The Anonymous Widower

The Empires Strike Back

The theme of this post was suggested by this article in The Times by Gerard Baker, which is entitled Karma has come for Mark Carney — and Canada.

This is the sub-heading.

This embodiment of globalism finds himself championing national sovereignty just as Trump eyes a North American union

These are the two introductory paragraphs.

Mark Carney is the very embodiment of the globalist ideal that ruled the world for a quarter-century after the end of the Cold War. Born in the mid-1960s in the far Northwest Territories, he grew up in Alberta in the kind of place previous generations would never have left. But the brilliant kid from a large Catholic family won a scholarship to Harvard and then took a masters and doctorate at Oxford.

Marked out as a member of the intellectual elite of his generation, he followed their well-worn path and joined Goldman Sachs, working in the US, the UK and Japan. As international borders came down, goods and capital flowed around the world like water, and rootless young men and women feasted on the pot of gold at the End of History, Carney jetted from capital to capital, developing bond issuance strategies in post-apartheid South Africa and helping deal with the consequences of the Russian debt crisis of 1998.

Mark Carney has done very well!

I have a few thoughts.

Energy Production In Canada And The UK

I have just looked up how Canada produces its electricity.

• 17.5 % -Fossil fuel
• 14.6 % – Nuclear
• 8 % – Renewables

So how does Canada produce the other sixty percent?

Hydro! Wow!

As I write, the UK is producing electricity as follows.

• 10.7 % – Fossil fuel
• 37.7 % – Low-carbon
• 51.6 % – Renewables

Changes To Energy Use In The Next Ten Years

Three things will happen to energy generation and use in the next ten years.

• Our use of renewable and non-zero carbon sources will converge with Canada’s at about 75 %.
• The use of energy storage will grow dramatically in Canada and the UK.
• Green hydrogen production will increase dramatically to decarbonise difficult and expensive-to-decarbonise industries like aviation, cement, chemicals, glass, heavy transport, refining and steel.

Canada and the UK, together with a few other sun-, water- or wind-blessed countries, like Australia, Denmark, Falkland Islands, Iceland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Norway, who share a lot of our values, will be in the prime position to produce all this green hydrogen.

Conclusion

It does look like all the old empires of the Middle Ages are reasserting themselves.

Hence the title of this post!

Mark Carney is now in the right position to use Canada’s and a few other countries hydrogen muscles to power the world to net-zero.

March 21, 2025 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage, Hydrogen | Australia, Canada, Hydrogen Production, Mark Carney, Norway