My grandparents, like most of their generation, had a wisdom not from books but from experience. They recognised verbal diarrhoea easily. Often, when somebody boasted about coming to a realisation that had long been self-evident, or indeed a ‘no-brainer’, they would state, mockingly, ‘ha scoperto l’America! – he’s discovered America!’

And so it is with the folly of net zero. How long does it take to discover the bleeding obvious?

Germany is in a prolonged recession thanks to an energy policy which banked heavily on solar and wind, leading to skyrocketing energy prices and manufacturers closing factories.

Just ask Spain and Portugal how the energy transition is going there after widespread blackouts earlier this year thanks to an overreliance on weather-dependent energy sources.

On 12 May last, Tomohide Miyata, the CEO of Japan’s largest oil refiner, Eneos, announced planned increased investment in liquid natural gas and less in hydrogen, adding, ‘the trend toward a carbon-neutral society is slowing’.

In the same week, Denmark – seen as a model for wind and solar power – voted to end its 40-year ban on nuclear power, following on from Italy doing so in February.

The Danish government will analyse the potential benefits of new nuclear power technologies, with a focus on small modular reactors and report by next year, Energy Minister Lars Aagaard said in a public hearing in the Danish parliament.

‘We all know that of course we can’t have an electricity system based on solar and wind alone. There has to be something else to support it,’ Aagaard declared.

Just last week across the ditch, New Zealand voted to reverse former prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s ban on oil and gas exploration, with Resources Minister Shane Jones describing climate change as ‘largely moral hysteria’.

In a report issued by his think tank back in April, former UK Labour prime minister Tony Blair called for a major rethink of net zero policies.

Blair stated a few inconvenient truths, notably that ‘any strategy based on either “phasing out” fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail’. He also pointed out that ‘voters feel they’re being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know the impact on global emissions is minimal’. Further, as Blair noted, China continues to build coal plants at a rate that exceeds the West’s ability to close them. And, while the net zero cultists love pointing out that China is embracing wind and solar, it is not at the expense of coal, or indeed its economic growth.

In fact, its construction of coal-fired power stations in 2024 alone was a 10-year high. Power-hungry China wants all the energy it can get, from whatever source.

Oh, and those solar panels that China produces, what the climate luvvies won’t tell you is that plenty of them are produced thanks to Uighur slave labour in work camps.

The world is being mugged by reality on net zero, but not our Energy Minister.

Fresh out of witness protection after the election campaign, Chris Bowen has maintained his crusade against coal-fired power plants and the need for offshore wind and solar energy, claiming the ‘silent majority’ was with him.

Good luck with that.

Last month, Copenhagen Energy formally withdrew its environmental approval application for its Western Australian Midwest Offshore Wind Project, off the coast of Kalbarri. It has already abandoned two other wind project proposals in WA’s southwest.

This came not long after Spanish offshore wind developer BlueFloat Energy abandoned plans for one of Victoria’s offshore wind projects after it could not find a buyer.

The discovery of the obvious doesn’t end there.

Sev.en Global Investments (7GI), the owner of two of Australia’s largest coal-fired power plants – the Callide C plant in Queensland and NSW’s Vales Point facility – hinted a couple of months ago that the retirement of fossil fuel generation – in particular coal – will have to be delayed in order to ensure reliability of the grid.

Just last year the NSW government negotiated an extension to the life of the Eraring coal-fired power plant, desperate to do whatever it takes to keep the lights on.

Already soaring energy prices in this country have seen the Whyalla Steelworks be put on life support, along with the closure of Australia’s biggest manufacturer of plastics and chemicals, Qenos, an alumina refinery in Western Australia by Alcoa, and this country’s last architectural glass manufacturer, Oceania Glass.

In May, the Dyno Hill fertiliser plant in Queensland announced that, thanks to soaring gas prices, it would have to shut unless a buyer was found.

Around the same time, mining giant Fortescue, headed by Andrew Forrest, laid off ninety staff across the country from its green hydrogen division. So much for green hydrogen being the ‘super fuel of the future’.

Even so, Forrest still pursues so-called renewable energy projects, all the while destroying the economic and social fabric of this country.

Residents of the small town of Bookham, a three-hour drive southwest of Sydney, are taking on Forrest’s Squadron Energy over its plan to build a massive wind factory next to their properties.

Squadron Energy made secret arrangements with certain landowners around Bookham, who in exchange will receive lucrative payments. Neighbouring farm owners suddenly found out that turbines were to be near their properties, while right on the doorstep of the Unesco world heritage-listed Blue Mountains there are plans to carpet bomb this pristine landscape with wind turbines as high as Sydney’s Centrepoint Tower.

The threat to local communities continues unabated. As the IPA has revealed, the Victorian government has plans to empower ‘authorised officers’ to access and use private land – by force – to enable works on the state’s rollout of wind and solar energy projects to continue over the objections of local communities and landowners.

Two weeks ago, the WA Liberal party passed a motion calling on the federal opposition to abandon net zero, declaring that it could not be sustained while Australia is sacrificing economic growth and living standards to reach a net zero target while developing countries charge ahead with economic growth largely fed by fossil fuels.

As my grandparents would have said, they discovered America. What will it take for federal Liberal leader Sussan Ley to do the same?