- Bishop Hill blog

A reader brought to my attention a new report on climate and energy policy by Labour's favourite thinktank, the IPPR.

The report was funded by the European Climate Foundation, with a steering group including represenatatives of green NGOs like Greenpeace and renewable energy investors like BNEF. With a background like that, nobody would expect that the report would make lots of dodgy claims and thinly veiled demands for transfers of money to those involved, would they? Readers can make up their own minds, but here are a few things that I noticed:

We have Julia Slingo's infamous quote about last winter's floods ("All the evidence suggests a link to climate change"), the one that the Met Office itself would not defend.
For some strange reason, the authors have decided to show a temperature graph that stops at 2010.
The report cites weather-related disasters of "a record $130 billion", misleading readers into thinking that this figure is climate related.
The report cites a drop in solar PV costs of 54%, misleading readers into thinking this was due to technological advances when in fact it was due to cutbacks in subsidies leading to oversupply.
The report calls for a doubling of investment in green energy (Will £10 billion be enough for you, BNEF?)
Strangely, the report mentions that share prices of traditional utilities have fallen. They don't mention that this is because people are forced by law to buy from their "green" competitors, a policy that has the full approval of the authors.
The report calls for spending to be focused on small-scale, inefficient technologies, particularly onshore wind. (This, and an increase in subsidies, seems to be the sum total of the report's ideas about how to deal with the impending capacity crunch)
The report says lots of "green" jobs will be created, thus proving that such technologies are expensive.
There is no mention of the impending capacity crunch.

It would seem then that a vote for Labour is a vote to have one's pocket picked.