Monday
May242010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill DEFRA expenditure
May 24, 2010 Bureaucrats Greens Some time ago I got an analysis of the total expenditure of the Department for Schools Children and Families. Given the recent focus of this site on global warming and greenery, I thought it would be interesting to see what DEFRA (that's the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) had been spending the taxpayer's money on too.
I haven't got time to analyse this right now, but if you'd like to flag up anything interesting in the comments, feel free. The file is attached below.
Update on May 24, 2010 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
I must say, the figure paid to IBM of £82 million seems to be making my eyes water...
Reader Comments (41)
The Energy and Resources Institute - £46,272.00
Climate Outreach and Information Network - 278,340.00
Their income for 2008 was a similar figure. A fake charity?
NHS Blood & Transplant - 136,114.35
Are they vampires?
Mark David Chappell - 109,439.36
Who?
Globe International - 100,000.00
The Department of Energy and Climate Change is the government body responsible not DEFRA (with whom I have had many frustrating conversations)
I recently put an FOI request into the DECC and found that in 2009/2010 they and the dept of Transport spent £7M on tv ads relating to CO2!
I also asked what evidence they had that CO2 had caused any of the recent warming. Their first answer was long and long on spin, typified by "The evidence of climate change comes from fundamental physics, real observations and objective peer reviewd science that has been done by thousands of eminent scientists from around the world" and "We know that greenhouse gases like CO2 make the earth warmer - we've known this for 150 years. We can measure that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is now 38% higher than pre-industrial times and we know that this is mostly through the burning of fossil fuels. We know that the planet is getting hotter. We also know that the sooner we can slow this warming, the less damaging the impact will be"
I tore into that rubbish and asked for an internal review which gave me what I wanted: "In regards to your second and third questions, DECC does not hold any authorititive, scientific reviewed evidence that isn't already in the public domain. The department's policy on climate change is based on evidence agreed by the IPCC. The evidence that you have requested is included in the IPCC's report which you can read by visiting their website www.ipcc.ch. "
So basically the UK government is spending billions on a low carbon economy but nobody in that government has a clue why.
Since the IPCC reports have no evidence to support AGW (they only have computer models) I have now written to the notorious Mr Huhne an d will wait to see what he says before flinging another FOI request in.
£2.2M to 'Keep Britain Tidy' looks worthy of questioning...
Lots of interesting payements. Forum for the Future is a good one. They seem to be greenie radicals. http://www.forumforthefuture.org/
Lots of contractor agencies some of which I worked for and one of my colleagues worked for DEFRA through one.
I thought DEFRA stood for the Department for the Elimination of Farming and Rural Activities.
Dung: your response from DECC reads remarkably like the one I got from some junior official. Trying to get a sensible answer from Government officials gives one a headache from the collision between head and wall.
I too have written to the new Government, including Huhne, but I don't expect to get anything sensible, if I get a response at all.,
Apparently - if you want a response, you need to send the letter via your own M.P. Then they are obliged to send you a reply.
Forum for the Future is a major snout/trough interface run by Jonathan Porritt, long-time enviro-bore.
Basically it's one of many such bodies, whose main function seems to be to suck funds from the government in order to berate that same government for not doing enough about the environment. The cynical/sane might suspect that the reason for this apparent madness, apart from an income for Porritt and co, is to give the appearance that the government is reluctantly bowing to public pressure.
Still, maybe the public are enthusiastic about this - "It received just £1,300 in donations from the public" in 2006/07.
Or maybe not.
http://fakecharities.org/pages/posts/forum-for-the-future60.php?searchresult=1&sstring=forum+for+the+future
"Its 2006/07 accounts show a total income of £4,670,107, of which:
* Central Government: £868,578
* Local and regional government: £775,062
* DEFRA: £109,976
* The Climate Change Project (DEFRA): £241,878
* Tower Hamlets: £42,683
* EU: £23,904
* --
* Total £2,062,081 (44.2% of all income)"
The founder of Climate Outreach and Information Network, George Marshall, was a senior campaigner for Greenpeace.
http://www.carbondetox.org/html/aboutgeorge.html
The organisation seems to major on the 'psychology of behaviour change'. One of the pieces here talks approvingly of psychoanalytic theory. Nice to see the pseudosciences sticking together.
http://www.coinet.org.uk/communications-theory-and-tools
Gareth notes that the £278,340 to Climate Outreach and Information Network [COIN] matches their income.
COIN was founded by George Marshall. It is an unashamed lobbyist for AGW and the praise for Michael Mann and realclimate on Marshall's website is fulsome and without reservation. In a Youtube recording Marshall talks about belief being more important than evidence!
Why from DEFRA? It makes one concerned that other govt departments are making payments to AGW groups.
The attempt to indoctrinate goes much further than I had previously thought.
I don't know what period that listing covers but some of the £356,694.81 paid to the University of Kent might have gone towards certifying peccary pelts in Peru. Since 2006, DEFRA has paid £211,764 to Kent Uni's Dr Richard Bodmer to set up Peruvian pilot programmes promoting peccary pelt provenance paperwork that purports to protect peccary populations from unsustainable hunting. The scheme assumes that people will pay more for 'green'-certified pelts and that the extra money will pay for the setting up of the certification scheme and for improvements to Peru's transport infrastructure; better transport will improve the quality of the pelts (less time to rot), which will further boost pelt prices, which will make the Amazon too valuable to chop down. Or something. The scheme's literature is vague, circular and self-contradictory - the main contradictions being that it admits that peccary-hunting in Peru is already sustainable and that there is no market for 'green'-certified pelts: people don't want to pay the peccary pelt paperwork premium.
And yet the funding keeps coming. It's not a vast amount but it's hard to understand why DEFRA ever got involved and why it hasn't pulled the plug. I suspect that at some level the scheme is aimed at helping the top end of the glove trade in mainland Europe. It's a follow-up to a 650,000 euro EU scheme that looked at farming peccaries in Brazil. (Bodmer's share of that: 90,003 euros. I'm sure there's a good reason for those three euros but to an outsider they look like someone's taking the piss.)
University Of East Anglia = £1,105,668.94
ClimateGate email 1228922050.txt:
Quote:
More on CRU funding within the context of an epetiton relately to CRU can be found here: http://www.trevoole.co.uk/Questioning_Climate/userfiles/Response_to_CRU_Epetition.pdf
Global Action Plan: £353,855
http://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/
Specialises in frightening and brainwashing school children into 'taking action' on climate change by becoming a member of their 'climate squad', in a project jointly funded by carbon traders Bank of America and subsidy-seekers EDF energy - very sinister.
DFID also fund lots of climate projects
Why on earth would DEFRA fund Royal Opera House Covent Garden Ltd to the tune of £10,332.75? Tickets for senior staff?
On the other hand, £700.00 to the Centre for ISO9000 Ltd, could be money well spent if it were to improve their quality
Prodigal predation! An alliterative (near-)synonym for 'unsustainable hunting'. Phew! I can get on with my life now.
Social engineering group, Behaviour Change:
Behaviour Change = £133,502.00
Behaviour Change is a not-for-profit social enterprise. All our projects are driven by our mission to promote sustainable living to the British public.
The Behaviour Change team has worked together since 2006, developing Together and we will if you will while at international NGO The Climate Group. The organisation was set up in December 2009 with the backing of co-founders of we will if you will Fiona Reynolds, Director General of the National Trust and Ian Cheshire, CEO of Kingfisher (owners of B&Q), to provide a dedicated hub where this work could continue.
Their work examples:
* Developed and run three major consumer campaigns on sustainable living
* Built a coalition of 20 leading business and civil society partners to promote easy ways to fight climate change
* Developed a major new brand and engaged over 100 partners to make seasonal eating mainstream
* Produced an eco viral watched by over half a million people
* Created a series of campaigns to engage the employees of leading businesses on sustainable issues
* Developed and run three major consumer campaigns on sustainable living
* Built a coalition of 20 leading business and civil society partners to promote easy ways to fight climate change
* Developed a major new brand and engaged over 100 partners to make seasonal eating mainstream
* Produced an eco viral watched by over half a million people
* Created a series of campaigns to engage the employees of leading businesses on sustainable issues
* Devised creative hooks to bring to life energy saving solutions
* Published a guide to consumer engagement on climate change
* Produced 3 short films to inspire action on climate change
* Worked with celebrities to promote sustainable behaviours to the public
* Organised several business, government and civil society stakeholder events
* Advised some of the UK's leading brands on consumer facing sustainability initiatives
* Consulted on a number of third party sustainability campaigns
http://www.behaviourchange.org.uk
Is this really correct?
Grannies = £55.80
Surely grannies are worth more than that! ;-)
International Synergies Ltd, £1,363,430.54, is worth a further look. I smell expensive GONGO bafflegab.
The National Fallen Stock Company sounds like a really bad investment.
Oh, it's something to do with dead sheep.
Ditto 4ps (aka Local Partnerships), £380,660.
Quick search of Bishop Hill blog:
Globe International - £100,000 - linked to Oxburgh enquiry....................
Andrew Montford(Bishop Hill) and Andrew Orlowski of the Register quickly pointed out that
Oxburgh failed to disclose that he was UK Vice Chair of Globe International. Bishop Hill reports that Oxburgh is one of four directors of the company.
Globe International is an off-balance sheet “private company” funded predominantly by governments and NGOs. As a private company, I guess that it is unaccountable. It brings legislators together – with a particular concern to the advancement of climate change legislation. Its webpage contains glowing testimonials from leading politicians.
The Campaign for Freedom of Info - £200
A measure of their priorities, perhaps?
DEFRA- aka Department for Eco-Fascists and Rabid Activists.
Now there's an excellent target for budgetary cuts!
Green Futures 34.00
Probably on a long position and they closed it very quickly. So much for strong faith!
But the money is good though... Unbelievable spenders.
Vinny Burgoo - please tell me that's a spoof.
Someone send this to Dave, here's a place to save a few of those £6billion he's looking at!
Googling for Mark David Chappell Defra brings up this:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=mark+david+chappell+defra&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
Buried somewhere in the third (Radaris) entry is this:
'Mark Chappell. Head of Defra's Sustainable Workplace Management Programme'
SNIFFER (69,125) works with its members to provide up to date and informative data on recent trends in the climates of Scotland and Northern Ireland, predicted future impacts and recommended adaptation measures. We are increasingly taking forward work that contributes to the overall picture of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to inform the challenge of achieving our future emissions reduction targets.
International Synergies Ltd. ISL's best known and successful project is the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP). Funded by Defra through its Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) programme, NISP has to date more than 8,000 company members across the UK, including Severn Trent Water in Birmingham and Burton based roofing giant, Marley Eternity. NISP has helped its members make a significant contribution to reducing the country's industrial impact on climate change.
Roddy Campbell, you're clearly not familiar with _Suiform Soundings_, the pig-science newsletter in which the results (resoundingly inconclusive) of the European Commission's 650,000-euro investigation of the possibility of ranching peccaries to supply better peccary pelts to German, French, Italian, Austrian and Swiss glovemakers were (not so resoundingly) presented, or with DEFRA's Darwin Initiative. The latter funds projects that promote or protect biodiversity (or claim to do so). Many of its projects are admirable but it's sometimes hard to believe that British taxpayers would choose to fund them if given the choice, especially in these straitened times. Apart from Bodmer's most recent peccary projects, 'Certifying Peccary Pelts in Peru: Catalysing Community-based Wildlife Management' and its surprising sequel 'Consolidating peccary pelt certification in Peru', neither of which has any obvious connection with biodiversity, the Darwin Initiative is now funding joyous jollies such as 'Trans-boundary solutions to the Asian vulture crisis' and 'Enabling Montserrat to save the Critically Endangered mountain chicken' (which is a big frog that tastes like chicken, not a chicken proper).
A D A S UK Ltd 9,747,974.62
http://www.adas.co.uk/Home/Whoweare/tabid/207/Default.aspx
We provide independent, science-based environmental and rural consultancy and contracting Working together services to a diverse range of organisations in the private and public sectors, throughout the UK and internationally.
Money to Universities (University in Name)
Taken for values > £8,822.67
Total £18,518,002.63
University Name Amount
University Of Nottingham £3,272,398.07
University Of Edinburgh £2,748,241.66
University Of Oxford £1,684,098.71
University Of Bristol £1,381,342.80
University Of Wales Aberystwyth £1,170,273.72
University Of East Anglia £1,105,668.94
University Of Surrey £935,000.00
University Of Reading £883,230.47
University Of Cambridge £882,529.75
University Of Warwick £602,785.10
University Of Southampton £486,278.17
University Of Kent £356,694.81
University Of Liverpool £312,628.75
University Of Newcastle on Tyne £310,322.81
University Of Westminster £298,949.57
University Of Exeter £288,123.00
University Of York £264,356.11
University Of St Andrews £204,319.58
University Of Birmingham £197,250.25
University Of Glasgow £188,284.00
University Of Aberdeen £186,441.73
University Of Hertfordshire £151,496.50
University Of Bath £121,315.49
University Of Wales Swansea £109,734.80
University College London £103,884.40
University Of Leicester £88,778.75
University Of Sussex £71,364.60
University Of Stirling £40,075.33
University Of Greenwich £31,048.81
University of Cape Town £23,817.41
University Of Lancaster £17,268.54
Sorry, I can't filter properly in Open Office!
Supplementary list
Lancaster University £2,392,378.91
Cranfield University £661,755.18
Bangor University £362,862.26
Brunel University £255,505.98
The Open University £143,467.73
The Queens University Of Belfast £53,611.00
Northumbria University £29,908.00
Loughborough University £27,010.00
Cardiff University £23,360.00
Tsinghua University £17,250.00
Birkbeck College University Of London £10,704.40
University of Cape Town?
Tsinghua University?
Once doesn't really imagine the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs funding universities at all - let alone foreign universities ...
Tribal Consulting for a £ 1 million amount : I don't know what Tribal C really is, but from a French perspective, doesn't look very promising...Tribal for Anthropologic ?
The UK is being gutted and the guts thrown to the pigs.
Could this be what the University of Birmingham is spending some of its DEFRA money on.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8696000/8696862.stm
3 years in the running so far, I wonder how many to go. I thought feeding the birds only cost tuppence a bag..... (sorry, I'll hang my head in shame!)
However, the British Trust For Ornithology also recieves money. I wonder which one is spending money on this research?
Well they can at least drown their sorrows with the help of Vinopolis, for a mere £19k.
I will communicate with my peers to gather some interest in this.