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« Political murder | Main | Harrabin cites Marcott »
Tuesday
Sep242013

Dead on launch

The FT reports that there is to be a kind of global Stern Report next year.

The UK has teamed up with Norway, Sweden and four other nations to launch an $8.9m assessment of the economic costs and benefits of tackling climate change.

In what some are calling “Stern 2.0”, the study is expected to build on the 2006 UK review of the economics of climate change by British economist, Lord Nicholas Stern, who will act as a reviewer of the new work.

The team also includes Michael Jacobs, who was at the centre of the Stern report project. I guess they don't want anybody to believe a word of it then.

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Reader Comments (23)

Grantham Institute for Climate Change


In fact, it (Grantham) refers to the wealthy chairman of GMO, a large investment management company: Jeremy Grantham. Grantham has donated £12million to the London School of Economics (LSE) to fund the institute. He has also forked out another £12million to Imperial College London for the similarly named Grantham Institute for Climate Change (1)

No wonder, then, that the chair of LSE, Howard Davies – once the head of the Financial Services Authority and a former deputy governor of the Bank of England – was more than a little fawning over the ‘extremely generous’ Grantham. The new LSE institute will be headed by Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the UK government-commissioned report.


http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5799/

The Grantham is chaired by Professor Lord Sir Nicholas Stern of Brentford, author of a rather influential report on the economics of climate change, and who stands to profit admirably from institutional environmentalism via his carbon credit reference agency. It is no surprise that Ward and Sir Nicholas find themselves in the same company department, given their shared interests. Stern is also Chair of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP), which is funded by the UK government’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and which acknowledges that ‘Generous support for the Centre’s work is also provided by Munich Re’. Munich Re is the insurance giant that claims to know what the IPCC does not when it comes to the reality of climate change in the present.

http://www.climate-resistance.org/

Sep 24, 2013 at 4:14 PM | Unregistered CommentereSmiff

So we have one economic case, looking rather weak, followed by another which is to be the new reason for going 'green'? Where have I heard that before..... Ah yes, the HS2 justification.

There they told us that saving 35 minutes off a journey from London to Birmingham would produce incalculable benefits. When asked what these were, they fiddled a bit and then said:

"Did we say that saving time was the key reason? Ah... ACTUALLY the best thing is the increased capacity....".

And so the pathetic politics goes on. A pointless answer has been given - when it's shot down another pointless answer takes its place, until the opposition dies of boredom....

Sep 24, 2013 at 4:14 PM | Unregistered CommenterDodgy Geezer

They want to build on Stern? Wouldn't it be kinder to demolish the sad wreck and start again.

Sep 24, 2013 at 4:15 PM | Unregistered CommenterNicholas Hallam

Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing........

Sep 24, 2013 at 4:21 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlecM

Allow me to save them some time, and money: 50:1 Project

Sep 24, 2013 at 4:21 PM | Unregistered Commentergraphicconception

As it becomes more and more clear that CAGW is little more than the product of the over-heated imaginations of second-rate scientists, distinctively unlovely activists and those sucking on the teat of public money, it is amazing how the reaction of warmists to what must surely be good news – that there has been no warming for 16-plus years – is to insist that the problem is more severe than ever and that ever more radical/urgent solutions are required.

By any rational measure, they should be breathing vast sighs of relief.

Yet their response is to insist more vehemently still, indeed hysterically, that said non-existent warming is a more pressing problem than ever.

Can someone explain this to me?

Have I missed something? Am I being naive?

Sep 24, 2013 at 4:41 PM | Unregistered Commenteragouts

agouts

How dare you say these people are "second rate scientists". They could only aspire to such heights.

Sep 24, 2013 at 4:44 PM | Unregistered CommenterJohn B

graphicconception is spot on with the link: 50:1 Project To my mind, this is the most significant contribution to the debate of late. I've not come across any CAGW crowd responses so far. Maybe I've missed them. As Topher says, adaptation to change
should it occur, is the way forward.

Sep 24, 2013 at 5:03 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlleagra

Ever get the feeling you are trapped on some sort of hellish merry-go-round?

Sep 24, 2013 at 5:32 PM | Unregistered CommenterJack Savage

Sorry, John B. I stand corrected. Would 'midget, would-be scientists, misled by a sudden and vast infusion of pointless government money into thinking that they are now controlling all our futures and are terribly, terribly important, and egged on by a hideous combination of cretinous politicians, smug bureaucrats, rapacious industries and unscrupulous greeny-type activists ' be nearer the mark?

Note that I make no direct reference at all to Professor 'Phil' Jones of the UEA/CRU, clearly one of the mightiest brains not just of this but of any era, a man whom I think we can all acknowledge for sheer brain power as at least the equal of the Mekon (albeit minus the floating green saucer to sit on).

Sep 24, 2013 at 5:35 PM | Unregistered Commenteragouts

… tackling climate change.

Oh, Lord! Let us go and tilt at windmills, net clouds or herd cats; all will be just as effective. Whatever they decide, it can be a forgone conclusion that it will cost even more money, and less wealth-creation.

“Tackling climate change” is just euphemism for “tax even more” the long-suffering general public. Oddly enough, the protagonists never seem to suffer financially; their bills are already paid for by the tax-payer, and they can just demand more grants, and up their remuneration.

Sep 24, 2013 at 5:45 PM | Unregistered CommenterRadical Rodent

"Special Adviser to Gordon Brown".

Hmm, how shallow is the pool of talent that advisers to quite probably the worst post-war government need to be recycled? It's almost like all the politicians are aiming for the same goal. * Reaches for tin-foil hat *

Sep 24, 2013 at 6:01 PM | Unregistered Commenterstun

Oh God, not that twit Stern again...

Sep 24, 2013 at 6:09 PM | Unregistered CommenterRoger Longstaff

Norway! Jeeeeez here goes more money down the drain.

They are now experimenting on half a dozen windmills at the Smola wind farm by painting one blade black in an attempt to ward off the sea eagles before they get chewed up by the blades, all at a bargain cost of 9million kr.

Sep 24, 2013 at 7:16 PM | Unregistered CommenterMartyn

agouts.
Not too many will remember The Eagle and Dan Dare. I was imagining a youthful 40 yr old with a rapier wit and a way with words, but now I realise you're just another wrinkly like me. :-)

Sep 24, 2013 at 9:19 PM | Unregistered CommenterG. Watkins

'Mr Calderón' (commission chairman and former president of Mexico) (beat that for a name for a warmist ?) said-

'The “New Climate Economy” project was needed because most economic analysis did not properly factor in the increasing risks of climate change or the potential benefits of acting on it.'

Why are we funding this?

Sep 24, 2013 at 9:19 PM | Registered CommenterPharos

Norway, fresh from their success in the inevitable technology of carbon capture and storage:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/norway-abandons-carbon-capture-storage-plan-171126621.html#321RSkI

can't wait to get started and another dead duck.

Sep 24, 2013 at 10:10 PM | Unregistered CommenterBilly Liar

We can all be sure the "team" will "play a blinder".

Sep 24, 2013 at 10:15 PM | Unregistered Commenterjohnbuk

With a little imagination the sea eagles could see this:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQCo0zWCm3x33iGCGOgj56VyCqIUAA4hpFiMJa16_hWmAdq_dyj

Meanwhile go over to MacIntyre's...http://climateaudit.org/2013/09/24/two-minutes-to-midnight/

Sep 25, 2013 at 12:47 AM | Unregistered CommenterJay Currie

@Billy Liar "Norway, fresh from their success in the inevitable technology of carbon capture and storage:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/norway-abandons-carbon-capture-storage-plan-171126621.html#321RSkI
can't wait to get started and another dead duck."

I am sincerely glad to see the Norwegian idiocy (I am Norwegian) exposed. Please continue to do so, we do need your assistance in this. If you think your UK politicians represent the lowest grades of intelligence, you are excused simply because you don't understand our language. Our politicians seem to aspire to North Korean standards wrt. the non-existent climate problem.

Sep 25, 2013 at 7:24 AM | Unregistered CommenterAmatør1

Stern was on Newsnight, last night [Tuesday 24th].

Paxman gave him a very easy ride. Stern was all at sea though, rambling on about submarine clathrates and methane in the permafrost or summat. What comes across, he understands nothing of value and his solutions only add cost, and he calls himself an economist indeed. There isn't anything else to say, this unconscionable little man has nothing to add, all he does is liberally fill his boots by whispering sweet nothings in those ears who gratefully cloy to his weasel words - it is a sickening and appalling exhibition, but Stern isn't the only one is he - there are hundreds of thousands of leeches just like him - all over the world, we pay their wages.

Sep 25, 2013 at 8:00 AM | Unregistered CommenterAthelstan.

Mekon (albeit minus the floating green saucer to sit on).
Sep 24, 2013 at 5:35 PM agouts

The Mekon was green. His saucer was silver.

Sep 25, 2013 at 8:28 AM | Unregistered CommenterBig Oil

Michael Jacobs says: "In 2010 I worked with Nick Stern on the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance."

So did Chris Huhne...and Christine Lagarde, George Soros, Ciao Koch-Weser of Deutsche Bank, who have or had Pachauri Lord Browne, Lord Oxburgh, John Schellnhuber on their Climate Advisory board:
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/high_level_climate_finance.html

In 2008, Stern produced a document called "Key Elements of a Global Deal"http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/19617/
"Developed countries will need to take on immediate and binding national emissions targets, demonstrate that they can achieve low carbon growth, and transfer resources and technologies to developing countries, before developing countries take on binding national targets of their own by 2020."

Stern mentions some of the contributors to his plan: It has several contributors, with participants from HSBC, IdeaCarbon, Judge Business School at Cambridge University, Lehman Brothers and McKinsey and Company and was inspired by a number of discussions with international policymakers, financiers and academics.

2008 was also the year he co-founded the carbon rating agency Idea Carbon, http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2008-06-16/stern-to-launch-carbon-rating-agency. With him was Dr Sam Fankhauser,
"Sam served on the 1995, 2001 and 2007 assessments of the IPCC. He also gained hands-on experience in the design of emission reduction projects as a climate change economist for the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank. Sam joined IDEAcarbon from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where his most recent position was Deputy Chief Economist. Sam is a Senior Advisor to IDEAcarbon Strategic and a Fellow of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics."

He is also Chief Economist to GLOBE International (current President Lord Deben) and is on the UK Climate Change Committee and the its Mitigation sub-committee.

"GLOBE & Club of Rome Challenge the G20" 29/01/09:
Following a two day dialogue between GLOBE and the Club of Rome addressed by Mr. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, UK Secretary of State for Climate and Energy, GLOBE's President challenged the G20 Chairman, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP, to ensure the London G20 Summit addresses the inter connected challenges of the economic crisis, climate change, energy security and ecosystems decline."

Stern is also an advisor to Barroso and has co-published with Edenhofer, deputy director to Schellnhuber at Potsdam.

None of it is to do with climate, it is to advance the continuing reach of the UN's global governance agenda, currently being highlighted by Richard North at eureferendum. You can see just how far they have travelled here:

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/un_progress_governance_via_climate_change.html

Sep 25, 2013 at 11:25 AM | Registered Commenterdennisa

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