//…the nature of these changes CAN be mitigated//
The effects can be mitigated (which is what we should be concentrating our resources on); the changes cannot. We’ve been trying for forty years that I know of. Global temperatures are still “soaring” (by approximately 0.18 degrees Celsius per decade) and the principle culprits are still burning coal as though it has only just been discovered (with China burning more than the rest of the world put together.
Meanwhile, we press ahead with completely impractical, legally sanctioned “deadlines”, involving such things as banning the sale of new gas boilers and IC cars, when either no practical alternatives will be available or the infrastructure to support them will be hopelessly inadequate. We support this lunacy by providing huge subsidies (paid for by all electricity consumers) for a giant power station in Yorkshire to convert its furnaces to burn 14m tons of freshly felled timber annually, processed into “pellets” by huge energy-hungry plants and shipped 5,000 miles, mainly by transport powered by IC engines. This fuel is said to be “sustainable.”
Alongside this, the UK is quite happy to import gas either by pipeline or ship, over vast distances but is not prepared to exploit the resources available here, because it destroys the government’s “green” credentials. So allowing somebody else to get it out of the ground and then pay to transport it here is fine so long as we’re not producing it.
These are but a few examples of the “mitigation” this country is undertaking. It contracts out its carbon emissions to overseas producers, contributing to its “net zero” mania. This target is unachievable without considerable quantities of “creative accounting” (which places like Drax require to make them appear “sustainable). It is all smoke and mirrors. Of course we should make efforts to reduce our dependence on them, but for many decades to come, the UK, along with most other advanced nations, will need to burn fossil fuels to sustain their economies. Anybody who suggest otherwise is away with the fairies.
The sooner “Net Zero” is identified as the latest incarnation of the “Emperor’s New Clothes”, the sooner we can buy some umbrellas instead of trying to convince people we can prevent it from raining.