From Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation

Britain's £85 Billion Bill For Climate Policies
UK Industry Near ‘Crisis Point’ Over Green Taxes

Climate-change policies are expected to cost Britain more than £80 billion by the end of the decade, as critics warn that the global-warming industry is spiralling out of control. The full cost is contained in a study to be published [this week] by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank founded by Lord Lawson, the former chancellor. Its analysis puts the cost to the British public of climate- change policies at £85 billion in the 10 years to 2021. Benny Peiser, the foundation’s director, who compiled the report, said: “The public has absolutely no idea how staggeringly costly and excessive the Government’s climate initiatives are. Even we were shocked when we discovered the astronomical funding streams and added them up.” --Robert Mendick, The Sunday Telegraph, 1 December 2013

British industry has warned that green taxes are pushing it to “crisis point” even as George Osborne prepares to cut environmental levies on household energy bills in this week’s Autumn Statement. Leading industrialists from companies such as Tata Steel and Ineos told the Financial Times that green taxes were putting their British plants at a competitive disadvantage relative to those plants’ European competitors. They urged David Cameron and his chancellor to extend their pledge to “roll back” the levies on households to manufacturing plants. --Elizabeth Rigby and Tanya Powley, Financial Times, 2 November 2013 (Subscription required)

We are at a crisis point, the chemical company. We will not have an energy-intensive sector in this country in 20 years’ time; it will not exist. You already see chemical companies closing assets, steel companies closing assets. -- Tom Crotty, Director of Ineos, Financial Times, 2 November 2013 (Subscription required)

In this week’s Spectator Diary, Lord (Nigel) Lawson, chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, partly lifts the veil on a curious “secret meeting” held at the House of Lords between a team from his GWPF and six scientists from the Royal Society. The society insisted that the meeting be shrouded in secrecy; not even the names of those present were to be revealed. What might have surprised it was the calibre of the scientific team the GWPF was able to muster, including three fellows of the Royal Society itself, and Dr Richard Lindzen, the world’s most distinguished atmospheric physicist. --Christopher Booker, The Sunday Telegraph, 1 December 2013

One of my favourite charts – I know, I should get out more – comes from Professor Robert Allen of the University of Oxford. It shows the cost of energy, as measured in grammes of silver per million BTUs, in various world cities in the early 1700s. Newcastle stands out like a sore thumb, with energy costs much lower than London and Amsterdam, and far lower than Paris and Beijing. The average Chinese paid roughly 20 times more for heat than the average Geordie. This meant that turning heat into work (via steam engines) throughout the north of England was profitable. In China, by contrast, it made more sense to employ lots of people, on low wages . The result was an industrial revolution in Britain with innovation and rising living standards and an “industrious” revolution in China (and Japan) with falling living standards. Affordable energy is the indispensable lifeblood of economic growth. -- Matt Ridley, The Times, 2 December 2013 (Subscription required)

It will come as no surprise to find that our favourite junk scientist came up with this gem back in 2006, in the Guardian: “Dr Viner added that Britain could experience more dramatic and unpredictable weather in the future, including tornados. We saw a tornado in Birmingham last year and I think generally we are likely to see an increase in localised, unforecastable and unpredictable weather.” Wow, tornadoes! Fortunately, we have the ever sensible meteorologist, Philip Eden, to tell us the real story. According to the TORRO website, the UK gets about 35 to 40 tornadoes a year, but this number will increase “with the improved communications and a growing network of TORRO reporters.” So, next time you hear a junk scientists making up claims about tornadoes, suggest that they check the facts first. --Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 2 December 2013