The UK is caught in a financial trap. Despite this, the Government is insisting on pursuing the decarbonisation of the economy. Major sacrifices will be required.

If we recognise how energy sources differ, we can understand how Europe and then the rest of the world became so prosperous. More importantly, we can begin to see why Western societies now seem to be unravelling.

Four major UK institutions have produced erroneous estimates of the cost of decarbonising the economy, all of them on the low side.