The UK’s NHS Spends £1.4 Billion on Net Zero With Zero Results
The NHS has spent £1.4 billion of taxpayers’ money on Net Zero schemes without reducing its carbon footprint at all. The Telegraph has the story.
The health service ploughed the funds into green initiatives, such as rolling out electric ambulances, adopting ‘climate-friendly pain relief’ that does not contain greenhouse gases, and putting environmental credentials at the heart of decisions around medicines and supplies.
But despite these efforts, the total carbon emissions from the health service are the same as they were five years ago when the ‘Greener NHS’ project was launched.
The service has now unveiled a series of new schemes it claims will reduce emissions, including making its plates and bowls blue, hiring Net Zero managers and reducing the 63 million pieces of paper it prints each year.
Hundreds of millions of pounds will be spent on making the health service’s fleet of vehicles electric, while Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, is ploughing more than a quarter of a billion pounds into installing solar panels at 260 NHS sites, as well as schools and military sites.
This week, Sir Keir Starmer attended the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, flying more than 9,000 miles to “restore the UK as a global leader on climate action”.
Meanwhile, the NHS backlog has risen three months in a row to 7.41 million, A&E leaders are prepared for the worst winter on record, and junior doctors will stage yet another five-day walkout this month, with other staff threatening to follow suit.
Critics have questioned the priorities of NHS leaders and labelled some of the initiatives as “insane”. …
Claire Coutinho, the Shadow Energy Security Minister, described the [blue plate] initiative as “total insanity”. She said: “Who is picking up the bill? Taxpayers. NHS managers should focus less on meeting Ed Miliband’s mad targets and more on cutting their waiting lists.”
She added that the Conservatives’ cheap power plan “would cut the electricity bills of the public sector by 20% instantly”.
Worth reading in full.
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