"We got it wrong" - by Richard... Wednesday, January 20, 2010

"We got it wrong" - by Richard... Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Note from the story that the admission of error was made by IPCC vice chairman Dr Jean-Pascal van Ypersel – not Dr R K Pachauri. 

As of yesterday, the former railway engineer was still in denial saying, "... even if there was an error, and I'm not saying there was ... ". He adds: "this is a very small issue".

One small issue for [a] man, one giant error for mankind?

PACHAURI THREAD

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"A serious injustice" - by Richard...

That is what The Daily Telegraph and others are reporting.

Lord Justice Moses said that he was powerless to block another court's decision to send Garry Mann to serve the sentence in a Portuguese jail because of fast-track extradition rules but suggested that the Government or European Court of Human Rights should step in.

That is the wonderful EU for you. What price sovereignty, when even a High Court judge cannot protect a British citizen.

COMMENT THREAD

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Well, well, well - by Richard... Tuesday, January 19, 2010

New mechanisms need to be found to develop more climate change-related investments,according to Nick Robins, head of the Climate Change Centre of Excellence at HSBC.

Speaking at The Copenhagen Effect event in London last week - where the panel widely deemed Copenhagen's Conference of Parties (COP) 15 in December a failure – Robins suggested: "Perhaps we need lock in the very low ambition and consensus that we have, secure that and then find other mechanisms, which stimulate much more enthusiasm for investments in the low-carbon transformation."

Would that be Nick Robins, member of and contributor to the Green Party, husband of Ritu Kumar, company secretary and director of TERI Europe, both resident at 27 Albert Grove, London, SW20 8PZ? And is this the same Nick Robin who, with his wife, Ritu, set up a company called Investor Watch, formed on 27 April 2009, with co-directors Cary Krosinsky and Mark A Campanale?

And is this the same Nick Robins who used to work for the environmental "charity", the International Institute for Environment and Development - which is now in partnership with TERI Europe on climate change issues?

Thought so. Nice source of impartial advice, he is.

PACHAURI THREAD

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Times Now TV - by Richard...

The British media appears to be on a relentless campaign against UN Climate Change Guru R-K Pachauri. The Sunday Telegraph claims Pachauri has been minting millions of dollars from various positions he holds in banks to oil companies. The newspaper says Pachauri is accused of making a fortune from his links with carbon trading companies. The news report highlights a conflict of interest between Pachauri's role as a climate expert and positions he holds in companies and institutes that benefit economically from stopping climate change.

Part I here ... Part II to follow ... in which a certain blogger expresses his views.

PACHAURI THREAD

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A green rebellion? - by Richard...

According to The Daily Express (and others), David Cameron "was given a stark warning yesterday that his enthusiasm for green policies is unlikely to be shared by the coming influx of Tory MPs."

This is the conclusion from a poll of the 240 Tory candidates best placed to win seats at the election. It found that most ranked tackling climate change as their lowest priority.

However, talk of a "rebellion" is probably highly optimistic. Cameron has already made his views clear, stating in December: "A very small number of people take a different view on the science, but the policy is driven by me, and that is the way it is going to be."

It is unlikely that newly elected Tory back-benchers are going to rock the boat, especially as the "high flyers" have recently been sent on a green re-education course to ensure that they are "on message" for the coming election. 

When promotion beckons, and the ministerial car awaits, principles tend to go out of the window. Thus, what you see with Cameron is, unfortunately, what you are likely to get – sheer, naked greenery.

CLIMATE CHANGE – NEW THREAD

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Talk, talk - by Richard...

The EU should consider forming a rapid reaction force to deal with future emergencies like the Haiti earthquake. This is according to "the EU's new president," retailed to us by the ever diligent BBC.

"We have to reflect about a better instrument for reaction," says Herman Van Rompuy. After providing emergency aid to Haiti the EU should consider a "humanitarian rapid reaction force", he said.

In fact, the EU set up a "Rapid Reaction Mechanism" in 2001, under Council Regulation (EC) No 381/2001 – with the intention of dealing with precisely the eventualities that Rompuy is setting out, and which so lamentably failed in the 2004 Tsunami and again in Haiti.

In fact, the initiative goes way back to the European Council meeting in Helsinki on 10 and 11 December 1999, when the member state leaders gathered to discuss the European Union's "non-military crisis-management capability."

More than ten years on and we are no further forward than we were then – countless reports and study groups have been commissioned, there have been countless meetings, working groups and conferences, with millions of euros having been spent. Yet, when the chips are down, the EU is nowhere to be seen.

It was ever thus, and will always be so. All the EU is ever good for, when it comes to action on its own part, is talk. But this is not "victimless" state of affairs. Because the issue is being dealt with at a "European level", member states are actively discouraged from making their own plans and arrangements.

Thereby, national capabilities are wound down yet, in the lethargic, inept grip of the EU institutions, nothing is done to replace those capabilities – still less to enhance the overall effort. And, when there is a crisis, because the EU claims the lead role in responding, no member state can step forward to fill the vacuum created by the EU's painfully obvious inadequacies.

Thus, once again we get clarion calls (if anything Rompuy says could be called "clarion"), dusting off ancient press releases to demand yet again a "humanitarian rapid reaction force". In ten years time, no doubt, they will be recycling the same press releases, demonstrating, once again, that using "EU" and the word "rapid" in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

Yet, despite its ongoing inadequacies, the one thing the EU will never do is recognise its own uselessness and walk away from its grand pretensions, leaving the heavy lifting to national agencies.

As in all things to do with the EU, its ambitions of glory outstrip any practical considerations. Even the lives of disaster victims are of little consequence when it comes to promoting the European agenda.