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Road to Copenhagen round up

road to copenhagen.jpgParties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are all set to descend on Copenhagen to wrangle over the details of a new global climate deal — a potential successor to the Kyoto Protocol. See Nature’s Road to Copenhagen special for more coverage.

China has fired a shot across the bows of those pushing for ‘carbon tariffs’.

These tariffs are basically import taxes on goods which are carbon intensive to produce and are being produced in countries that have not pledged to reduce greenhouse gases. Now, in a commentary on the state news service Xinhua, such taxes are denounced in harsh terms.

“The carbon tariffs, proposed by some developed countries, is quite likely to trigger a trade war and spark boycotts from developing countries as most developed countries do not meet their emission caps nor provide financial and technological supports under the Kyoto Protocol,” says the piece.

It goes on to warn carbon tariffs “will not only wound global trade and economy, but also undermine the hard-won common consciousness of the world to fight global warming”.

Some politicians in more developed nations have been pushing such tariffs as a way of ensuring producers don’t keep costs low by outsourcing carbon-intensive manufacturing to nations with lax emissions rules. However, other nations see them as another form of protectionism and a barrier to free trade.

Meanwhile, the row over the stolen CRU ‘climategate’ emails rolls on. Nature’s editorial this week noted “obstructionist politicians in the US Senate will probably use it next year as an excuse to stiffen their opposition to the country’s much needed climate bill”. Well actually it didn’t take till next year for it to be used in that context.


Prominent climate change skeptic James Inhofe apparently said yesterday, “It seems to me that these scientists had to keep promoting this foolish notion that man is causing the earth to warm, when in fact the earth has been in a cooling period for ten years, in order to keep the money coming in to their agencies.”

Another senator who takes a different view, Barbara Boxer, thinks we’re focusing on the wrong people: “You call it Climategate; I call it E-mail-theft-gate.” (Both quotes: Tucson Conservative Examiner.)

And everyone’s favourite former Governor of Alaska has also waded in. “The leaked e-mails involved in Climategate expose the unscientific behaviour of leading climate scientists who deliberately destroyed records to block information requests, manipulated data to “hide the decline” in global temperatures, and conspired to silence the critics of man-made global warming,” says Sarah Palin via Facebook. She goes on to urge President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen meeting “while this scandal is thoroughly investigated”.

Of course, the team at CRU have denied wrongdoing. “There is nothing in the stolen material which indicates that peer-reviewed publications by CRU, and others, on the nature of global warming and related climate change are not of the highest-quality of scientific investigation and interpretation,” Trevor Davies, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, where CRU is based, said recently. “No record has been deleted, altered, or otherwise dealt with in any fashion with the intent of preventing the disclosure of all, or any part, of the requested information.”

More Copenhagen-adjunct news

“James McCarthy, a respected Harvard professor who was a former Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead author, sent a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today stressing that e-mails stolen from climate scientists do not undermine the evidence for manmade global warming.”

Boston Globe’s The Green Blog

“The World Bank chief urged countries Friday to use energy more efficiently and more renewable sources like solar and wind power, regardless of the outcome of the next week’s international talks in Copenhagen on combating climate change.”

AP

“The price of EU carbon emissions futures rose nearly three per cent to a three-week high of €13.96 (£12.69) yesterday as banks stepped up purchasing activity ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit next week.”

– Business Green

https://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254422/carbon-price-rises-ahead

“Is climate change scepticism the new Holocaust denial?”

Original headline on an item on the Guardian website, taken from a debate in London. That headline has now been changed.

Comedian Jon Stewart on climategate (contains swearing)

Comments

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    Avoiding the CO 2 Climate Inquisition said:

    With China ending up as the anointed global Angel of Environment to protect the earth, now it makes perfect sense why Enron and the big oil corporations backed East Anglia, NASA, and the other two of the four major world climate institutes.

    I think in a con job China taking over is called The Sting.

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