A few weeks ago UK Minister Amber Rudd cut subsidies to solar in the UK. I thought the UK government might be showing some signs of making sense, but now it appears Rudd was saving up for a UN gift:
The UK is increasing the money for climate activities in the development pot by at least 50%, to a further £5.8 billion of funding from April 2016 to March 2021, including at least £1.76bn in 2020. The UK is a leader on climate finance – we are the only G7 nation to meet the 0.7% aid commitment and the only one to enshrine it in legislation.
The UK is a leader on climate finance – we are the only G7 nation to meet the 0.7% aid commitment and the only one to enshrine it in legislation.The UK is a leader on climate finance – we are the only G7 nation to meet the 0.7% aid commitment and the only one to enshrine it in legislation.
Luckily it doesn’t cost money to fix the weather, it makes money.
To ensure a more secure and prosperous future for us all, the UK is playing its part by helping some of the most vulnerable communities become more resilient to climate change and by supporting the developing world to take the clean energy path to growth and prosperity rather than the high carbon route”.
Why stop at five billion. Let’s spend ten, I say…
Indeed, apparently reducing carbon emissions could fix migration too:
As well as helping vulnerable countries to reduce their emissions, finance can also help them better adapt to weather extremes and rising temperatures associated with climate change. This can increase their resilience, alleviating pressures on natural resources such as land, water and forests, which could lead people to sell their property or migrate.
Because millions of people are trying to move into countries which have low emissions of CO2, like Mali, Chad and Afghanistan, right?
Or is that because the world will be 0.00C cooler thanks to the UK government spending, and storms, floods and droughts will stop?
Over 40,000 people died in the last British winter. (Is that right? It seems awfully large?)
From the beginning of December until January 16, there were 8,800 more deaths than average of 25,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The rate soared by 33 per cent in the week up until January 16, when there were almost 15,000 deaths, as the bitter cold snap took hold.
An additional 3,000 deaths are expected this week as temperatures plunge to their coldest of the winter so far.
h/t Colin, commiserations to the Brits, especially cold elderly folk.
When you’re a totalitarian bureaucrat it doesn’t matter one way or another, as Dimitris Avramopoulos, the commissioner for migration declared today
It appears that the EU may have more than its fair share of totalitarian Eurocrats, quite necessary it seems, as they work on consolidating the UN Global Agenda by 2030.
It should be very reassuring to bureaucrats the world over, and particularly in Australia and New Zealand where bureaucracy is an elevated art-form, that politics and people are, well, simply irrelevant.
As for the people, they’ll take back their rightful power one cold day not too far off.
270
Why do you think we in the USA have the 2nd Amendment and those who are sane fight tooth and nail to keep it. Not that it has helped those in California. The last store closed in San Francisco, a sanctuary city. California has 3 sanctuary cities the other two are Los Angeles and San Diego. California has another 10 shops (according to google) all but two are in or near the sanctuary cities.
As a sanctuary city where illegals are welcomed with open arms, San Francisco saw more than 20% jumps in both the rate of property crime, such as thefts and burglary, and the rate of violent crime, such as robbery and assault, between 2012 and 2013.
This of course is blamed on everything but the criminal.
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The sad thing is poorly qualified immigrants have a strong tendency to vote for left wing parties, which in turn are most likely to have ecoloon policies.
And that I guess is the root core of California’s current problems.
261
That is why the USA had immigration laws in the first place. You have to be reasonably healthy, have useful skills, no criminal record and a wish to be integrated in America society.
This advice applies to all countries especially now that we have politicians across the board doing the exact opposite of what is best for their countries.
I have a plan to destroy America [Richard D. Lamm, former governor of Colorado] — He served three terms as 38th Governor of Colorado as a Democrat (1975–1987)
171
Great quote gai, that has been the Democrat Party’s goal for the last 3 or 4 decades, and, it is working splendidly. Obama and his house boys Boehner (House of Representatives), McConnell (Senate), and Rogers (Supreme Court) have been incredibly successful at this policy by giving us additional tens of millions of non- assimilating Hispanics and millions of economic refugees from the Islamic Middle East. These nefarious and anti-American deeds will take years to correct. But, it may be too late if the Obama Administration lets many more millions of illegals vote Democrat in the 2016 election.
20
Gai, although I am not an American, I think your take on this is incorrect. The intent and letter of the (in)famous second ammendment to your constitution was never about “self defence” etc. but had to do with the collective rights of the constituent states. According to Cornel Law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment
The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Such language has created considerable debate regarding the Amendment’s intended scope. On the one hand, some believe that the Amendment’s phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” creates an individual constitutional right for citizens of the United States. Under this “individual right theory,” the United States Constitution restricts legislative bodies from prohibiting firearm possession, or at the very least, the Amendment renders prohibitory and restrictive regulation presumptively unconstitutional. On the other hand, some scholars point to the prefatory language “a well regulated Militia” to argue that the Framers intended only to restrict Congress from legislating away a state’s right to self-defense. Scholars have come to call this theory “the collective rights theory.” A collective rights theory of the Second Amendment asserts that citizens do not have an individual right to possess guns and that local, state, and federal legislative bodies therefore possess the authority to regulate firearms without implicating a constitutional right.
In 1939 the U.S. Supreme Court considered the matter in United States v. Miller. 307 U.S. 174. The Court adopted a collective rights approach in this case, determining that Congress could regulate a sawed-off shotgun that had moved in interstate commerce under the National Firearms Act of 1934 because the evidence did not suggest that the shotgun “has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated milita . . . .” The Court then explained that the Framers included the Second Amendment to ensure the effectiveness of the military.
This precedent stood for nearly 70 years when in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court revisited the issue in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290). The plaintiff in Heller challenged the constitutionality of the Washington D.C. handgun ban, a statute that had stood for 32 years. Many considered the statute the most stringent in the nation. In a 5-4 decision, the Court, meticulously detailing the history and tradition of the Second Amendment at the time of the Constitutional Convention, proclaimed that the Second Amendment established an individual right for U.S. citizens to possess firearms and struck down the D.C. handgun ban as violative of that right. The majority carved out Miller as an exception to the general rule that Americans may possess firearms, claiming that law-abiding citizens cannot use sawed-off shotguns for any law-abiding purpose. Similarly, the Court in its dicta found regulations of similar weaponry that cannot be used for law-abiding purposes as laws that would not implicate the Second Amendment. Further, the Court suggested that the United States Constitution would not disallow regulations prohibiting criminals and the mentally ill from firearm possession.
Thus, the Supreme Court has revitalized the Second Amendment. The Court continued to strengthen the Second Amendment through the 2010 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago (08-1521). The plaintiff in McDonald challenged the constitutionally of the Chicago handgun ban, which prohibited handgun possession by almost all private citizens. In a 5-4 decisions, the Court, citing the intentions of the framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment, held that the Second Amendment applies to the states through the incorporation doctrine. However, the Court did not have a majority on which clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the fundamental right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense. While Justice Alito and his supporters looked to the Due Process Clause, Justice Thomas in his concurrence stated that the Privileges and Immunities Clause should justify incorporation.
However, several questions still remain unanswered, such as whether regulations less stringent than the D.C. statute implicate the Second Amendment, whether lower courts will apply their dicta regarding permissible restrictions, and what level of scrutiny the courts should apply when analyzing a statute that infringes on the Second Amendment.
Recent case law since Heller suggests that courts are willing to, for example, uphold
•regulations which ban weapons on government property. US v Dorosan, 350 Fed. Appx. 874 (5th Cir. 2009) (upholding defendant’s conviction for bringing a handgun onto post office property);
•regulations which ban the illegal possession of a handgun as a juvenile, convicted felon. US v Rene, 583 F.3d 8 (1st Cir. 2009) (holding that the Juvenile Delinquency Act ban of juvenile possession of handguns did not violate the Second Amendment);
• regulations which require a permit to carry concealed weapon. Kachalsky v County of Westchester, 701 F.3d 81 (2nd Cir. 2012) (holding that a New York law preventing individuals from obtaining a license to possess a concealed firearm in public for general purposes unless the individual showed proper cause did not violate the Second Amendment.)
As for the migration issue, what is needed is for the world powers to take a stand and deal once and for all with the terrorist groups, restore international order and peace (good luck with Putin and his puppets fanning the flames) and stop letting the greenies dictate to the world.
00
Extraordinarily sad for those whose families have given and given over generations to build a better California.
Their efforts have been used by politicians and the undisciplined and uncontrolled to plunder all that work, sacrifice and scrupulous living.
All sold down the drain.
I heard some years ago that getting a removalist truck to take your household possessions from California to another state was Very Very expensive.
On the other hand the return trip to Californiayay was dirt cheap.
Revolting.
KK
10
Considering the bulk of US civilian gun massacres have occurred in gun free zones, I suspect I’d want to move out of San Fran, soon….
Logic would say a town with lots of un-documented ( and untraceable ) persons and a clear hatred of legal gun ownership, if you wanted to forment unrest for political gain in a area with limited means of self protection, it would seem the place to do it.
Mind you, California is a bit of Leftist basket case anyway, so if it was walled off and left to its own devices, I doubt few would miss it, nor cry over it.
00
Lewis Carroll’s stories about Alice make more sense than this story. The world is being run by people more out of touch with reality than the Red Queen AND the Mad Hatter combined. You could toss in the rabbit who was late for the party and still fall far short of matching the level of disconnect.
Our so called leaders are spending wealth not yet created to solve problems that don’t exist which will have an immeasurable impact upon the things they say they want to change. It is never enough. Always there is to be more where that came from. Even as they make it more and more impossible to produce more wealth.
Such madness is not even in the universe of things that won’t work because of some lack of knowledge or mistake in thinking or design. I see only two possible interpretations. The first and most benevolent is that they are all totally demented and living in some parallel hallucinated universe. The alternative is that they willfully intend to destroy technological civilization and all of mankind with it. Ultimately, there is no middle ground. The emperor not only has no cloths, he has no brain, no head, no body, nor even a shadow of existence. He hasn’t as much reality as the smile left of the Cheshire Cat after he vanished. He is nothing but an ancient mythological warlord who has forever promised an abundant future at he cost of total submission to his whim in the here and now.
The entire world is being engulfed by this insanity. We are to each to be constrained to be undifferentiated and interchangeable members of similarly undifferentiated and interchangeable hives. The good of the hive is to be served by the sacrifice of each and every member. The good of the hive of hives is to be served by the sacrifice of each of the individual hives. The ultimate good is to be achieved when all are sacrificed to all and nothing is left. Not even the smile of the Cheshire Cat.
I know the change that needs to be made by each individual to have a different outcome. It is based upon the idea that 20% make 80% of the result. There is the 30% who make 80% of whats left but mostly watch things happening. The remaining 50% make what little is left to make but mostly wonder what happened. If only 10% of the world’s population, who make things happen, can make the change we have a good chance to recover. Then they have a chance to stimulate a similar change in another 10% of the 20% of those who make things happen. That would be enough to convince the 30% who watch what happens, willing to get to work. Then there is that 50%. Not much can be done about them. The best we can do is leave them to their own resources to do the best they can. If the top 50% can get to work and be freely productive, they have a chance to survive. If not, I guess not. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Short of accomplishing the above, I am left with “Live the best you can, as free as you can, as long as you can, and have no regrets in the end.”
50
Lionell, there is a middle ground, and it’s mostly just plain old self interest mixed with stupid. It’s not so much that collectivists want to destroy civilization, the damage is an accidental byproduct of selfish people and confused puppets. i.e. Rentseeking bureaucrats want to keep their jobs. Bankers want to keep their profits. Renewables have to have the subsidies. Green groups have to have a disaster to save us from. And some people think foreign aid helps the poor instead of feeding corruption.
90
Lionell,
Some years ago, before it was fashionable, I pointed to the Man Made CO2 Driven Warming Scam and likened it to the story of the
Emperor’s New Clothes.
I could see everyone standing around saying “look at he Global Warming” we caused.
None of them really Knew or Understood that there was NO man made global warming and that it was just a scam.
These old stories are so true. Humanity never changes.
KK
Most of us know it but just to revisit:
A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two swindlers who promise him the finest,
best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or “hopelessly stupid”.
The Emperor’s ministers cannot see the clothing themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and
the Emperor does the same.
Finally the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects.
The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid.
Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing
nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspects the assertion is true, but continues the procession.
00
As a Brit, I cannot express my dismay enough.
You might as well burn all this money as banknotes in the middle of a field for all the good it will do, at least that way the plants will be happy with a wee nip of CO2 fertiliser.
Cameron has an ecoloon, Greenpeace card carrying, wife, so that justifies this incredible waste of money in his mind.
Most of his Conservative supporters will be as mad as a snake over this incredible waste of funds in this time of austerity.
So the UK will shortly find itself purchasing serval container loads of white flags from the Paris manufacturers, who are reputed to be having a banner year.
190
Mr. Cameron also has a father-in-law who drags in £1000 a day from the wind farm on his land, I’m told.
00
Being a Brit, I just want to bang my head against the wall. Stupidity squared.
As for the data on deaths, I see that the “Telegraph” (UK) article was dated February when winter wasn’t over. In any case, my perception (sorry about that in a highly-regarded scientific site) is that it was a rather mild winter. Nonetheless, you make several hard-hitting points; it’s a pity that he’s shielded from such things.
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It was fairly mild in the UK last winter but….
‘The highest winter death toll for 15 years has followed the flu vaccination fiasco in which millions of people were given useless jabs.
‘Death rates during the flu season in England and Wales were 25 per cent higher than the previous year – and the highest since the flu epidemic of 2000, official figures showed yesterday.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2948483/Winter-death-toll-highest-15-years-millions-given-useless-flu-jab.html#ixzz3n4JlXVeV
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
70
The Generals sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side, these clowns are playing war with money not connecting the real lives lost as a consequence of their ego’s, when the real war starts I hope they’re prepared for the front lines as they will be everywhere.
80
I have similar thoughts.
Over the next few years governments are going to massively shift to the right and it won’t be pretty.
The people that are paying these “donations” are not going to cop it.
Are people aware of what Bishop signed on our behalf just last weekend to mitigate global warming?
On another note over at wattsupwiththat.com I had a moment of dejavu.
Sound familiar Joe?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/09/28/human-error-in-the-surface-temperature-record/
And mean while, on a more serious note, back at the ranch, our scientists hard hitting research is making a difference.
These cutting edge studys are making a world of difference as they strive to save us all from catostrophic anthropological global armegedon that is a little more than eighty years away.
Their Nobel lauriates are in the bag.
Oh the joy.
http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/sharks-culls-impact-climate-change-study/story-e6frfku9-1227548222368
100
I think Peta Credlin was aware what Julie Bishop was up to. Peta would have know of Bishop’s dodgy belief systems. No Robb to monitor her actions this time.
70
Am I to understand that there should be culls of turtles and other prey animals to mitigate the effects of ASC (Anthropogenic Shark Culls)?
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/sharks-culls-impact-climate-change-study/story-fni6ul2m-1227548222368
/sarc
10
I was browsing the Renewable Energy Target information trying to make some sense of what it actually is. Seems to be 33,000GWh of large scale projects by 2020, and this will give us 23% renewable energy by that date. However, if you look at the latest annual electricity production figures (2013-24) we are producing a total of 248,000 GWh and this includes 37,000 GWh of renewables already, mainly hydro 18,000 GWh and wind 16,000 GWh. These data come from Aust. Energy Statistics Table 0 published by the Dept. of Industry and Science.
It’s a bit confusing, anyhow the amount of information given on climate change is considerable and the spending significant, similar to the British example. There is a whole bureaucracy working on it as well as lot of misleading information and, essentially propaganda, for instance a quarter of human emissions end up in the oceans creating carbonic acid which leads to ocean acidification.
141
CO2 is not, and will not, cause ocean acidification.
The oceans weren’t acidic during the Mesozoic when CO2 levels were around or over 2,000 ppm.
The whole talk of “acidification” is by people who know no chemistry or by those who just want to scare people, and aren’t concerned about facts.
270
Yes, Graeme but that is what people in the Dept. of Environment are writing and telling their minister. I remember a long time ago explaining to an enviromental scientist from that Dept. some facts about the chemistry about hydrocarbons. He didn’t seem to know that they were gases up to about C6 and petrol was in fact mainly iso octane. That is one of problems, not enough scientific knowledge.
150
There are reliable proxies showing that the Cretaceous (end of the Mesozoic) had about 10,000 ppm CO2 atmospheric levels
100
I always avoid bringing up high levels anywhere near a mass extinction as it sets them off claiming it was the cause.
10
President Barack Obama promised the $3 billion contribution to the fund last year (2014)
June 2, 2015 House Republicans Dismiss Obama’s $3 Billion Climate Pledge
With luck the Republicans stick to that start.
For those not familiar with the US Constitution the House has control of the purse strings. I am not sure it is Constitutional for the Senate to make those changes. Not that the Constitution has ever stopped the Progressives.
60
You failed to mention that the ME is a craphole. we worked there for a while, they import Filipina ladies to clean their toilets because they couldn’t be bothered doing it themselves. They import Bangladeshis to b yield stuff at slave wages because they are too lazy to do it for themselves.
Always the men have nice white clothes, though, courtesy of their
Fi
iPads slaves.
20
People are not leaving Syria and streaming into Europe because they prefer the European climate. Mostly the reason is that Europe has less bombs and more jobs.
Fruitloopery has become some sort of international sport now, and the UN is well positioned as governing body.
Check the article, it’s an estimated number, not a real count and they are including things like slipping on ice, or catching the flu, even blood pressure. That said, however they count it, the number is getting worse; thus suggesting that recent years have been colder. Higher electricity prices aren’t much fun for the elderly either.
100
“The death toll among the elderly was 18,154 in the same period last year”
This is a very misleading number. It should be compared to summer death rates. Especially when the Groniad reports: Winter deaths rose by almost a third in 2012-13
Just comparing the rates to “Last Year” is a great way to hide the real excess death rate.
Paul Haywood goes into it in depth — Excess Deaths In Winter & Summer
50
Excessive cold is much more deadly than excessive heat despite what alarmists will tell us.
101
As we all well know, the Green view of human life is as a scourge upon Gaia. It begins with the very breath you exhale, which according to the UN definition of ‘climate change’ alters atmospheric composition and is a direct influence on ‘climate’.
Easily fixed.
I believe it is suggested we’re in for several decades of cold winters.
81
On ABC-RN right now the Fed. Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the next phase of renewables is going to be battery storage. Yay! (Not!)
110
You have to ask what type of battery storage.
From EU Referendum
50
Thanks gai. I am aware of proposals to use electric car batteries for grid storage. I wonder if the rates paid will be huge like early solar installations and how much more expensive it will make grid electricity? And how unmanageable the grid will become? And how many millions of electric cars need to be connected to the grid to make this work? People also forget that batteries have a limited life time and their capacity also reduces with age. I also think we are being conditioned to a future where we can no longer expect cheap grid electricity (well, it is not so cheap in Australia any more) or availability of grid power 24/7/365.
50
I believe Edison’s NickelIron batteries still operate efficiently for a lifetime.
00
James, Ni-Fe are great batteries and making a comeback for stationary installations but I think one downside is that they have a fairly high self-discharge rate of 20-30% per month (which may be ok for a constantly charged off-grid system).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93iron_battery
20
Thanks Dave.
10
Here is the interview. He is also keen on geothermal and tidal. Yeah, what don’t we turn the entrances of Sydney Harbor and Port Phillip Bay into tidal barrages?
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/environment-minister-greg/6812162
The cluelessness is simply staggering.
61
Actually, that’s brilliant. Now I can buy a subsidised battery and hook it up to my generator and generate my own electricity from diesel for half the cost the feds want grid electricity sold for. A good battery pack is just what I needed…. thanks Greg. Oh by the way when grid economics collapse from substitution by solar + diesel don’t think you’re getting a bed at my place when the power goes off.
50
Still haven’t worked out what is the Renewable energy target. Minister Hunt said they were going to double renewables by 2020. Already they are 34,000 GWh so probably another 33,000 GWh is the target, but that’s far more than 23% by 2020 that the new Science Minister and the website state.
By the way I was looking at the Spanish News (TVE), very large falls of snow on the Sierra Nevada (Granada),and heavy rainfall in SE Spain. If it keeps on like this it could be a severe Winter for Europe and Paris this year and not good for the Immigrants.
40
I think your mistake is counting hydro as “renewable.” Since it doesn’t involve massive subsidies to Big Wind it isn’t counted towards the RET
10
Yes, I don’t can’t hydro as a “renewable” because hydro are properly engineered systems which provide constant power and are just as good as fossil or nuclear when properly managed. You just have to make sure they have enough “fuel” (water).
10
Andrew, if you look at the table I quoted, Hydro is listed as renewable: it is still confusing to me. With the Macarthur Wind Farm, it is rated as 420 Mwh (140 x 3 MW units), but as we know it only delivers 113MWh overall. The Gordon stage 2 Hydro scheme would have delivered 270 MWh on a 24//7/365 basis, but was canned by PM Hawke using external treaty obligations.
00
Involuntary “Earth Hours” won’t be popular …
Electricity network in ‘uncharted territory’ as blackouts loom
As Britain loses one more power station, experts argue the grid has been left too exposed (telegraph.co.uk)
70
That’s a good thing as long as no one dies. It might make the sheeple wake up. On the other hand it might be spun in the opposite direction to “prove” even more unsustainable renewables are needed….
40
They may try to do the spin but there are too many people who see the scam.
40
I find it strange that gullible people like our Minister for the Environment always fall for the latest “in-word” in this case lithium. He obviously doesn’t know what lithium is or what it does nor what it coats, but suddenly it will solve everybody’s problems.
Let me see, a lithium battery pack as spruiked by Musk costs $A14,000 or more, and will deliver 4.5kW. Given 3 cloudy days in winter I would need 6 to avoid drawing from the grid as Hunt waffles. That’s $84,000 plus controller and installation – no change from $90,000.
My solar pack “supplies” enough electricity to cover about half my usage, so less than 2MW per annum, and with a life for the batteries around 6 years about 10MWh would be the total supplied. So this approach will cost me 900c per kWh instead of the 30c from the grid,
20
Or you can just buy one and a diesel generator to charge it with
10
On ABC-RN the Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt should have said that the next phase of renewables is going to be the search for economically viable battery storage. (There, that makes more sense.)
50
This is a lot like Nero’s Rome. Money alone will not fix the problems. In fact it usually makes them worse as a lot of it leaks to illegal activities. On top of that Western nations are drowning in debt so they can ill afford to waste even more money. Besides sending money to the UN is like sending a bag of gold to unscrupulous treasure hunters for safe keeping. Makes me wonder how long before the Western economies collapse. When that happens (not if) the real troubles starts, such as economic confidence, sovereignty of our nations and civil strife.
70
Yes, Peter. When all the issues of “climate change” go away because of the planned collapse of the Western economies, practitioners of that other destructive political ideology currently challenging Western national sovereignty will take over and then you can kiss goodbye to Western Civilisation. It was a great ride while it lasted.
61
“Insel Affen – A term used to describe the land of the stiff upper lip”
The British often spend their time complaining of the injustices and deficiencies in other countries. The BBC will then often make a documentary about this, to emphasize how these things could never happen in Britain.
I have seen this figure as high as 120,000 during the early 60s, but it has never fallen below 20,000 per year.
30
This site is great for extra info on the joke of a UN conference going on right now: http://www.themarcusreview.com. It’s really scary what they’re doing with our money.
50
29 Sept: Herald Sun: AAP: Bishop tells Ban of Aust climate action
MS Bishop was one of only three foreign ministers among leaders to be invited to a forum hosted by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York to discuss climate change.
She said she had told Mr Ban about Australia’s target of cutting emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 – an effective 50 per cent reduction in per capita emissions.
She also spoke about Australia’s $200 million contribution to a new green climate fund.
“I outlined the steps we’ve taken to ensure there is a global agreement (in Paris this December),” she said.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/bishop-tells-ban-of-aust-climate-action/story-fni0xqll-1227548380211
20
read all:
28 Sept: CarbonBrief: Sophie Yeo: UPDATED – Analysis: How much does the UK spend abroad on ‘climate finance’?
The UK has pledged to spend 0.7% of its gross national income on overseas development aid. According to the government’s 2013 spending review, this will amount to £12.2bn in spending over 2015/16, up from £11.7bn in 2014/15.
But DFID, DECC and DEFRA are not the only departments with an interest in climate change which receive ODA funds. Most notably, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was allocated an ODA budget of £418m in 2015/16.
Not all of this goes on climate change. The FCO received negative media attention recently after The Sun highlighted projects that received funding in 2014/15, including an Ethiopian television show to teach people about British values.
For 2015/16, the FCO has been allocated £418m in ODA funds. Around £28m of this goes towards subscriptions to international bodies. In addition, the British Council will receive £112.7 million.
However, the FCO does fund some climate change projects, primarily through the Prosperity Fund, which was set up by the department in 2011. The purpose of this fund is to support “openness, sustainability, opportunity and reputation” overseas in order to promote UK growth…
http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2015/07/analysis-how-much-does-the-uk-spend-abroad-on-climate-finance/
28 Sept: CarbonBrief: Sophie Yeo: Paris 2015: Tracking requests for climate finance
as of 28 September 2015, developing countries have said they will need a total of around $556bn to implement their INDCs. Of this, $37bn will come from domestic sources, and $208bn has been requested from international donors. The remainder is made up of costs that have not been specifically assigned to domestic or international funds….
In 2009, it was agreed that countries would provide climate finance amounting to $100bn a year by 2020, from a combination of both public and private money. Much of this is expected to be channelled through the Green Climate Fund…
***It is worth bearing in mind that more than a hundred of the 154 developing countries involved in the UN process have yet to submit their pledges…
It is certain that many more will ask for money to bolster their climate plans over the next couple of months…
This makes it likely that the total sum requested will exceed the $100bn per year that rich countries have promised to provide by 2020.
There’s already pressure on developed countries to increase the amount of money they’re promising to provide.
***One option in the current draft of the UN text asks them to double their pledge to $200bn a year by 2030.
At the very least, developed countries are expected to show how they will scale up the level of donations over the coming years. So far, they have pledged a grand total of $10.2bn (reminder: 43% of pledges unfulfilled – pat) – a long way from the $100bn a year target…
???The private sector could also have a role to play in filling any gap. With governments shying away from overstretching their budgets, many hope that businesses will see opportunities for a return from investments in renewable energy and other projects. However, adaptation projects offer a less enticing prospect to the private sector, and are expected to be largely grant-based.
Willingness to provide these funds is not only important in helping poor countries to tackle climate change on a practical level. It also one of the foundations for the trust – or lack thereof – that will determine whether the UN climate deal in December is a success.
http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2015/09/paris-2015-tracking-requests-for-climate-finance/
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I suggest a referendum, how about we ask the people how much they are personally prepared to give the UN and for what purposes then add it all up and give them that, no more, no less.
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Oh and BTW to fund it, funds get deducted from the rest of the aid budget and any grants to greenpeace, oxfam and other UN hangers on. If the UN wants money it can be at the expense of rich people in poor countries that currently get aid directly, those countries can go to the UN to get it instead.
Maybe that would put an end to the UN nanny state farm, when rich people in poor places realise the UN is gonna take their cut before they get their hands on it then maybe those countries might lose the dollar signs lighting up in their eyes like a bugs bunny cartoon.
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bobl
They have run surveys in the USA asking that question –well the they put figures to chose from , the lowest being less than $100 /yr.
This came out on top by a very large margin. I wonder what $0 would attracted if it was an option to vote for.
30
Statistics and the law of averages, this fabrication of a cause of death being the weather is just fantasy. 40,000 people excess? Notionally say 70million people and an average of 70 years , roughly 1 million people a year die. Nothing to do with Climate Change. Say half in winter and half in summer, so half a million in winter and the excess rate is 10% of this?
This attitude to statistics that everything must stay exactly the same, the death rate, the weather, the maximum temperature on Christmas day, even over a short period like a year. There is no ‘law of averages’. It underpins all the climate scares, a few hot days or weeks, a cold winter, a storm. This is David’s partial differential, an arbitrary attempt to attibute a slight variation to one variable alone.
So did 40,000 people die of being frozen to death as implied? Did anyone? Did these 40,000 die, sad, alone, starving and shivering, more susceptible to infection because of a lack of heating? Was it just a bad flu season or in fact can anyone draw any real conclusions from this at all? For a million people a year, is a 10% increase in winter deaths even significant?
This passion for enforcing averages is at the core of all the Global Warming, temperature fiddling arguments which ignore any larger cycles. For example, people dying last year, the 70th anniversary of the D Day landings, were the start of the post war baby boom. Perhaps they were undernourished as children? Perhaps war rations and powdered eggs? I blame the food coupon rationing after the war for the 10% variation. Did no one think of the awful consequences 70 years later?
However without powdered eggs and bacon, we would not have had the invention of spaghetti carbonara in Italy from GI rations, so there is an upside to the period, but think of the consequences. All variation of anything at all is clearly Climate Change and Barack Obama is right in pressing the Pope and now Indian Prime Minister Modi to do something before Gaia gets angry.
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That expression ‘the law of averages’ has irritated me for very many years TdeF. What happened to natural variability, not just re. climate?
I remember post war rationing. A lot of us have survived reasonably healthily despite it, or maybe because of it?! Modern medicine and better living conditions all help too; of which our ‘Lords and masters’ (not!) would like to deprive us.
30
Yes, I was ridiculing a silly idea, that luck is dependent on history.
The other annoying thing is that an event is classed as 1 in 100 years, but is not supposed to happen this year. They should happen every 100 years. It does not prove Climate Change that Cyclone Katrina or Tracey happened.
A third one is that random things happen regularly at constant spacing, which actually contradicts the idea of random. Consider events or marks at regular spacing. However move any two and you get clumps of three so things seem to happen in threes, a sign that they are in fact random, but it is then people start to concoct conspiracy theories and chicken little explanations, like Global Warming.
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O/T
‘For the true believer, it is too awful to even consider that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology could be exaggerating global warming by adjusting figures. This doesn’t mean, though, that it’s not true. In fact, under prime minister Tony Abbott…’
Jennifer Marohasy / Oz
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Two words spring to mind to describe this “individual”……
LUNATIC &
TRAITOR
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28 Sept: Euractiv: Climate negotiations undermined by doubts over financing
EurActiv France reports: France has also asked the OECD to produce a report on climate finance, which will be discussed by finance ministers in Lima on 9 October this year.
Romain Benicchio, Oxfam’s lead climate negotiator, hopes this report will “clear up the question of the $100 billion”. He added that “We have to come up with a common method, because at the moment, each country has its own rules regarding climate finance. And we also need to establish safeguards for private finance.”…
For developing countries, climate finance is a fundamental condition for the successful conclusion of an agreement in Paris this December. “And everyone knows that there will be no agreement without an ambitious answer to this question,” the Oxfam representative said…
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee has joined the increasingly vocal calls for progress on climate finance and its incorporation into the final Paris agreement.
In their non-binding resolution, MEPs called on the European Commission to devise “predictable, new and additional finance” mechanisms, in order to contribute “towards its fair share of $100 billion a year by 2020”.
Among the ideas put forward by MEPs was a proposal to assign carbon quotas from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to developing countries, or dedicate part of the revenue from the future Financial Transaction Tax to climate change adaptation.
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/climate-environment/climate-negotiations-undermined-doubts-over-financing-317990
28 Sept: ClimateChangeNews: UN shipping chief warns against emissions cap
A Paris climate deal must not curb maritime carbon as this might damage the world economy, argues head of International Maritime Organization
Shipping emissions will rise 50-250% by 2050 under business as usual, research commissioned by the IMO shows.
From 2-3% of global emissions, shipping’s share could rise as high as 14%, as national governments crack down on carbon within their borders…
A plea by Marshall Islands foreign minister Tony de Brum in May to consider an overarching emissions target fell on deaf ears…
In fact, the New Climate Economy argued in a report this month the sector offers some of the most cost-effective opportunities to cut emissions…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2015/09/28/un-shipping-chief-warns-against-emissions-cap/
00
8 Sept: Greenbiz: Barbara Grady: 6 banking giants demand strong COP21 deal, pricing carbon
NEW YORK CITY — The six largest U.S. banking institutions on Monday called for a “strong global climate agreement” and policies that “recognize the cost of carbon.”
JP Morgan Chase Bank, Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo, and Citibank — the four largest commercial banks with assets of $6.5 trillion according to Federal Reserve data — along with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the largest and second largest investment banks with $1.1 trillion in managed mergers and acquisitions — also committed to provide “significant resources” to finance climate solutions.
At a press conference in New York, officers from these banks issued their open letter, timed to coincide with the start of the United Nations General Assembly’s new session for which climate change and sustainable development dominate the agenda… Anne Kelly, senior director of policy at Ceres said these six banks are fierce “competitors” in the marketplace “so to have them come together to make a statement like this,” is a big deal…
Despite a history in the banking industry of being against regulation, these banks want a solid pact from the COP21 UN Conference of Parties negotiations…
http://www.greenbiz.com/article/six-largest-us-banks-call-strong-cop21-agreement-and-carbon-pricing
28 Sept: Ceres Press Release: Aaron Pickering: Major U.S. banks call for leadership in addressing climate change
Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley & Wells Fargo issue joint statement on the need for global climate agreement
New York: Six major U.S. banks – Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo – have issued a joint statement calling for cooperation among governments in reaching a global climate agreement. The statement, published today by the sustainability advocacy nonprofit Ceres, voiced support for policy frameworks that “will provide greater market certainty, accelerate investment, drive innovation in low carbon energy, and create jobs.”…
“Financial institutions have a critical role to play in financing the transition to a low-carbon future,” said Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres and director of its $13 trillion Investor Network on Climate Risk. “As U.S. negotiators enter climate talks in Paris, they can say with confidence that the business and financial community in this country is ready for government leadership to address climate change.”
In today’s statement, the banks said they are “aligned on the importance of policies to address the climate challenge.”…
Additional quotes:
“One of the critical roles financial institutions play in helping to address climate change is to harness market mechanisms to mobilize much needed capital to facilitate the transition to a low carbon future and build greater physical resiliency. Governments can help markets by establishing a clear, stable policy framework that creates value for these investments and facilitates innovation,” said Kyung-Ah Park, Head of Environmental Markets at Goldman Sachs.”…ETC
https://www.ceres.org/press/press-releases/major-u.s.-banks-call-for-leadership-in-addressing-climate-change
2 points worth noting:
28 Sept: from CNBC: Jacob Pramuk: Wall Street goes all in on climate policy
Still, the statement lacks specific policy recommendations, which brings into question how it will translate into real action…
Many large banks have injected more resources into renewable energy sources like solar and wind in recent years…
10
Over-fishing and shark culling is worsening climate change, don’t you know?
The segment was just played on “their” ABC.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4321560.htm
31
They’ve got it all wrong, since the oceans release about 40% of earths CO2 we should be focussing in getting rid of all that deadly salt water, I propose giant magnifying glasses launched into orbit to evaporate earths oceans, what harm could come of such common sense science?
21
It would appear that NASA is up to its old tricks –
NASA has “evidence” that points to maybe there is running water somewhere on Mars.
Not that they have any real evidence it’s just that we are seriously wishful thinkers and we can find any evidence we like if we shut our eyes and wish really really hard.
A note to NASA signs of erosion can come from other sources,like rock falls or dust storms.
One day NASA may very well find something worthwhile but no one will take notice.
21
reminder:
13 April 2015: BBC: Paul Rincon: Evidence of liquid water found on Mars
Nasa’s Curiosity rover has found that water can exist as a liquid near the Martian surface.
Mars should be too cold to support liquid water at the surface, but salts in the soil lower its freezing point – allowing briny films to form.
The results lend credence to a theory that dark streaks seen on features such as crater walls could be formed by flowing water.
The results are published in the journal Nature Geoscience…
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32287609
today it’s the most hyped BRAND-NEW story in the world! a single Mars mission costs $50 billion. on radio right now, Astro David Reneke is telling the public WE are going there. really! just have to overcome a few surface problems, and we’re off to Mars.
note:
Movie Review: ‘The Martian’ is just the movie space travel needs
Wired.co.uk-15 hours ago
28 Sept: Wired: Chelsea Leu: NASA discovers evidence for liquid water on Mars ***Ojha notes that they haven’t actually observed water flowing on Mars…
Still, the water left a distinctive chemical trace. “Whatever is flowing on Mars is hydrating the salt,” Ojha says, “and we’re seeing that hydration in the spectral signature.” After extracting spectral information from pixels of the CRISM instrument’s data, Ojha and his team determined that the salts—magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate, and sodium perchlorate—had water molecules interspersed in their crystal structures. That’s ***pretty strong evidence that they were deposited by flowing water…
Plus, now that they know Mars has liquid water, scientists can narrow down the best places to look for life and direct their next rover, scheduled for 2020, to collect samples at those places…
http://www.wired.com/2015/09/nasa-salty-liquid-water-on-mars/
***is the NASA budget up for review?
MSM love it/hype it!
NASA Scientists Confirm The Presence Of Flowing Water On Mars
Forbes – 7 hours ago
Flowing water on Mars raises prospect of finding life
Sydney Morning Herald – 8 hours ago
Nasa ‘mystery announcement’: does water on Mars mean alien life is out there?
Telegraph.co.uk – 7 hours ago
00
29 Sept: SMH: Nicole Hasham: Environment Minister Greg Hunt opens the door to government wind power investment
Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the federal government’s “green bank” may be allowed to invest in new wind farm technology, in another sign the Coalition’s war on renewable energy is winding down.
Speaking on ABC radio on Tuesday, Mr Hunt said “emerging” wind power such as new turbines or offshore wind farms may be eligible for funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation…
Clean Energy Council policy manager Alicia Webb said loans issued by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation reduced risk and unlocked additional finance from mainstream lenders, who may not traditionally lend to renewable energy developers…
The renewable energy sector has been buoyed by the Coalition’s recent insistence, under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, that the industry will be a key player in the government’s energy platform.
On Tuesday Mr Hunt said the industry “should have confidence… what has changed is a greater emphasis on confidence and on innovation in the renewable sector”.
However Mr Turnbull is under pressure from his party’s conservative elements not to change course on climate change policy…
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/environment-minister-greg-hunt-opens-the-door-to-government-wind-power-investment-20150929-gjx2q4.html
10
29 Sept: Bolt Blog: Is that really warming, or did you just adjust?
Jennifer Marohasy cannot understand why it’s a scandal to want to check the figures of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology:
-(Australian)For the true believer, it is too awful to even consider that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology could be exaggerating global warming by adjusting figures. This doesn’t mean, though, that it’s not true.
In fact, under prime minister Tony Abbott, a panel of eminent statisticians was formed to investigate these claims detailed in The Australian newspaper in August and September last year….
No conclusions could be drawn because the panel did not work through a single example of homogenisation, not even for Rutherglen…
News Corp Australia journalist Anthony Sharwood got it completely wrong in his weekend article defending the bureau’s homogenisation of the temperature record… Sharwood incorrectly wrote in his article: “Most weather stations have moved to cooler areas (ie, areas away from the urban heat island effect). …”
In fact, many (not most) weather stations have moved from post offices to airports, which have hotter, not cooler, daytime temperatures…ETC
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/is_that_really_warming_or_did_you_just_adjust/
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the PM knows the buzzwords –
29 Sept: Sky News: AAP: PM to meet business, union leaders
The summit was a ‘rare opportunity’ to achieve consensus on the nation’s most pressing economic and social reform issues, he said…
‘Our government is focused on the opportunities arising from technological disruption and in creating an environment for strong, innovative industries to grow,’ he said.
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/09/29/pm-to-meet-business–union-leaders.html
00
So he’s trying to increase the role of unions in setting economic policy? Just need that ETS and we will have Gillard bingo completed.
10
“…to take the clean energy path to growth and prosperity”.
Speak for yourself Amber. Just because bureaucrats use such an ideology to enhance their own careers to ‘growth and prosperity’ doesn’t mean it works in the real world.
As I have said before, alot of green ideology is a form of projection, they apply to the world what only really works within internalized bureaucracies.
10
Not to worry. £5.8billion is peanuts compared to the UK national debt of £1.3trillion. It’s all borrowed money anyway. Our children and grandchildren will pay it off because they will be much better off once climate change has been eradicated.
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” Over 40,000 people died in the last British winter. (Is that right? It seems awfully large?) ”
I don’t know about the numbers but the flu vaccine was reputedly very ineffective last NH winter (2014-15), due to mutations in the virus strains since the vaccine was developed. NHS A&E depts were reputedly struggling to cope then too, blamed here on everything but illness incidentally.
20
28 Sept: BusinessSpectator (from The Australian): Labour rigidity is ruining the economy
It is also true that Australia’s high energy costs are a challenge. Today, wholesale electricity prices are the world’s sixth highest. Four states and territories rank among the six most expensive household jurisdictions anywhere.
For gas, Australia has the highest domestic prices of any exporting country. But ACTU president Ged Kearney and secretary Jeff Lawrence (former ACTU national secretary) publicly endorsed the Gillard carbon tax and the CFMEU now supports Labor’s proposed 50 per cent renewable energy target, subject to “unprecedented assistance” being given to retrenched workers.
Go figure…
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/9/28/industrial-relations/labour-rigidity-ruining-economy
10
TIME TO LISTEN !!
https://youtu.be/rIcltV7r-nM
11
Thumbs up x 1000 Andy, followed Pat Condell for a while now, common sense delivered in stark reality.
21
26 Sept: NYT: David Gelles: Microsoft Leads Movement to Offset Emissions With Internal Carbon Tax
Motivated by a mixture of moral conviction, hard-nosed economic forecasting and expectation of tougher regulations down the road, companies are scrambling to understand just how much energy they use. Like Microsoft, some, including Disney and Shell, are voluntarily charging themselves, and using that money to build solar panels and wind farms…
Microsoft has gone further than most. In just three years, the company has reduced its emissions by the equivalent of 7.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and saved more than $10 million through reduced energy consumption. This year, Microsoft expects to charge its business units about $20 million for their emissions…
Other companies voluntarily monitoring their carbon usage include Exxon Mobil and General Motors. An additional 583 big companies told CDP they planned to start carbon pricing within two years…
Although internal carbon taxing takes money from the bottom line, and thus from shareholders, some big investors support the efforts.
Anne Simpson, director of corporate governance at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or Calpers, which manages more than $300 billion, supports carbon pricing efforts, believing that they will help companies prepare for regulatory costs…
“Companies are almost craving regulatory certainty,” Ms. DiPerna (CDP) said. “They understand it’s in their business interest to address these risks. But governments have lost their oomph when it comes to climate change.”…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/business/energy-environment/microsoft-leads-movement-to-offset-emissions-with-internal-carbon-tax.html?_r=0
00
Being an engineer I am sure that the first real reliable technology for horse power was steam. The second was oil for internal combustion engines of all types and then atomic power.
Solar has been used for the odd hundred years to make fresh water from salty, wind for windmills and sail have always been fickle. Batteries are for intermittent use anything else kills them quickly.
The next step in reliable power will be found in the energy that is the 95% of the missing universe. Hopefully more to follow soon as an experiment is soon to start, that has precedent in one already carried out and successful.
10
Hmmm ! What could it be ? Hydro power from Mars ?
00
I’m part of “everyone”. How do I claim my share? It must amount to at least enough to buy a movie ticket. 😉
10