Bishop Hill Davey knew Deben was conflicted
Nov 3, 2013 Corruption DECC Deben Greens 
A few weeks ago I came across some new correspondence between the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) and Lord Deben relating to his appointment as chairman of the advisory Committee on Climate Change. This was on the committee's web server, but didn't appear to have been linked from the publications page.
The correspondence was pretty interesting stuff, and suggested that the Committee was taking Deben's misrepresentation of Veolia's business quite seriously. Intriguingly, reference was made to letters from Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey on the same subject, but while such letters to the committee are normally published, these were nowhere to be seen.
I therefore put in an FOI request to DECC which received its response last week. This response was that the correspondence was already in the public domain and I was pointed to the ECCC webpage where, lo and behold, the letters had been published 24 hours earlier.
You can read them here.
As you can see, it seems to have been clear to everybody involved - Davey, DECC and the ethics people at the Cabinet Office - that Deben had interest in a business that would benefit from decisions he would make at the CCC. They knew. And every single one of them waved these concerns aside, accepting without question that if Deben pretended not to be involved in decisionmaking at the infrastructure arm of Veolia this would somehow mean that decisions he made at the CCC were no longer conflicted. This is, not to put too fine a point on it, disgraceful. The question Mr Davey has to answer is "How can you know that the advice from the CCC is designed to benefit the public and not Veolia Infrastructure?". Taxpayers need to know.
David Rose has the story in the Mail on Sunday this morning, part of a spread also featuring stories about Judith Curry's latest paper and also links between LibDem ministers and anticapitalist activists.
Environmental policy is a cesspit.
Reader Comments (53)
James at 6:12
"I wish I could muster your sanguinity over BSE/CJD - are these people wasting their time?"
Given that in the period where these 176 deaths occurred (1995-2011) well over 8,000,000 people died in the UK of other causes, they probably are wasting their time.
In case anyone thinks I am being insensitive here, a close member of my own family has recently died from a very rare condition: this was a terrible blow for us, but that does not make her condition a good object on which to lavish public funds.
It is a good lesson in how projects and their funding streams can live on, long after their relevance or importance has been shown by events to be false. All those who (from time to time) claim victory over the warmists, or who think that stopping them will be achieved by winning a scientific argument, should take note.
As President of Globe International, Gummer is always pushing behind the scenes for more climate legislation, with the full co-operation of the government. Ed Davey was a "keynote speaker" at the 1st GLOBE Climate Legislation Summit held at the Foreign Office in London on 15 January this year.
http://www.globeinternational.org/index.php/high-level-opening-session/ed-davey-decc.
DAVEY:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, It’s a pleasure to be with you here today and it’s great to see so many of you here in London. You are here, of course, to launch the GLOBE Climate Legislation Initiative.
Each country represented here faces unique challenges. Climate change will affect each of our countries in different ways. We face different hurdles in convincing our colleagues, our business people and our citizens of the need to act. But we share one imperative – heading off the prospect of catastrophic climate change in the future, by taking real and meaningful action now.
So I’m particularly glad that this GLOBE Initiative is aimed at lawmakers, parliamentarians and fellow politicians."
Do read the rest of it. And then read Deben's speech, here's a flavour::
DEBEN
"Now you notice the pride with which the minister has said how advanced is the British climate change legislation. All ministers have said that, the previous government was thrilled to have implemented it. But if I tell you the real story of it, it was that it was Parliament; across the board that forced it on the government, even though those who are most concerned in government are always frightened of being tied to a proper programme for the future.
So it was Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour backbenchers; all sorts of people together who said ‘we want this’ ‘we’re going to have it’. And that meant that ministers in the Labour government, shadow ministers in the Conservative opposition and leaders in the Liberal Democrats really had to take on board what Parliament was saying. And that has given us in this country a very advanced form of climate change legislation."
The rest of it is here: http://www.globeinternational.org/index.php/high-level-opening-session/lord-deben-s-speech
They were also addressed by Christian Figueres, UNFCCC exec secretary and a former carbon trading advisor with Lord Stern's IdeaCarbon/IdeaGlobal.
http://www.globeinternational.org/index.php/high-level-opening-session/christiana-figueres-unfccc
FIGUERES
"Thank you very much, Lord Deben, for the invitation. Thank you to all the wonderful people of GLOBE International for the invitation. More than anything, thank you for another excellent study, the third in a series of very important studies.
"Thank you to the Grantham Research Institute of the LSE for their hard work behind the scenes and to all the sponsors. I am going to confess to you that I had another competing event today that I had to cancel in order to be with you. I did that very consciously, because I wanted to come to London to congratulate and thank GLOBE International."
Climate Change Committee member Sam Fankhauser, colleague of Stern at Grantham and IdeaCarbon, is the Globe International Chief Economist.
Just for good measure how about a contribution from Lord Prescott, who just happens to be Globe Vice-President.
PRESCOTT
"I want to say a few words about the process, having been involved in Kyoto in 1997. As the deputy Prime Minister I became the lead negotiator for the EU. I learnt a lot from that, I went to all the conferences of the parties. But Copenhagen clearly indicated a difference between developed and developing countries that couldn’t be brought together into a consensus."
"Now, whilst I was the Deputy Prime Minister, I was proud that we produced a policy that is continued by this government. We achieved our Kyoto targets and were able to achieve the policies that we wanted and we are leading the world, work that is being continued very much by John and GLOBE. I have only recently become a member of GLOBE. I was on the side as a minister, listening to what they were saying, but I am proud to be here because the work that has been done by GLOBE is fundamental in the way that you suggested Christiana."
http://www.globeinternational.org/index.php/high-level-opening-session/lord-prescott-speech
Funny how none of this ever makes the media.
It does not matter who ate what for the photo of Gummer's daughter. The Major government, including Gummer, did not support the BSE/ CJD scare in 1996 . They were right. There have not been the 1000's of deaths predicted.
It is not helpful to dismiss Gummer as evil or stupid. He is a clever and sucessful politician.
Why did he not support the BSE/CJD scare but does support the CO2/CAGW scare?
One reason is that the idea of infectious proteins, prions, is even less credible than the hypothesis that CO2 heats the planet.
So, I believe we sceptics need to get better at communicating other theories to politicians. Such as that CO2 does not cause heating and climate change is normal.