Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay has shared his thoughts on the Government’s possible delay in banning oil-fired boilers by 2026.
Speaking on Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation, the South Thanet MP shared his thoughts on the Government’s targets for achieving net zero.
Mackinlay said: “We can have these broad debates about whether this works, whether this nudge into this type of technology that nobody wants works or not. Britain is 1 per cent of global output of CO2, and by the way China, India, Indonesia and any other growing economy is going hell for leather for new coal.
“Frankly if Britain was wiped out by a meteorite overnight, heaven forbid, it would be a bare rounding error in the CO2 ambition. And the big problem with all this, is electrification. Currently or you're carrying around, you know, a vast amount of energy as petrol or diesel in your car and you're using oil or gas at home.
Mackinlay continued: “20 per cent of our total energy use is electricity. The rest of it is that other stuff. So how we going to electrify and replace all of that? And you wait for the political rows when you've got new pylons going across the country based on copper that's mined abroad and all the rest of it, you haven't seen anything yet.
“HB lines across vast distances, you lose a lot of energy. Actually burning the oil or the gas in your home is not a bad way of doing things. You mentioned earlier on the George Eustice amendment - now that was an interesting amendment accepted by the government that's saying if an alternative type of E fuel can be made in the future at scale, then oil type boilers can continue, because at the moment everything's there.
“You've got your oil tank at home, you've got the pipe work and you've got whatever fittings that fit an oil boiler. So really by the back door, by the government allowing that, they've actually allowed all boilers to continue.”
Watch the discussion in full above.
Tune in to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation, Monday to Thursday from 8pm, only on GB News.
