Bishop Hill Kennedy departs
With UK energy and climate policy a demonstrable shambles and the lights set to go out in the next year or two, David Kennedy is departing the Committee on Climate Change for pastures new. The great man is heading off for a non-climate related role at DFiD. Lord Deben issued this parting eulogy:
David Kennedy created the team at the Committee on Climate Change, he established its reputation for scientific rigour and accuracy, and he has maintained that reputation throughout his seven years of service. He is the best kind of civil servant; intellectually robust and technically proficient, bringing sound judgment and careful evaluation to every issue. We owe him a great debt for a job well done. He leaves the CCC in a very good position and his successor will have the firmest of foundations from which to take the organisation forward.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Reader Comments (29)
The gravy train rumbles ever onwards. DfID ? can he simply be posted to Northern Nigeria to iron out the story with Boko Haram? (and take Nafeez Ahmed with him as a sidekick)
Deben, once again and oblivious, even during the last hours - with UKIP marching its vanguard towards the gates of Westminster - still he gurgles this utter guff....... no change noted and thus in print, confirms what he is, a complete imbecile.
God help Britain, come on UKIP.
..intellectually robust..
Where do they find the intellectually inferior I wonder, and would you like to meet them
That bullshit word again.
Meaningless but sounds impressive.
'...He leaves the CCC in a very good position...'
Well - that's reassuring to know, isn't it..?
You mention the lights going out, is it just me, but does anyone else feel that there are more small power cuts happening this year?
I remember that when the "independent" CCC was set up it was stated on their website that the first thing they would do would be to examine the evidence for "climate change" (man-made that is). They never did the examination and I recall emailing them to ask what was the result of the examination and what was the evidence. I never got a sensible response from them, just the usual reference to the IPCC. The CCC was never intended to be "independent", it was just another propaganda tool set up to reinforce the party line.
intellectually robust = thick as two short planks
> non-climate related role at DFiD
There is no such thing as a non-climate related role at DfID.
DfID probably funds more climate related projects than any other department. It has free reign with its international donations. Some examples:
Environmental Transformation Fund (£554,000,000) - help developing countries respond to climate change
Global Environment Facility 4TH Replenishment (£219,646,000) - for projects and activities targetting global benefits in the areas of biodiversity, climate change, international waters, the ozone layer and land degredation
Adaptation for Smallholder Agricultural Programme (£150,000,619) - To provide knowledge and best practices to help over 6 million smallholder farmers in up 40 countries adapt to climate change.
International Carbon Capture and Storage Capacity Building (£60,000,000) - Build developing country capacity to deploy carbon capture and storage technologies.
Don't forget that it was DfID that funded the BBC seminar
Good Riddance to bad rubbish.
Speaking of which I see the LDs are struggling in potato Ed's constituency.
Would be a shame if Ed's genius was missed following the next general election (sarc)
From the Ecclesiastical Uncle, an old retired bureaucrat in a field only remotely related to climate with minimal qualifications and only half a mind.
Kennedy looks like the normal politically appointed civil servant rather like the lot that the DECC appointed to cobble together the Climate Change Bill. But is this justified? How long has he been in the civil service? If he joined as the normal scientific civil servant umpteen years ago he has done well and may have served the Climate Change Committee with his tongue in his cheek, just doing his job and being a hypocrite in the way the civil service routinely requires. Or maybe he has been converted, or perhaps always was, a committed warmist, in which case one is left wondering how the gents responsible for appointing him in the first place (The Civil Service Commission?) missed the committed closed mind, or, worse, came to require it as an essential prerequisite for appointment.
Alternatively, if the Climate Change Committee first appointed him to the civil service to occupy the post he is now leaving, they would seem to have done themselves no harm but the country and the man in the street the disservice we so routinely deplore.
Probably his move to DFID is a continuation of a green career. The Department has plenty of opportunities for a green zealot to 'contribute', since green projects and development must have received copious funds over recent years - or it may be his task is to be to seek funds for future green projects etc.
'...He leaves the CCC in a very good position...' Well, that 'position' for one us, the CCC or the public, will be on its knees. Let me guess which...
Warning to the community:
The banner ad for "NextGen Climate" is a front for a *very* aggressive malware. I am on a well protected network and my clicking on it shut down my computer. On top of that "nextGen" is a front group put to gether by an American billionaire climate kook. He has decided that he can buy votes to jam his climate garbage down our throats.
Every click may the Bishop some money- and that is good- but it opens private computers to bad cookies, malware, etc.
@hunter: luckily I have adblock which turns all these sites off. As regards Kennedy, what I suspect is that DECC is being purged of its career warmists by them being given a further advance on the ladder.
This makes room for people who will keep the lights on whilst saving CO2 emissions, without the dogma of windmills pus diesel STOR which actually will increase fossil fuel use for that tranche of electricity.
The windmills are of course a symbol of EU totalitarian rule; the new Swastika convolved with Easter Island Statues and the green jobs Windmill from Animal Farm. Not that I'm a cynic, of course.
Interesting that for the entire existence of the Committee on Climate Change since 2008 there has been no climate change.
I had an exchange of emails with Kennedy about Deben's lack of impartiality - if anyone is in any doubt about this just have a look at some of the crap Deben tweets. I suggested that impartiality was a key requirement for the Chairpersonship of an important committee advising government on energy policy. The upshot of the exchange was that Deben IS impartial because Kennedy says so. Last time I looked Deben described himself on his Twitter account as "Climate Change champion". And he calls anyone that disagrees with him a 'denier'. So that's all good, then.
Ivor Ward - what you say cannot be right. I was watching Horizon on the BBC last night - something about a Longitude prize - and a woman who was probably a lecturer in sustainable underpants from a North London poly explained that climate change is happening NOW. So it must be. And we have to make an airplane that can fly from London to Edinburgh at the same speed as an Easyjet A319 but - and here is the magic bit - carbon free! So, if you have any spare fairy dust, it is worth at least £10m (that's the prize, that is)
Terry S @ 2.51pm. All these expenditures are part of our obligations under the UNFCCC that we signed in 1992 and as a result of the Kyoto protocol 1997, which, though expired, is still operating. We have to report to the Conference of Parties, next Lima Nov this year, on our efforts. It is arguable that the diversion of aid to "climate related" projects has been the biggest inhibitor of 3rd world development of the past 20 years. What could be more futile than CCS and expensive renewables to a state with almost no electricity grid ( except perhaps - in tonights Evening Standard- WHU aiming for a top 6 place!).
Ivor ward at 5.42pm - best one liner I have seen this week.
Intellectually robust = he's a fathead?
Intellectually robust = denies all attacks on indefensible position
No CC since 2008- careful, or CCC'll claim it was entirely due to them and look at how effective they have been.
Makes me wonder what David Kennedy has done to deserve such a stab in the back from Mr Gummer?
If Kennedy had been any good, Deben could not have tolerated him. Anyone who would dare shine light into the dark and dank corners of the CO2 Alarm Edifice would not have been given the job.
No climate change since 2008..?
The Committee isn't doing a very good job, then - is it..?
@ptw
Re "Where do they find the intellectually inferior I wonder, and would you like to meet them".
A few years ago, I was reliably informed by a intellectually superior Civil Servant that MAFF (now DEFRA) was described within the Civil Service's Scientific Corp as the "Civil Servant's Graveyard". Perhaps they dredge that for the kind you are referring to?
[Snip - Raise the tone please]
@ Peter Dunford
No, its not just you, I've noticed my appliance clocks sometimes need resetting in the morning.
That means the power cuts are already occurring in the early morning.
Clocks it might also be a stuxnet that is making
Itself comfortable in your home
Before the lights go out?
It was probably a shrewd move on his part.