A few interesting bits and pieces on the climate-in-Parliament front.
While I was away on my break, the Energy and Climate Change Committee announced that it is to have an inquiry into the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report.
The most recent – the fifth assessment report (AR5) – has begun to be published. The first instalment of the report, Climate change 2013: the Physical Science Basis, was published on Friday 27 September. A total of 209 Lead Authors and 50 Review Editors from 39 countries and more than 600 Contributing Authors from 32 countries contributed to the preparation of Working Group I AR5. The report concluded that, ‘it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.’ But it reduced the lower bound for likely climate sensitivity and for the first time did not publish a best estimate of it because of lack of agreement
The IPCC has been influential in providing the justification for national and international action to prevent dangerous climate change. It has however, come under criticism that it is overly influenced by national political agendas and that it has not satisfactorily addressed the recent pause in global warming nor the InterAcademy criticisms of AR4 and other issues.
This inquiry will explore the latest conclusions of the IPCC, the extent to which the conclusions are robust, and their impact on national and international policy making.
I fancy that this will be a waste of time because evidence will be taken only from "the usual suspects".
Talking of which, the committee has also announced that it is to take evidence on the Economics of Climate Change from Lord Stern on Tuesday at 9:30am. This is slightly odd since the committee doesn't actually have an inquiry into the economics of climate change at the moment. One wonders if this is a reaction to the spread of the good news that climate change is likely to be beneficial for small amounts of climate change. We can't have that! Call in the usual suspects!
And at 10:15am on Wednesday 6th, Mark Walport is up in front of the Science and Technology Committee as part of the public understanding of climate change inquiry.