Benny Peiser’s Global Warming Policy Foundation Reports
The Modi government, which came to power in May last year, is desperate to increase coal production to facilitate economic growth. The International Energy Exchange projects annual coal consumption in India to grow by 177 million tons, or an average 5% a year, through 2019. --Rosemary Marandi and Kiran Sharma, Nikkei Asian Review, 3 April 2015
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signaled on Monday he would not bow to foreign pressure to commit to cuts in carbon emissions, instead pledging to use more clean energy and traditional methods to lead the fight against climate change. The Indian government has said it needs to emit more to industrialize and lift millions out of poverty. --Reuters, 6 April 2015
Hot on the heels of his meaningless “climate agreement” with China, and being made a fool of by India, it is now the turn of Putin to wrap Obama around his little finger. According to the official CDIAC data, Russian emissions fell from 643MtC in 1990 to 495MtC in 2013. In other words, Russian emissions are currently already down to 77% of 1990 levels. Therefore, under Putin’s proposal, the best he is offering is to reduce by a further 2% to 7% of 1990 emissions. When the forest fudge factor is accounted for, it is quite likely that Russian emissions won’t fall at all. In reality, Putin’s offer is not a deal at all, just smoke and mirrors. --Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 2 April 2015
These climate models are excellent tools for understanding climate, but they are very bad tools for predicting climate. The reason is that they are models that have very few of the factors that may be important, so you can vary one thing at a time to see what happens. But there is a whole lot of things that they leave out. The real world is far more complicated than the models.--Freeman Dyson, Vancouver Sun, 6 April 2015
The government executive in charge of attracting investors to Britain’s struggling nuclear industry has been replaced by an animal health expert. Hergen Haye’s departure from the Office for Nuclear Development will add to the perception that the Department of Energy & Climate Change has fallen into disarray at a crucial time. Speculation is growing that energy department’s days of independence could be numbered. A government source said that if David Cameron is re-elected, he is likely to fold it into the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, where the government has more staff with commercial experience. --John Collingridge and Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times, 5 April 2015
The National Trust was last night warned not to meddle in politics after it vowed to step up attempts to tackle climate change. Critics said the charity risked damaging its popularity by getting mired in a debate that bitterly divides politicians, economists and the public. Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum – a think-tank which is sceptical of the extent of climate change – added: ‘The National Trust risks alienating a lot of its members over this issue. ‘Why have they come out now after 20 years of debate about climate change? It is a very popular organisation and I fear that this step will cause lots of trouble with its membership. This is a token gesture that will not change anything in terms of policy.’ --Ben Spencer, Daily Mail, 6 April 2015
Japan’s New Energy Policy Sees Dominant Role
Of Coal By 2030
Japan
has 43 coal power projects either under construction or planned, representing
combined capacity of 21,200 megawatts, according to a statement from the
Kyoto-based Kiko Network. The projections would account for about half of what
Japan could emit in 2050 under the current government’s target to cut emissions
by 80 percent by that date, the group said. -- Chisaki Watanabe, Bloomberg, 9 April 2015
Japan has a new blueprint for its energy future, one that opens the door for a controversial return of nuclear power four years after the Fukushima accident took the country’s reactors offline. But even more noteworthy is that Japan now appears set to embrace a dominant role for dirty coal in the country’s energy mix for decades to come. Japan’s increased reliance on coal to 2030 and beyond contrasts with many European countries, which despite the global financial crisis and years of sluggish growth have continued to put the fight against climate change at the center of their energy policies. --Keith Johnson, Foreign Policy, 8 April 2015
China said it will cut prices for electricity generated by coal-fired plants as part of efforts to lower companies’ operating costs and aid a struggling economy. The move contrasts with efforts by the government to rein in coal consumption that has contributed to pollution choking cities such as Beijing. --Bloomberg, 8 April 2015
Apparently Friday's US jobs numbers disappointed the experts. The consensus forecast was that 250k jobs would have been created in March - yet only half the forecast actually appeared. Even more tellingly, hiring estimates for January/ February were revised down. Separate data also showed weak growth in wages and spending. None of this was really a surprise, however. There was plenty of evidence that US employment had simply seen a temporary boost from the shale gas bubble. --Paul Hodges, The Oil Voice, 8 April 2015
The exploration company UK Oil & Gas Investments claims that it has struck significant oil reserves at a well it has drilled in Horse Hill close to Gatwick airport in West Sussex. The company announced that analysis conducted on the site means that the well could yield up to 158 million barrels of oil per square mile. This suggests that the site could hold over 8.6 billion barrels of oil - just under a fifth of the amount that has been pumped out of the North Sea in the past 40 years. At the current oil price of around $58 a barrel, the reserves lying under the West Sussex countryside could be worth just under $500bn, or £336bn. --Ben Wright, The Daily Telegraph, 9 April 2015
The Sierra Club’s anti-coal campaign is getting a boost of up to $60 million
from donors including Michael Bloomberg, who pledged $30 million Wednesday to
further the group’s new goal of shuttering half the nation’s coal-fired power
plants by 2017. Bloomberg announced that more than a dozen additional donors
have pledged to match Bloomberg Philanthropies’ $30 million commitment —
bringing the total to $60 million. --Andrew Restuccia, Politico, 8 April 2015
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