The Global Warming Policy Forum welcomes the decision by the new Government to abolish the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Both the GWPF and its chairman, Lord Lawson, have been calling for this much-needed rationalisation for several years.
As the new government under Theresa May focuses on the much more important issues of economic growth, international competitiveness and leaving the European Union, the decision will provide vital savings. It is hoped that the abolition of DECC will also encourage a new emphasis on cost-effective policy-making.
“Moving energy policy to the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy should give ministers a fresh impetus to ensure that the costs for consumers and businesses are driven down, not pushed further up,” said GWPF director Dr Benny Peiser.
The newspaper The Independent” calls this a “…plain stupid’ and ‘deeply worrying’ move“, see below:
The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and “terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts.
One of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Only on Monday, Government advisers had warned of the need to take urgent action to prepare the UK for floods, droughts, heatwaves and food shortages caused by climate change.
The news came after the appointment of Andrea Leadsom – who revealed her first question to officials when she became Energy Minister last year was “Is climate change real? – was appointed as the new Environment Secretary.
And, after former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd announced in November that Britain was going to “close coal” by 2025, Ms Leadsom later asked the coal industry to help define what this actually meant.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband tweeted: “DECC abolition just plain stupid. Climate not even mentioned in new deptartment title. Matters because departments shape priorities, shape outcomes.”
Greenpeace said it was concerned that the new Government did not view climate change as a serious threat..
John Sauven, the campaign group’s executive director, said: “The voting record and affiliation with climate sceptics of key cabinet appointees are deeply worrying.
Full story here
No, what’s deeply worrying is that organization like Greenpeace have had so much power that they have effective infilitrated the government with activists. As far as I’m concerned, they have reaped the results of their years of overreaching alarmism, and the pushback we are seeing is the direct result of pushing too hard for things like the need to take urgent action when slow change would do. Perhaps if there had been some real investigative work done over Climategate, rather than the CYA whitewash job we saw from Muir Russell, DECC might not have got the total axe. Then of course, there is the added cost DECC was forced to reveal:
Closure of DECC is well deserved and well past due in my opinion.
“Andrea Leadsom – who revealed her first question to officials when she became Energy Minister last year was “Is climate change real? – was appointed as the new Environment Secretary.”
She needs to be advised that that is the wrong question. The right one is, “Regardless of however the climate changes, is there anything the UK can do to ameliorate that change?”
The answer, of course, is no. Anything the UK did would affect the climate as much as making it illegal to p in the ocean would reduce SLR. Any money spent should be to help protect society from any future climate changes – hot, cold, floods, droughts, and storms. Eventually, the climate will change, and regardless of how it changes it will put pressure on our energy resources.
“Is climate change real? ”
“Is [man made] climate change real?”
We, of course, know the answer to that one.
I hope I’m wrong but I think all the euphoria about the current British government changes is premature. Remember, it’s the civil servants who run the government and its policy, not ministers. And the civil servants are thoroughly entrenched…
Don’t get too excited – UK is just sweeping carbon fraud under the carpet by changing the name on the door… No evidence the failed energy and climate policies will be anything other than more of the same insanity with a committed warmist in charge
http://eciu.net/press-releases/2016/comment-on-reshuffle-energy-and-climate-change
Buy a generator and some candles!
Yeah too right … “nothing to see here move on” ….
Where else could they generate the £46 Billion a year emission taxes from, contributed by my BS fairy gas taxed £505 Jeep Wrangler road tax … soon to be £515 :(All thanks to the madness of Ed Milliband’s 2008 Climate Change Act)
No wonder much of the land owning establishment were dead set against Brexit, as it may at some point threaten their 20 year contracted incomes from all the wind & solar they’ve installed, if we ever break away from EU driven green agenda ( from which they collected 363 billion euros last year … so I’ve read)
Still there is always hope !
“Oh joy! Rapture!The PM’s got a brain!”
(paraphrase from Wizard of Oz)
Hast she slain the Jabberwock?
…
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, only time will tell. If this means ‘global warming dogma’ is no longer Government policy, thank god for that. If it is saying: ‘having a department provides critics with an easy focal point, so we’ll bury things but keep with the programme’, less good.
Time will tell which it is….
Government closes Department of Fairy Tales. Harry Potter upset!
2011 numbers show the UK generated about 1.5% of the global CO2. Just how much money should be spent to reduce that number? It does not look like the UK can affect global CO2 concentrations in any statistical or meaningful way?
For those who believe in the AGW conjecture, the science is settled so there is no reason to research it any further. For those who do not believe, the climate change we are experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans and Mankind does not have the power to change it. Either way, it is pointless to spend all sorts of money studying climate change.
Now that the climate police have been dealt with in the UK how about bank officials acting as a
promoters for the climate “opportunity ” industry . Who exactly is Carney referring to when he says “we” when talking about missing climate goal’s ? Was it the UK his current employer ? Goldman Sachs or perhaps Canada who he also used to work for ?
The scary global warming industry hasn’t just missed it’s goal it is self destructing and taking $billions in unpaid tax payer loans with them . Is Carney talking about those types of “opportunities ” ? Why would a countries top banker promote any industry let alone
ones that exist largely because they are public funded leaches . Maybe he is just used to the bank bailout out way of doing business .
Stick to banking. They have enough problems .Unless of course bank bailouts were to be funded by a save the planet carbon tax . Now that is a banking opportunity .