AS COP26 in Glasgow looms, I fear common sense will fly out the window.

Already, many of the current plans for a greener future are descending into incoherence.

The 300,000 electric vehicles (EV’s) currently on our roads will, from May, be forced to recharge during designated, off-peak periods only.

Without this, Ofgen warns of blackouts.

That raises the very pertinent question of what will happen when we have the projected 14 million EV’s and 19 million home charging points by 2030, when new diesel and petrol cars will be banned.

And, remember that EV’s require electricity to manufacture and run, as do the heat pump systems proposed to replace household boilers.

Wind and solar power need electrical backup, batteries need replacing and heavy industry needs energy.

All of this must be generated – somehow.

Yet, lest anyone forget, we are legally bound to reach net zero – nil CO2 emissions – by 2050.

At the time this target was set in 2019, it was compared to putting a man on the moon, requiring undreamed-of technical innovation and expense.

There’s no doubt that many revolutionary developments are already in the pipeline, including hydrogen technology.

However, the costs of current plans will impoverish us and hamstring the economy.

The Treasury estimates the price of net zero over the next 30 years at over £1 trillion – an unrealistic burden when we’re responsible for just one per cent of global emissions.

Compare us to China, the USA and India, at 29, 15 and seven per cent, respectively.

Britain has already reduced territorial emissions by 28 per cent since 2010, contrasting with an average of 5 per cent in the G7.

Let innovation and enterprise drive our green future, not political hot air.