Carbon Brief weekly update 18 October 2012
Quadrophenia
Tension among energy investors is mounting as the government’s top mods, George Osborne, David Cameron, and rockers Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander – known as the quad – meet this week to finalise the content the new energy bill. There’s tension within the government, too: Chancellor George Osborne is reportedly so fed up with pressure to honour climate change legislation despite his belief it should be rowed back due to the economic downturn that he’s started calling environmental activists in Parliament the ” environmental Taliban“.
Cameron has caused a bit of confusion over one measure expected to be included in the bill, announcing at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions that energy companies would be forced to put customers on the lowest tariffs available. After a few hours, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, apparently put on the back foot, confirmed that the measure would be more in the vein of encouragement than compulsion. But this hasn’t stopped confusion, annoyance and some amusement reigning at the House of Commons today.
Meanwhile, energy minister Ed Davey confirmed in a speech today at the headquarters of business lobbying organisation the CBI that the bill would be published next month, with a second reading before Christmas, and promised that the bill would move the UK “decisively away” from volatile gas prices.
The Mail’s weird science
All had been quiet for a while: the Mail and Mail on Sunday hadn’t produced an article making dodgy assertions about climate science for weeks – then two came along at once. Last week, environmental correspondent David Derbyshire claimed news from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre showing increases in sea ice extent in the region disproved data suggesting Antarctica is losing ice. We demonstrate why sea ice extent can’t distract from the fact that Antarctica is losing land ice mass at record rates.
Then on Sunday, skeptic journalist David Rose published a piece claiming new Met Office surface temperature data proves global warming has “stopped” – a claim he tends to repeat in the Mail once every six months or so. Yet his piece acknowledges that scientists told him that the period between 1997 and 2012 is too short a period from which to extrapolate trends in the climate. Our blog also explores how Rose’s claim ignores substantial warming in the ocean as well as ice melt in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Also on our blog
Scientists raise further concerns over ‘rogue geoengineer’ in open letter: Scientists yesterday wrote a letter to the Guardian expressing serious concerns about controversial Californian businessman Russ George’s illegal dumping of 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific ocean, in an attempt at geoengineering.
Don’t mention the ‘c’ word: It’s the UN biodiversity conference: RTCC’s Ed King is in Hyderabad for the UN’s biodiversity conference. He explains why it’s probably the biggest climate adaptation forum you’ve never heard of.
Confusion from the Times over climate targets: The Times has led today with an announcement that DECC has decided to build “dozens” of new fossil fuel plants. But seeing as this was announced last week, we’re not so sure what the fuss is about.
Can the public make sense of uncertainty in weather and climate forecasting?: Can the general public comprehend uncertainty in weather and climate prediction? (We think so).