Graham Lloyd and Chris Kenny
The Australian
9/20/2013
THE Climate Commission has been scrapped and billions of dollars in renewable energy funding effectively frozen as the Abbott government moved swiftly to wind back Australia’s climate change response, as promised.
Outgoing chief commissioner Tim Flannery, who was told yesterday morning he had lost his $180,000-a-year, part-time role, said abolishing the publicly funded body was “the government’s prerogative” but he would not be silenced.
“I intend to continue working to make sure that the Australian public has all the information it requires in order to engage with this issue and understand what needs to be done,” he said.
New Environment Minister Greg Hunt phoned Professor Flannery yesterday morning to deliver the news in what was described as a “civil discussion”.
The decision to terminate the commission, created by then prime minister Julia Gillard in early 2011 to explain to the public climate change and the need for carbon pricing, comes one week ahead of the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change updated report on the state of climate science…
…The Greens have pledged to block the wind-up of the CEFC.
The complete article, with video, is at The Australian.
H/T Hot Air where there is more.
Scientists working on the most authoritative study on climate change were urged to cover up the fact that the world’s temperature hasn’t risen for the last 15 years, it is claimed
A leaked copy of a United Nations report, compiled by hundreds of scientists, shows politicians in Belgium, Germany, Hungary and the United States raised concerns about the final draft.
Published next week, it is expected to address the fact that 1998 was the hottest year on record and world temperatures have not yet exceeded it, which scientists have so far struggled to explain.
The report is the result of six years’ work by UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is seen as the world authority on the extent of climate change and what is causing it – on which governments including Britain’s base their green policies….
…The United States delegation even weighed in, urging the authors of the report to explain away the lack of warming using the ‘leading hypothesis’ among scientists that the lower warming is down to more heat being absorbed by the ocean – which has got hotter…
Also, Frauds, Serious Frauds, and IPCC Assessment Reports [PDF], by Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, released 9/18/2013
Computer models predict global warming which has not occurred. The UN’s IPCC naturally concludes that we should therefore increase our confidence in the models.
In the 19th century, British Prime Ministers used to say there were “lies, damned lies, and statistics”. In the 21st century, we may say there are frauds, serious frauds, and IPCC Assessment Reports.
Kindly share my latest paper.
Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy today announced tough new global-warming standards for coal plant, just hours after a leaked report embarrassed climate change campaigners by showing that the planet’s warming trend stopped in 1997 – despite global increases in greenhouse gas emissions.
McCarthy told a National Press Club audience on Friday morning that ‘climate change, caused by carbon pollution, is one of the most significant public health threats of our time. That’s why EPA has been called to action.’
Her announcement clears the way for the federal government to demand new pollution standards that require coal-burning power plants plants – those built in future years – to capture and quarantine at least 40 per cent of their carbon emissions….
…In the final week of the 2008 presidential campaign Obama himself sketched out a vision that has enraged power companies and coal miners ever since.
‘What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade policy in place that is as aggressive if not more aggressive than anyone out there,’ then-Senator Obama told The San Francisco Chronicle.
‘Whatever power plants are being built,’ he promised, ‘they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted-down caps that are imposed every year. So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.’
Some politicians’ patience, especially in coal-producing states, is wearing thin…
Update: Meanwhile, in the Virginia governor’s race: McAuliffe’s ‘Green’ Billionaire Backer Enriched Himself with Coal, Oil
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said in 2009 he “never want[s] another coal plant built,” but in the meantime, he hasn’t been above taking money gained through coal investment for his campaign…
