While on the train on the way down to London on Tuesday, I found myself reading David Kennedy's evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into Carbon Budgets. Kennedy, readers are no doubt aware, is the chief executive of Deben's Committee on Climate Change.
Kennedy's remarks on climate sensitivity are, well, extraordinary:
If it was true that climate sensitivity estimates are now half what they were two years ago, that would raise a question. Is it still appropriate to be on this path, or should we take our foot off the pedal? On that specific issue I can tell you there is not any new evidence that makes us think differently about climate sensitivity. Some people would have you think that is the case, but if you look at the science, there is not a fundamental shift on that important issue of climate sensitivity, and I would not expect the IPCC, when it reports in October, to say the range for climate sensitivity has shifted significantly. Let’s see what they say. I would not expect them to say it has shifted. That is one of the things that will feed into our review, so we will be looking at the IPCC report before we do a report on the science and the international context in November, but the other thing is the call for evidence asks the specific question: is anything different, particularly on climate sensitivity as well as some of the other key things?
"..not any new evidence that makes us think differently about climate sensitivity"? Now that is a brazen statement if ever I saw one.