Breaking: Japan refuses to extend Kyoto treaty at Cancun

Very well said, Japan! They are waking up and smelling the cherry blossoms.

Cue music: Fugue in G minor

From the Guardian:
“If it proves to be a new, formal position rather than a negotiating tactic, it could provoke a walk-out by some developing countries and threaten a breakdown in the talks.”
One can only hope.

Daniel M says: “What sound does the first domino make?”
Thanks.

Sean Peake says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:43 am
Cue music: Fugue in G minor
=======================================================
Strange, but the music running through my head was Judy Garland and a bunch of Munchkins. Although our warmist friends may instead prefer a piece from Chopin.

I wonder why the Cancun-con doesn’t embrace nuclear power?

Japan has a ring side seat with the worst poluter in the world – China. Any extension of Kyoto would hamstring the Japanese economy just as China is burgeoning. The Japanese did not build an economic empire on stupidity.

While Trondheim, Norway sees the coldest temperatures recorded in over 200 years.
Berlin is calling for -20C next week. It is freezing in the UK.
http://www.storm.no/nyheter/kulderekorden-ble-knust-3353713.html
I think Japan figures we can use all the CO2 we can get right about now!

I like it. “No means no” in diplo-speak.

That Global Warming Gravy & Fame Train is derailing faster than the bottom is falling out of the carbon trading market.
A fine wreck to sit back and watch . . . the debris pile will be topped off with the shattered credibility of the global environmental movement.

Daniel M says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:40 am
What sound does the first domino make?
No sound whatsoever.
We are surrounded by global warming here in Ireland.
We call it SNOW!

“Kyoto has achieved precisely nothing.”
11 It enabled governments to increase taxes for no good reason
If you want to inform the BBC that the whole of the northern hemisphere is approaching its winter season-
“Lethal cold weather grips northern Europe”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11895107
Have you been affected by the heavy snowfall? You can send us your experiences using the form below.

Interesting to see just how little mention of Cancun is evident on the BBC website. You have to really dig to find anything on “the sombre news”. Contrast with the hype of 1 year ago, when the BBC had 200+ personnel chanting the mantra in the snows of Copenhagen.
This year the 200 seem to be reporting the unseasonably cold and snowy conditions around the UK, instead. I find it really amusing to see that the reporters dotted around in the freezing wastes, all consistently dressed in their “North Face” jackets (I wonder how much that publicity is worth), are almost to a man (and woman) not wearing hats, which is just bonkers in these conditions. I suppose hats are banned, as they might indicate that someone has planned for the global cooling phase that we are so clearly in.
At least the woman reporting from the Scottish location (I have forgotten its name – so surprised that BBC has not made a big deal of it….) with the coldest temperatures ever recorded in the UK has been given permission to wear one. Got to thank ‘Ealth and Safetee’ for something I suppose.

Oh i would love to see those faces now of flag waving girls and boys who organise “the fossil of the year award”. For them it must be Pearl Harbour all over again.

So far, only the Guardian has latched on to this story, but that could be because of this quote at Wikipedia, under the heading “Journalists working for Russian intelligence services”:
Oleg Gordievsky commented on the newspaper: “The KGB loved the Guardian. It was deemed highly susceptible to penetration”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian
Let us hope that the Guardian is reporting pravda.

Excellent news…! Mind you – nobody ever seemed to read Kyoto, because all the politicians kept on about CO2 (can be taxed, see…) when Kyoto always talked about reducing greenhouse gases as CO2 EQUIVALENT…
Anyway – we live in interesting times, folks…

Scamcoon is dead!!!

They are closer to getting nuked over this than N Korea is for it’s recent stunts.
All the greenie talk and luv for all things Chinese. Japan was the second largest economy in the world. It still is very close to #2.
Japan is showing a little leadership.

Global Climate Disruption has been disrupted at Cancun by the Kyotoans.
So what’s next? Ocean acidification? Global Oxygen Depletion?

Well for year alarmists have screamed we must change before we hit a tipping point!
Now that I believe we’ve hit that tipping point, I know what they ment, and that were so worried we would see it happen.
We all need to push a little more to help the tipping point called “the truth”, finally jump over the hurdle.
Speaking of Japan, I wonder if Al Gore knows what Seppuku is? Considering hes a politican and lawyer, I doubt it.

Good heavens! It’s a miracle!

OT: Amazing image of the UK covered in snow.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11901718

An Inquirer says:
December 2, 2010 at 10:39 am
21. Make 38 billion Danish Kroners to disappear. Ask Connie Hedengaard.
Cancun, Obamas Pearl Harbour.

@Sean Peake Are you implying that we are going to get Bach to reality?

From Bloomberg:
Japan said it won’t help extend the Kyoto Protocol accord to curb greenhouse-gas emissions after its targets expire in 2012, urging instead work on a new global agreement to combat climate change.
The Kyoto treaty is “outdated” because it only regulates 27 percent of global emissions, Kuni Shimada, special adviser to Japanese Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto, said yesterday in an interview at United Nations climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/world-shouldn-t-wait-for-u-s-resolution-on-climate-agreement-japan-says.html

jeremy says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:33 am
So the country that hosted that farce now rejects it. Can you get a better example of rejection of this political agenda?
You are implying that Japan did not act truthfully. No, I think oriental people think not for the “minute” but they use “Lang Tong” (long sight): They surely thought: “What is the use of opposing it if they are so convinced….we’ll change it in a few years”
I saw an interview, during one of the APEC’s summits: A journalist asked China’s President what did he opine about his country “communist revolution”, referring to the great capitalist development of the last years; to what he responded that it has passed more than two hundred years of the French Revolution and we still did not know its results. That was really meaningful!. This is real as we are now questioning those principles of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”as opposed to fruitful individualism.

Here in Canada the MSM is not reporting on Cancun, nothing, nada, not a mention on the CBC (normally the CBC is vocally alarmist) or the Liberal Toronto Star ! Whats going on or have I missed something.

@Sean Peake says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:43 am
Cue music: Fugue in G minor
I prefer this piece by Chopin. I consider it to be quite appropriate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fg9hdAiQMQ&fs=1&hl=en_GB]

Ah, so! Japan decided not to commit economic Hari Kari and hand over the reins of economic prosperity to China! Bravo!!!!

Anthony,
Watt are you going to do for fun if this whole stupid thing evaporates, due no doubt to global warming?
If this thing reverts to a scientific interest and not a political imperative, the science might clean up all by itself and we might then all go on to the next apocalypse du jour.

” CAGW will soon be regulated down to a basement office next to the one occupied by the Great UFO Conspericy”
I think you mean, Ferdinand Akin, the great UNO (+EU, WWF, Greenpeace etc) conspiracy, and I do so wish that were true.

Just say no to Kyoto. Love it.
Here’s a joke.
What’s the difference between a politician and a lady?
If a lady says “No” she means “Maybe”; if she says “Maybe” she means “Yes”; but if she says “Yes” she isn’t a lady.
If a politician says “Yes” he means “Maybe”; if he says “Maybe” he means “No”; but if he says “No” he’s not a politician.
If the Japanese said “No”; I believe they meant “Heck No”; or possibly even “Hecky-Darn No”.

Normally they would have been banging the AGW drum till your ears bled.

Well, there was a lecture on BBC 2 last night, given by Prof Brian Cox, where he banged on about peer review and how important it is to not be “impartial” when it comes to science coverage. He talked about the science of climate change as something that shouldn’t be disputed, because of all the peer reviewed work in its favour.
But of course as we know, “peer review” in Physics (Cox’s area) is a very different beast to peer review in Climate Science.

I’m on Japan on this one. It’s like sean says above they got the short end of the stick alright.
I don’t know if it has any correlation but it is somewhat interesting to note that when Japan ratified the protocol their economy never recovered and has spiraled downwards ever since, while on the other hand China has taken longer and faster economical leaps than economists thought possible.
If India had had Chinas amount of coal reserves I bet my cent that India would have taken much bigger leaps as well since western world industry wouldn’t have put everything in China so to speak.

Cancun going the way of Copenhagen. Good.
And from here on the lee of Lake Erie where there’s a band (about ten miles wide) of lake effect snow measured in feet, could use some of that global warming.

Hope this does mark the beginning of the end, but we are still being deluged with pro AGW stuff here in the UK.
E.g. Dr Vicky Pope of the Met Office reported as going on about how warm 2010 was/will be; how all the independent data sets show this and NASA may show it the warmest ever; UK cold winters only a regional and minor issue, warming still going on, even if affected by variations such as minor La Nina, Asian aerosols, etc.
They aren’t giving up yet. And UK has a Law stipulating massive reduction – 80% I think – in CO2 by some early date, like 2030 or 50. (So cold here in my heat leaky 1750 house that I can’t recall)

Tokyo to Beijing and New Delhi; ” Get your F***ing hands of my wallet! “.
India and China are saying if they don’t get their bribes it is a deal breaker, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

No mention in our news. But this time no news=good news.

Wow!! Tokyo drops Kyoto! Just awesome! Thanks to all those blogs that destroyed co2 pseudoscience!

should have said richard black hasn’t done a report about cancun since 29 nov, but of course he’s been spinning the hottest year story (2 Dec):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11903397

From, (as linked to earlier by Mike says: December 2, 2010 at 10:59 am )
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/world-shouldn-t-wait-for-u-s-resolution-on-climate-agreement-japan-says.html
Excerpt,
Jonathan Pershing, chief of the U.S. delegation, said earlier this week that –
the Obama administration stands by its commitment to reduce its emissions of heat-trapping gases by 17 percent for the 15 years through 2020.
(EVERYONE should of fallen about laughing as he uttered these words)
“heat-trapping gases” – for goodness sakes, “economics” is (unintentionally) saving science….
But you just don’t get that “here” do you…
If you do “get it” (and I’m wrong), then
please explain to me HOW carbon dioxide “traps” heat.
The only “GHG” that “traps” heat (temporarily) is water vapour,
by it’s latent heat properties,
WHICH CO2 DOES NOT HAVE (at atmospheric temperatures).
Science web site of the year, in whatever year, that does not realise
CO2 CAN NOT trap heat.
No wonder “economics” has HAD to save us from (AGW pseudo) “science”.
You just don’t “get it” do you,
quibbling the (AGW) figures ain’t it,
questioning the (AGW) principles “is it”.
That’s why the Japanese have done what they’ve done.

The Sex poodle was asked “what is it about no you don’t understand?”
I say we send James Hansen over there and let him picket. They will melt.
He can wear them down.
My experience with oriental negotiating is that they never get this blunt.

Robinson says:
December 2, 2010 at 12:00 pm
” But of course as we know, “peer review” in Physics (Cox’s area) is a very different beast to peer review in Climate Science. ”
I wouldn’t be so sure of that…
Is all “climate physics” 5 sigma, pier reviewed – thought not.
Much of AGW “climate science” is accepted (read pier reviewed) “physics” though.
The greenhouse effect for example.
What is the proof for “back radiation” from clouds to the earth’s surface. ?
Without which, there is no “greenhouse effect” (Sorry Gavin Schmidt – well not sorry really..),.
Somewhat akin to the missing atmospheric hot spot come to think of it (Sorry James Hansen – well not sorry really).
It would help if we had a reliable global HADcrut temp record to judge such against, but alas we have not (Sorry Phil Jones – well not sorry really).

BargHumer says:
December 2, 2010 at 1:11 pm

Barg – AHA! (lightbulb moment). I was once in Albany NY – when? About 1998 (January). And due to the amount of snow they had, they had to do the same thing. And what do we know about 1998?
Yep! It is all those snow removal trucks!

I wonder what the echo chambers at the alarmist blogs are going to discuss going forward.

In my opinion it is naive to view this as a turnaround on AGW. Rather, it is a rejection of the limited scope of the Kyoto agreement, in order to create greater pressure for a binding global agreement. Kyoto was disproportionately damaging to the economies of the signatories, but by its nature was unable to effect a global reduction in emissions, because it simply encouraged those countries outside the agreement to take up the slack. That is why extending it would be pointless, and why Japan is opposed to such an extension. This diplomatic positioning by Japan will probably make it somewhat easier to reach agreement on a stronger treaty, and somewhat more likely that Cancun will be a “success”, though of course there are still major impediments due to the divergence of interests between the more developed countries (EU, G10, etc.) and less developed countries (“third world”).

We have to tell it like it is. Everything about global warming has become all too predictable.
Phil Jones can admit that there has been no global warming since 1995 and that will be ignored by AGW True Believers. We can see a flat line of global average temperatures since 1999 and AGW True Believers will ignore it. We can see a cooling trend since 2002 and AGW True Believers will deny it.
There is no finding, in fact, that will challenge an AGW True Believer to conclude that the Earth has warmed and cooled and may continue to cool without human help. The oceans are cooling now and even if they continue to cool for the next three decades the AGW True Believer will continue to insist that the human impact on global warming is undeniable and major.

Japan stood at the edge of the abyss, and took a step backwards.
Good for them.
May many follow their lead.

Fremma says:
December 2, 2010 at 12:37 pm
‘I need some help here. I don’t usually have difficulty translating bureaucrat-speak but I’m struggling with Mr Arima’s statement: “Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances.”’
Clever post. Maybe he means he refuses to carve Japan’s target in Cancun stone. My guess is that he meant to say that he will not “subscribe to” the treaty.

BBC News at 1000 tonight – “the current weather is unprecedented” and at the same time – we can expect to experience these cold “cluster” events as the climate changes.
So at the moment we are having an unprecedented cluster ……
So funny!

In Danish TV2 the news is on. They report that japanese industry for a longer period has pressed against the japanese commitment to the Kyoto treaty. If so, the Japanese decision may not change much during Cancun.
K.R. Frank

All the huzzahs are premature. It’s not time to celebrate yet. From the Guardian article linked above,

Japan gave no reasons for making its brief statement on the second day of the talks, but diplomats said last night that it represented a hardening of its line. “Japan has stated before that it wants only one legal instrument and that it would be unfair to continue the protocol,” said one official who did not wish to be named.
Japan, which last night declined to clarify its position, has said in the past that it would not reject a new legally-binding overall agreement, but is concerned that it would be penalised if it signed up to cuts while other countries such as India and China were not legally bound to make similar cuts. . .

The Japanese delegation are not rejecting the catechism that inspired Kyoto in the first place, that anthropogenic global warming is real and a danger to the world. They are simply saying that Kyoto was unfair because it did not include every ‘polluter’, namely the USA, India, and China. And they are explicitly saying they will sign a new accord that includes everyone.
There is good news, and that is that India and China will have no part of such an agreement, and, thanks to the November elections, neither will the US Congress. So the True Believers in AGW at Cancun will be left trying to contrive a treaty that can go nowhere, except to salve the souls of the Greens in Europe and the USA.
Now if the Republicans have the stones to shut down the EPA, we’ll be making real progress.
/Mr Lynn

Great development. Japan saw how China overtook its economy this year as the world’s 2nd largest economy. If Japan will keep the Kyoto madness, soon India will also overtake it. And then Brazil…

Fremma says: December 2, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I need some help here. I don’t usually have difficulty translating bureaucrat-speak but I’m struggling with Mr Arima’s statement: “Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances.”
Or is there some sort of monument at Cancun that is under attack by an army of diplomats with chisels?
——————————————————————————-
Fremma. I think that it is as simple as saying that Japan will not sign anything to do with the protocol – not – never – nohow!
Douglas

George E. Smith says:
December 2, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Quotes,
(1) Well we do not have ANY perfect thermal insulators, so therefore there is nothing which can “trap heat”; it will get out eventually.
So it’s a bad choice of words. CO2 can most assuredly “absorb” heat.
(2) Just put some dry ice in a balloon and seal it; then wait for it to sublime and blow the balloon up.
(3) Then watch as the CO2 starts to warm up to room temperature; which it most assuredly will do by absorbing “heat” from the surroundings.
(4) As for water vapor; it already contains ALL of the latent heat it will ever have;
(5) But what CO2 and H2O and any other GHG CAN DO , is to at least temporarily capture LWIR Radiation
(6) capture LWIR Radiation (which is NOT “heat”) and subsequently convert that photon energy into “heat” as a result of collisions with other atmospheric molecules, most likely N2, and then O2, in that order. What comes next may be Argon; but it also could be H2O if the humidity is high.
(7) I don’t know why people keep on coming to WUWT and insisting that the GHG effect is all some giant fraud, and doesn’t exist.
(8) What is important, is what the total climate effect of GHG temporary “trapping” of LWIR radiation;
(9) And H2O vapor is no different from CO2 vapor at atmospheric Temperatures and pressures. Neither one can gather up more “heat” via any “latent heat” mechanism. But for Ice or water, then latent heat can become involved.
Derek replies,
(1) It is NOT bad choice of words, it is simply WRONG. As I asked, and you have avoided, how does CO2 2trap” heat AT ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURES. It does not, and can not, there is no change of state.
(2) Dry ice has a temperature of what ?
(3) What are you going on about ?
(4) Again, what are you going on about, liquid water evaporates (look at a boiling pan of water if you must), which is an endothermic reaction (requires energy), when it later condenses the water vapour releases energy (exothermic reaction). Commonly this is known as a movement of energy from point a to point b. Inbetween points a and b the energy (of latent heat) is “trapped” temporarily. Which bit of everyday reality do you not see. ?
(5) Go on admit it (if to yourself, and not us), by capture you really mean trap….
(6) You do understand the difference between heat and energy don’t you, on this evidence you do not.
BTW – Don’t try debating tactics on me, they do not impress me, and I will not be drawn into using them, however low your “standards” are.
(7) Your not really interested in science are you. Truth and skepticism are words you have never looked up the meanings of in a dictionary, are they.
(8) If that ain’t a complete reversal of position, what is…. Your back to heat trapping gases.. LOL.
(9) Honestly, which banana boat did you just get off, ” H2O vapor is no different from CO2 vapor at atmospheric Temperatures “, your serious arn’t you. Are you familiar with the phrase laughing stock, it might help you when people laugh uncontrollably in your presence.
If this is one of the main “skeptics” website, no effing wonder “they” are winning.
Economics, you wasted your time, they ain’t worth saving,
this lot are brainless, judging by George E. Smith.

“Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances.”
How is this consistent with “Japan refuses to extend Kyoto treaty”? Is this some new meaning of the word “inscribe” that I have not previously encountered? Does it work better in Japanese?

“a. To write, print, carve, or engrave (words or letters) on or in a surface.”
If you take the engraving meaning, you get the sense of what he’s trying to say. An engraving is permanent… a commitment. Basically he’s saying that Japan isn’t committing to the Kyoto targets any longer and will not be strongarmed into it (ie. under any circumstances.)

That’s a great solution.
End Global Warming, Take off your clothes
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/young-environmentalist-strip-down-in-public/

I think inscribed in the quote by Mr. Arima would be best translated as “commit to in writing”. They will not sign an agreement. It is a very blunt statement. A statement that the position of his government is not negotiable.
What Japan sees today is a unified China surpassing them in economic, political and military power. If the Cancun meeting’s purpose is to agree to transfer wealth from developed nations to underdeveloped nations, Japan sees China’s classification as an underdeveloped nation as against its interests. That is all that is left now that scientific support for AGW is inadequate.

Daniel M says: (December 2, 2010 at 8:40 am) What sound does the first domino make?
Brilliant, Daniel! Another Quote of the Week. It sings.

Robinson says:
December 2, 2010 at 9:57 am
“I’m loving the fact it’s the Guardian reporting it. I imagine (although I haven’t visited the article) that there’s a lot of hypocritical piety in the comments section!”
-> Fom Grauniad comments section.
Mike Teesly
1 December 2010 6:22PM
Even Kyoto doesn’t want Kyoto.

2010 downguaged from the hottest, to ‘ONE’ of the hottest.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/02/cancun-climate-change-conference-2010-hot

Ha har!…… The politics of AGW bites th’ dust.
Cha cha cha! (lil’ victory dance there)…….:-)

Canada leads the way again.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/china-india-brazil-must-pull-weight-in-climate-change-accord-baird-says/article1823097/

Japan’s rejection of extending Kyoto is hardly a win for the critics of AGW. Clearly Japan wants a stronger treaty. The real win is that the US Congress refused to ratify Kyoto even before the Republican victories a few months ago. There is zero chance Congress will ratify a stronger treaty.
The loss is that world trade will tank if these people get their way. The US economy suffers when much of the rest of the world shoots itself in the foot.

Animals and fanatics are most dangerous when cornered. None of this demolishing of support for the imposition of carbon taxes, etc., will dissuade the true believers from their goals. If anything, they will become more fanatical as they become more and more marginalized. Watch your backs.

Yes the Japanese are right in refusing to extend Kyoto protocol. As pointed out by former Forbes Magazine reporter Benjamin Fulford in Japan, there is a hidden agenda behind this fraudulent climate of hokum science, and that is the underlying objective of World Governance and control by banking family elites. See the hundreds of free feature length videos on these matters at the website.
http://fraudulentclimate.atspace.com/

The majority of fossil fuel consumption (=CO2 emissions) now occurs in the ‘developing’ world which is exempt from Kyoto. And that part is rising strongly whereas consumption in the ‘developed’ world is static or falling. China alone burns 45% of all the coal used in the whole world.
Japan has a particular problem. It’s economy is already very energy efficient so it’s difficult to lower fuel use further.

Please don’t get your wires crossed. Most of our politicians and bureaucrats still believe in the crazy idea that we can save the planet by curbing CO2 emission , or at least so pretending. They only say, perhaps rightly, that the target cannot be attained by the efforts of limited number of countries (e.g., Japan occupies only 4% of global CO2 emission). In addition, a heavy CO2 emissions reduction will surely hurt our domestic industry, that has attained a high level of energy saving around 1985.
I would like to add that the media coverage on AGW has dramatically decreased since the end of 2009, probably as a fallout of Climategate.

Thank you WUWT for informing me of the Japanese statement. Being confined to the house by heavy rain and minor flooding in South East Australia and listening to half hourly news on radio and TV all day, no mention of Cancun.
Maybe the Emu on our Coat of Arms should be an Ostrich, or the Three Monkeys.

in·scribe (n-skrb)
tr.v. in·scribed, in·scrib·ing, in·scribes
1.
a. To write, print, carve, or engrave (words or letters) on or in a surface.
b. To mark or engrave (a surface) with words or letters.
2. To enter (a name) on a list or in a register.
3.
a. To sign one’s name or write a brief message in or on (a gift book or photograph, for example).
b. To dedicate to someone.
4. Mathematics To draw (one figure) within another figure so that every vertex of the enclosed figure touches the outer figure.

Oh, oh.
“UN demands “concrete results” from Cancun summit”
“Speaking to reporters in New York yesterday, UN under secretary general for planning Robert Orr said that the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which is due for release in 2014, will be much worse than the last report released in 2007.
That report warned that based on business-as-usual projections, average global temperatures could rise by as much as six degrees by the end of the century, resulting in a catastrophic impact on the global economy.”
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/1900141/demands-concrete-results-cancun-summit
Extensive and entertaining coverage of Cancun and more of this kind of ‘scientific’ information from the Green Inc. point of view avaialble at this site, including their take on this Japan story:
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/1929741/japan-ignites-cancun-row-refusal-extend-kyoto
It includes this: “China’s envoy, Su Wei, told reporters earlier today that Japan’s position threatened the future of the talks. “The Kyoto Protocol is the very basis of the framework to address climate change through international cooperation,” he said. “If the pillar is collapsed, you can guess the consequences.”
Seems Japan recognizes that crippling its economy while its rival China builds coal fired power plants as fast as it can is not such a good idea, for Japan, while China is shocked, shocked, by Japan’s planet-hating attitude.

Qatar gets the World Cup in 2020. It’s a hunndred and six degrees by noon in Qatar at the time of the World Cup. What team in their right mind would want to play in 106 degrees when they can be playing in Barcelona on a nice balmy 89 degree day?
Oh, it’s OK, the stadiums will be air conditioned.
If I wanted air conditioning, I’d just go down to my local stadium when it’s hot and watch the hockey game. The teams want to experience the outdoors while they are playing. I don’t know why, and so do the people at the event.
There’s something more going on with this Qatar pick and it probably has more to do with money than most people think.
Or could it be the people of Qatar just want to give the rest of the world a glimpse of how the live, welcoming you into their back yard for a once in a lifetime glimpse into their world that most people watching don’t get to see much of?
I here they even have an indoor ski resort in Qatar.
I’m a little bit conflicted.

I know this news is monumental.
Look for a ripple effect in Europe.

It’s pretty cold here too in SW Florida. Right now it’s about 50*.

Anthony/Mr Moderator I post the following quite often so ditch if you wish.
The following is what the boys were up to pre Kyoto 1997, enjoy:-
From: Joseph Alcamo
To: m.hulmexxxxxxxxx.xxx, Rob.Swartxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Timing, Distribution of the Statement
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 18:52:33 0100
Reply-to: alcamoxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Mike, Rob,
Sounds like you guys have been busy doing good things for the cause.
I would like to weigh in on two important questions —
Distribution for Endorsements —
I am very strongly in favor of as wide and rapid a distribution as
possible for endorsements. I think the only thing that counts is
numbers. The media is going to say “1000 scientists signed” or “1500
signed”. No one is going to check if it is 600 with PhDs versus 2000
without. They will mention the prominent ones, but that is a
different story.
Conclusion — Forget the screening, forget asking
them about their last publication (most will ignore you.) Get those
names!
Timing — I feel strongly that the week of 24 November is too late.
1. We wanted to announce the Statement in the period when there was
a sag in related news, but in the week before Kyoto we should expect
that we will have to crowd out many other articles about climate.
2. If the Statement comes out just a few days before Kyoto I am
afraid that the delegates who we want to influence will not have any
time to pay attention to it. We should give them a few weeks to hear
about it.
3. If Greenpeace is having an event the week before, we should have
it a week before them so that they and other NGOs can further spread
the word about the Statement. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be so
bad to release the Statement in the same week, but on a
different day. The media might enjoy hearing the message from two
very different directions.
Conclusion — I suggest the week of 10 November, or the week of 17
November at the latest.
Mike — I have no organized email list that could begin to compete
with the list you can get from the Dutch. But I am still
willing to send you what I have, if you wish.
Best wishes,
Joe Alcamo

Well we have had conspicuous consumption on the opening party and now a little reality. Well done Japan. We need America to now stand up and state the same and it will be the end of Cancun and renamed to Cancan’t. ( I think this was first said by Anthony W. so I apologize for the plagiarism.).

All those who doubt what the Japanese have said should follow this article’s link to the Guardian and look at the video there. The Japan Friends of the Earth guy didn’t look too happy.

@Keith. at hastings uk
You forgot to mention we also have politicians deeply involved in tax avoidance (all colours) who expect us to pay more tax to avoid being boiled-alive as the North Sea slowly turns to steam.
It would be better to state that we have so many politicians mired in corruptive diversion of public funds to their friends in various industries (usually located in tax havens around the world).
Doubtless they will end their political lives and be “incorporated” within various companies (if they are not already, and many already are !)

I think comments previously made about Japan already being an energy-efficient economy is spot on so it’d be hard to achieve greater efficiencies from here on out. Same for comments that Japan may now realize that AGW is a scam and their own analyses indicate that any CO2 reduction in general, and by Japan in particular, won’t matter to climate at all.
But there are a couple other factors that probably will push Japan to sink the Cancun confab. First, I don’t think anyone had a good grasp in 1997 of how fast China would expand its CO2 production, which is now greater than America’s and will likely double in the not so distant future. Second, Japan is now in demographic decline. Their population is aging fast while the worker proportion of the population is shrinking. They can’t afford to economically burden their population further. Third, I think the Japanes realize that they’ve been had by Russia and Germany. Those two countries racked up a lot of climate “credits” because they closed down a lot of inefficient communist factories after the Cold War ended. Fourth, and maybe most importantly, the Chinese are getting more assertive militarily and economically and are scaring the bejeebers out of the Japanese. This at a time when the Japanese are now wondering if America has the fortitude and where-with-all to provide security and protection to the Japanese homeland. I’d guess the Japanese aren’t getting any warm fuzzy feelings on this point based on Obama’s foreign policy approach to our allies. And last, the Japanese may have hoped the developed nations would be setting an inspirational example in the climate fight and thus inspire the developing world and America to join in. That obviously didn’t work out at all.

Sorry to break this to you guys but Japan has a very powerful ally, very powerful indeed. Seems that God is a skeptic a denier.
Quote
Cancún climate change summit: Is God determined to prevent a deal? Is the divine presence a Republican? Or is He/She/It running an inter-galactic fossil fuel conglomerate?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/dec/02/cancun-climate-change-summit-monbiot
Unquote
Penned by one of the alarmists greatest shining lights no less.
Its over

International Conferences are very much like International Poker Games, regardless of their title or the many reasons they are called into being, they are all about $$$$MONEY$$$!!!! Usually the BIG BOYS go home with most of the Mu-La, but they also have characteristics of a feast of a BIG Elephant killed by a pride of lions (because it was too old, sick, or injured), there’s usually enough left over for a lot of vultures, jackels, wilddogs, rats, ants, and a thousand and one other lifeforms. Everyone gets fed!
Japan isn’t doing anything that is out of the ordinary. Cancun isn’t going to be as big as Copenhagen (could have been). Life and diplomacy will go on and on. But…. remember it’s all about $$$$MONEY$$$!!!! It has absolutely NOTHING to do with saving the World for anyone’s Great Great Grandchildren. Or reducing CO2. Or cleaning up the oceans. Or making life better for anyone in some poor starving country somewhere. There’s a BIG dead Elephant and it’s feeding time in Cancun, Mexico; and the vultures, and jackels, and rats know it.

At last. We are all going to live happily ever after.

In the end…which were the only ones to fulfill Kyoto?…California and the UK ?
What do they share in common?

Good news everyone, increased CO2 emissions are actually GOOD for the planet.
http://www.co2science.org/

My copy of the Spectator has just been delivered by our postman. I’m amazed he made it as it is extremely icy outside despite having “warmed up” to -3.5C and also as I nearly crumpled his van yesterday when I gently applied my brakes on a slight incline, zero braking resulted, accelerated slide towards him.
Back to the Speccie – the editorial fills me with joy: (I can’t get a link so will reproduce it)
“Less heat, more light
We have heard surprisingly little about the climate change jamboree currently underway in Cancun. Before last year’s Copenhagen summit, there was much hulabaloo. Gordon Brown told us that we had “fewer than 50 days to set the course of the next 50 years”. Yet he and 100 of his political counterparts could not stop the conference from collapsing under the weight of its contradictions. This year, only two dozen world leaders are likely to make the carbon-consuming trek to the Mexican coast. David Cameron, to his credit, [hmm not sure about that, but it is a Tory mag] will not be one of them.
He will not miss much. One paper preapred for the Cancun summit, by Prof. Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, proposes halting economic growth in the developed world for the next 20 years. It continues, “The second world war and the concept of rationing is something we need to seriously consider.” Such ideas place the Cancun summit only a few intellectual notches above a Star Trek convention. [!!Sorry any Trekkies out there]
Yet again, the conference seems to be a stage on which scientific inquiry is displaced by propoganda. And the tragedy is that there is much to be discussed. The global warming orthodoxy – to which every main British political party subscribes – rests on four pillars of received wisdom. Climate change is happening; it is driven by human activity; global catastrophe is imminent; and radical, government-directed carbon reduction is the only answer. For climate zealots, one either believes all four propositions or one is a ‘denier’.
If reasonable debate were allowed, several important issues would present themselves. What, for instance, is the cost to our manufacturing sector of the carbon emissions targets? Green taxes will slow Britain’s recovery. But by how much, and what, precisely, would we achieve in agreeing to foresake greater prosperity? How might technological developments help us cope with global warming? And are there cheaper, more efficient ways of preparing for climate change?
Some estimate that painting roofs a reflective white on Los Angeles properties would slow the rate of global warming in the city by 90 years. Michael Bloomberg is looking at a similar scheme in New York. Minght that be an alternative to wealth-destroying carbon taxes? The hysteria does not allow such questions to be asked.
Historians will probably look back at this as the time when global warming alarmism reached its peak, when rational debate was at its most restricted and politicians at their most gullible. The most egregious instance of hysteria came in the autumn when the tax-payer subsidised 10:10 group produced a star-studded video showing the gory detonation of school-children who disagreed with their teacher when she recited the green concensus.
Lat year’s political hyperbole over climate change has been replaced by an embarrassed silence – and this is almost as worrying. Serious economic and ecological issues are not being addressed. the government still accepts the agenda set by its predecessors, an agenda that threatens to destroy jobs with no benefit to the planet. the British public has never been persuaded by the fantastical claims of environmental doomsayers, so a sensible debate about climate change should be possible. All it needs is some clearsightedness on the part of our leaders.”
I hope and pray that this might just be the thing to kick-start the debate in the UK. You can’t expect politicians to do an abrupt volte face as the other parties will just join in giving them a good kicking. But, if you start to open up the debate, especially looking at it all in economic terms, then perhaps a few more MPs might just begin to have a bit of courage and start to express their inner views (I am convinced many of them think climate warming/change/disruption is a load of old rubbish and what better time to start than now, when we have all this snow on the ground).

As an aside, can somebody please explain how a two degree rise in temperature is “catastrophic”. The Antarctic is minus 55 degrees, two degrees makes that minus 53, how will that melt it. Do all the pensioners who move from Detroit or Manchester to Forida/Spain die because of the increased heat?
No wonder the Japanese said enough is enough.

Enneagram says:
December 3, 2010 at 6:41 am
In the end…which were the only ones to fulfill Kyoto?…California and the UK ?
What do they share in common?

I know California didn’t follow Kyoto, as hard as they tried.
My understanding is that the only countries that managed to get close to the Kyoto targets either had a head start already, or severely damaged their economies.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-03/coal-s-surge-coaxes-u-k-utilities-to-burn-wood-energy-markets.html
“Benchmark coal for delivery next month in Northwest Europe has climbed 41 percent this year to $117.25 a metric ton”
With the price of coal on the global markets skyrocketing a ‘Kyoto’ style treaty is a waste of time. Nuclear,Wind and Hydro are all cheaper then steam coal at a price in excess of $100/tonne. Even Thermal Solar is cost competitive in some geographic locations.
All another Kyoto treaty will accomplish is insure energy intensive industries are located in Non-Kyoto countries.
I.E. The Japanese make the precursor chemical for carbon fibers for BMW’s new econobox car. But since Germany and Japan are both limited in emissions by Kyoto, the actual carbon fiber spinning occurs in the US even though the cars will be built and sold in Europe.

CodeTech says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:35 am
Good for Japan!
Not that it’s likely, but wouldn’t it be awesome if the rest of the attending countries would do the same? I mean, in my ideal fantasy world they ALL stand up, admit the whole thing is a load of crap, and go home.
—————————————–
Thanks for that. Just started reading the comments and had a good laugh at yours, out loud like.
This is cheering news.

Vince says (thank you Vince)
Quote
It is an average temperature. Since antarctic and the arctic are fairly small in proportion to the whole globe, temperatures there, it is believed, could rise tens of degrees while equatorial temperatures don’t change at all.
unquote
But, there is absolutely no evidence of that sort of warming and you put in the rider, Believed, So how is that Catastrophic.
Shakes head, Japanese cherry blossom studies break the ice.

And so the fervor of global warming activism dies not with a bang but a whimper.

“Japan refuses to extend Kyoto protocol. ‘The forthrightness of the statement took people by surprise,’ said one British official ”
It’s called waking up and smelling the coffee mate.

Stick a fork in it

And no sign of a report of this on the BBC yet.
Where is Roger Harrabin?

Must see: Senator Inhofe: ‘I Was Right and They Were Wrong’ — ‘I couldn’t be happier and poor Al Gore couldn’t be more upset: it has been widely reported that he is ‘depressed’ about Cancún’
Remember Sarcozy in 2000 saying that Kyoto was one of the pillars of Global Government.
Obama is trying to achieve his agenda via administrative measures instead of the Senate. We can’t let that happen.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/senator-inhofe-i-was-right-and-they-were-wrong/