A new paper by the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) explores recent revelations of the commercial links and associations of IPCC Chair Dr Pachauri, including his direct involvement with carbon trading as advisor to the Chicago Climate Exchange and as chairman of its Indian subsidiary. SPPI is a Washington, D.C. non-profit research and education organization.
In Dr Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC – No Fossil Fool, author Dennis Ambler shows that the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) directly benefits energy companies in India with which Pachauri has previous or present connections, demonstrating a very clear conflict of interest with his position as head of IPCC.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 to investigate the pre-determined and contentious conclusion that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are causing unprecedented warming of the planet. It has delivered four assessment reports on the state of climate science and is currently preparing a further, fifth report. The first three reports were used to underwrite the political objective of carbon trading, which translated into the Kyoto Protocol, whereby developed countries agreed commitments for reducing their emissions relative to 1990.
The protocol is due to expire in 2012, which means that the legal basis for carbon trading would then end and lucrative carbon markets would be lost unless a successor is produced. The pressure continues to try and secure a binding agreement in Cancun, Mexico, later this year.
Reports Ambler, “At stake is the long-term UN agenda of wealth transfer from rich nations to poor nations. As one of the main beneficiaries, India is in the fortunate position of having the head of one of its major energy institutions, Dr Pachauri of TERI, in charge at the IPCC, a post he has held for the last eight years. During his tenure he has actively campaigned for emissions control legislation in western countries, particularly the US. On occasions this has been in private meetings with US legislators.”
One of the many unacceptable features of the CDM, is the way in which international policy advisers, often contributors to the IPCC, and often former UN bureaucrats, suddenly appear as carbon trading consultants, in prime position to benefit from the policies they have been advocating. Says Ambler, “In a different environment this would be described as insider trading.”
Dr Pachauri has ridden the recent criticisms and vowed to stay in post until the completion of the IPCC fifth report, in 2013 or 2014. He has called for extra funding of $1 million for the IPCC to pay for spin doctors to sell the UN/IPCC message.
Concludes Ambler, “It is time for the public to realize they are being deceived on a massive scale and insist that their legislators opt out of policies which will have zero effect on climate but massive impact on their daily lives.”
The full paper can be read at: (http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/no_fossil_fool.html)
Pompous Git says:
Nah Spring and Autumn (Fall for our US friends) are the best times of year. Personally I prefer the latter because I get hayfever in spring.
Hope I didn’t spoil the surprise… I don’t remember an Aussie tour being mentioned here.
Let’s see. Climategate. Rigging the “global average temperatures.” IPCC was wrong about the Himalayan glaciers melting. No warming for 15 years. GCMs no where near the “mark.” IPCC conflict of interest. Hmmm, lots of black eyes for climate science lately. Is there anything we CAN believe?
Christopher Booker and Richard North over at the UK’s Telegraph really dug the dirt on Pachauri and his associates.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7007891/The-curious-case-of-the-expanding-environmental-group-with-falling-income.html
Pachauri blustered, moaned, threatened legal action (we wish!) and then got busted with the Glacier incident (amongst others). He then did an Al Gore and crept under a stone to hide from the glare of the publicity that he so loves. (It was also noticeable that none of the associates went for legal action against Booker or North).
How someone, as patently crooked as he is, can be allowed to continue just shows what the UN is really about and I often wonder why the United States continues to host this bunch of self serving bureaucrats.
Ref: Harbinger says at 12.32 on 12th May:
Could you please point to the documentation about Lord Stern and his carbon dealings? If the carbon credit business can be brought to a halt – or rather initially seen by the big players to be coming to an end – the whole edifice of CAGW will crumble. The only reason for the inception of the IPCC was a political vehicle to produce, ultimately, the carbon credit scheme – which, in turn, would lead to wealth and power on an unimaginable scale. Just look at the names of the founders of the Chicago Carbon Exchange and where their tentacles reach…
Pete H says:
May 12, 2010 at 10:46 pm
…
How someone, as patently crooked as he is, can be allowed to continue just shows what the UN is really about and I often wonder why the United States continues to host this bunch of self serving bureaucrats.
It only shows just how deep and broad this corruption really goes.
WWIII says:
May 13, 2010 at 1:33 am
It’s in the paper: He fails to mention that also on the Advisory Council is his good friend, Mr Ratan Tata, head of TATA Sons, the TATA holding company and chairman of the Indian Investment Commission.
One of his companies, the Tata Power Trading Company is engaged in providing a full range of CDM services. They handle the whole package of CDM funding from initial proposal, validation of projects, to bringing in the money. They also offer carbon trading services via the carbon exchanges.
Pachauri also fails to mention that Mr Nitin Desai, “Distinguished Fellow” at TERI is an advisor with a carbon ratings company, IdeaCarbon, along with Lord Nicholas Stern, who gave his name to the influential Stern Review, commissioned by the UK government in 2006.
Nitin Desai has a strong UN history, first as Senior Adviser and principal draftsman for “Our Common Future”, the Report of the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development and then as Deputy Secretary-General for the Rio Earth Summit, (1992) the manager of the Commission on Sustainable Development for its first decade and as the Secretary General for the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. He is currently Chairman of the UN Advisory Group on Internet Governance28 and Special Advisor to Ban Ki Moon on that subject.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science, (LSE), UK, where Lord Stern is Chairman of the LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. This is how IdeaCarbon describe their work:
“IDEAcarbon is an independent provider of ratings, research and strategic advice on carbon finance. Its services are designed to provide leading financial institutions, corporations, governments, traders and developers with intelligence and analysis of the factors that affect the pricing of carbon market assets.”
IdeaCarbon will be involved in carbon trading29 on the Indian Multi-Commodities Exchange, (MCX), which estimates that by 2020 the market for project based carbon offsets is estimated to grow to at least €200bn.
They have set up a subsidiary to handle these activities, known as the Carbon Ratings Agency. They openly boast of their highly influential30 management team and ratings committee:
“which includes ratings experts, financial market professionals, UN climate change negotiators and former senior managers from development agencies such as the World Bank, a combination which ensures that the full range of risks facing carbon projects are taken into account by the ratings process.”
Welcoming the launch of the service, Lord Stern, Vice Chairman of IDEAglobal Group, said: “The carbon markets are showing their potential to reduce global emissions and should form a key plank for any future global climate agreement.