Robinson concluded ““it's hard to listen to Claire Coutinho without realising she's put a great deal of thought into her change of view”

I did find hard to listen, but reached a different conclusion!

I think important to keep open minded, I agree with Coutinho we need to objectively consider the numbers- I advocate for evidence-led policy (not policy-led evidence); I believe in solutions for both social & environmental benefit

As far as I can see, investing in scaling renewables meets this bar

Ok so it still has impact - so crucially I wanted to know from the data if the UK were to abandon net zero targets & climate change act & were to aggressively mine North Sea fossil fuels would this reduce energy bills?

Answer: No - now or in future; if anything, it will drive up bills in long term

Accepting we’re still at higher end, I looked at claim that the most significant driver of higher energy bills in the UK relates to the goal of net zero and/or green subsidies and/or UK action on climate change; this didn’t hold up - it’s material but far from biggest cause

Firstly Coutinho states repeatedly that UK has most expensive energy bills in world; exploring global comparison sets, there seems to be no supporting evidence - we’re at higher end but not top