Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street

Ed Miliband, the UK’s Energy and Net Zero Secretary, has become a whipping boy for both ends of the political spectrum. The right attack him has an ‘eco-loon’ for implementing the Net Zero programme started by then Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May and boosted by her successor Boris Johnson (with help from some now Net Zero sceptic figures such as Kemi Badenoch who was Johnson’s Business Secretary).

But at the other end of the spectrum, the Unions attack him as the transition inevitably means losing highly unionised fossil fuel jobs as the industry declines. Sharon Graham, General Secretary of the Unite union went as far as to call for his head as an oil refinery faces closure (by all accounts due to mismanagement rather than Net Zero policies).

So when Miliband got to his feet at the Labour Party conference this morning, it was no surprise to see him attack the right, particularly the virulently anti-Net Zero Reform UK, while throwing some red meat to the Unions.

Miliband’s big announcement was a ban on fracking. Quite an clever target given fracking is one of those things that is. a. unlikely to ever deliver much gas in the UK due to geology, b. is Reform UK policy, and c. no-one wants in their backyard, even Reform-run Councils.

For the Unions, Miliband emphasised the green jobs, the need for Union representation, suggested that Scottish oil and gas jobs would be protected, and made a big fuss over nuclear, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies as well as solar and wind. He also pledged to extend workers’ rights to offshore industries and embed union representation requirements in the ‘Clean Industry bonus’.

Regular readers will know I’m a hydrogen- and CCS-sceptic – both have been the next big thing for over 25 years, yet have singularly failed to deliver anything of substance. My problem is the opportunity cost: instead of throwing good money after bad, the Government could be using that money to invest in home insulation (Miliband did include a passage on tackling energy poverty), or upgrading the grid connections between renewables-rich Scotland and the centres of consumption in the South East of England so we can use more of the clean energy we can already generate, but pay people not to.

Miliband’s problem with the Unions is one we all face: people who like to think that Net Zero can be met without them actually changing anything. CCS is, to me, wishful thinking, a fantasy that we can put a magic box on the end of every pipe which will effortlessly and economically make CO2 disappear so we can keep on keeping on. Thermodynamics doesn’t work like that, and thermodynamics always wins. At some point the hydrogen/CCS fantasy will have to end.