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Doha: US Administration Caught Green-Handed


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By Dr. Benny Peiser —— Bio and Archives November 30, 2012

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US chief negotiator for climate change Jonathan Pershing has reminded the international green NGOs in Doha that it pays to bring them to these global conferences. He said so in a closed-door meeting with the NGO representatives suggesting that they should remember who pays for their presence. Pershing suggested that the NGOs shift focus from demanding greater commitment from the developed world to reduce emissions. --Nitin Sethi, The Times of India, 29 November 2012
The focus on the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol at the UN climate change talks in Doha could delay progress on steps towards a 2015 global deal, according to a Costa Rican negotiator. “I fear we’re putting ourselves in a position where some countries will say that because we’re running out of time we have to move the 2015 deadline,” said Monica Araya. --RTCC News, 30 November 2012
A dramatic ‘dash for gas’ strategy will be unveiled over the next ten days as the Government prepares the way to spend billions of pounds on gas-fired power plants. Power giants are refusing to build new gas-fired stations, even though they have planning permission, because they argue they are not economical. To encourage utility firms to build the power stations, the Government will announce a new system that effectively provides a subsidy to run gas-fired power plants. This inducement comes on top of the £7.6billion subsidy announced last week for nuclear and wind power. --Tom McGhie, Mail on Sunday, 25 November 2012 According to Mark Todd, director of the price comparison website energyhelpline.com, the Coalition’s green measures will increase bills by a third by 2020, with the typical dual-fuel gas and electricity bill, more than doubling from £1,200 to £2,500 a year over the same period. --Tom McGhie, Mail on Sunday, 25 November 2012 After 12 years of reviews, white papers and some legislation, the UK government has finally come forward with what it regards as a definitive set of energy policy reforms. Sadly the Energy bill is anything but definitive. Over the long period of the bill’s gestation, the world’s energy markets have changed radically. Ed Davey, the energy secretary, predicts the future will be one of “volatile” gas prices, which will head ever upwards. And Mr Davey believes that his chosen technologies will insulate Britain against them. If this part of the rationale behind the energy bill has collapsed, it might be argued that the government is at least doing something about climate change. But a moment’s reflection yields the unfortunate conclusion that not only are current renewables making little difference to global warming but that they never could. Before deciding which technologies to award government contracts to, it would be wise to think through what might happen if the secretary of state turns out to be wrong. --Dieter Helm, Financial Times, 30 November 2012 [Registration Required] The Leveson Report does not have much to say about science reporting, and even less about the problems of reporting climate change. But what it does say ranges from the blatantly obvious to the misguided, in my opinion. --David Whitehouse, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 29 November 2012 It’s that time of year again when some call the global annual average temperature for the year, even though there are still two months of data remaining. Such a premature declaration is done for political reasons, such as the current UN climate meeting in Doha. There is no point in putting out conclusions about the global temperature for any year until all that year’s data is available. It is misleading to only say that the global temperature rise has slowed down since 1980, when the evidence is that it has remained unchanged for the last 15 years. The 15-year standstill is a real feature in the data. Arguments that it has been cherry picked are irrelevant. The standstill is El Nino-La Nina independent. --David Whitehouse, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 29 November 2012



Guest Column Dr. Benny Peiser -- Bio and Archives | Comments

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