I am Councillor Irene Henery and I was elected to represent Rushall-Shelfield ward
in Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council at the May 2026 elections. At the full council
meeting on 22 nd July 2026, I stated that “Climate Emergency” is based on a lie. Here
is why:-
Climate scientists alarmed the world from the 1970s to as recently as 2002 about
how humanity may be doomed to freeze to death in the next ice age. 20 th Century
Fox produced the first “Ice Age” animated movie in 2002 feeding on the fear of how
extremely cold the weather could get, but by 2006 they had produced, “Ice Age – the
Meltdown”. The truth is that climate scientists need grants to carry on with their
research, and the more alarmists they are, the more money they get. If we look at
the history of the earth, the weather has always fluctuated.
Planet Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and has been subject to 5-6 Ice
Ages where ice planes had sometimes reached all the way to the Equator. The last
ice age, known as the Last Glacial Period lasted from 115,000 to 11,700 years ago.
Some argue that the world temperature is warming as we come out of the last ice
age, and yet some argue that we are actually entering a new ice age, and yet some
state that humans are responsible for global warming by our activities, such as the
burning of fossil fuel.
We don’t actually know.
However, some Western governments have decided that they must throw billions of
taxpayers’ money at it, and here in the UK, we have a Labour government promoting
“Net Zero” policies that are bankrupting the nation. I ask you, the taxpayer, if it is fair
to tell pensioners not to burn freely available wood, and risk dying from extreme cold,
in order that some minister in Westminster might be able to boast about achieving
“Net Zero”.
What is “Net Zero”?
We are talking about global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. China, USA, India and
Russia produce about 21-24 billion tons of CO2 annually, making up about 63% of
global emissions compared to the UK which produces less than 1%, about 0.96%.
The Labour government intends to force our country, our people, to sacrifice
everything in pursuit of achieving net zero emissions, ignoring the fact that we
cannot achieve anything without the cooperation of China, USA, India and Russia
(the main “culprits”).
Is “Net zero” even desirable?
Trees absolutely need CO2 to survive. They use it as a primary building block to
construct their trunks, branches, and leaves. Through a process called
photosynthesis, trees combine carbon dioxide with water and sunlight to createglucose, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere as a byproduct. Shall we sacrifice our trees?
Abandonment of our assets
In the crazy pursuit of “Net Zero”, the government has plugged our natural gas and
oil wells where we used to obtain cheap energy. Instead, our government invested in
non recyclable wind turbines that need to be switched off if the wind blows too hard
or too fast or blows at the wrong time. Some wind turbines even blow up if the wind
is too fast.
The Telegraph newspaper reported recently:
“A glut of power from Britain’s wind farms has added nearly £1bn to energy bills, new
figures show.
Wind operators were forced to curtail output from their machinery by 28pc in the first
half of the year compared with a year earlier, according to Montel, leading to
compensation payouts of £900m.
This compensation is paid to wind farm operators for the unsold power and the
money is funded by consumers and businesses through higher bills.
It means six terawatt hours of power was wasted from January to June – roughly the
collective consumption of every UK data centre.
The curtailment figures show the UK’s decision to build dozens of giant wind farms in
remote areas with inadequate grid connections is costing consumers dearly.”
The Wasted Wind website states :
“So far in 2026, Britain has wasted £961,838,514 switching off wind turbines and
paying gas plants to switch on. The total cost for all of 2025 was £1,467,025,692.”
Although the idea of clean energy is wonderful, the government must first solve the
problems of the electric transmission grid bottlenecks, excess regional generation
(too much electricity generated in remote areas with little demand), build better
(recyclable, robust and efficient) wind turbines and renegotiate financial
compensation rates to wind farmers or turbine operators. At the moment, the science
is not there.
Another Net Zero policy - Are all cars and van sales to be electric by 2035 a good
idea?
I have been driving a fully electric car since 2022, and I can attest to the fact that the
UK government under both the Conservatives and Labour, is guilty of conning the
public about their “Net Zero” policies. If they were serious about making this policy
work, of banning petrol and diesel cars, and only allowing Electric Vehicles (EV),
they would have invested in proper infrastructure to enable the rapid and affordable
charging of electric vehicles. In 2026 we have the shambolic situation of EV owners lining up to charge their cars and it still takes about 45 minutes to get the carscharged up to 80% of their total electric capacity. The experience of “hunting”overnight for a working charger (so many are listed on apps, but only a fraction are kept in working condition) every time I drive out of Walsall to visit relatives, leaves me with the firm believe that EVs are not suitable for general business use, as who has the time to hunt for electric car chargers overnight and sit around sipping coffee for 45 minutes during the working day? Therefore, as Chair of Walsall’s Taxi Licensing Subcommittee, I blocked the announcement of the policy that Walsall taxidrivers must only drive EVs from the year 2035.
The lithium batteries for EVs and for storage of excess electricity, are highly volatile
and may explode, causing houses or car park buildings to burn for days. West
Midlands Fire Service informed me recently that they do not have fire extinguishers
for lithium battery fires and therefore the fires caused by these can burn for days until
they burn themselves out.
Furthermore, the extraction and processing of lithium and other rare earth metals
necessary for these batteries have significant negative impacts on the environment
and local communities.
If the whole nation drove only EVs, the national grid will collapse as it nearly
collapsed when the World Cup 2026 was being played and millions of citizens
switched on their televisions at the same time to watch the matches.
If the whole nation drove only EVs, we would need to reinforce our roads as EVs are
much heavier vehicles and roads will be in even worse state than they currently are.
To the residents of Walsall, I will say this : I will tell the truth even if it is unpopular or
unpleasant. Yes, we have had a warmer summer than last year, but as a councillor, I
will not exaggerate climate change into a crisis to enrich my friends, family or
business partners.
Reform UK has cancelled Net Zero targets at Walsall Council. We will seek more
efficient and practical solutions instead, to deliver on our promise to make Walsall
better, for the people of Walsall.
Councillor Irene Henery
Rushall-Shelfield ward
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
Date : 29 th July 2026
