Greenhouse gas emission statistics

When we talk about greenhouse gas emissions we do not always understand which greenhouse gases are most important and the sources of emissions. The following information comes from the World Resources Institute

The need to fail at Copenhagen

“It is realistic to say that in Copenhagen we will not be able to conclude a treaty,” said Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany recently. She is right to be realistic. Should we be depressed by her pessimism? I do not think so. A climate change treaty concluded in the next few months would hardly be worth the paper upon which it will be written. The developed world is not yet ready for the changes and sacrifices that a meaningful treat would require. The developing world is still playing “catch up” and inte3nds to continue this game until it has caught up.

I shall now commit what many will regard as an environmental heresy; I think it is better for the negotiations at Copenhagen to fail than it is for them to cobble together a poor climate protection treaty. It is better not to conclude a treat at all than to conclude a treaty which does not work. If we conclude a treaty which has the same failings and omissions as the treaty and protocol concluded at Kyoto we shall be giving the world false confidence. A poor climate protection treaty will simply be a way of that the people of this planet can get false comfort from the delusion that something is happening about climate change when in reality it will be business as usual for that section of the world’s population that emits greenhouse gases without control.

On the other hand, failure at Copenhagen will possibly galvanise the leaders of the world into real action and may well cause them to look at the problem differently. Perhaps instead of using complicated mechanisms to protect the climate they can outlaw simple things, like building new coal fired power stations, vehicles emitting more than so much instead of creating targets which bear no relationship to actual greenhouse gas emission.

Can you be dismissed for believing in Climate Change?

Many large companies have “sustainability” or “environmental departments. For example the large supermarkets and all of the oil companies have such departments which they see as an important part of their corporate governance and social responsibility. However, the first responsibility of a company is to its shareholders. There are many ways in which all of these large companies could act and do business in ways that are more environmentally friendly  but to do so wholeheartedly would stand in the way of profits so most of them simply do what they think they can afford provided it does not impact on the bottom line.

Summer lingers longer – evidence of a changing climate

On the last day of October this year I took this picture of an oak tree in a London Park. Oaks usually seem to be among the first trees to shed their leaves, but the autumn has been gently with no frost and little wind, so the mighty oak has most of its leaves still green. Its leaves will turn and fall over the next few weeks.

When I was young by November 5th all the trees had lost their leaves and the bonfires we made could be filled with dead wood fallen from trees, if there were any trees where you lived.

Have the seasons really changed in character or have they merely changed in my memory? Summer seems to linger longer now, and the trees seem to hold their leaves longer.

When I was a child we celebrated Guy Fawkes Night on the 5^th of November each year. Then it was not a moveable feast, as it seems to be these days. That was a time of year for coats scarves and gloves because it was bitterly cold. Today in London I do not need a coat or a scarf or gloves, and so it has been for some years.

For me, this is evidence of a changing climate.

Governments will not make hard decisions to protect the climate at Copenhagen

You will see headlines and hear news items to the effect that there is only so many days (just over a month now) to get a climate protection “deal” at Copenhagen. There the nations of the world will meet in order to try and reach agreement as to the best way to protect the climate and how to divide the burden of protecting the climate between themselves. The leaders of the world’s nations, particularly those that are democratically elected, will put in an appearance in order to try and reach some kind of an agreement. They will in fact reach some kind of agreement and no doubt Mr Obama, Mr Brown and the rest will claim credit but I doubt whether the agreement they reach will be judged by history as being important or significant.

Putting the record straight – Professor David MacKay

I wrote about Professor David MacKay’s nuclear vision in http://robertkyriakides.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=2002 but I did the Professor an injustice, because I ascribed views to him which are not his own. He has commented on my blog that his views, which were widely reported in The Sunday Times as well as in the trade magazine “Heating & Ventilation”, were in fact misreported. He was giving a talk and in the course of it posited “Plan M” as an illustration of one of the choices that we could make about energy policy. He did not recommend Plan M, but used it to illustrate the choices available.

I owe Professor MacKay an apology, which I unreservedly make now.

Problems of PV feed in tariffs

Next April, when no doubt the United Kingdom will be distracted by the noises and excitement of a General Election, the photovoltaic industry will be hoping for a boost as a result of a new feed in tariff incentive. This incentive is very similar to the incentive that has been operating in Germany for several years, but in Germany the tariff has had its problems and I expect problems to arise when the tariff will be operated under United Kingdom conditions.

The European Union’s budgetary limit and conditional limit on climate protection

The European Union has announced that the world must spend a hundred billion Euros a year on climate change, and that the EU would pay its fair share subject to the proviso that other nations would do likewise.  It is a bit like a thief promising to stop stealing if all the other thieves stop stealing. The concept of the European Union doing the right thing for its own sake seems lost on its leaders.

Should Mr Blair be President?

No one quite knows precisely what the job of President of the European Council will be or into what it will develop. Theoretically it is no more than a Chairmanship. Being a Chairman is an important job and it is influential; agendas are set, milestones are proposed and a Chairman must aim to achieve consensus among the members of the Council. Being a President is a different role. Not only do you set agendas but you formulate policy and lead others. I suspect that many politicians think that the Presidency of the Council will morph into a Presidency of Europe, and certainly that seems to be the thinking of the United Kingdom Government, who is touting Tony Blair for President of the European Council.

Hindering the low carbon economy

I listened to Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday. It is a ritual at which the leader of the opposition and other members of parliament ask the Prime Minister questions, which the Prime Minister usually fails to answer. Instead he uses the question as an opportunity to criticise opposition policies or statements by way of an answer. This procedure is in the worse traditions of the British constitution. No one is held to account or made to answer questions.