APPOINTING the Greens to ministerial level lets the First Minister off with having to address the failure to hit the target for non-electrical heat demand being met from renewable sources ("Failure over renewable heat target, The Herald October 28). It will only get worse and the tide of opinion against all this environmental paranoia is growing as people are starting to realise the cost and the disruption to their property, their lifestyle, and their pocket.

The whole project is fatally flawed. For instance, where is the evidence that someone at the outset had selected just one single Glasgow street and critically analysed the practicalities and costs involved in installing air heat source pumps on the back wall of every single tenement flat in that street? In time these pumps become noisy, they will be hard to access for maintenance and are not resilient to the Scottish climate and rusting will not make them any more attractive. Applying any cost benefit analysis to the installation project and to the internal disruption involved in the necessary additional plumbing, insulation and redecoration in just one street and extrapolating the consequences nationwide, it will be seen to be a project that cannot fly and has clearly not been given due consideration in a headlong rush just to be seen to be Green. Remember the UK in total is responsible for only one per cent of global carbon emissions.

As people come to terms with living in a colder house with an unreliable power supply, which of our leaders will take the blame for that? Not to mention concurrently ripping up the pavements in the same street to instal car charging points every two metres. A complete rethink is required. All this, remember, in a city that presently cannot provide an effective domestic refuse service or keep its streets clear of abandoned waste, rubble, furniture, cars, litter or even weeds.

I don't suppose that as COP26 gets under way anyone has been asked to present a paper to the conference reflecting this alternative aspect of the impracticality and inefficiencies of the madness that they are determined to impose on us predominantly at our expense and to the detriment of our lifestyle. As the delegates and their reputed entourage of 25,000 bag carriers jet off mid-November, causing disproportionate environmental damage, they will give little thought to what they are getting us into. There must be another way.

Neil Arthur, Kilpatrick, Isle of Arran.

* IN response to Colin Gunn's letter (October 28) on hydrogen gas replacing natural gas on existing boilers, existing boilers can currently run on a 20% mix of hydrogen, as testing has already been run regarding this. However, it would take considerably more than a little tinkering to run them on 100% hydrogen; unless the boiler is already a hydrogen-ready boiler, it would require a complete replacement.

Hydrogen burns with a near-invisible flame that will not pass an electrical charge, so alterations would be required to recognise successful ignition, and the increased heat within the boiler would overheat the casing and all around it, so considerable, in fact, impractical, amounts of insulation would be required. Mr Gunn's comments on air source heat pumps are all spot on, excepting his point on underfloor heating only being able to be used on ground floors. However, that`s neither here nor there with his detailed negatives on that systems practicalities.

George Dale, Beith.

* A LOT is being said these days about the urgency required over steps to combat climate change. Here is a salutary thought. My wife and I went to Iceland for a holiday in 2005. When we were there we saw a hydrogen-powered bus in operation in Reykjavik. Methinks the rest of the world has been dragging its collective feet.

The UK in particular is trying to make out that hydrogen power is something new and that the UK is in the forefront of development. If it weren't so serious, it would be laughable.

Alan Hamilton, Uddingston.

BAN DIGITAL BILLBOARDS

VARIOUS ideas and schemes are being proposed to cut CO2 pollution, most of which involve private, and or public expense, not to mention inconvenience and changes in lifestyle.

As I sat on the bus going through Glasgow of an evening I couldn't help notice all the advertising. There they all were, each one a blaze of light. Goodness knows how many tons of CO2 are being emitted, never mind the calories, in order to produce the electrical power used.

Why not, if the Government is really serious, prohibit the use of electrically-powered advertising? It would not cost the public nor the Government a penny – unlike hair-brained schemes like heat pumps in a 100-year-old, four-storey tenement. Oh and electric cars? I'm afraid they are reminiscent of the way diesel cars were being promoted as the saviour of mankind a few years ago; now the "experts" admit they got it wrong and wish them scrapped.

George Smith, Clydebank.

PLEASE GET THE PM TO SMARTEN UP

PLEASE: will whoever is in charge of Boris Johnson during the three-ring circus in Glasgow, please make sure that he is properly dressed? Tuck in his shirt, fasten his jacket, straighten his tie, sort out his collar and, most importantly, brush his hair.

This man is going to be representing the United Kingdom to the world. The leaders of other countries will be looking at him and wondering when the real leader is coming. Many of them will be seeing him for the first time – and first impressions do count.

LP Lyon, Glasgow.

MAKING A MEAL OF IT

IT started with nouvelle cuisine, and now we are led to believe the even smaller portions served in restaurants will help save the planet. What next, the 50ml glass of house wine?

John Di Paola, Glasgow.