RUSSIA TO WATER DOWN NEW CLIMATE CHANGE PLANS

Forget Paris: Russia Rejects Climate Change Plan After Business Uproar
The Moscow Times, 17 October 2019
 
Russia’s largest companies have killed off plans to introduce individual emissions quotas and a carbon trading system. 
 
The Russian government has drastically watered-down its new package of climate change legislation after push-back from the country’s leading businesses, the Kommersant business daily reported.
 
Plans for quotas on carbon emissions at Russia’s largest companies, a new national carbon trading system and penalties for the biggest polluters have now been scrapped. Instead, Russia will only go ahead with proposals to measure and collect data on emissions as part of a five-year green audit.
 
The campaign against a stricter package of measures was led by the influential Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) — one of the main lobbying groups for Russia’s largest businesses. The new laws were set to be introduced as part of Russia’s ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement.
 
Originally, the Russian government proposed introducing new climate legislation in two phases. The first would be a five-year stock-taking exercise to measure company-level emissions and set appropriate quotas for reducing emissions. After that, Russia would then introduce a carbon cap on the country’s biggest polluters and penalties for those that exceed their quotas. Earlier plans also envisaged the creation of a national fund to support emissions reduction and a system of nationwide carbon trading.
 
However, the RSPP has successfully killed-off the entire second phase, including plans to set individual company quotas or targets, arguing that the government should await the results of the climate audit before introducing new laws and regulations to hold firms accountable for their emissions.
 
“The idea of putting a price on carbon dioxide in Russia has fallen victim to the industrial lobby,” analysts at VTB Capital said in a research note today. This is despite the fact that “the Paris Climate Agreement envisages a greenhouse gas emission target which is higher than Russia’s current emissions. So introducing the quota system is unlikely to be punitive for businesses.”
 
Full Story

TRUMP TO FORMALLY WITHDRAW USA FROM PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD

The Hill, 23 October 2019
 
The White House is reportedly beginning to prepare to formally withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord.
 
The official withdrawal would cement a promise President Trump made in the White House Rose Garden in 2017, where he first announced his intention to withdraw from the global climate change agreement signed by every other country. 
 
Trump can formally begin the yearlong withdrawal process on Nov. 4, allowing the U.S. to finalize the process on the same date in 2020 – just one day after the presidential election. 
 
Trump was widely expected to announce the formality during a Wednesday speech in Pittsburgh but instead bashed the deal.
 
“I withdrew the United States from the terrible, one-sided Paris Climate accord. It was a total disaster,” Trump told crowds gathered at a natural gas event, before repeating a line from when he first pledged to leave the deal, saying “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
 
His views on the deal have been widely criticized by Democrats, environmentalists, and even some Republicans, who say the U.S. is abdicating global leadership at a time when urgent action is required to stem the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
 
Trump has repeatedly boasted about withdrawing the U.S. from the deal, despite the rigid timelines required by the agreement.
 
Adding to the confusion was a White House readout of Wednesday’s speech, which said “the President announced he is pulling the United States out of the fraudulent, ineffective, and one-sided Paris Climate Accord.”
 
When asked by The Hill whether the speech constituted a formal withdrawal, a spokesman for the White House said “the president has already announced the U.S. withdraw from the disastrous Paris Climate Accord.” Reporting from the New York Times indicates the formal process is set to begin soon.
 
If the U.S. indeed begins the process to leave the accord, it would do so just weeks ahead of a UN summit in Chile, where leaders will hammer out final details for complying with the agreement.
 
Full story

UPDATE
USA begins the process to leave - see here

EXPENSIVE CLIMATE POLICIES SPARK MASS RIOTS IN CHILE

Chile Explodes: Expensive Climate Policies Spark Mass Riots, Just Like the Yellow Vest Protests in France
James Taylor, The Epoch Times, 25 October 2019
 
Climate activists and the United Nations are suffering a major black eye this week as protests and riots resulting from high energy prices have erupted in Santiago, Chile.
 

Chilean firefighters extinguish burning buses during clashes between protesters and the riot police in Santiago, on Oct. 19, 2019. (MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)
 
Chile, which is hosting a major U.N. climate conference in December, earned praise from climate activists for recently imposing a carbon dioxide tax on conventional energy sources and switching the Santiago Metro system to renewable power. Now, the people of Chile are rising up and firing a shot across the bow of other nations considering similar energy taxes and expensive renewable energy programs.
 
On Friday, protesters took to the streets throughout Santiago in response to Metro fare hikes. The protests soon spread to other cities and led to rioting and at least five reported deaths. The Chilean government and the legacy media blamed the fare hikes on rising oil prices. But that is not true.
 
Oil prices are not rising. Global oil prices are currently 25 percent lower than they were a year ago and 37 percent lower than they were five years ago.
 

On Friday, over one million people marched in the streets of the Chilean capital — “The Largest March in Chile” with rallies paralyzing major cities.
 
In Chile, gasoline prices reflect the lower oil prices. Chilean gasoline prices were $1.12 U.S. per liter in August 2019 (the last month for which data are available), compared to $1.28 a year ago. Five years ago, Chilean gasoline sold at $1.50 U.S.
 
Santiago Metro fares are rising, despite falling oil and gasoline prices, because government officials in 2018 traded out most of the Metro’s energy sources from conventional power to wind and solar power. The Chilean government also hit the portion of conventional power that remains with new carbon dioxide taxes.
 
As a result, Chileans are now burdened by higher Metro fares reflecting unnecessary energy price hikes. As Chileans protest in the streets, climate activists and their media allies want people to believe oil is to blame rather than government climate programs that raise energy prices and impoverish people.
 
Unlike speculative climate change harms that never seem to really happen, carbon dioxide taxes and renewable energy mandates immediately and measurably raise living costs and reduce living standards. In the United States, people may have some concern about climate change, but polling shows most Americans are not willing to pay $2 per month to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
 
In Chile, where per-capita income is merely one-quarter of U.S. per-capita income, people are understandably even less willing to pay for carbon dioxide reductions. Moreover, Chile’s per-capita income is higher than that of most other Latin American countries, so people in other Latin American countries would be even more likely to rise up and protest economically destructive climate change programs like the ones imposed in Chile.
 
For U.N. officials planning the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) climate conference, scheduled for the first two weeks of December in Santiago, the protests are especially embarrassing. Last year’s U.N. conference took place in Poland, where government officials and the prominent Solidarity labor union have criticized costly U.N. climate programs. Solidarity even held a press conference at the U.N. event and issued a joint statement criticizing U.N. climate activism.
 
The December 2019 U.N. conference was originally scheduled for Brazil, but the Brazilian government strongly criticized U.N. climate activism and told the United Nations it no longer desired to host the conference.
 
The Chilean government offered to host the conference in Brazil’s place, touting its carbon dioxide taxes, renewable-powered metro, and other activist climate programs. Yet now the world is seeing the Chilean population rioting in the streets as a result of those taxes and climate programs. This is the third major black eye for the U.N. Conference of the Parties in less than a year.
 
The Chilean protests, like the Yellow Vest protests that erupted in France a year ago, highlight how out of touch the international climate class is with the people they seek to govern and control. Faced with a choice between suffering certain lower living standards today or dealing with speculative climate change in the distant future, people wisely choose the latter.
 
Full post

UPDATE
Wednesday 30 October 2019: Today, following a wave of social protests and unrest, the Chilean President has announced the cancelation of COP25, which Chile was due to host in December of this year.

WHEN WILL THE CLIMATE ALARMISTS SHUT DOWN CHRISTMAS?

Here's a story from 2016 that may well see a return as the eco fanatics step up their demands for us all to follow their orders to change the way we live. 

USA DEMOCRATS IN PLAN TO CLOSE DOWN GAS COOKING AND HEATING

Here is a report which explains what is going on. If you thought that President Trump had put a stop to all this then this should come as a wake up call. As you see there are still very powerful groups in the USA that are determined to push through their policies of stopping fossil fuel use. If a democrat won the presidential election there would be a massive increase in all this activity and the USA would soon become a much more costly place to live.

THE FUTILITY OF UK AND EU CLIMATE POLICIES

This is from a piece by the excellent Matt Ridley back in 2013 and it is just as relevant today and well worth re-reading. Below is a good exerpt:  
"As Bjorn Lomborg has pointed out, the European Union will pay £165 billion for its current climate policies each and every year for the next 87 years. Britain’s climate policies — subsidising windmills, wood-burners, anaerobic digesters, electric vehicles and all the rest — is due to cost us £1.8 trillion over the course of this century. In exchange for that sum, we hope to lower the air temperature by about 0.005˚C — which will be undetectable by normal thermometers. The accepted consensus among economists is that every £100 spent fighting climate change brings £3 of benefit."
£1800,000,000,000 is what £1.8 trillion looks like in full. That is one vast amount of money that could be used in so many better ways and yet no one ever mentions it, let alone says they object. All we hear is that we aren't doing enough. As a local councillor I get emails from members of the local branch of Extinction Rebellion saying how disappointed they are that we did not pass a motion declaring a climate emergency in the New Forest and urging us to look at it again. No doubt a small, but growing, number of people have been brain-washed by all the one-sided propaganda claiming the world is going to end in 12 years, or words to that effect. 

Where are the people who object? They just shrug their shoulders and ignore it, but they will regret it when they realise this huge bill that they will be paying. 

WEST ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET IS GROWING

Competitive Enterprise Institute, 21 October 2019
 
Patrick J Michaels
 
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is growing, but I bet you didn’t read about it in the news.


Source: Y Wang et al. 2019, Fig 7
 
Nor would you probably be able to find it if you entered “West Antarctic Ice Sheet Growing” in a Google search. That search would likely uncover one 2015 publication by NASA’s Jay Zwally in the Journal of Glaciology using actual weather data that showed increasing snowfall, primarily over East Antarctica, was adding a small amount of ice. That report generated a flurry of coverage, but of course in the current era of public shaming of any deviation from the apocalyptic orthodoxy, you don’t hear much about it anymore.
 
Which may explain why you have heard nothing about this new publication which has been accepted in Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres but isn’t in print yet: “A New 200‐Year Spatial Reconstruction of West Antarctic Surface Mass Balance,” by Yetang Yang (Shandang Normal University, China) and five co-authors. Here’s the money quote:
 
“When averaged over the whole WAIS [West Antarctic Ice Sheet] , SMB [surface mass balance] shows a significantly negative trend (-1.9± 2.2Gt yr-1decade-1, p<0 .01="" 19="" during="" ice="" loss="" of="" style="box-sizing: content-box; font-size: 75%; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;" sup="" the="">th

 century, but a significantly positive trend (5.4± 2.9Gt decade-1, p<0 .01="" 20="" gain="" ice="" in="" style="box-sizing: content-box; font-size: 75%; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;" sup="" the="">th century. This is not consistent with the previously reported insignificant changes in snow accumulation over the WAIS during the past 50 years…One possible explanation is the lack of recent ice core records in the [previously published work over the] AP [Antarctic Peninsula] and coastal zones in these studies and a high weight given to cores from the interior of Antarctica.”

Translation and color commentary:

Although measurements are rather hard to come by, it is clear that the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica has warmed a few tenths of a degree (C) since 1900. This is known from sporadic explorer records, such as Scott and Shackleton, and then with much more confidence after the instrumentation program from the international geophysical year in 1957-8.

Even a slight ocean warming results in a substantial increase in the moisture flux over the cold Antarctic continent, where, with the exception of over the Antarctic Peninsula (the portion of the continent that juts out towards South America), all precipitation falls as snow. Increasing the moisture would therefore increase the snow load which should increase the ice mass balance, which is why I find this result (and Jay Zwally’s) not particularly surprising.

Nonetheless:

The WAIS experienced a significant loss of ice in the 19^th century when it was colder than the 20^th century average.

The WAIS experienced a significant gain in ice in the 20^th century and early 21^st century when it was warmer than the 19^th century average.

The gain in ice in the last 110 years was 2.8 times the loss in the 19^th century.

Apparently this isn’t newsworthy or even Google-worthy.

You can read the full paper here

AMAZING NEW BATTERY BREAKTHROUGH - OR IS IT ANOTHER CON?

This article from Sunday's Mail sounds amazing; so much so that it seems too good to be true. I remember back in the 1960's there was this rumour that someone had invented a car that could run on water, but the petrol companies had bought him out to prevent the idea reaching the market. Personally I didn't believe it, but stranger things have happened. A few years back we had 'cold fusion', but that proved to be a hoax.

EUROPEAN CLIMATE DECLARATION

If anyone says there are hardly any scientists who do not believe in the 'climate emergency', just show them this list. Of course scientists are not celebrities like actors and singers, but they are serious people who would not sign something if they did not believe it to be correct.

Of course this declaration will not be found in our TV news bulletins or even in our national newspapers. That is why the internet is so important. 

3 MILLION UK HOUSEHOLDS IN ENERGY DEBT AS WINTER APPROACHES

Energy Live News, 16 October 2019
 
These fuel-poor households collectively owe nearly £417 million to their suppliers, with the year’s coldest weather soon to arrive.



Three million households are already in energy debt ahead of the winter.
 
Auto-switching service Migrate has revealed these fuel-poor households collectively owe nearly £417 million to their suppliers, with the year’s coldest weather soon to arrive.
 
Around 12% of people are currently in debt to their energy supplier, with customers owing an average of £124 each – this is likely to worsen as energy demand ramps up to keep homes warm during winter.
 
Full story

GREEN ELECTRICITY COST EACH UK HOUSEHOLD £340 PER YEAR

Full cost of living impact of renewables subsidies revealed

London, 14 October: At a time when the press is awash with naively reported good news about the proportion of renewables in British electricity generation, it is important to recall that this “success” comes at a huge cost to consumers -- about £9 billion a year at present, and still rising. This amounts to over £300 a year per household, according to robust calculations by GWPF on the basis of estimates by the UK's Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The GWPF analysis, which is published today, observes that while the direct impact of renewables subsidies on household electricity bills amounts to about £130 per household per year. This is not the end of the story, since industrial, commercial and public sector consumers must pass on their share of the subsidy to households indirectly through the cost of goods and services and general taxation. If a supermarket pays more to refrigerate milk, it must recover that cost at the checkout. This “cost of living” impact of renewables subsidies amounts to a further £200 a year per household, a figure which is set to increase still further in the near future. Dr John Constable, who conducted the analysis, said: "When government spends consumer subsidy on this scale it is no surprise that hardly a day goes past without more tumbling renewables records. The question is whether this vast subsidy expenditure has created a sustainable clean energy industry, or, as seems much more likely, a greedy and entitled interest group that is certain to wilt like a hot house plant when it is exposed to the cold winds of reality. Time will tell, and as far as long-suffering consumers are concerned the truth can’t come soon enough." Current Costs of British Renewables Subsidies Per House

WHAT DOES OBAMA'S NEW BEACHFRONT PROPERTY TELL US?

This piece tells us that the Former president has just bought a multi-million dollar property right on the water front. Two points immediately occur to me; one is that there is a good market for these properties. If it was generally accepted that sea levels were going to rise by much in the coming decades then people would not invest and they would be unsellable. Secondly if the former president really believed his own alarmist rhetoric then he would not be buying it.

WHAT'S THE GREEN NEW DEAL?

Here's a good article and video to give an overview. It seems to be the main policy of the Democrat presidential candidates, and if so it should be a gift to President Trump.

DOOMSDAY PREDICTIONS FROM THE CHICKEN LITTLES

This article discusses the very worrying fear-mongering that is happening to our young and vulnerable people. By perpetuating bogus claims of a world ending in 12 years, the Chicken Littles are doing far more harm than blinding children to scientific evidence that many species, from polar bears to Adelie penguins, are thriving. Our children miss the “important lesson” that a “climate crisis” is only a theory supported by scary narratives, not facts.

USA SHALE RESERVES CONTINUE TO GROW

This graph Shows the year on year increase in USA shale gas reserves. Here in the UK we are stuttering along with our own attempts to extract shale. As our government promises to go to net zero CO2 emissions the prospects do not look promising. Our energy costs look set to go on rising year on year while the USA will gain an increasing advantage. How long will our people put up with it?

NEW UK GOVERNMENT REPORT LIFTS THE LID ON WHAT NET ZERO EMISSIONS WILL MEAN

This article only gives us a few clues, such as "we must eat less meat and dairy, swap cars for bikes, take fewer flights, and ditch gas boilers at home". What it does not say is how all this is going to be paid for. 

ANOTHER ASTEROID STRIKE THAT CHANGED THE CLIMATE

This piece explains the build up of evidence that supports the theory that a cooling event called the Younger Dryas, round 12,000 years ago was a result of an asteroid strike. Of course it is already now accepted that around 65 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor strike. Clearly there is still much more to learn.

IPCC REPORT ON OCEAN HEAT UPTAKE CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT ERRORS

In a letter to the IPCC, Dr Benny Peiser, the GWPF’s director, has highlighted a number of errors and misinterpretations in the IPCC’s report which are based, to a significant degree, on a flawed study which was recently retracted.

In his letter, Dr Peiser points out that the IPCC’s overall conclusion on ocean heat uptake 

“is based to a significant degree on a paper by Cheng et al. (2019) which itself relies on a flawed estimate by Resplandy et al. (2018). An authors’ correction of this paper and its ocean heat uptake estimate was under review for nearly a year, but in the end Nature requested that the paper be retracted (Retraction Note, 2019).

“While the [IPCC’s] conclusion that the rate of ocean heat uptake has increased in recent years may probably be right, the evidence you cite for there being ‘high confidence’ and ‘high agreement’ is rather doubtful due to your inclusion of flawed evidence of the retracted paper by Resplandy et al. (2018).”

What is more, there is also doubt about the IPCC’s conclusion that ocean heat uptake has been accelerating in recent years. According to its own report the overall ocean heat uptake between 0-2000 m was nearly 10% higher over 1993-2017 than over the second half of that period, 2005-2017, suggesting that OHU may have been declining slightly rather than accelerating over the last 25 years.

In light of these flaws, the GWPF is calling on the IPCC to correct the evident errors and reduce its confidence rating accordingly.

Letter to the IPCC (pdf)

EXTINCTION REBELLION SPOKESWOMAN GIVEN A GRILLING BY ANDREW NEIL

This video clip is of an interview by Andrew Neil with a spokeswoman from the Extinction Rebellion mob that is currently trying to hold London to a standstill. At last we see their arguments tested by a thorough interview with the result you can see.

GRETA THUNBERG IS THE TIP OF THE ENVIRONMENTALIST-CHILD-ABUSE-ICEBERG

This article makes some excellent points about the indoctrination of children and their use in the climate change campaign to rid us all of fossil fuels. Not only are eco-alarmists destroying the lives of children, but they are unashamedly using them as fodder in their attack on modern living standards and the freedom that makes it possible.

GERMAN CABINET APPROVES "WEAK" CLIMATE MEASURES

This report shows the difficulty that Western governments find themselves in. On the one hand they need to try and keep their economies as strong as possible, while on the other hand they are under great pressure from the green lobby to decarbonise as fast as possible. The German measures are described as "weak" by the greens and yet look at some of them:

The government plans to introduce a carbon dioxide price of 10 euros ($11) a tonne for transport and heating in buildings from 2021 and gradually increase it to 35 euros in 2025. The government also wants to raise car and air traffic taxes as well as increase a road toll for trucks from 2023. It also wants to extend subsidies for electric cars 

Economists had hoped for a starting price of at least 40 euros and point to Switzerland where that price is about 90 euros for heating with fossil fuels. 

If those taxes were introduced here in the UK the government would become very unpopular, but if they are serious about net zero emissions of CO2 by 2050 then they will soon have to introduce them.

RIDDING THE WORLD OF FOSSIL FUELS BY 2050 IS IMPOSSIBLE

This article looks at the reality behind the simplistic slogan of "going net carbon zero by 2050" The article mentions building 1,500 wind turbines a day would be needed, though of course without any reliable back up from fossil fuels such a scheme would inevitably lead to frequent blackouts. Also note that building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of nonrecyclable plastic. Solar power requires even more cement, steel and glass…

NEW ATTEMPT TO ERASE THE WELL DOCUMENTED MEDIEVAL WARM PERIOD

This article looks at the attempts at falsifying the historical temperature record. By making these desperate attempts they draw attention to the weakness in their own argument.

THE GREAT RENEWABLE ENERGY CON

This report explains how an investigation by Which? found a long list of firms that all claim to sell '100 per cent renewable' electricity tariffs without generating renewable energy themselves or having contracts to buy it direct from generators. Instead, they rely on what are effectively accountancy measures that involve paying small fees to buy Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates.

TIME TO RECHECK THE FACTS ON CLIMATE

Who would believe that a senior official would swallow a fantastic story which would have grave consequences for other people's lives without carrying out detailed enquiries to verify the facts? To simply accept what someone says and then announce it is "credible and true" seems extraordinary and yet that is what happened here.

It is a similar story over climate change in that there has never been a thorough look at the evidence, simply an acceptance without question of a one-sided narrative which ignores the many inconvenient facts that don't fit.

UK POLICE START TO TAKE CLIMATE EXTREMISTS SERIOUSLY

At long last the police are taking climate extremist disruption seriously . Let's hope the courts are equally robust. Maybe we can lead the world in how to stop a few anarchists from ruining our daily lives using the flimsy excuse that there is a climate emergency without a shred of proof. We'll have to wait and see.

UPDATE - A good piece in today's Mail here.

COSMIC RAYS AT RECORD HIGH

This piece explains the reason for this, which is the weakness of the Sun's magnetic field, but what effect will it have on the climate. 

HOW IS THE ARCTIC ICE DOING COMPARED TO THE RECENT PAST?

This piece gives the details. In two words the answer is "about average". But to get the complete picture you should read the link. It would seem that the Arctic is like a lot of places in that there is a lot of year to year variation there. That is called "weather", but when taken over a number of years it sort of averages out.

WOOD-BURNING BOILER DRAMATICALLY INCREASED COSTS FOR COUPLE WHO NEARLY LOST HOME

This article in Wednesday's Daily Mail highlights yet another drawback to doing away with natural gas - that the alternatives include wood pellet boilers which are costly and not environmentally friendly as they pollute the air with fine particles of soot and irritant gases such as nitrogen oxides. When gas boilers get banned (they are already due to be banned in new homes from 2025) it won't just be an odd person feeling conned - it will be most of the population. 

ARE THE BIG BANKS COLLABORATING TO BANKRUPT FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES?

This article raises a number of questions. Do the big banks have the will and the desire to do this? Do they actually have the power, given that there are many well-financed banks not under their control, such as Chinese banks? Why would oil and gas companies spend $billions on exploration and refineries if they could be bankrupted and how could they fund this now unless they can self-finance? 

Why would Mark Carney make such claims if they are simply nonsense? Surely they would turn him into a laughing-stock. 

   

GLOBAL CLIMATE INTELLIGENCE GROUP LAUNCHED

This piece gives the details The Global Climate Intelligence Group, whose objective is to put the science back into climate science, comprises scientists, professionals and researchers from many nations, has already attracted some 500 signatures for what began life scant weeks ago as the European Climate Declaration.