The real hindrance to our economy is not extreme weather, but the net zero agenda that is making you cold and poor, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

Official forecasts for the European Commission claim it is probable that 2024 will be the hottest year on record.

One of the directors from the body that issued the figures suggested they mean ambitious climate change action is more urgent than ever. So there you have it.

Apparently, the only problem with the green agenda is that we haven’t been radical enough, apparently being reliant on unreliable wind and solar energy, making energy more expensive for consumers and businesses isn’t sufficiently radical.

Banning new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, putting thousands of jobs at risk, as well as our energy security isn’t radical enough, prohibiting new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, or putting quotas on car manufacturers at great cost to jobs and increased prices for consumers isn’t radical enough either.

Not to mention having electricity prices for industry that are four times those of the United States. But if this is the hottest year on record according to the climate change lobby, shouldn’t things be a lot worse than in fact they are?

Remember the endless documentaries designed to make viewers feel guilty about polar bears? Polar bear numbers, if you’re concerned about this, almost tripled since the 1960s, according to the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

And what about hurricanes? Surely hurricanes are getting worse, aren’t they? The best data available for hurricanes is from the US, and they show the frequency of hurricanes making landfall in the continental United States has declined slightly since 1900.

It’s often claimed hurricanes are getting stronger, but the frequency of category three and above hurricanes making landfall since 1900 is also on a modestly downward trend.

So what about all those terrible forest fires? Remember the fires in Greece last year? Surely climate change is to blame.

Well, according to both the Royal Society and NASA, the total global area burnt by wildfires every year has been in decline for 25 years.

The list of propaganda goes on.

Whether it’s the Guardian writing an obituary for the Great Barrier Reef or the Evening Standard issuing front pages suggesting doom and gloom, we have now hit the hottest year on record, and yet real hindrance to our economy is not extreme weather, wildfires or declining polar bear populations, but the net zero agenda, the agenda that is making you cold and poor.

It’s time to abandon it.