Press Release (via email)
Conditional Climate Targets Are A Step Back From Blind Unilateralism
LONDON, 18 May – The Global Warming Policy Foundation regards the UK’s conditional adoption of post-2020 carbon targets as a first step back from blind and grandiloquent unilateralism.
“Nobody should fall for Chris Huhne’s green spin. It is now absolutely clear that the government’s proposed carbon targets are conditional on international agreements and developments,” said Dr Benny Peiser, the director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
“The conditionality of UK targets on future EU targets is a step in the right direction,” Dr Peiser added.
Chris Huhne’s acknowledgement that “it is important that we move at the same speed as the EU” effectively means that the UK no longer aims to go it alone.
The ‘early 2014’ review of the government’s provisional targets are welcome, as is its assurance that UK targets will from now on be “aligned with EU targets.”
The government statement is an uneasy compromise between Vince Cable and Chris Huhne which, although a move in the right direction, does not go far enough. The Global Warming Policy Foundation is calling for the entire Climate Change Act to be suspended pending a binding global agreement.
The effective rejection of the Climate Change Committee insistence that the carbon budget be met entirely by domestic decarbonistion and not by carbon trading is also a welcome relaxation.
However, the promise to help energy-intensive industries, if carried out, would mean higher taxes as well as the higher energy prices implied by decarbonisation.
“The government’s claim that no other country has such targets is correct, as no other country wishes to inflict such damage on its business sector and economy,” said Lord Lawson, the chairman of the Global Warning Policy Foundation.
“We trust that, in the national interest, no serious attempt will be made by the government to attain these overly aggressive targets,” Lord Lawson added.
Contact:
Dr Benny Peiser
The Global Warming Policy Foundation – 1 Carlton House Terrace – London SW1Y 5DB
tel: 020 7930 6856 – mob: 07553 361717
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Some commenters claim the UK Climate Act is Law. This is true, but, IIRC, the Act “empowers” the relevant government ministers to impose restrictions and/or penalties on some producers of carbon dioxide but does not require them to do so. For example, Section 92.2[1]: “That power may only be exercised if it appears to the Secretary of State that an agreement or arrangement at European or international level recognises that the gas to be added [to the list of conjectured “greenhouse gases”] contributes to climate change.” However, CO2 is already on the list and I am unclear how it can legally be removed. In short: there is wriggle-room inside the Climate Act, but how ministers will wriggle is unclear. The more I look at this Act, the more it looks like trying to define pi to be 3.
[1] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/section/92
Too bad. We need a prominent jurisdiction like the UK to jump the shark and go blooey “pour décourager les autres”. The more spectacular the horrible example, the more effective it is.
Government Ministers using “science” as a tool of propaganda ? ….. Surely not !
See the BBC TV Show, “Yes Minister” Series 2, Episode 4
“The Greasy Pole” – First broadcast, 16 March 1981
Quote:
Jim Hacker: “Ministers are not experts. They are
chosen expressly because they know nothing.”
Sir Wally McFarlane: “You admit that?”
Jim Hacker: “Nothing about technical details.”
http://www.yes-minister.com/ymseas2b.htm#YM 2.4
Whole websites and thousands of fans of this show.
The episode is on Video Wall #8, at the website linked to my name.
Check out also the “Comrade Dad” series on that same Video Wall #8.
Just in case the servers are too busy or you can’t get in for some reason.
Yes Minister S2E4 – ‘The Greasy Pole’ – Part 1
Yes Minister S2E4 – ‘The Greasy Pole’ – Part 2
Yes Minister S2E4 – ‘The Greasy Pole’ – Part 3
BUY the DVDs from the BBC Shop [not spam – worth the money]
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3vtg2kh