Tony Blair’s intervention into the Net Zero debate suggesting present policies were wrong has put the cat amongst the pigeons before he did a sharp about turn. He had warned that energy secretary Ed Miliband’s eco policies and their push towards renewable energy were wrong. He claimed voters “feel they’re being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know the impact of global emissions is minimal”.
He called for more investment in carbon capture, to allow fossil fuels to continue to be used, a greater use of technology including artificial intelligence, and a rollout of nuclear power. The environment secretary Steve Reed admitted that the criticisms of net zero policies were “valid and important”.
At present the largest greenhouse gas emitters (China, the USA, India, the EU, the Russian Federation, Brazil) account for 63 per cent of global emissions in 2023. By contrast, the 45 least developed countries accounted for only 3 per cent. The G20, the world’s largest 20 economies (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the Um, the USA and the EU) are responsible for about 77 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
To avert the worst impacts of climate change, global temperature increase needs to be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Currently, the Earth is already about 1.2°C warmer than it was in the late 1800s, and emissions continue to rise. Emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
At the moment commitments made by governments fall far short of what is required to reach the 2050 target.
The Paris Climate Change Net Zero agreement, signed on 22 April 2016, has fittingly an earthy Taurus Sun. Mercury is also in Taurus in a get-it-together Grand Trine to Jupiter in Virgo trine Pluto though unfortunately that is formed into a Kite by Jupiter opposition Neptune suggesting an overly optimistic approach. The Jupiter opposition Neptune squares onto a tricky Mars Saturn in Sagittarius which adds to a tendency to attract running setbacks and major obstacles.
By 2050 tr Neptune will be nearing the end of Taurus with Uranus in the final decan of Virgo with Pluto just into Pisces. The Solar Arc Saturn will be conjunct the Paris Pluto, tr Pluto square the Mars; tr Neptune conjunct the SA Uranus and tr Uranus conjunct the North Node – stuck, frustrated, anxious and a key turning point. Not that it will wait till 2050 to be obvious since much will transpire before then.
Tony Blair, 6 May 1953 6.10 am Edinburgh, Scotland, has struggled to remain relevant in the UK after the Iraq debacle, despite setting up various seemingly influential organisations with a global outreach – Tony Blair Associates, Faith Foundation, Sports Foundation and Tony Blair Institute.
At the moment he is struggling to break free of past constraints and with tr Uranus moving across his Jupiter this June and thence onto his Mars and Ascendant in 2026 and beyond he will be stepping out ever more boldly keen to show his independence no matter how many feathers he ruffles. At the same time he looks aggravated with his Progressed Mars square his Neptune exactly now and square his Saturn in 2026/27 – which may be connected to his irritation about how the Labour Government is handling matters. His relationship with Keir Starmer, never easy at the best of times with an impatient composite Moon Saturn opposition Mars is moving into stormy seas as tr Uranus square the composite Pluto from this July into 2026 and tr Pluto continues to square the composite Neptune until this December.
Ed Milliband, in charge of Net Zero, 24 December 1969 2pm London, is not looking upbeat ahead with tr Neptune square his Capricorn Sun from early this June into 2026 where tr Saturn joins in to square his Sun; tr Pluto is square his Saturn for a discouraging slog through this year; with more woes in 2026/27. Not going according to his plan.
With Pluto in Aquarius it’s worth looking at the mass psychology and how Blair’s comments fit in. Aquarius is innovation, but also alienation, disengagement and/or rebellion. Whether Tony Blair meant to or not, his comments dealt a blow to decades of behaviour change psychology. At the core of all successful behaviour change – whether quitting smoking, adopting a healthier lifestyle, or taking climate action – is self-efficacy: the belief that your actions can make a difference and it’s not too late to act.
By suggesting that the UK’s climate efforts are ultimately futile, Blair risked eroding this critical belief that took a huge amount of effort to build. History and psychology show that when self-efficacy collapses, people often retreat into denial or learned helplessness. Terror Management Theory explains that when faced with threats they feel powerless to stop, people engage in defensive avoidance rather than constructive action.
Now whether he meant to do that because of an agenda that depends on massive, stable, cheap energy availability that can be scaled up in a fast yet predictable fashion – or, he just saw what happened in Spain and panicked, we can’t tell. Maybe it’s a few of those things.
Telling people that their efforts won’t matter doesn’t promote realism – it promotes disengagement and despair. Should political leaders be fostering a sense of collective efficacy, not inadvertently encouraging apathy?
However – on a global scale, while minority influence can be powerful (which requires and depends on consistent behaviour over time) and that may have been a good strategy in the past, it will not work on authoritarian superpowers like China, Russia and dare I say USA under Trump if it’s only cultural. I think this is an important point to think about, as Moscovici’s theory of minority influence I think screams Pluto in Aquarius energy. Making green behaviours normative alone won’t be enough, but technological advances can’t be ignored. As mentioned below, not all technological progress isn’t linear – but like minority influence, when a breakthrough happens, its impact can be rapid and profound. Just something to think about
The problem is that Climate Change occurs on a global not a national scale so people are obviously going to find it disillusioning if the very real efforts to reduce carbon emissions in some countries are not reciprocated elsewhere. I think one of the leitmotifs of Aquarius is that it is a cool, rational and analytical sign so it is not just going to swallow the recommendations of nudge units or emotional appeals to action. It is possible that Pluto might enhance that characteristic to self destructive levels. Moreover at a more basic level Neptune in Aries is going to be nowhere near as self sacrificing as it was in Pisces. As an ego centred sign its visions need to be pitched at the level that there is at some immediate prospect of a tangible payback to the individual. Hopefully Saturn in Aries sextile Uranus in Gemini will see constructive technical innovation to deliver such results. At the moment that seems to be lacking in countries such as the UK where the costs of a Net Zero strategy based on renewables are all too real for the average energy consumer while the benefits are largely invisible. Relying on rhetoric alone to achieve public buy in is just not going to work, something which Blair at least seems to have recognised
…and something amply backed by the local election results today. I feel a few more Starmer ‘resets’ and cabinet reshuffles coming…and not even a year into his so called government.But perhaps Blair will declare elections pointless shortly…
Hi Hugh, as you say “Relying on rhetoric alone to achieve public buy in is just not going to work, something which Blair at least seems to have recognised”, I completely agree with you, it won’t work alone.
When I talk about self-efficacy, that is something completely different to “emotive appeals”, which research has shown do not work (think the “Don’t Die of Ignorance” AIDS campaigns in the 80’s and the fear appeals around smoking cessation). It’s why people like Blair need to be cautious, because it would be easy to perceive what he is saying as a fear appeal – that action is futile. Even if he makes good points about the benefits of a more diversified approach that includes more nuclear energy and carbon capture technology in paralell, what people see is the “Doomed to Fail” headline. Self-efficacy is gone, TMT kicks in, and now there’s less politcal gain in investment in green energy solutions – not just renewables like tidal power, but also carbon capture, and battery/storage tech too – i.e the only stuff that the authoritarian superpowers would actually take notice of. A cascade not unlike the Spanish power cut.
I sort of see Neptune in Aries in the same way as you, but I might be a bit kinder on the sign – I frame it more as self-efficacy than just self-interest. Individual effort as part of a wider philosophy could be very powerful if it could be maintained. The self interest that we all have in common. And yes, I think that is how you influence those superpowers, “look, we’re winning the race on this new tech” and then it’s in their self interest to get on board. Authoritarian superpowers like China or Russia are largely insulated from public opinion, but they are competitive and like a strong Aries image. Being behind in any race will influence them into action, at least I think that’s our best shot.
Neptune in Aries is like driving through the fog, not about self-sacrificing but faith in your ability to get somewhere when the path isn’t straightforward. Vision comes from leadership that is not just acting in self-interest (that doesn’t scream “Tony Blair” to me, but maybe we’ll be surprised!). Pluto in Aquarius is the power of the small group, faith in your actions leads to collective power, indirect influence and non-linear, but big and sudden advances. Uncertainty and unpredictability are hard to deal with, but the only thing that is certain is that if you give up and lose hope, failure will happen.
I agree with Tony,Hugh and PC.”Climate change’is and will be a cudgel used to suppress our livelihoods and freedoms-15 min-cities-roaming blackouts.And ,it’s used for financialisation of new markets for insider-financiers, elites,multinationals.
Those who fly around in private jets most often-telling the public to stop driving cars,use or plastic bags,while the endless crapifcation of mass goods are allowed to continue.
PM Mark Carney-who is Mr net-zero-who is/was-as we have not heard his current involvement as asset manager at Brookfield,are shareholders in coal mines and 7 oil pipelines internationally-while telling the public that Brookfield is net-zero.
The alliance called Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (“GFANZ”) is part of a broader plan to “transform” the global financial system and was launched in April 2021 by:
Principals of GFANZ, including Carney,John Kerry ,Janet Yeltzen and BlackRock’s Larry Fink who is also on WEF’s Board of Trustees, have long been enthusiastic about the prospects of Natural Asset Corporations and other related efforts to financialise the natural world and he has also played a key role in marketing such financialisation as necessary to combat climate change. Though GFANZ has cloaked itself in lofty rhetoric of “saving the planet,” its plans ultimately amount to a corporate-led coup that will make the global financial system even more corrupt and predatory and further reduce the sovereignty of national governments in the developing world.”
Since winning the Canadian election-would be interesting to have a look at Carney’s chart.I’m not convinced he has our national interest at heart-rather another WEF“Global leader.”
yes the next big thing. A growing number of scientific projects and political initiatives are springing up everywhere and practical tools are being developed with one specific aim in mind: to quantify ecosystem services and nature and assign a market value to them.You don’t need much imagination to see where this will go.
A comparable mass delusion; the pseudoscience of gender ideology, seems to now be dissipating as Neptune moved to Aries. The “no debate” stance in the USA and UK the has well and truly been forcefully retired.
Might Neptune moving from Pisces to Aries have something to do with the end of carbon mania too? Revealing a different sort of power grab, similarly disguised in a virtuous cloak?
The recent UK supreme court ruling certainly makes gender/sex matters clear, with little room for misinterpretation.
In the USA, the White house takes measure after measure to protect biological reality in sports, shelter/prisons, education and the like.
Will we soon start seeing the something comparable when it comes to the Net Zero doomsday cult, I wonder?
It is painful for me to have to agree with Tony Blair but I think he is right on two major points. First the UK will most certainly not meet either its 2030 or 2050 targets. Second even if Net Zero was achieved in Britain and Northern Ireland it will make almost no difference to global warming if major CO2 emitters like the USA, China and India continue producing greenhouse cases at their current rate.
Where I think Blair is culpable is that his governments failure to support the nuclear power industry has meant that the UK has basically put all its bets on renewable wind and solar energy like much of the rest of Europe. The nationwide blackout in Spain and Portugal indicate some of the potential issues this may cause. The failure may not have been due to renewables per se but when the Iberian grid was hit with a major power loss at midday on 28 April 2025 solar power was the major source of electric generation at the time and it was unable to sustain the network. More importantly to get the grid back up and running the Spanish electricity authorities had to use a lot of gas generated power and imported electricity from France’s nuclear backed grid and Morocco to kick the system back into life.
The astrology of the Iberian grid failure is interesting as transiting Pluto at 3 Aquarius and Mars at 4 Leo were on the 3 Aquarius Ascendant/3 Leo Descendant of the 12:45 Madrid 22 November 1975 Chart for modern Spain. They were also conjunct Spain’s Saturn at 2 Leo and square its Uranus at 4 Scorpio. Transiting Neptune at 1 Aries was square Spain’s natal Mars at 0 Cancer while transiting Mercury at 12 Aries was on the MC and square the Spanish natal Moon at 11 Cancer. Add in accident prone Uranus conjunct Algol and there was more than enough going on to suggest there might be a major upset
Ha! Agreeing with Tony Blair was also something I found slightly strange. But he’s right about this, and may be using his more ‘mature’ years to say whatever he really thinks, rather than continue with all the dizzying ‘spin’ of his former incarnation.
I was thinking that with the transitions of the planets into air (wind power) and fire (solar power) certain aspects of this may come under scrutiny, and perhaps new ideas for clean energy will emerge. Pluto is nuclear energy I suppose, and at this point is a practical option. Energy storage for renewables needs to be much more efficient too. What would the astrological symbolism be for a battery I wonder?
It’s impossible to ‘unleash the AI’ (Pluto in Aquarius, Uranus in Gemini) as Keir Starmer says without significant energy and water resources. Has anyone really thought about this? If not, the air and fire planetary transits will simply produce a lot of hot air! Meanwhile, Neptune in Aries could produce much steam, and together with Saturn in Aries bring new perspectives on carbon capture projects.
Without reliable energy the whole technological house of cards will come tumbling down. Data Centres etc have backup power sources but these are of little use if the rest of the IT infrastructure is down. The Spanish restored their grid quite quickly but had lots of help from fossil fuel generators and the French grid to do it. Increasingly a lot of European countries including the UK are relying on those French nuclear power plants.
Pluto in Aquarius looks to be a serious reality check for all techno fantasists. With regard to battery technology the first rechargeable lead acid battery was invented by Gaston Plante in 1859 when Uranus was in Gemini. Interestingly Pluto was also in Gemini from 1882 to 1913. In that period the first dry cell battery was patented in 1886 and the first commercial type D (1899), AA(1907) and AAA (1911) batteries were all produced. The history of battery development goes back more than 2 centuries but advances have been relatively slow and the technology is nowhere near developed enough to power an entire grid.
Thank you Hugh, that’s so useful. I had no idea about battery development – and indeed it is nowhere near capable of serving current needs. As for water, I don’t think there’s enough of that either. Yes, the techno fantasists as you call them will certainly have to face reality soon. From my personal point of view, much of this is simply macho rhetoric!
I had a quick look at the Climate Change Act, 26 November, 2008. It’s Sun, Mercury, and Mars will be opposed by tr Uranus in Gemini. Summer 2026 looks interesting. In July Uranus in Gemini trines Pluto in Aquarius at 4 degrees, opposing and sextiling the Climate Change Act’s Sagittarian Sun, Mercury, and Mars. This also happens to be right on Tony Blair’s Mars and Ascendant in Gemini.
There’s a Solar Eclipse, 20 Leo, in August 2026. That opposes the CCA Neptune at 21 Aquarius. 20 Leo is close enough to the UK 1801 legislative Saturn in Leo to perhaps have an effect there as well. I’m never sure about how many degrees to allow for eclipses, but they seem to work up to three or even four in mundane charts. Tony Blair’s Pluto in Leo is also 20 degrees, awaiting that eclipse. We shall see.
Tony Blair is very into AI, he was pushing it a lot last year. I don’t completely disagree with him, but it may be influencing his stance on energy stability, and maybe a bit of a knee-jerk panic from him seeing what happened in Spain.
Tara – I think this recent announcement has been brewing for a while. In May 2024 the TB Institute released a paper on the politics of Net Zero:
“The findings of the survey confirm that there is a delivery deficit on climate change: the public support action but, at present, simply do not believe that net zero will be delivered by Europe or key emitters such as China. The data show that sensitivity around the costs of transition (and the distribution of those costs) is essential if leaders are to retain a net-zero consensus. Crucially, the data also demonstrate how harnessing technology is not just good policy but also effective political strategy: it is less polarising than conventional political messaging on climate change.”
Be interesting to see what emerges during the current planetary transitions, and also how Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini impact on TB’s natal ascendant and Mars in Gemini. Spain resonates, with it’s 3 Aquarius ascendant. For the UK, 1801 has the Saturn/Neptune conjunction in Aries opposing inventive Uranus, and trining Jupiter in Leo. That seems quite powerful to me, since Saturn/Neptune conjunctions tend to mark major change points in society – the Berlin Wall coming down, the Russian Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union….
I hope you’re right about a major acceleration in battery technology.
Thanks Jane, I didn’t know that. Quite opportunistic of him to jump on that Spanish blackout then, great timing for him! The political instincts are still there, I think there’s a bit of spin left in the old bloke yet 🙂 Time will tell
I can see why it feels like battery tech is lagging – especially when compared to computing or semiconductors, where progress followed a relatively predictable exponential curve. But energy storage is a different beast. It’s tied to materials science, infrastructure, and market shifts, which means it often progresses in fits and starts rather than smooth, steady growth. It’s more…Uranian/Aquarian
That said, we are entering one of those rare periods where market demand (EVs, grid storage), policy drivers, and technological breakthroughs are converging. Historically, that’s when slow-moving sectors suddenly leap forward – like aviation in the 20th century or solar panel costs dropping 80% in the last decade.
So while batteries didn’t follow a Moore’s Law style progression in the past, we may be seeing the early stages of a major acceleration now.
Very amused by ‘spin left in the old bloke yet’ Tara! Mars in Gemini skips onwards…..As my Capricorn grandmother would say “what’s his game then?”. We may hazard a wild guess.
CO2 is essential for life, and its rise from 280 to 427 ppm has driven significant global greening, increasing vegetation cover and crop yields.
Cold is the bigger killer today—by a factor of ~9 globally—because we live in a world where moderate cold is common and deadly, especially for the vulnerable.
Might Blair be taking those factors into consideration, I wonder?
Not to mention the exorbitant costs and the unpredictable nature of the alternatives. See the nationwide blackout of Spain for a horrifying example.
Without reliable energy there is no prosperity.