‘…Mr. Pershing’s Chinese counterpart, Su Wei, hit back, saying developed countries had failed to commit to substantial reductions in carbon emissions while making unfair demands of developing nations. He accused the United States of using the monitoring issue to try to avoid its own responsibilities on cutting emissions and providing financing and technology to poor countries.’
‘…There is no chance of completing a binding global treaty to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases, few if any heads of state are planning to attend, and there are no major new initiatives on the agenda. Copenhagen was crippled by an excess of expectation. Cancún is suffering from the opposite.’
‘Frustration between the world’s two top carbon polluters overshadowed week-long U.N. talks seeking progress on the shape of a new climate pact, with negotiators making some progress on financing but failing to dispel fears the process could end in deadlock.’
Professor Richard Muller, author of Physics for Future Presidents, spoke at a CITRIS sponsored event at the University of Calfornia Berkeley: Copenhagen Global Warming — The Current Status: The Science, the Scandal, the Prospects for a Treaty.
His discussion of the certainties and uncertainties of climate science was both entertaining and refreshingly candid.
Some key points:
The IPCC report states that there is uncertainty about possible cloud cover increase due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If cloud cover were to increase by two percent in the next fifty years we wouldn’t have global warming.
Clean energy solutions in the U.S. that are too expensive to employ in China and other developing countries are rendered irrelevant by the projected scale of increased carbon emissions around the world.
Muller mentioned several examples of attention grabbing overstatements and questionable scientific results. Data manipulation in one temperature chart which came to light in ‘climategate’ was clearly an example of bad science which wouldn’t pass peer review. Muller said he will be conducting his own completely transparent climate study.
‘Reuters – U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday formally signed the nation’s first lease for a major offshore wind project, as the Obama administration pushes forward to boost renewable energy output.’
‘(Reuters) – The global carbon market will not be worth $1-2 trillion a year by 2020 if the United States does not speed up efforts for a federal emissions trading scheme, delegates warned at a carbon conference in London on Monday.’
‘…But international negotiators have hardly given up. This week, U.N. climate talks are taking place in Tianjin, China, which could help prepare for climate discussions in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year. Another round of negotiations is scheduled for South Africa next year.’
‘As methane CH4 has more than 20 times the planet-busting effect of CO2, this is a serious business. But Hristov says he has found that adding an oregano-based supplement to cattle feed cuts the burping bovines’ CH4 emissions by no less than 40 per cent.’
‘Reuters – The U.N. climate change chief urged governments on Monday to make real steps toward a new treaty to fight global warming or risk throwing negotiations into doubt.’
‘Reuters – Just last year experts at the International Energy Agency proposed a target for China’s carbon emissions to peak in 2020 before declining if the world were to be saved from devastating climate change. Too late now.’