Guest essay by Eric Worrall
In the wake of a dramatic rollback of climate policy in Britain and Germany, the UN has accused Britain and Germany of “betraying the spirit” of the Paris Climate Accord.
Ban Ki-moon’s climate change envoy has accused the UK and Germany of backtracking on the spirit of the Paris climate deal by financing the fossil fuel industry through subsidies.
Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and UN special envoy on climate change and El Niño, said she had to speak out after Germany promised compensation for coal power and the UK provided tax breaks for oil and gas.
Governments in Paris last year not only pledged to phase out fossil fuels in the long term but to make flows of finance consistent with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
“They’ve [the British government] introduced new tax breaks for oil and gas in 2015 that will cost the UK taxpayer billions between 2015 and 2020, and at the same time they’ve cut support for renewables and for energy efficiency,” she told the Guardian.
“It’s regrettable. That’s not in the spirit [of Paris]. In many ways, the UK was a real leader [on climate change] and hopefully the UK will become again a real leader. But it’s not at the moment.”
As Ban Ki-moon’s tenure as UN Secretary General draws to a close, he is no doubt thinking about his legacy, how history will remember him. Given the accelerating collapse of political climate enthusiasm across the world, my prediction is Ban Ki-moon will be remembered as the UN Secretary General who presided over the downfall of the green movement.
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http://www.thegwpf.com/philippines-wont-honor-paris-agreement/
The president of the Philippines succinctly and without reservation, consigns the Paris agreement to the dustbin of history, hereinafter to be known as the CAGW tipping point.
That must surely be the end for the scam and Theresa May, despite her sartorial inelegance as perceived here, has at least brought to the notice of some that the emperor has NO clothes.
“Ban Ki-moon”
I thought it was started with a W
I have said for several years that the time to challenge the UK green movement would be when we lose (our now ex-PM) David Cameron and similar green acolytes from senior government. They’ve gone and already changes are afoot. Plenty still to do but abolishing the ‘climate change’ part of our Energy department was a big symbolic step in the right direction. The fightback starts here.
I’m a little curious whether the changes afoot in Great Britain and Germany are more a response to a popular skeptical movement, or more that their elites are coming to their senses. Anybody with any kind of take on this?
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kim commented: “…I’m a little curious whether the changes afoot in Great Britain and Germany are more a response to a popular skeptical movement, or more that their elites are coming to their senses. Anybody with any kind of take on this?…”
If you call being worried about re election “coming to their senses” then that gets my vote. The reality of removing fossil fuels from our daily life is hitting home and it can’t be stopped even by the MSM propaganda machine. The lies are catching up with themselves. The promises of easy, effective, and economical transition to renewable energy snared the people but the truth is winning. I believe the skeptical movement has been ignored, derided, and pilloried…..but that is changing.
Thanks, encouraging.
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“In the wake of a dramatic rollback of climate policy in Britain”
The DECC dept may have been removed, but not one single UK policy on climate and renewables has yet changed…
yet
Tax breaks that will “cost taxpayers billions”?
In fact North Sea oil and gas pay much higher taxes than other companies.
Meanwhile, news today that China is to finance and build a huge new coal fired plant in Kenya:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/new-coal-and-gas-plants-for-africa-india/
Tax breaks that will “cost taxpayers billions”?
Huh?
The government doesn’t own everything in creation.
If the government doesn’t confiscate 100% that isn’t largess, that just means the government is stealing less than they would like to.
Tax credits don’t cost the tax payer anything. The government just has to cut spending. Since 80% of government spending is unnecessary that isn’t a hardship.
In my country (Denmark) we have now cut sudsidies for installation of solar panels, and postponed the construction of coastal birdblenders untill 2025. At that time they might consider building more off-shore wind farms (Read : CANCELLED)
Yay
At that time they will be busy repairing all of the currently installed units.
“and postponed the construction of coastal birdblenders untill 2025”
Fantastic!
Happening everywhere-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/personalfinance/solar-power-bill-shock-looms-as-lucrative-tariffs-roll-back-advocates-warn/ar-BBuukfw?li=AA54Gb&ocid=spartanntp
Bye bye to one lot of reshiftable power bills and it really does look like the climastrologists are finally on the way out the door but don’t expect them to go quietly.
Well in the EU-19 Germany and the UK amount to a 50% of the GDP. They have the most to lose from the inane climate policies and hence are finally seeing the reality of the situation. If you consider the EU-28 they amount to about 41% total.
But Germany isn’t changing its approach on renewables at all, is it?
It just reformed its subsidy programme so it can keep on installing more wind and solar affordably and without straining the grid until it finishes its new grid…
Ah but it is. They are slowing abandoning their original ‘great conversion’. For example the 10X rule for wind power, requiring an offset = 10x the height, from others kills many wind projects. . In May/June, they worked hard to slow down/halt any land and offshore development, focusing on grid development. Meaning they have to get a smarter grid to do any more wind and solar. In addition, they are seriously discussing eliminating the vast subsidies due to the inability to use the wind when it comes. Curtailments they call them have been rising wildly and are costing Germans billions of Euros. So IF the grid upgrade will work is another question entirely. This ‘delay’ is just a forestalling of the demise.
“Griff on July 19, 2016 at 4:36 am
But Germany isn’t changing its approach on renewables at all, is it?”
NO, Griff- it already has!
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“Griff on July 19, 2016 at 4:36 am
“It just reformed its subsidy programme so it can keep on installing more wind and solar affordably and without straining the grid until it finishes its new grid…”
_____________________________________
Veery black humor, Griff – sure like it!
And the U.K.’s CO2 output is just over 1% of the global total. Why we ever wanted to be ‘leaders’ in CO2 reduction is beyond the understanding of the vast majority of tax payers, who are seeing their electricity costs rising and their jobs being exported because heavy industries have to bear excessive power costs. As for the green economy, all of the significant green hardware is imported, so that screws up our balance of payments. Meanwhile we are left with a catastrophic electricity infrastructure that is not fit for purpose in an advanced economy. You really couldn’t make it up!
These are the candidates for the positions as United Nations Secretary General including their vision statements.
All having been misled on climate change, none expressing a concern for the state of science, several expressing totalitarian ideas.
I would suggest to vote for: “None of the above”
Climate treaties are good for violating sovereignty. Not so much for stopping the climate from changing. Then again, a lot of treaties these days are like that.
Someone mentioned Kevin Rudd.
He would be splendid for the job of Secretary General of the UN. They deserve each other.
He might also be the last Secretary.
I had hoped that the Paris accords were not meant to be a suicide pact among Western countries. My hopes have been dashed.
“It’s regrettable. That’s not in the spirit [of Paris]. In many ways, the UK was a real leader [on climate change] and hopefully the UK will become again a real leader. But it’s not at the moment.”
The whining, the entreaties, the pleas, guilting, shaming, and othering has just begun. Delish.
If this keeps up people will accuse climate science of being politicized 😉
two new papers
meltwater from the ice sheets disturbed the climate 10,000 years ago ? ?
The researchers show that on multi-decadal to multi-centennial timescales a negative correlation existed between the amount of rainfall and winter climate in north-western Europe and in the Mediterranean region during the mid-Holocene from 8,000 to 5,900 years ago and the late Holocene from 4,700 to 2,500 years ago. That means that one region experienced less rainfall when the other experienced a lot, just like today. In the early Holocene, however, a positive correlation existed between both regions. During the transition from the mid to the late Holocene, the correlation reversed.
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-meltwater-ice-sheets-disturbed-climate.html
earthquakes on San Andreas Fault triggered by gravitational tug of sun and moon
The gravitational tug between the sun and moon is not just a dance of high and low tides: It can also trigger a special kind of earthquake on the San Andreas Fault.
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-earthquakes-san-andreas-fault-triggered.html
The UN? The Useless Nations? Really? They have betrayed more people in 50+ years then all the dictators,despots,etc in the world put together. As is becoming a more common question here in the Great White North…..are we STILL a member of this thing?
Will the comments be so facile when Ireland does the same.
This is progress, a little anyway. Democracy and reason are gaining back some lost ground.
These are just the open betrayals. The expert cheaters are not so transparent.
You mean the VW-UN Climate Agreement, right?
“They’ve [the British government] introduced new tax breaks for oil and gas in 2015 that will cost the UK taxpayer billions between 2015 and 2020, and at the same time they’ve cut support for renewables and for energy efficiency,” she told the Guardian.
Tell me, please, if I’ve got this wrong, but this is pretzel-esque logic. Surely the all-in cost for fossil- and nuclear-powered energy is far less than that for Renewable-power. To argue that it’s going to cost Brit taxpayers billions is complete nonsense.
I take the view that the Base Needs of Mankind (see Maslow’s Hierarchy: food; warmth, shelter, basic necessities of life) should be provided at the lowest possible cost to Society, and should be top priorities of the modern State. (Personally, I advocate Nuclear which mitigates CO2 production.)
Taxing non-Renewable-power to subsidize Renewable-power results in excessively expensive electricity.
Maybe, in the twisted-logic of the author of these absurd comments, that’s what she means by “cost[ing] the taxpayer billions…” Less subsidies = more tax??? Ha! Only if you are a Left-Wing theorist trying to explain-away why THEY want to double or triple(?) the price per kWh for Average Joe consumers, including little old Grannies freezing in the dark.
(Wait ….. maybe Pretzel Logic sees this as a golden opportunity to subsidize power-bills for the indigent, and come out shining as the Defender of the Disadvantaged. Hallelujah! ….. more Subsidies flowing one way, plus more Subsidies flowing the other way = more sloshing slush-money + bigger bureaucracies to rule us = Left wing Nirvana. Maybe they need Wynn (Ontario Premier) to show ’em the way towards huge Deficits for our Grandchildren to pay-off the idiocies of their forebears.)
Taxes on automobile fuels in the UK are so huge that any tax breaks for the oil and gas industries hardly matter.
The UK will devour all its competitors in the Eurozone simply by eliminating all taxes and subsidies relating to fossil fuels. Imagine paying three times less each time you fill up your car and what that implies for commercial transportation!
Obviously, not enough widespread destruction and disruption caused by low-density “green” energy converters. The UN wants more large-scale solar farms and windmill gauntlets, and less productive human populations. The resource misalignment has been centrally inspired.
Hooray for Britain and Germany’s gaining some common sense.
The UN envisions itself as the apex of the New World Order – a world-spanning empire of bureaucracy. Any deviation from compliance with its myriad dictates threatens that position. Brexit and Germany’s sudden awareness of its fiscal vulnerability due to the UN mandates are both incompatible with the UN’s goal of global compliance.