Why it's time to tame power of unelected climate campaigners

Politicians need to stop letting net-zero supporting activist NGOs call the shots

A great deal of water has flowed under the Forth bridges since 1988 when the British Steel Corporation was privatised by Margaret Thatcher’s government. Now what is left of the business is in the process of being nationalised so the UK’s last remaining blast furnace steel mill at Scunthorpe continues production.

Were the blast furnaces allowed to go quiet, the UK would become the only G20 economy not producing virgin steel, not recycled steel used in electric arc furnaces dependent on cheap electricity. In contrast, blast furnaces require coking coal and iron ore, neither of which are available from within Britain and have to be imported.

The world market for steel production is well known for its problems of oversupply with gluts of steel leading to dumping practices (especially from China) that can lead to previously profitable mills closing. It also can be highly profitable when the mix of investment and technology produces competitive productivity rates.

The net-zero agenda is damaging the profitability of the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe (Picture: Ryan Jenkinson) | Getty Images

Miliband outdoes Scargill

The Conservative government gave permission to open a new British coal mine in Cumbria only for Labour’s Energy and Net Zero Secretary, Ed Miliband, to withdraw the consent so it could not open. Now the coking coal has to brought in by sea, reducing economic activity in Britain, costing real jobs here and increasing the carbon footprint by shipping pollution.

Still, Ed Miliband can sleep at nights as he has proven more successful at stopping British coal being used for making coke for Scunthorpe than former union leader Arthur Scargill ever was.

Why has the UK Government not saved Grangemouth refinery by nationalising it or the Port Talbot blast furnace? The simple answer is there are five other refineries in the UK. Nationalising one but not all would most likely lead to even greater losses at Grangemouth as the state tried to compete against more viable businesses in a highly competitive market. The alternative of nationalising them all would be even more costly and doesn’t bear thinking about.

A security issue

Interestingly, an independent Scotland back in the EU would not be able to nationalise Grangemouth either, as that would be against the EU’s state-aid rules. That inconvenient truth is never mentioned by those advocating Scottish independence to provide nationalisation.

Likewise, while the Port Talbot blast furnace was allowed to close, the complex received investment support for an electric arc furnace that will smelt recycled steel. Scunthorpe is the sole blast furnace left, making virgin steel. Without it raw steel will need to be imported, which presents security of supply issues for defence procurement in building ships and tanks.

How did the UK become so uncompetitive that so many of our industrial plants are ready to close with output being made elsewhere in the world?

Pursuit of net-zero holy grail

When you have successive governments making the cost of production forever higher than that of our international competition by driving up the cost of energy, then our steel mills, refineries, chemical plants and cement works will close. Nor does it help when the Chancellor raises employers’ national insurance contributions on top of other rising taxes.

In truth, our politicians’ ambition of being the world’s pacesetter in achieving the holy grail of net zero in carbon emissions is to blame. We have priced our industry out of the markets, sacrificing jobs, economic prosperity and taxes. Where did that policy come from, who had the influence to bring British steelyards to their knees?

The push against even sensible reductions in carbon consumption by using our own sources has come about because of the undue influence of non-government organisations (NGOs) whose cause has been popularised by Greta Thunberg.

Limiting consumer choice

From the likes of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace to countless others such as Sustrans in Scotland and Climate Action Network globally, these NGOs take in millions, sometimes from philanthropists but often from the taxpayer (to lobby for higher energy taxes and subsidies).

And these NGOs don’t just orchestrate industrial and economic policy but exist to preach what our food standards should be, what advertising we can watch – and when, what sports we are allowed. These NGOs are sometimes not-for-profit, sometimes charities, but they share a belief in limiting consumer choice and denying businesses the ability to market and sell previously acceptable and entirely legal products – all in the name of saving us from ourselves.

While we are told to forego our domestic log burners, NGOs and politicians support 6.5 million tonnes of timber pellets being imported to feed the generation of electricity Drax power station in Yorkshire. While we import vast quantities of liquified natural gas from the United States and Qatar by tankers (that require the gas to first be made liquid and then be made gas again), our own reserves of natural gas remain untapped.

It means we spend hard earned funds abroad rather than at home, that we forego jobs, business and personal tax revenues all in the name of political self-righteousness.

Car manufacturers the next target

It is absolutely nuts that Britain has put itself at the mercy of unelected and unaccountable NGOs campaigning for extreme interventions made respectable by seemingly moderate politicians unable to scrutinise or contest nonsensical arguments with merciless rigour.

The next industrial target is the UK’s home-grown, volume car manufacturers who have had the date of the phasing out of petrol and diesel engines changed incessantly from Michael Gove (now given a peerage by Rishi Sunak) who first announced it, to Sunak as Chancellor and then Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and now Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The resulting unpredictability, instability and high energy costs caused by government interventions – at the behest of net-zero supporting activist NGOs – will lead to plant closures, thousands of people put on benefits and EVs being primarily supplied by the Chinese.

Our politicians must do better – standing up to and ignoring the NGOs that have no mandate must be their first requirement.

Brian Monteith is a former member of the Scottish and European parliaments and editor of ThinkScotland.org