Will Jones
Dr Will Jones is Editor of the Daily Sceptic. He has a PhD in political philosophy, an MA in ethics, a BSc in mathematics and a diploma in theology. He lives in Leamington Spa with his wife and two children.
The West’s focus on Net Zero has been a “colossal failure” and “lunacy” that has lowered living standards, President Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said.
In an interview with Chris Uhlmann at the ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) conference in London, Secretary Wright defended the role of fossil fuels while praising nuclear as an “energy-dense, reliable technology that has been stifled by regulation”.
Wright called Net Zero 2050 a “sinister goal” that “lowers the standard of living of the population” by “impoverishing… citizens in pursuit of a delusion”.
He said his priority instead is to “grow the supply of affordable, secure energy”, criticising countries like the UK that have pursued Net Zero and allowed the “export [of its] industry” as “no one is going to make an energy intensive product in the UK anymore”.
Net Zero has meant trillions of dollars of investment with scarcely any return, he told delegates. Anywhere that there is significant renewables penetration, electricity prices have gone up.
“The world runs on hydrocarbons, and for most of their uses we don’t have replacements. … We need to make the pie bigger,” he argued. “Energy realism is critical for humanism. … You cannot have security without energy security.”
Secretary Wright challenged the ‘consensus’ of climate activists, saying:
Deaths from extreme weather have plummeted over the last 100 years. … Most of the climate-obsessed people I’ve spoken to know very little about the data. … I think the agenda might be different from climate change, it has certainly been a powerful tool to grow state power and shrink personal freedom – this is sinister.
In his first international remarks since being confirmed, Wright concluded by calling for a “focus on humans and their lives” and on “the need to unleash freedom, opportunity and energy”.
Founded in 2023, the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship is a global network of leaders committed to “generating positive, practical solutions to the greatest challenges of our time”.
In October 2023, ARC brought together over 1,500 people from 72 countries in London, including some of the world’s foremost thinkers, business and cultural figures and politicians, according to a press release. Since then, the organisation has hosted conferences in Europe and Australia.
ARC’s second annual conference is being hosted in London’s ExCeL Centre from February 17th–19th. The conference is one of the largest of its kind, with over 4,000 delegates attending from 96 countries – including over 1,000 from the United States.
The conference international organising committee includes Baroness Philippa Stroud, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, Australian Shadow Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie and former Australian Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott.
This article was originally published by the Daily Sceptic.
