Guest essay by Eric Worrall
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to present a united front against President Trump’s climate skepticism took a blow today, with the British government admitting that climate is not on their list of key objectives for the G20 conference.
Climate change not an objective for UK at G20 as Theresa May meets Donald Trump
The Prime Minister has not made the environment one of her four key priorities
Jon Stone Hamburg @joncstone Friday 7 July 2017 08:43 BST
The Prime Minister has been accused of a “dereliction of duty” after revealing that climate change has been excluded from her top priorities at this weekend’s G20 summit.
Theresa May left it off her list of key objectives despite the issue likely becoming the central task of the meeting of world leaders, following Donald Trump’s decision to quit the Paris Agreement on climate change.
… a senior UK Government official revealed the British G20 delegation’s four objectives would not include the issue.
Instead, Ms May will focus on cutting off terrorist financing, global migration, modern slavery and “making the global economy work for everyone”.
Green party co-leader Caroline Lucas MP told The Independent: “It’s extremely disappointing that the Government isn’t priorisitising climate change at this summit.
“With Theresa May set for a bilateral with Donald Trump she should be putting action on climate change at the top of the agenda – and pressing the US President to reverse his disastrous decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement.
…
British Prime Minister Theresa May was left battered by a recent UK election which her party almost lost. She desperately needs some good news to try to win back some electoral support. A G20 win for British jobs might help restore her sagging popularity.
A glimmer of sense…. but don’t hold your breath, we are still locked into the 2008 climate act & a lot of British politicians are reaping a fortune from CACA
Yes, many thanks to the Donald for saying US was pulling out. It was an emperor’s clothing moment. What no one had dared say had been said. Despite the huffing and puffing from other European countries, there will be little point in continued economic masochism and the world can now start to move on.
The comments are interesting just for the sheer number of climate change zeolots falling over each other to shout boo and bah.
There’s one comment by a blogger calling him or herself ‘up yours’ who makes a point that I have not seen before about ‘climate change being false’.
It is nice to know that she can do something sensible.
She’s so damaged that she can’t do anything. This is a result of Tory in-fighting as there is no leader left standing to corral them.
And no-one prioritises Climate Change. It isn’t worth fighting for.
• It comes bottom of the voters’ concerns. T
• The UK can make negligible impact on it even if the worst case scenarios for climate sensitivity are true.
• It cannot be more urgent than the problems of today.
On top of which, the Tories have already lost all credibility and amicability with Europe so they can’t afford to annoy the US too.
Maggie would have known what to do! Take them by the scruff of the neck and shake them!
All the more reason to cheer. Anything that annoys Caroline Lucas has to be good for Britain — if not, indeed, the world!
The sole Green Party MP, elected by the populace of Brighton. A more telling indictment would be difficult to arrange
I am glad you said populace. A recent visit to the town convinced me it is inhabited almost entirely by aliens
Leo,
I was there a few weeks ago, and most of those we chatted to had a decent sense of humour; many liked lager; and none reminded me of the multi-awarded Michael Mann.
Did he really get a cycling proficiency certificate?
And a ‘Best in Show’ for his schnauzer/Skoda/stamp collection/beer mat display on July 4th?
Really?
Auto
The UK needs to repeal the Climate Change Act. No-one has the slightest idea how to meet its provisions, and no-one has any intention of doing proper research to find out.
Let alone actually do it. It was an utterly ridiculous episode, with MPs competing to make it more and more strict, without thinking one way or the other about how and if it was doable.
Some people are profiting mightily from it however, so it can’t all be bad :^)
R of O
Hit the nail squarely on the head. Thanks!
Auto
Absolutely. I would have been a life-long Conservative voter, but no more. I’m a Ukip voter now. I won’t vote Conservative again until, at the very least, they have promised to scrap the Climate Change Bill. It will achieve nothing but human misery. But I’m not holding my breath.
Chris
I stopped voting for the Tories when they stopped being conservative and see nothing to suggest that will change any time soon. Haven’t voted since the 90s in a General Election, only went back on the register to vote for freedom from the EU a year ago.
After posting my comment I went to look at the Independent report and comments.
I thought the Grauniad was bad. I’m off for a shower and a change of clothes and don’t plan to revisit the Indy any time soon — or possibly ever! What a bunch!
If any place on Earth needs ‘Global Warming’ it is the British Isles.
Because they have no idea to keep their houses warm – except through plastic padding.
With continental europe weather they would all be frozen to death.
I’ve got you beat there! Canada is the second coldest country in the world and has huge reserves of coal, oil and gas. To boot, warming would be very good for our agricultural industries, of which we have plenty. So naturally, our little idiot, Trudeau is full tilt temple worshipper for AGW and the Paris accords.
And we build a lot better houses than continental Europe!
Its insane, better weather would open up much more of the Prairies to wheat, make cars and houses last longer, just improve quality of life etc etc etc On average winter is 6 month long in Canada, heating costs are significant for most Canadians, reducing the standard of living too…
“She should be putting action on climate at the top of her agenda”.
What is “action on climate”?
Anyone proposing that the reduction of fossil fuel emissions is “action on climate” bears the burden of proof to show that climate is related to emissions.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2997420
“What is “action on climate”?”
That means she should ask Trump for lots of money for the Green Climate Fund.
Somebody should turn the message around and point out there is nothing humans can do to change the Climate, to industrialize how to improve structures and infrastructure to withstand it in the future and make better heating and cooling units more affordable. Right now that requires cheaper energy for everywhere being unburdened by taxes and regulations that hurt everyone. That’s going to get all the Warmista and Climate Alarmist panties wadded up their ______ when Mann gets – hopefully – what’s coming to him soon, for starting all this garbage that Gore and all these other politicians have been worshipping. All of their ideologies will be destroyed if the bases of their house of card’s gets pulled out from the first floor. You can say this is my wishful thinking. But as MLK said “I have a dream…” and that is their humiliation and shame. If that came out today, how long before the MSM report’s on it… is anyone’s guess.
Hey! We share a dream!
The Trump Effect continues. India will be increasing production of coal, from 554MT to 600MT. Looks like the Paris “Agreement” is unraveling like a cheap suit.
Never really “ravelled” in the real world!
Good point, John.
That India move probably offsets any CO2 reductions the U.S. would have made under the Paris Accord.
The U.S. seriously damages its economy trying to comply with the Paris Accord, and one little move like this by India or China that increases their emissions, nullifies all U.S. efforts.
The Paris Accord was a very bad deal for the U.S., and Trump was right to pull the U.S. out of it.
Perhaps she is confused in putting terrorism, migration, global economy and slavery ahead of climate change at a G20 summit. After all, other members of the G20 will put climate change in their top 4 priorities and then proceed to either do nothing about it, or in the case of India, laugh at the rest of the World while they keep building coal power plants. I can imagine the dinner party convo goes something like this:
“And I said, hahahaha, I said hahaha, if they go first, I’ll only keep building mine for another 15 years, hahaha, and they, they said, hahaha, they said ok”
The trouble is that, if you keep giving lip service to something, eventually you get more and more stuck with it. It’s one version of incrementalism. It’s a lot like the frog in the pot. As the pot gets slowly hotter, the frog never notices the change and never jumps out before it’s too late. link It’s better to stand up to the bullies at the start than to hope you can unwind things later.
True Bob. But really, what else do politicians actually do?
G 20 ?
I did not know the EU was an independent country.
It’s got a flag, an anthem and it makes laws..
Looks like an independent country to me.
ISIS has/does likewise, but they are a country only in their imaginations.
The European countries of France, Germany, Italy and the UK are all there as large economies, along with Spain as a guest. The EU gets to send a few officials as the 20th “country” to represent the interests of the remainder of the EU.
The host country can also invite some guests, and I believe Holland, among others, have popped along this time.
If it’s an independent country then it should be sending only one delegation to the G-20 summit. And, for that matter should it still be called the G-20?
I did not know the EU was an independent country.
Its not. It’s the 4th Reich.
So do states.
Robertvd
I think the EEC/EU wants to be an independent – except of Berlin?? – country, so the central government can tell Athens, Prague, Paris, Warsaw, and other ‘local’ authorities what they need to do to keep the supply of over-priced [and, sometimes, environmentally dodgy – don’t say WV!!!] German cars coming flooding in – whilst the natives can still sign up for debts – to the Germans, or the banks? – forever.
Possibly this is the realist’s rose-tinted glasses knocked from her/his eyes.
Possibly this is German hegemony.
Possibly.
Auto
Not everyone’s take, I realise.
Both “Follow the money” and “Follow the elections” apply to Mrs Merkel, the lefty-green echo chamber is convinced that “Climate Change” plays well with voters, any contrary evidence being fake news, and of course Germany wants everybody else to be saddled with high energy costs, since the Energiewende is the state religion there.
Sounds like G-20 is just a pout-fest for Merkel. Sorry, but her view of world leadership is a little too much like the hall-monitor-gone-gonzo in junior high, “we all need everyone to follow the rules, let’s make a rule that you must follow the rules.”
In the meantime CNN is having another melt-down by the fact that Trump and Putin met last evening with only 6 people in the room.
The Leftwing News Media is really starting to hurt their credibilty with their deranged behavior over Trump.
The don’t hurt their credibility with me because I never thought they had any credibility, but they are harming their credibility with people who normally trust them. That’s a good thing since liars should be discredited and if they do it themselves, so much the better.
I heard this morning that Trump’s approval rating was up to 56 percent in one poll (Rasmussen, I think). He’s more popular than the lying MSM, that’s for sure.
You got the 56% right, but its 56% disapprove
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/political_updates/prez_track_jul6
Hey in the postmodern world it doesn’t matter. Trump gets a trophy either way.
Well, it was early, and I was half-asleep. His 44 percent approval is an improvement over other polls which had Trump at 36 percent popularity. They also had the MSM at 30 percent popularity.
The MSM managed to drive GW Bush’s approval ratings down into the low 30’s, too. They are very good at character assassination, and of course, they had a lot of help from GW who refused to fight back against them and let their lies stand as “truth”. But I think Bush is up over 50 percent approval today, in the absence of constant negative reporting.
I would say that the MSM’s efforts to assassinate Trump’s character are much more intense than the way they were against GW. Probably because Trump fights back where GW was silent, and because the MSM’s best efforts don’t seem to be bearing fruit.
They have managed to drive down Trump’s approval ratings a little, but at the cost of exposing themselves for the liars they are.
In the end, Trump is going to come out of all this smelling like a rose, and the MSM will smell like a skunk.
They were so desperate to show Trump in a bad light yesterday when Trump was in Poland, that they had to resort to editing a video of Trump shaking hands with the leader of Poland and his wife, making it look like the man’s wife was avoiding shaking hands with Trump when a few more seconds of action would have shown her shaking his hand after shaking Melania’s hand.
A pathetic demonstration of the desperation the MSM feels about getting something bad on Trump. If they can’t find something, they will make it up. Even Poland’s leader got involved, calling the report of the hand shaking “Fake News”, which it most certainly was.
The American Leftwing news media are pathetic, and dangerous, since they lie and distort reality and fool millions of people into believing things that are not true. Then they get all insulted when Trump calls them out for the liars they are. Keep it up, Trump. I love it. It’s about time someone took the MSM to task. Trump needs to save the press from the liars within it, by exposing them and their lies.
Haven’t you learned yet, the polls mean nothing!
The trend isn’t looking all that good:
..
You still trust poll’s after the last election? Forbes and Gallop as with most poll’s are playing to the base by heavier polling in bigger cities and less in the majority of the country that voted for Trump by percentage of population in a state. Cities have higher unemployment than rural area’s so they are more likely to get answers in cities while people are working in the rual area’s. Also more Right leaning people just ignore calls from those that don’t identify who they are by caller ID…based on people I personally know and talk to and correspond with in social media.
Michael, seriously, did you just post a graph that ends on March 17 to illustrate current trends? We are to take your comments seriously?
One look at Merkel’s country right now (check out the “anticapitalist” riots!) and you can see the pot has already been boiling around her for quite some time. The flames from below are starting to singe her hair.
The rioting was so out of control the First Lady was pinned down in her guest house, unable to leave. ONE look at THAT charlie-foxtrot of a place and Trump must be thinking, “There is EXACTLY what we don’t want to become!” Germany is a DISASTER.
From the article: “With Theresa May set for a bilateral with Donald Trump she should be putting action on climate change at the top of the agenda – and pressing the US President to reverse his disastrous decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement.”
Disastrous? I think the U.S. CO2 reduction under the Paris Accord would amount to a lowering of the temperature by about 0.3C (if you beleive in that stuff). Not making that small reduction is hardly a disaster. The U.S. will lower its CO2 output in the future despite not being in the Paris Accord, so the “disaster” will be even less than that.
The real disaster to the alarmists is that the U.S. won’t be giving $100 billion a year to the UN Green Climate Fund.
You would have to prove to me that reducing CO2 emissions by ! molecule will have any effect whatsoever on global temperatures. It has been clearly established here that rural stations show zero upward trend from 1900 to 2000 and we already have a hiatus since the beginning of the century, so pretty much Deniers 1,000,000- AGW’s zero!
Exclamation mark equals 1 in lower case universe. Lol!
Dam’ cheek of Angela to have at Trump re CC. USA has reduced CO2 by 11% while Germany has increased!
It is interesting to me how some think the greatest issue is climate…not the rampant unemployment for the young in places like Italy, Greece, Spain…or the culture wars. But no worries, Geely will manufacture electric cars for them in China, call them Volvos and China will continue to built coal plants.
Lots of BTL hissy fits at the Indy but then you’d expect that from a left-leaning rag whose readers have been detached from reality from the moment they first drew breath. The reason Mrs May hasn’t put climate at the heart of her G20 objectives is Merkel has already put it on the agenda! Don’t expect rational thoughts from eco-loons, though.
Merkel wants to punish the British people for embarrassing her with Brexit and then wonders why the UK isn’t keen to help her upstage Trump.
Mrs May is a politician. There are no votes in the UK to be had by getting tough on climate.
Public sentiment (however ill informed) puts health care, education, terrorism, uncontrolled migration, food and water resources, pandemics, economic collapse, global warfare etc etc well above climate change.
She also wants to align the UK with a friend across the Atlantic, and demonstrate an independence of thought from EU to appease the Brexiteers.
Right or wrong she sees it as a win win.
TW 6:57am:. Yes. Churchill advised that Britain should always stay close to, and never stray far from, the U.S. Good advice.
Ms May, send Junker an email that UK is no longer a constituency for EU laws, policies and regulations and that you are unilaterally pulling out completely next Monday. Lolling around with ideas of negotiations over the next couple of years will see the other half if your support gone.
A crisp break from the Tar Baby of EU sticky bureaucracy would have been best at the beginning when you had a majority and could afford a bit of a swoon. It’s still necessary, though. Let whatever ‘niceties’ of a protracted negotiation go. When you have a deal with the devil don’t try to hang on to the ‘good’ stuff.
Well played Mrs May. TA above mentions the left stream media beginning to lose credibility. Not beginning – already happened. Federalist reports CNN is now ranked 13th in ratings / viewership below kids cartoons, discovery channel etc.
http://thefederalist.com/2017/07/06/ratings-collapse-cnn-now-losing-nick-nite-prime-time-ratings-war/
Soooo very much time, effort, and national treasure spent on chasing the chimera of ‘climate change’, when the citizens need low cost energy, more jobs, lower taxes, and the freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness as they damn well see fit.
What a farcical tragedy is this race animal known as humanity….
A large proportion of German schools can offer no sports to their children because their sports halls are full of Syrian refugees.
And Merkel says that their biggest challenge is climate continuing to do what it has done continually for 4 billion years – change?
Theresa May has a much more honest and intelligent grasp of priorities, than Merkel.
Its a lot easier to work on a problem like Global Warming,= increase taxes, build a few windmills paying friends and families, than actually doing something about real problems, like terror, jobs, quality of life, education etc etc (Even fixing roads is boring work and it is work)
Trump dropping out of Paris has more or less said “The EMPEROR is bare ass naked and he looks like a dork”
“British Prime Minister Theresa May was left battered by a recent UK election which her party almost lost.”
Almost lost, what do you mean by almost lost? She did lose and had to form a minority Govn’t with other parties to retain power.
Modern slavery is more pressing than CAGW?
Virtuous humans yes, living humans in mass migrations from hunger, flooding, drought, typhoons ….. gotta choose virtuous when you are a liberal, pseudo tree hugger.
I would like to think that it was a proud statement rather than an admission.
Truth always finds a way.