. It'll be nice if he actively followed you, but I don't think thats the case. That he mentioned you infant is impressive. But... It is also a manipulation technique to get you on his side. Doesn't mean that he has bad intention necessarily, but it is what it is.
Y'know, as much as I'm not a particular fan of some of this government's political stances, I am certain that the previous government would not have had this kind of discussion, so props for that at least. Let's see if they can follow through.
The Tories did have similar "talks" with experts and influencers, particularly in the Cameron years and even some when Boris was in Number 10. It's a common tactic politicians of all sides use to seem authoritative and like they actually listen to expert advice. Did they actually act on anything brought up on said discussions? Hell no. Hopefully Labour will be different, but we'll have to see.
Really happy this happened! Congratulations Simon! It does give me more faith in the labour government (possibly) being proactive about this stuff. They really didn’t have to do this.
I am a bit concerned that labour focuses solely on decarbonising the electricity sector which just accounts for about 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions and totally overlooks the transport and heating/ housing sector. Combined they account for about half of our emissions and are much harder to decarbonise.
I guess they become easier to decarbonise once you've sorted out your energy grid since it's pointless electrifying industries if your electricity is being produced by sources that release a lot of CO2
The glib answer is "you have to start somewhere". Energy security *has* to be a priority, as little can happen without that. Recent developments in decarbonising steel production are welcome, although *much* remains to be done. The construction industry's reliance on concrete is (obviously) a vitally important area, here Sweden is leading the way. Does this government need to do more and more to communicate what it's doing? Hell, *YES* .... but after many of the last lot, these are positively progressive! Whatever you do though, don't rely on legacy media .... for the most part, their coverage of decarbonisation is past pathetic!
Both the new found support by the community and your recognition from the political world are well-deserved. You're doing such an amazing job. Thank you!
8:10 its a lot of skirting around the issue, but also he isn't likely to be briefed or know the exact nature of what you are discussing without knowing ahead of time. We have a similar price structure in New Zealand, and consistently government have failed to address the issue as somehow "too hard" when the reality is that its actually very easy to fix.
i think the crazy thing about the PM is how it's probably fairly easy for me to bump into him, what with him being my MP and all and him being a patron of my workplace...
Massive respect to you Simon, to echo what others have said, who were the other influencers and what were they there for? Also I don't think that the previous government would have done something like this, I don't agree with everything Labour are doing, but kudos for doing this with you and the other influencers.
amazing Simon 👏🏼 I have no real science knowledge just A Level biology & currently an accountant 👍🏼 but love your videos & glad you made a comeback! Especially as it seems you’ve got your mojo back / revenue up and amazing got to meet the PM! Exciting
You don't think that's more than Starmer has? You do understand you're good at maths on some level and he's just a humanities student, right? You definitely understand STEM more than he does, that man's a total muppet.
Huh... I happened to accidentally bump into John Major at a service station a couple weeks ago. Not quite the same experience but still felt like "What were you doing here?"
So proud of you Simon. Not only did you get to meet these people, you weren't afraid to follow up your question when it didn't get a direct answer. I hope to see much more of this, both you being heard and spoken to, and this serious and human style of government.
Yall in the UK are so lucky to have a PM who wants action on human caused global warming. Our incoming president here in the US thinks our planet is not warming because one tiny part of the globe saw anomalous cold temperatures for a brief period of time.
I wouldn't be so sure Keir Starmer actually wants half of the changes he proposes, and he doesn't propose very many concretely. I'm very happy and would love to be proved wrong on this, especially since I did vote for his party, but I'm not holding my breath for Keir as a Brit. Although anything has to be better than what you guys have had and are getting soon...
@ still light years better than our orange bafoon. He literally wants to gut the agency that studies climate change (NOAA) and the agency that enforces environmental protection (EPA) to lower government spending. NOAA also provides our country with all our weather forecasts and climate data. The entire field of climatology and meteorology would collapse without NOAA and its child agency the National Weather Service. Which sucks for me as that is the field I was wanting to go into (I’m a 19 year old college freshman in New Jersey). The fact that my president wants to tear apart all the research and data critical to my major has given me a bit of an existential crisis lol Earth Science is literally my passion. Even if your PM isn’t perfect, it’s at least progress. We had the same with Joe Biden, not perfect on climate change, but he was so much better than Trump. I’m still dumbfounded half of the American people were bamboozeled yet again. Still makes me sick. Can’t believe people put the price of groceries (which were, relative to wages, getting cheaper the past few months) over the health of our democracy and planet. 😔
@@sirdiesalot2975 tbf I think many politicians talk about things they don't actually care about, but the fact that they do talk about them (and hopefully do something) is more important than whatever they in reality think, in my opinion
I randomly met my country's Prime Minister when I was flying home from my trip to Rome. He had a small weekend break and was on the same flight. We took a picture on the bus that took us from the plane to the airport.
@@Mafik326 - many people say that our best ever PM was Clement Atlee. He ran the country while in coalition with our second best ever PM, Churchill. Churchill had charisma; Atlee didn't. , Atlee beat Churchill in the post-war 1945 election, and changed the UK forever, even though we were bankrupt. Churchill described Atlee as a modest little man, with much to be modest about. Long live boring politicians, I say.
@@petersmith2137 I believe Thatcher once described Atlee as having been "all substance and no style" which I think is probably what we should want in a politician
Man, I know sincerity in YoutTube comment sections is maybe some sort of internet faux pas, but I can't say how much I genuinely appreciate your work. Climate change action has driven pretty much my entire career - albeit mostly as it relates to cities/transportation - but it's hard at times to reconcile that specificity and scale of work with everything else that's happening, the actual environmental science behind it all, and to actually communicate it effectively to people at-large. To add to that - as a somewhat-guilty emigrant from the UK that feels a real sense of responsibility to that place and helping on this issue there specifically - it's inspiring to see people like you that are such credible and active representatives for the country and environmental issues there. IDK a bit of a ramble but the moment I have some spare cash you can have some. Thanks for doing what you do.
It's quite clear that Starmer didn't understand the intricacies of the energy markets and electricity prices. And really as PM he shouldn't be expected to know those details.
I also voted for something more ambitious also. We actually managed the trick in North Herefordshire. I watch all your videos. Most of what is on UA-cam is not with a candle, but I am so glad that you have managed to get through your crisis. Best wishes from George
Yes I didn't recognise any but they might also have relevant channels we'd be interested in. In fact, if they don't, that would be quite telling about the government's general incompetence which is already on display with their total lack of progress this year.
The big barriers to Wind in this country is manpower. The offshore industry has a huge staff shortage, and it'll only get worse. I work for a company driving automation and robotics into this space to significantly reduce costs in the coming years!!! Honestly, the next few years is going to be bonkers, we're going to make wind power significantly cheaper!!!
Simon, thank you. Awesome stuff. Your video quality is top grade and your content is eminently watchable and topical. Thanks also for the Nebula idea. My wife has been asking what I want for Christmas and typically for a first world person I was stumped. I had been thinking Audible, but now I know a Nebula subscription is the best idea.
Wow, what an end to such a turbulent year! I'm so happy for you man. When you made your video about quitting I was devastated. Your videos are of such high quality and the topics are so pressing, that they are a necessity on this platform. But I had no opportunity to support you on Patreon, and didn't support there to be enough any time soon. But damn I was wrong, and I can only imagine how you must have felt when you saw it go up. This year must have been insane with everything that happened, and you got to go out with a bang. I hope you actually get to enjoy the feeling of looking back and seeing the progress, because I can imagine it might be overwhelming as well. But you deserve it all, Simon! Please continue to make these amazing videos. I'll be here to watch and someday you can expect me on Patreon :)
What an incredible opportunity. I really genuinely hope that this isn't just a PR move for PR sake but more about getting the news out about progress. Still PR but if there are real world benefits then you can run that PR all day.
As someone who knows you most through random Yog streams, but keeps tabs on your content, this was so incredible to see! You’re doing good work Dr Simon!
Congratulations on meeting Sir Keir Starmer and kudos on following up with Ed Miliband. It’s cool and all that but I can’t help thinking that you’re now on their radar (or that of their staffs) and maybe you’ll have a chance, however slight, of influencing _them_ or at least influencing those who influence them. And, since you mentioned how, at the start of the year, you came close to quitting YT 5:20 (something which I’ve kept in mind with every video of yours I’ve watched since), it might be good to do an update about that so we don’t have to think that it’s still touch-and-go and that any new video we watch might be your last.
Really interesting video! Even if you didn't quite get the conclusive answer you were maybe hoping for, it's always good to see genuine questions being asked, and politicians answering what they can to said questions. Often there's far too much sensationalism in questions asked and answers given. Keep up the good work!
Glad you had a good talk with the PM on the climate. Being ambushed by such a person would knock the wind and planning out of most people. And good that they might want to be ambitious about improving the climate crises, I which they would feel the same on the health crises of a certin minority as well.
I know very little about politics but I'm inclined to trust our government much more for inviting you, specifically, to this. What a fantastic nod to your work Simon, major kudos!
Just want to say thank you for your work - both your advocacy work and what you've taught me about climate science. Pleased to see 2024 has been a good one for you. - from A Fellow Exeter Alum 😊
With a large amount of electricity production that can not be regulated, there will be large differences in the price paid. No intermediate source should be directly connected to the grid like it mostly is at the moment. Instead there should be a short term buffer in between (1-2 hours) the source and grid. This will even out prices and reduce the average price. There is also a need for storage unit that can days of usage. This can also help reducing the average price, and increase the grid stability.
Hopefully Starmer did understand your question and that it was referring to how the market prices are what they are, because it would be worrying if he didn't considering it's one of the biggest issues with the country currently. It definitely wasn't too technical of a question like you suggest it might have been. I know we're watching someone who does mainly climate videos but I don't think any of us viewers wouldn't understand what you meant by the question so hopefully the person who has the power to fix it understood it too. Could you not have replied "thanks for the detailed reply but I think you misunderstood the question"? Just felt like watching a standard TV interview where the politician dodges the question and we're shouting at the interviewer to ask them again and push for an actual answer but they never do. It's good that you luckily got to ask miliband even if the answer was just "wait a few months and we'll announce plans". Have you said in a previous video what those plans could be or just solutions in general? I'd like to hear more about what the potential solutions are and im sure you have some.
I am qualified as a chief electrical engineer in Japan and have knowledge of electricity. If the ratio of solar power generation and wind power generation is increased, the possibility of a major power outage increases if the output of both is reduced at once. This happened in California this summer after the sun went down, causing actual power outages. Many people mistakenly think that using storage batteries will solve the problem, but during the rainy season when the amount of sunlight decreases, there is only a lot of loss. A real solution would require bidirectional gravity power generation, and although the capital investment is expensive, I think it will definitely be needed in the future.
11:50 "95% coverage" is quite a normal target when you're trying to say something has been eliminated. The Smoke-free Ambition, for example, is to get the smoking prevalence to less than 5% of by 2030 (a target which has been cross-party Government policy for a long time, and we're almost certainly not going to meet)
That was a political decision. If you are going to win an election on a whiter-than-white law and order ticket, you are kind of screwed when it comes out your transport secretary has a fraud conviction. To clarify, I understand the politics and I think it was the right decision for the party and the government, I don't like that it's the case as I really liked Louise. I would not be surprised if she is shuffled back in at a future reshuffle. Yes it is a spent conviction and yes the tories did way worse but we don't live in an ideal world where all parties are treated the same, the press would have ran and ran with that story. The unfair truth is if you are a Labour minister in this country, you have to be purer than pure. It's a joke but hardly surprising when the majority of the media is owned by a few billionaires and unfortunately even the BBC at present has had 14 years of Tory appointments at the top. Christ Badenoch opens her mouth about sandwiches and Milliband, instead of answering questions on, you know, his brief, was asked the other day "could we talk about sandwiches?". The man ate a bacon sandwich in an odd way and it is still brought up a decade later. Or donations, Starmer is donated clothes and glasses for campaigning and the use of a flat for a bit and it's front page news for weeks, yet the tories have received WAY dodgier "donations", christ if you donated over a certain amount to them you mysteriously became a party treasurer and then a year later were sent to the Lords (so actual corruption). If you want better politics we need media and electoral reform. Until that day Labour will be in a defensive crouch for a long while yet, they have no record to defend themselves with. With politicians you always need to be asking WHY a decision was made and not just react to the story presented to you as unfortunately it is incredibly uncommon for our media to join the dots for you as they have their own narrative to push *shrug*. There is one positive to the whole insane debacle, Louise leaving means we now have an entirely state-educated cabinet for the first time ever. A cra ppy silver lining but it's at least something.
The other big question is how they expect to expand grid storage enough to power the country when there's no wind nor sun. Combined with this, I reckon we'll have to make variable tariffs the standard, so that demand for electricity better follows the weather.
Not impress with the UK Prime Minister, but at least you got a sort of answer from Head of Department of Security and Net Zero. Nice start at least. Cheer!
Contrary to what many think, that politicians are in it only for themselves, in my experience most are genuine people trying to improve the lot of others, which you often can’t see until you’re up close and personal. Even when you don’t necessarily agree with their politics.
A great question to ask and one I’ve been wondering myself. Why are we still linking the cost of our energy to fossil fuels? It perplexes me that Labour are also ploughing £bn’s into carbon capture and are continuing investment into the unproven SMR nuclear reactors. A good video and well done.
I think labor's plan is very ambitious considering they are a major party who are actually in power. It's easy to be an idealist when you are a small opposition group.
It boggles my mind that the price we pay for energy has absolutely no anchor to the price of the inputs. Can you imagine this in any other market... "WHY IS THIS MOBILE PHONE £40,000???" "Well sir that'll be because there is a tiny amount of gold in the circuit board, so we charge the final price as if the whole thing is made of gold. Would you like a carrier bag with that? £1000. (Trace amount of palladium in the manufacturing)"
Hi Dr. Simon - great channel, sorry I'm not great on giving credit where credit is due, however, well bloody done. Just want to highlight Starmer opening statement, "This is how we want to DO government". Please hold these bastards accountable, especially when they serve intelligent people intellectual slop. He is a top lawyer, and Knight of the Realm, and this is how they think they can communicate to intelligent people like yourself. All the power to you!
And yeah the answer was ultimately about the desirability of energy security and independence. The absence of the mention of nuclear energy was deafening... an agenda there i'd say. Australia is going into such a question now, which will make a difference come election time in the new year.
Cost of living for the working class & wealth inequality are arguably the most important issues in the UK right now. I’d say you asked the best question you could have, in reference to climate change. If it was myself, I’d have asked something more relevant to costs of living: improvements to welfare, maternity & paternity leave, scrapping the 2 child benefit cap, support for worker unions, raising the minimum wage, and return to council housing programs, housing first initiatives, etc… But action on climate change is at least something reasonable to act on. And it’s putting us on the correct track. Climate change is to me, a secondary issue moreso. But it is far more significant than many other priorities. Things like migration and crime, hardly concern me. They are… not the most rational concerns to have, given crime rates are low, and have continued to decline. And migration has a much smaller impact on society, both economically and socially than people commonly think it does.
Watched this on Nebula, but wanted to come here to say how good it was to hear someone with relatively positive things to say about newly elected politicians somewhere in the world. I'm Canadian and between the onslaught of idiocy coming from Trump's transition team south of the border, the Liberal Party of Canada all but sticking a loaded gun in its mouth yesterday while the Canadian Conservative Party and its populist puppetmaster Pierre Poilievre look on in ghoulish glee (is that too much alliteration?), news from abroad talking up Starmer's failings and giving dire warnings about the rise of LePenn in France and the AfD in Germany, politics has been a pretty dire subject lately. So yeah, this is a breath of fresh air, and gives some much needed nuance to the news I've been getting about the UK government. (Which is, in short, that they are indeed *trying.* From this distance it can be hard to tell the difference between a government that's shifting its policies around as they try to find the best path forward through the minefield that their predecessors laid out ahead of them and one that's floundering with no particular understanding of what they're even trying to do.)
Could you write a followup letter to Miliband's office being really specific about the question? Are they actually planning on moving away from the "pay as you clear" thing?
The UK has the most expensive energy in the world. We aren't merely decarbonising, we're deindustrialising and the dire economic decline consequent to that is already apparent. I note Starmer doesn't even mention nuclear when talking of energy transitions - funny that.
There seems to be less talk of nuclear power from the Labour government now compared to the time right after the election. Maybe it's just my impression, and I'd be interested in having my impression corrected. But if true, I'm concerned that the government is listening too much to the "all renewables" lobby, since the PM seems to be saying that wind and solar is good for reliability and stability, which runs counter to the fact that these are energy sources that are intermittent and which won't produce anything during a "dunkelflaute" period (German for "dark doldrums", for those who don't know the term, and which refers to periods typically in winter where both wind and solar make no contribution for hours, days or sometimes weeks). The government rhetoric seems to be conflating "low-carbon" with "renewable", while these are in reality two separate concepts. There are renewable power sources that emit CO2 (such as the biofuel station Drax) and there are non-renewable power sources that don't emit CO2 (nuclear). At the end of the day, the climate doesn't react to the renewable-ness of our technology choices, but it _does_ respond to CO2 emissions, so of these two concepts it's only _low-carbon_ that should be emphasised, but all this talk of renewable energy seems to have been added because the government is trying to please the wind and solar lobby.
I cant say how happy I am that Simon is an actual ambassador for climate change, his practical and intelligent approaches to topics will surely be a force for good. Thanks Simon, glad I subbed all those years ago. (will donate when i can).
I started liking him I had thought that he was a populist prime minister.Scrap or amend leasehold ,because it needs reform...
hahaha ''I did a Journalism''
10:54 lmao
"I am something of a press, myself".
Not surprised by the reaction of the press to the 95% goal. It's a common theme that conservative pundits (and therefore sometimes the mainstream) adopt to discredit non-extremist progressive policies. As long as conservative governments are in power, the policy is too ambitious. Once there's a power shift, the policy is not ambitious enough and a betrayal of promises. It fuels disillusion in progressive voters, making them regret their choice at the polls.
On the one hand it's not unreasonable to think that clean means 0% FF. On the other hand I think the previous target was 0% by 2035 so shifting that to about 5 years away was very ambitious. I think 5% is a very reasonable target for that timeframe. If they had said 95% FF free by 2035 in the manifesto I don't think anyone reasonable would have had a problem with that. But I suppose it's possible they didn't have the ability to get the report that led to the 5% figure until they were in government.
@@adrianthoroughgood1191 The compromise of "low carbon" energy and just to 95% make it a good stretch goal. It'll be difficult but not entirely absurd.
I would've most likely had a moderate panic attack when the PM suddenly walked into the room
Well, is Starmer, so... like being surprised by a white wall.
Politicians as Pop Stars is the New 'Feudalism of Four': Pope - King - Sherif - Scienter. Each requires 10% of your base income. So here's my question. The Homeless are Zero Carbon. That's worth 'Carbon Credits' to al-Goreia's Carbon Cap & Trade Scheme (legal name). Why can't Homeless sell their carbon credits? Here I am, hudded around the electric radiator. as winter rages. I stand in the snow to ride the bus. I eat cold rice and pulses. That ought to be worth US$100 a week in carbon credits!! *Why can't the Poor sell their carbon credits?*
Like, I personally would feel uncomfortable meeting someone like him who should have helped protect trans rights but is doing the opposite
@@batbite_ Bruh, trans right is absolutely nothing compared to the issue of climate change, come on, really? It's not like he's said the most transphobic shit ever, judging by the way you phrased your comment, so do you really care that much? Jesus christ
@blackflash9935 labour should be the ones who stood up for queer people against tory bigotry but he has abandoned supporting lgbtq rights and it's quite a personal issue to me tbh. I of course still think it's good to be slightly more progressive on climate change than he could be.
“I’m stuck in a PHD and I blame Simon” at 5:47 lol
Could have been stuck in that PhD for 8 years now.
Bro thats sick gg
Larry the Cat says, "Call my secretary and make an appointment. Casual dress code will be okay."
"Better than the last government" is a low bar to stumble over, but they do seem to be managing it.
Honestly so true. People can disagree with the politics itself as much as they want but it's so refreshing having a competent government. Many of the controversies of this gov have either been 1) something the Tories were already planning to do bc it's probably really a good idea (think I remember hearing tories plan to cut winter fuel payments), or 2) something that isn't that big deal when you start thinking beyond the headlines (starmer handout controversy)
@@EvHocks I do think this cuts both ways though. They're competent, but they're competently managing a Capitalist system that is fundamentally (and possibly irreparably) flawed. That's itself a different problem.
@ yeah agreed trying to maintain socialist policies in a capitalist system just doesn’t work. Need real change!
Better than the last is all they've done. They are NOT competent. Competent would be massively investing in as much solar as the country can borrow the money for, immediately, kitting out all government buildings with solar and setting up a sovereign wealth fund. It would be buying our own wind farms instead of letting private companies own them. It would be building the interconnector that was supposed to land near Portsmouth and come up to Lovedean and was cancelled because moronic NIMBYs wanted the road closures not to happen while they dug a few trenches (not even that many) and wanted higher priced electricity and less capability to sell our abundant clean energy. They can't even work out that their figure of 4,000 elderly people dying if they don't get winter fuel payments, means cancelling any of those is probably a bad idea... all we can really hope is they don't do another Brexit (which they are also responsible for since they didn't bother campaigning hard against it), that they don't torture anyone this time as Labour did last time, that they don't start two wars that got us nowhere, and that if they do occupy any dictatorships, they actually have a plan to occupy them like we did Germany and put them back on the right track and not abandon them to terrorists.
Franky our best hope is that they do very little at all and stop causing damage.
@@EvHocks”competent”, I think you need to become competent at looking at what’s going on. Cancelled elections? Repeatedly wasting our money on other countries?
It wouldve been hilarious if the question was, "Who's your favourte primarch?".
I totally get that Starmer is a politician and all, but I am kinda sad that he didn't really answer the question you asked. Cause you could have everything run on low-cost, clean energy.... that energy is still held by only a tiny handful of private corporations. Corporations that are massively profit driven, and very likely see a reason to lower those prices. And this isn't just a problem in the UK, but across the globe. Ofc a government won't always do things well, but saying "we want lower prices" whilst that power is still in the hands of profit driven corpos is not gonna work
Fortunately, with plans to nationalise the energy sector, this issue of price hiking for profit will be less of an issue. Additionally, as the question Clark asked was quite technical, it is understandable for the PM to not answer the question directly as he was likely not briefed on the specifics.
@@randomwaffler It's not nationalisig the energy sector, it's creating a new government energy company. Very different.
Starmer didn't answer the question, because he didn't know. He obviously will have only prepared answers to the "suggested questions", and as came out in Miliband's answer the final decisions in that space have not yet been made.
Starmer is a lawyer he has zero understanding of STEM or the nature of reality. There is now way on earth any PM understands the basics of the energy sector or electricity pricing. Partly because it's a crazy system that makes zero sense. They probably all think natural gas is a good idea - they're letting British Gas go ahead with their insane hydrogen plan after all.
I would rather have met Ed Miliband but I guess you can't complain with meeting Starmer.
Edit: hey you did meet Ed.
he did briefly meet miliband too
@@anyaakovalchuk Yes, I just got to that part of the video.
I really dislike starmer for his abandonment of trans rights
@@batbite_not abandoning trans rights would have required him to be consistent on an issue which he’s physically incapable of
@@batbite_ To be fair, Starmer never had any convictions. Labour didn't have a manifesto.
8:27 I'm impressed how thoroughly they decided brief him. It'll be nice if he actively followed you, but I don't think thats the case. That he mentioned you infant is impressive. But... It is also a manipulation technique to get you on his side. Doesn't mean that he has bad intention necessarily, but it is what it is.
Simon probably brought it up in conversation beforehand in the conversation and he remembered.
@@DaPlodEither that or Simon's child was part of Starmer's briefing
Or - and here me out - Simon's child is the Prime Minister
Good on you for not sticking to the provided question. Who were the other influencers?
I also want to know
Y'know, as much as I'm not a particular fan of some of this government's political stances, I am certain that the previous government would not have had this kind of discussion, so props for that at least. Let's see if they can follow through.
Agreed
The Tories did have similar "talks" with experts and influencers, particularly in the Cameron years and even some when Boris was in Number 10. It's a common tactic politicians of all sides use to seem authoritative and like they actually listen to expert advice.
Did they actually act on anything brought up on said discussions? Hell no. Hopefully Labour will be different, but we'll have to see.
Really happy this happened! Congratulations Simon!
It does give me more faith in the labour government (possibly) being proactive about this stuff. They really didn’t have to do this.
Thank you for talking about this! Talking to the right people, doing a journalism lol. Thank you for existing!! You give me so much hope!
I am a bit concerned that labour focuses solely on decarbonising the electricity sector which just accounts for about 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions and totally overlooks the transport and heating/ housing sector. Combined they account for about half of our emissions and are much harder to decarbonise.
I guess they become easier to decarbonise once you've sorted out your energy grid since it's pointless electrifying industries if your electricity is being produced by sources that release a lot of CO2
It's among the easiest things to decarbonize.
The glib answer is "you have to start somewhere". Energy security *has* to be a priority, as little can happen without that. Recent developments in decarbonising steel production are welcome, although *much* remains to be done. The construction industry's reliance on concrete is (obviously) a vitally important area, here Sweden is leading the way.
Does this government need to do more and more to communicate what it's doing? Hell, *YES* .... but after many of the last lot, these are positively progressive! Whatever you do though, don't rely on legacy media .... for the most part, their coverage of decarbonisation is past pathetic!
Once the grid is decarbonised then people can use electric heat pumps, electric cars etc
Errr... if you switch to 100% electric you would by definition not be using fossil fuels for heating or transport....
Thank you for trying to get an answer to this. It means a lot to a lot of people.
I turned down chance to meet Tony Blair when he was PM cos I admitted what I would say to him 😂😂
Both the new found support by the community and your recognition from the political world are well-deserved. You're doing such an amazing job. Thank you!
8:10 its a lot of skirting around the issue, but also he isn't likely to be briefed or know the exact nature of what you are discussing without knowing ahead of time. We have a similar price structure in New Zealand, and consistently government have failed to address the issue as somehow "too hard" when the reality is that its actually very easy to fix.
50 min later and the comments are surprisingly civilized!
Good to hear that your videos allowed you to interact with government - and that you were largely reassured by ministers' competence and commitment.
That's awesome. I'm glad to have adults back in charge as well.
i think the crazy thing about the PM is how it's probably fairly easy for me to bump into him, what with him being my MP and all and him being a patron of my workplace...
You've done a lot to help the Yogscast's links to the government, excited to see Kier Starmer on Jingle Jam next year :p
Massive respect to you Simon, to echo what others have said, who were the other influencers and what were they there for? Also I don't think that the previous government would have done something like this, I don't agree with everything Labour are doing, but kudos for doing this with you and the other influencers.
Congratulations Simon! That was such a cool surprise opportunity and you did a good job handling it.
amazing Simon 👏🏼 I have no real science knowledge just A Level biology & currently an accountant 👍🏼 but love your videos & glad you made a comeback! Especially as it seems you’ve got your mojo back / revenue up and amazing got to meet the PM! Exciting
You don't think that's more than Starmer has? You do understand you're good at maths on some level and he's just a humanities student, right? You definitely understand STEM more than he does, that man's a total muppet.
Huh... I happened to accidentally bump into John Major at a service station a couple weeks ago. Not quite the same experience but still felt like "What were you doing here?"
So proud of you Simon. Not only did you get to meet these people, you weren't afraid to follow up your question when it didn't get a direct answer. I hope to see much more of this, both you being heard and spoken to, and this serious and human style of government.
Yall in the UK are so lucky to have a PM who wants action on human caused global warming. Our incoming president here in the US thinks our planet is not warming because one tiny part of the globe saw anomalous cold temperatures for a brief period of time.
I wouldn't be so sure Keir Starmer actually wants half of the changes he proposes, and he doesn't propose very many concretely.
I'm very happy and would love to be proved wrong on this, especially since I did vote for his party, but I'm not holding my breath for Keir as a Brit. Although anything has to be better than what you guys have had and are getting soon...
It's not just him. Adult-child politicians are appearing everywhere. And what's revolting is that people even idolize these lunatics
@ still light years better than our orange bafoon. He literally wants to gut the agency that studies climate change (NOAA) and the agency that enforces environmental protection (EPA) to lower government spending. NOAA also provides our country with all our weather forecasts and climate data. The entire field of climatology and meteorology would collapse without NOAA and its child agency the National Weather Service. Which sucks for me as that is the field I was wanting to go into (I’m a 19 year old college freshman in New Jersey). The fact that my president wants to tear apart all the research and data critical to my major has given me a bit of an existential crisis lol Earth Science is literally my passion.
Even if your PM isn’t perfect, it’s at least progress. We had the same with Joe Biden, not perfect on climate change, but he was so much better than Trump. I’m still dumbfounded half of the American people were bamboozeled yet again. Still makes me sick. Can’t believe people put the price of groceries (which were, relative to wages, getting cheaper the past few months) over the health of our democracy and planet. 😔
@@sirdiesalot2975 tbf I think many politicians talk about things they don't actually care about, but the fact that they do talk about them (and hopefully do something) is more important than whatever they in reality think, in my opinion
our PM isn't known for his honesty or following through on his promises. but yeah it's great he wants that.
This is amazing, thank you for being so active and passionate in such an important topic. Wish all the best for your future and this channel!
I randomly met my country's Prime Minister when I was flying home from my trip to Rome. He had a small weekend break and was on the same flight. We took a picture on the bus that took us from the plane to the airport.
I like that your PM has less charisma than the pot in the foreground. I miss boring politics.
@@Mafik326 - many people say that our best ever PM was Clement Atlee. He ran the country while in coalition with our second best ever PM, Churchill. Churchill had charisma; Atlee didn't. , Atlee beat Churchill in the post-war 1945 election, and changed the UK forever, even though we were bankrupt.
Churchill described Atlee as a modest little man, with much to be modest about.
Long live boring politicians, I say.
@@petersmith2137agree. Good politics doesn't need personality, it needs brains and good decision making.
@@petersmith2137 I believe Thatcher once described Atlee as having been "all substance and no style" which I think is probably what we should want in a politician
Man, I know sincerity in YoutTube comment sections is maybe some sort of internet faux pas, but I can't say how much I genuinely appreciate your work. Climate change action has driven pretty much my entire career - albeit mostly as it relates to cities/transportation - but it's hard at times to reconcile that specificity and scale of work with everything else that's happening, the actual environmental science behind it all, and to actually communicate it effectively to people at-large. To add to that - as a somewhat-guilty emigrant from the UK that feels a real sense of responsibility to that place and helping on this issue there specifically - it's inspiring to see people like you that are such credible and active representatives for the country and environmental issues there.
IDK a bit of a ramble but the moment I have some spare cash you can have some. Thanks for doing what you do.
It's quite clear that Starmer didn't understand the intricacies of the energy markets and electricity prices. And really as PM he shouldn't be expected to know those details.
I'm proud of how far you have come this year! Look at you, doing a journalism! Keep up the good work, will always be here for your videos.
It's always fun for me to compare "Serious Climate Journalist Doctor Simon Clark" to "hanging out with Hat Films and all of their madness Simon Clark"
I also voted for something more ambitious also.
We actually managed the trick in North Herefordshire.
I watch all your videos. Most of what is on UA-cam is not with a candle, but I am so glad that you have managed to get through your crisis.
Best wishes from George
Who were the other UA-camrs there and what topics were they connected to?
Yes I didn't recognise any but they might also have relevant channels we'd be interested in. In fact, if they don't, that would be quite telling about the government's general incompetence which is already on display with their total lack of progress this year.
The big barriers to Wind in this country is manpower. The offshore industry has a huge staff shortage, and it'll only get worse. I work for a company driving automation and robotics into this space to significantly reduce costs in the coming years!!! Honestly, the next few years is going to be bonkers, we're going to make wind power significantly cheaper!!!
This is a great video, legit is reassuring to get your detailed insight on all this!
Simon, thank you. Awesome stuff. Your video quality is top grade and your content is eminently watchable and topical.
Thanks also for the Nebula idea. My wife has been asking what I want for Christmas and typically for a first world person I was stumped. I had been thinking Audible, but now I know a Nebula subscription is the best idea.
Wow, what an end to such a turbulent year! I'm so happy for you man.
When you made your video about quitting I was devastated. Your videos are of such high quality and the topics are so pressing, that they are a necessity on this platform. But I had no opportunity to support you on Patreon, and didn't support there to be enough any time soon. But damn I was wrong, and I can only imagine how you must have felt when you saw it go up. This year must have been insane with everything that happened, and you got to go out with a bang.
I hope you actually get to enjoy the feeling of looking back and seeing the progress, because I can imagine it might be overwhelming as well. But you deserve it all, Simon! Please continue to make these amazing videos. I'll be here to watch and someday you can expect me on Patreon :)
Well done Simon - the success you’re having and the impact you’re making is really inspirational.
They won't remove marginalistic price setting. My hunch is that the UK will copy paste what the EU and ACER did.
What an incredible opportunity. I really genuinely hope that this isn't just a PR move for PR sake but more about getting the news out about progress. Still PR but if there are real world benefits then you can run that PR all day.
at the very least PR means they understand it's important to people enough to bring it up.
Incredible Simon! I’d love for you to have more influence on our government, hopefully now you’re on their radar maybe you will be! X
Excellent question glad you asked it.
As someone who knows you most through random Yog streams, but keeps tabs on your content, this was so incredible to see! You’re doing good work Dr Simon!
Congratulations on meeting Sir Keir Starmer and kudos on following up with Ed Miliband. It’s cool and all that but I can’t help thinking that you’re now on their radar (or that of their staffs) and maybe you’ll have a chance, however slight, of influencing _them_ or at least influencing those who influence them.
And, since you mentioned how, at the start of the year, you came close to quitting YT 5:20 (something which I’ve kept in mind with every video of yours I’ve watched since), it might be good to do an update about that so we don’t have to think that it’s still touch-and-go and that any new video we watch might be your last.
So glad your year has had such a turn around! Can't think of anyone better to be in that room - education is a huge part of the solution.
I simply cannot imagine America's orange monstrosity doing such a thing. Good on him for it
5:47 “I’m stuck in a PhD and I blame Simon” lmao
Really interesting video! Even if you didn't quite get the conclusive answer you were maybe hoping for, it's always good to see genuine questions being asked, and politicians answering what they can to said questions. Often there's far too much sensationalism in questions asked and answers given. Keep up the good work!
Glad you had a good talk with the PM on the climate.
Being ambushed by such a person would knock the wind and planning out of most people.
And good that they might want to be ambitious about improving the climate crises, I which they would feel the same on the health crises of a certin minority as well.
I know very little about politics but I'm inclined to trust our government much more for inviting you, specifically, to this. What a fantastic nod to your work Simon, major kudos!
Simon, will we get a follow up video on what happened in Busan on plastic pollution?
Credit where it's due; Starmer is getting at least some of his information from experts, and not just from corporate lobbyists.
Well done Simon
Glad your hardwork and honest communication is being recognised. Have they offered you a position as policy communicator?
Very well done. We could use your intellect and your insights across the Pond!
Such a cool thing to happen, well done Simon!
Didn't get to meet Larry?! What a swizz! 😁
Just want to say thank you for your work - both your advocacy work and what you've taught me about climate science. Pleased to see 2024 has been a good one for you. - from A Fellow Exeter Alum 😊
With a large amount of electricity production that can not be regulated, there will be large differences in the price paid. No intermediate source should be directly connected to the grid like it mostly is at the moment. Instead there should be a short term buffer in between (1-2 hours) the source and grid. This will even out prices and reduce the average price. There is also a need for storage unit that can days of usage. This can also help reducing the average price, and increase the grid stability.
Don’t need to ask the PM. Prices will rise, I can assure you ..
Hopefully Starmer did understand your question and that it was referring to how the market prices are what they are, because it would be worrying if he didn't considering it's one of the biggest issues with the country currently. It definitely wasn't too technical of a question like you suggest it might have been. I know we're watching someone who does mainly climate videos but I don't think any of us viewers wouldn't understand what you meant by the question so hopefully the person who has the power to fix it understood it too. Could you not have replied "thanks for the detailed reply but I think you misunderstood the question"? Just felt like watching a standard TV interview where the politician dodges the question and we're shouting at the interviewer to ask them again and push for an actual answer but they never do. It's good that you luckily got to ask miliband even if the answer was just "wait a few months and we'll announce plans". Have you said in a previous video what those plans could be or just solutions in general? I'd like to hear more about what the potential solutions are and im sure you have some.
I am qualified as a chief electrical engineer in Japan and have knowledge of electricity.
If the ratio of solar power generation and wind power generation is increased, the possibility of a major power outage increases if the output of both is reduced at once.
This happened in California this summer after the sun went down, causing actual power outages.
Many people mistakenly think that using storage batteries will solve the problem, but during the rainy season when the amount of sunlight decreases, there is only a lot of loss.
A real solution would require bidirectional gravity power generation, and although the capital investment is expensive, I think it will definitely be needed in the future.
Very, very cool! Too bad about missing Larry though...
11:50 "95% coverage" is quite a normal target when you're trying to say something has been eliminated. The Smoke-free Ambition, for example, is to get the smoking prevalence to less than 5% of by 2030 (a target which has been cross-party Government policy for a long time, and we're almost certainly not going to meet)
This was the first video of yours that I've seen, it was brilliant. Maybe next time you'll meet Larry
So ambitious about climate he fired the transport secretary because she was actually trying to make things better
That was a political decision. If you are going to win an election on a whiter-than-white law and order ticket, you are kind of screwed when it comes out your transport secretary has a fraud conviction. To clarify, I understand the politics and I think it was the right decision for the party and the government, I don't like that it's the case as I really liked Louise. I would not be surprised if she is shuffled back in at a future reshuffle. Yes it is a spent conviction and yes the tories did way worse but we don't live in an ideal world where all parties are treated the same, the press would have ran and ran with that story. The unfair truth is if you are a Labour minister in this country, you have to be purer than pure. It's a joke but hardly surprising when the majority of the media is owned by a few billionaires and unfortunately even the BBC at present has had 14 years of Tory appointments at the top.
Christ Badenoch opens her mouth about sandwiches and Milliband, instead of answering questions on, you know, his brief, was asked the other day "could we talk about sandwiches?". The man ate a bacon sandwich in an odd way and it is still brought up a decade later. Or donations, Starmer is donated clothes and glasses for campaigning and the use of a flat for a bit and it's front page news for weeks, yet the tories have received WAY dodgier "donations", christ if you donated over a certain amount to them you mysteriously became a party treasurer and then a year later were sent to the Lords (so actual corruption). If you want better politics we need media and electoral reform. Until that day Labour will be in a defensive crouch for a long while yet, they have no record to defend themselves with.
With politicians you always need to be asking WHY a decision was made and not just react to the story presented to you as unfortunately it is incredibly uncommon for our media to join the dots for you as they have their own narrative to push *shrug*.
There is one positive to the whole insane debacle, Louise leaving means we now have an entirely state-educated cabinet for the first time ever. A cra ppy silver lining but it's at least something.
The other big question is how they expect to expand grid storage enough to power the country when there's no wind nor sun.
Combined with this, I reckon we'll have to make variable tariffs the standard, so that demand for electricity better follows the weather.
This guy is like a younger, more eco-friendly Hugh Grant.
Not impress with the UK Prime Minister, but at least you got a sort of answer from Head of Department of Security and Net Zero. Nice start at least. Cheer!
0:58 I really thought he was making a prison analogy, and that 10 Downing is the toilet of the cell
Contrary to what many think, that politicians are in it only for themselves, in my experience most are genuine people trying to improve the lot of others, which you often can’t see until you’re up close and personal. Even when you don’t necessarily agree with their politics.
Yes Simon great work
A great question to ask and one I’ve been wondering myself. Why are we still linking the cost of our energy to fossil fuels? It perplexes me that Labour are also ploughing £bn’s into carbon capture and are continuing investment into the unproven SMR nuclear reactors. A good video and well done.
I think labor's plan is very ambitious considering they are a major party who are actually in power. It's easy to be an idealist when you are a small opposition group.
Totally agree with you! And well done!
excellent vid
This is such a cool thing to happen! Love it!
Proactive serendipity, eh?
It boggles my mind that the price we pay for energy has absolutely no anchor to the price of the inputs.
Can you imagine this in any other market... "WHY IS THIS MOBILE PHONE £40,000???" "Well sir that'll be because there is a tiny amount of gold in the circuit board, so we charge the final price as if the whole thing is made of gold. Would you like a carrier bag with that? £1000. (Trace amount of palladium in the manufacturing)"
Who are the other influencers?
That ambush video title might actually get you better numbers, doesn't UA-cam let you workshop video titles and it chooses the one that does the best?
You didn't expect the boss himself to pop in did you? 😂
Hi Dr. Simon - great channel, sorry I'm not great on giving credit where credit is due, however, well bloody done. Just want to highlight Starmer opening statement, "This is how we want to DO government". Please hold these bastards accountable, especially when they serve intelligent people intellectual slop. He is a top lawyer, and Knight of the Realm, and this is how they think they can communicate to intelligent people like yourself. All the power to you!
And yeah the answer was ultimately about the desirability of energy security and independence. The absence of the mention of nuclear energy was deafening... an agenda there i'd say. Australia is going into such a question now, which will make a difference come election time in the new year.
Genocidal tenancies are rather bad
i cant lie if it was keir and not ed milliband id be fucking pissed cause ed is the only member of the govt with any sort of credibility
Cost of living for the working class & wealth inequality are arguably the most important issues in the UK right now.
I’d say you asked the best question you could have, in reference to climate change.
If it was myself, I’d have asked something more relevant to costs of living:
improvements to welfare, maternity & paternity leave, scrapping the 2 child benefit cap, support for worker unions, raising the minimum wage, and return to council housing programs, housing first initiatives, etc…
But action on climate change is at least something reasonable to act on. And it’s putting us on the correct track.
Climate change is to me, a secondary issue moreso.
But it is far more significant than many other priorities.
Things like migration and crime, hardly concern me.
They are… not the most rational concerns to have, given crime rates are low, and have continued to decline.
And migration has a much smaller impact on society, both economically and socially than people commonly think it does.
Energy pricing is the major thing that impacts industry
I was once an intern in national politics in the Netherlands, I can confirm, they are normal people. Don't know if that is reassuring much though.
well jounalismed. gratz!
Watched this on Nebula, but wanted to come here to say how good it was to hear someone with relatively positive things to say about newly elected politicians somewhere in the world. I'm Canadian and between the onslaught of idiocy coming from Trump's transition team south of the border, the Liberal Party of Canada all but sticking a loaded gun in its mouth yesterday while the Canadian Conservative Party and its populist puppetmaster Pierre Poilievre look on in ghoulish glee (is that too much alliteration?), news from abroad talking up Starmer's failings and giving dire warnings about the rise of LePenn in France and the AfD in Germany, politics has been a pretty dire subject lately.
So yeah, this is a breath of fresh air, and gives some much needed nuance to the news I've been getting about the UK government. (Which is, in short, that they are indeed *trying.* From this distance it can be hard to tell the difference between a government that's shifting its policies around as they try to find the best path forward through the minefield that their predecessors laid out ahead of them and one that's floundering with no particular understanding of what they're even trying to do.)
Could you write a followup letter to Miliband's office being really specific about the question? Are they actually planning on moving away from the "pay as you clear" thing?
The UK has the most expensive energy in the world. We aren't merely decarbonising, we're deindustrialising and the dire economic decline consequent to that is already apparent. I note Starmer doesn't even mention nuclear when talking of energy transitions - funny that.
There seems to be less talk of nuclear power from the Labour government now compared to the time right after the election. Maybe it's just my impression, and I'd be interested in having my impression corrected.
But if true, I'm concerned that the government is listening too much to the "all renewables" lobby, since the PM seems to be saying that wind and solar is good for reliability and stability, which runs counter to the fact that these are energy sources that are intermittent and which won't produce anything during a "dunkelflaute" period (German for "dark doldrums", for those who don't know the term, and which refers to periods typically in winter where both wind and solar make no contribution for hours, days or sometimes weeks).
The government rhetoric seems to be conflating "low-carbon" with "renewable", while these are in reality two separate concepts. There are renewable power sources that emit CO2 (such as the biofuel station Drax) and there are non-renewable power sources that don't emit CO2 (nuclear).
At the end of the day, the climate doesn't react to the renewable-ness of our technology choices, but it _does_ respond to CO2 emissions, so of these two concepts it's only _low-carbon_ that should be emphasised, but all this talk of renewable energy seems to have been added because the government is trying to please the wind and solar lobby.