GWPF | 25 Nov 2015
The UK’s global network of climate diplomats is facing the chop days before negotiations on a new UN deal to tackle global warming open in Paris. More than 100 posts are under threat, with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) set for 25-40% resource budget cuts by 2019-20 under a spending review due out on 25 November. –Ed King, Climate Home, 25 November 2015
The Department for Energy & Climate Change day to day resource budget has been cut by 22%, it has been announced. Chancellor George Osborne launched the Spending Review this afternoon announcing he was “building Britain to become prosperous” by taking the “difficult decisions” to bring debt down. He told the House of Commons: “We are committed to the low carbon sector and we show our commitment to the Paris talks next week. But we believe going green should not cost the earth.” —renews, 25 November 2015
1) UK Climate Diplomats Face Axe After COP21 Paris Summit – Climate Home, 25 November 2015
2) UK Government Cuts Energy & Climate Change Department Budget By 22% – renews, 25 November 2015
3) Green Britain: National Grid Facing Winter Energy Crunch – Sky News, 25 November 2015
4) And Finally: Only 3% Of Americans Believe Climate Change Is Most Important Issue – MRC TV News, 24 November 2015
5) How Lord Stern Got It Wrong Again – Bishop Hill, 25 November 2015
6) Former Tory MP Tim Yeo Loses ‘Cash-For-Solar-Advocacy’ Libel Case Against Sunday Times – Press Association, 25 November 2015
One of the problems with being a PR guy for an environmentally minded billionaire is that you sometimes find yourself having to utter complete drivel in public fora. There has been a lovely example of this in recent weeks, when, in a letter to the FT, Lord Stern claimed that 7 million deaths each year were caused by pollution derived from fossil fuels. This was disputed by Matt Ridley, who pointed out in another letter that most of these deaths were actually caused by burning wood and dung. The mess into which Stern has got himself has now been firmly laid bare by Bjorn Lomborg, whose letter to the FT today sets out the figures in gory detail. –Andrew Montford, Bishop Hill, 25 November 2015
Former Tory MP Tim Yeo has lost his libel action over a “cash-for-advocacy” claim which he said trashed his reputation. Yeo had asked for substantial compensation over three reports in the Sunday Times, in June 2013, which followed a lunch the previous month with two undercover journalists from the Insight team posing as representatives for a solar energy concern in the Far East. They alleged that he was prepared to, and had offered to, act in a way that was in breach of the Commons code of conduct by acting as a paid parliamentary advocate who would push for new laws to benefit the business of a client for a daily fee of £7,000 and approach ministers, civil servants and other MPs to promote a client’s private agenda in return for cash. —Press Association, 25 November 2015
A new Fox News poll finds that in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, the issue of terrorism has become the top concern of American voters. The new poll also found that Americans are largely unconcerned with climate change, which the Obama administration has repeatedly pointed to as the nation’s top security threat. Only 3 percent of respondents said that global warming was the most important issue facing the country today, down from 5 percent in a Fox poll released last August. —Dan Joseph, MRC TV News, 24 November 2015
1) UK Climate Diplomats Face Axe After COP21 Paris Summit
Climate Home, 25 November 2015
Ed King
The UK’s global network of climate diplomats is facing the chop days before negotiations on a new UN deal to tackle global warming open in Paris.
More than 100 posts are under threat, with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) set for 25-40% resource budget cuts by 2019-20 under a spending review due out on 25 November.
“The rumours – so we have been told – are they are going to axe the climate posts once the COP [Paris climate summit] is over,” said Barry Gardiner, Labour’s shadow climate minister.
A fortnight of talks on a global climate pact kicks off in the French capital on Monday 30 November. Governments hope to sign a deal to limit warming to below 2C on Friday 11 December.
Two other sources with knowledge of the matter have told Climate Home talks on the future of the climate diplomacy network are ongoing.
As Climate Home revealed in 2014, the UK’s core 2011-2013 climate diplomacy budget was slashed 39% from £7.5 million to £4.5m. A freedom of information request showed the office of chief climate diplomat Sir David King was also handed a 10% budget cut up to 2015.
The UK network of diplomats was set up by former special envoy John Ashton. It is credited with bolstering China’s drive to a low carbon economy and helping develop the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a 40-strong coalition of developing nations at risk from extreme weather.
“The UK’s diplomatic service was certainly an early supporter of the CVF,” said Bangladeshi scientist and IIED senior fellow Saleemul Huq. “They are also a key player in the Cartagena dialogue.
“The loss of UK’s climate change diplomats will certainly decrease the UK’s influence in global negotiations on climate change.”
2) UK Government Cuts Energy & Climate Change Department Budget By 22%
renews, 25 November 2015
DECC’s day to day resource budget has been cut by 22%, it has been announced.
Chancellor George Osborne launched the Spending Review this afternoon announcing he was “building Britain to become prosperous” by taking the “difficult decisions” to bring debt down.
Energy plans include “reforming” the Renewable Heat Initiative to save £700 million as well as doubling the budget for renewables and low carbon technologies, “double spending” for energy research and supporting investment in shale gas.
Osborne added a new energy efficiency scheme will replace the Energy Company Obligation to save consumers £30 a year on household bills, though no plans have been put forward on how that will work.
He told the House of Commons: “We are committed to the low carbon sector and we show our commitment to the Paris talks next week.
“But we believe going green should not cost the earth.”
3) Green Britain: National Grid Facing Winter Energy Crunch
Sky News, 25 November 2015
National Grid expects to activate special alerts to keep the lights on up to ten times this winter as the UK faces a tightening power supply, MPs have been told. Executives cannot not rule out an increased risk if temperatures plummet unexpectedly.
The network already faced an energy crunch earlier this month when it had to enact exceptional measures, in order to shore up the electricity supply, for the first time in three years.
It now expects to see seven to ten such notifications of inadequate system margins (NISMs) over the course of the winter – and even more if the weather is harsher than usual.
The last time it issued a NISM prior to this month was in February 2012. It has not issued more than seven in one year since 2008, when there were eight. The last time it issued 10 NISMs was in 2005.
National Grid sends out the alerts to ask power suppliers to increase generation when it faces a narrowing margin of supply and demand.
This month it also had to ask major business users of energy – who are paid by the network to be on standby – to reduce their usage of electricity. It was the first time it had to take these “demand” side measures since they were put in place last year.
National Grid’s winter outlook report predicted a 5.1% margin of electricity capacity, the narrowest in a decade.
This means that there is a 5.1% gap between generating capacity and peak demand.
Cordi O’Hara, UK system operator for National Grid, told MPs on the Energy and Climate Change Committee: “We’re well within the planning and security standards set by government.
“At 5.1% we are clear that margins are tight but manageable.”
While National Grid expects between seven and 10 NISMs this winter, executives could not rule out an increased risk if temperatures plummet unexpectedly.
4) Only 3% Of Americans Believe Climate Change Is The Most Important Issue Facing The Country
MRC TV News, 24 November 2015
Dan Joseph
A new Fox News poll finds that in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, the issue of terrorism has become the top concern of American voters.
When asked what is currently the most important issue facing the country, 24 percent of those surveyed said terrorism. That number stood at 11 percent the last time Fox News conducted the poll. Another 21 percent cited the economy as their top concern. The issue has been at top of the list for most of President Obama’s tenure in office.
The new poll also found that Americans are largely unconcerned with climate change, which the Obama administration has repeatedly pointed to as the nation’s top security threat. Only 3 percent of respondents said that global warming was the most important issue facing the country today, down from 5 percent in a Fox poll released last August.
5) How Lord Stern Got It Wrong Again
Bishop Hill, 25 November 2015
Andrew Montford
One of the problems with being a PR guy for an environmentally minded billionaire is that you sometimes find yourself having to utter complete drivel in public fora. There has been a lovely example of this in recent weeks, when, in a letter to the FT, Lord Stern claimed that 7 million deaths each year were caused by pollution derived from fossil fuels.
This was disputed by Matt Ridley, who pointed out in another letter that most of these deaths were actually caused by burning wood and dung.
According to the World Health Organisation, the majority of these estimated deaths (4.3m) are from indoor air pollution, and the vast majority of them are caused by cooking and heating with wood and dung.
However, having stuck his neck out, Stern felt he couldn’t back down, and therefore decided to adopt a policy of “make some more stuff up and hope nobody notices”. So he wrote to the FT again, exhibiting his customary lack of integrity, this time insinuating that Matt had claimed that no deaths were caused by fossil-fuel-related pollution, claiming that he…
…fails to acknowledge that the World Health Organisation noted that coal, as well as wood and biomass, burnt for cooking and heating, is a major source of the indoor air pollution linked to the deaths of 4.3m people each year.
I’m sure that readers can see from the previous quote just how egregious Stern’s misrepresentation was.
Then, as if to underline just how badly wrong he had gone, Stern retreated to a claim of “it’s hard”:
Precision is not possible here but it does seem reasonable to conclude, as I did in my letter of November 12, that “7m people worldwide die each year due to indoor and outdoor pollution, mostly caused by the burning of fossil fuels”.
The mess into which Stern has got himself has now been firmly laid bare by Bjorn Lomborg, whose letter to the FT today sets out the figures in gory detail:
Nicholas Stern (Letters, November 12 and 19) is simply wrong to persist in claiming that the majority of 7m deaths from indoor and outdoor air pollution is caused by fossil fuels. His feeble defence that “precision is not possible here but it does seem reasonable” underlines his lack of evidence.
The facts of the matter, as established by the World Health Organisation, are that the majority of air pollution deaths comes from indoor pollution, and about 85 per cent of these deaths are caused by biomass burning. This translates to 3.2m of the 7m deaths caused by indoor biomass burning. Moreover, a large part of the outdoor air pollution stems from non-fossil fuels. The most recent Global Burden of Disease estimates that 12 per cent of all outdoor air pollution comes from indoor air pollution, causing an extra 373,000 premature deaths. The most recent study from Nature estimates that just the indoor air pollution from households in China and India spilling into the open air causes 760,000 outdoor air pollution deaths. The Nature study shows that 600,000 outdoor air pollution deaths are caused by natural sources (mostly airborne desert dust). Another 660,000 deaths are caused by agriculture, mostly from release of ammonia, forming ammonium sulphate and nitrate. Finally, almost 200,000 additional deaths come from large biomass burning (forest burning such as we recently saw in Indonesia).
Power generation, traffic and industry, which are mostly fossil fuel-driven and likely what Lord Stern was thinking about, in total cause 854,000 air pollution deaths. Added to the 560,000 deaths from indoor air pollution caused by coal, this constitutes only 20 per cent of total air pollution deaths, and hence is a far cry from Lord Stern’s claim of a majority.
This matters for two reasons. First, it is disingenuous to link the world’s biggest environmental problem of air pollution to fossil fuels and indirectly climate. It is a question of poverty (most indoor air pollution) and technology (scrubbing pollution from smokestacks and catalytic converters) — not about global warming and CO2. Second, costs and benefits matter. Tackling indoor air pollution turns out to be very cheap and effective, whereas tackling outdoor air pollution is more expensive and less effective. Lord Stern’s favourite policy of cutting CO2 is of course even more costly and has a tiny effect even in 100 years.
Lord Stern’s behaviour is quite extraordinary. It’s amazing that any newspaper is willing to publish a word that he writes.
6) Former Tory MP Tim Yeo Loses ‘Cash-For-Solar-Advocacy’ Libel Case Against Sunday Times
Press Association, 25 November 2015
Former Tory MP Tim Yeo has lost his libel action over a “cash-for-advocacy” claim which he said trashed his reputation.
Yeo had asked for substantial compensation over three reports in the Sunday Times, in June 2013, which followed a lunch the previous month with two undercover journalists from the Insight team posing as representatives for a solar energy concern in the Far East.
They alleged that he was prepared to, and had offered to, act in a way that was in breach of the Commons code of conduct by acting as a paid parliamentary advocate who would push for new laws to benefit the business of a client for a daily fee of £7,000 and approach ministers, civil servants and other MPs to promote a client’s private agenda in return for cash.
They also contained comment to the effect that he had shown willing to abuse his position to further his own financial and business interests.
Times Newspapers Ltd said that the articles were true, it was fair comment and also responsible journalism on matters of public interest.
Yeo was not at London’s high court on Wednesday when Mr Justice Warby dismissed his case.
He has agreed to pay Times Newspapers £411,000 on account of its legal fees within 28 days, with any further costs to be assessed on the indemnity basis.
