Wednesday
Oct072015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Patchi is history, Lee for IPCC
Oct 7, 2015 Climate: IPCC ;)
Last night the IPCC announced its replacement for its troubled head, Rajendra Pachauri, currently the centre of a sexual harassment case in his native India.
The new man is a hitherto somewhat obscure Korean economist named Hoesung Lee. Carbon Brief did an interview with him last month, if you want to know more. I think "technocrat" may be the apposite term.
Reader Comments (28)
I have not read the whole Carbon Brief interview but what I did read seemed to include some muddled thinking, including this:
On the future of the IPCC: "Perhaps we may have reached a point where we have done enough of identifying problems and we may have time now to see the solutions."
Sorry but to assume they know all the problems is crazy (so business as usual)
The science (if there is any) will gets worse because Hoesung Lee is going to promote more diverse voices rather than better scientists.
“I believe it’s very important that for the next round of assessment, we should be able to increase the intellectual contributions from developing countries,” he said. “And also improving gender balance in our author teams is very, very important” (from BBC).
LOL - former Exxon economist now head of IPCC...
yest it was a very long time ago, but he actually worked for exxon, vs all the smears heaped on 'sceptics' -
started by Marshall and Lynas - It was the Cover Story
https://web.archive.org/web/20031202165307/http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/nscoverstory.htm
Who's who among the climate-change deniers
Bjorn Lomborg, a statistician from Denmark, came to media prominence in 2001 with the launch of his book The Skeptical Environmentalist. He appears convincing by aggregating voluminous references without subjecting himself to the rigours of the scientific process. He accepts that climate change is happening, but applies a crude and selective cost-benefit analysis to argue that the cheapest option is to maintain economic growth and adapt to the impacts. He was the guest of honour and award-winner this year at a dinner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a far-right US think-tank to which ExxonMobil has donated $1m since 1998.
Richard Lindzen, professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the only sceptic with credentials in the relevant area of climate science. His work focuses on atmospheric water vapour, which he claims will act through cloud formation to prevent excessive global warming. There is little evidence to support this hypothesis, which has gained no support from the wider scientific community. He has been a paid consultant to oil and coal interests in the US, and has compared the environmental movement to the Nazis.
.
That's life, always somebody holding the parcel when the music stops!
He is also a board member of the Asian Development Bank:
this will go down well with activists? helping China to burn more coal, more efficiently, cleanly (ie real pollutants)
http://www.adb.org/sectors/energy/results
August 2015
PRC’s Tianjin Breathing Easier with Cleaner Coal Power
A power plant in the city of Tianjin is using efficient coal technology to help millions in the People's Republic of China on the path to cleaner air and more reliable power supply for their homes and businesses.
His CV:
https://www.ipcc.ch/nominations/cv/cv_hoesung_lee.pdf
Phillip Bratby
I responded to that comment on Unthreaded earlier. It translates as "**** the science; let's get the politics right."
Which should be the IPCC motto, now I come to think about it!
I am not so sure that 'screw the science' is such a bad idea when deciding policy, after all so called science is being used to screw us all and has been for many years. Empirical evidence, known facts and reasoned argument should be the things that guide our policy.
The latest science is like quicksand, find firm ground upon which to base your arguments today and find that tomorrow you are up to your neck in doo-doo with no solid ground in sight.
He ought to know the value of science, that can be paid for, because the IPCC has bought the best science that was available, to be bought.
"LOL - former Exxon economist now head of IPCC..."
Best news I have heard all week.
He's an oil man like Pachauri (who was a director of Indian Oil Corp while also head of the IPCC) .
Hoesung Lee. - previously Director, Korea Petroleum Development Corporation.
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/cv-ipcc-new-bureau/cv-hoesunglee.pdf
Pachauri was simultaneously head of the IPCC and a director of the Indian Oil Corporation
"He (Pachauri ) had been on the Board of Directors of the Indian Oil Corporation (1999-2003), GAIL (India) Ltd. (Largest gas transmission and marketing company in India) (2003-2004) and National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (includes coal and gas generation) (2002-2005).
http://www.iddri.org/Iddri/Intervenants-auteurs/Rajendra-K.-Pachauri
Wikipedia
On 20 April 2002, Pachauri was elected Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations panel established by the WMO and UNEP to assess information relevant for understanding climate change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_K._Pachauri
There is also a hilarious IPCC 'press conference' which shows just how excited the world's media are by this new appointment.
esmiff, I expect he will cite his busy workload, as an excuse for mismanaging his attempted private affairs.
All the trolls have gone eerily quiet on Pachauri
Is a reflex of leftists isnt it?
loud foul mauls until the very last moment , after which "it never existed" , the problem was never there, how come you associate me with this problem ??
VenusNot....
Pachauri is a great example for incompetents everywhere to follow.
He came from nowhere, knowing nothing, to lead a bunch of wealthy nobodies, not knowing that none of them knew anything either. The need to know, need not apply, in UNapproved science.
Why?
Could it be that Lee is a relative (another one) of Ban Ki-moon?
Who's the chap photobombing him over his right shoulder? He looks rather displeased.
Anthony Watts, he does look displeased. Is he another failed IPCC hopeful? I know that does not narrow the field much.
“I believe it’s very important that for the next round of assessment, we should be able to increase the intellectual contributions from developing countries,” he said. “And also improving gender balance in our author teams is very, very important” (from BBC).
Curious, the word "science" isn't mentioned once in that sentence! I'm a bit disturbed that he wants to improve "intellectual contributions from developing countires", as opposed to the intellectual contributions from developed countries. Perhaps we might get a different take on the "science". As for the "gender balance", sounds like more BS group-hug leftist inclusive feminist PC crap to me! It's the kind of crap that got us as far as we are where climate science is concerned at the UN! I dare say the "Special Scenarios Scenarios" will flow better, & use prettier & flowery, kind, caring, thoughful, thought-provoking, more understanding, language to engage Global Citizens in both developed & developing countries! (Do you think I've got it right?)
Do not think things will change the issue remains that no AGW equals no IPCC therefore only 'true beleivers ' will ever get to head it .
At best we can expect , that may be way he got the job , he is so dull there is nothing to report at all unlike the last 'exciting' head .
Alan the Brit, the IPCC has been boasting of its scientific expertise, but has failed to prove the legitimacy of its own conception.
They complained of a lack of communication skills, so a good excuse to employ more spin doctors.
Correcting a gender imbalance, is now seen as the way to sell science, despite Emma Thompson and Charlotte Church not selling themselves very well on BBC television.
It may be that selling IPCC science, is like trying to sell beach barbeques to Eskimos, simply UNwanted but Not Required
I wonder if Hoesung Lee will draw an Exxon pension at some stage in the future?
@esmiff
He's an oil man like Pachauri (who was a director of Indian Oil Corp while also head of the IPCC) .
Hoesung Lee. - previously Director, Korea Petroleum Development Corporation.
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/cv-ipcc-new-bureau/cv-hoesunglee.pdf
Oct 7, 2015 at 2:19 PM | Unregistered Commenteresmiff
I wouldn’t count on anyone’s past allegiances. Remember some of your own history Henry the second is a case study.
Henry (11) may have hoped that Becket would continue to put the royal government first, rather than the church. The famous transformation of Becket into an ascetic occurred at this time.
Who in the IPCC actually had the power to appoint anyone?
Is it like FIFA, in that if you breathe an ill word about any previous incumbent, you could be considered too much of a danger to the whole rotten institution? Sort of like being TARred with the same broad brush?
If Pachauri was chosen for being 'not the best man for the job', Hoesung Lee has been chosen because .... ?
Douglas
I was insinuating that Like Pachauri, Gore and Thatcher, his connection to the oil industry makes them more inclined to support carbon trading politics. Carbon trading needs global warming to fly just like an aircraft needs kerosene.
My website
scrapthetrade.com/support
"International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)
The biggest lobbying group (486) at the 2009 Copenhagen global climate conference was the International Emissions Trading Association created to promote cap and trade in 1999.
IETA has about 170 member companies.... It was the largest non-government delegation at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.
http://www.marketswiki.com/mwiki/International_Emissions_Trading_Association#Membership
Its members include :-
BP, Conoco Philips, Shell, E.ON , EDF, Gazprom , Goldman Sachs, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley..
http://www.ieta.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=19%3Adefault&id=168%3Aour-members&Itemid=82
E.ON , EDF are major coal players in the coal market. Gazprom is the largest Russian oil and gas corporation
esmiff
That is what Henry 11 thought too - but he (Henry) was wrong. Beckett changed his horse - and eventually lost. So don't think that past activity dictates future practice.
Oct 7, 2015 at 2:28 PM | Paul Matthews wrote:
Indeed. This showed up for me earlier - and when I took the time to watch it, I could not believe my eyes and ears!
Setting aside the "no name" nameplates and other empty chairs at the head table (a new IPCC press precedent, perhaps?!) - and the now "traditional" no comments allowed practice of "open communication" accompanying IPCC videos on the Tube - it appears that the new (improved?!) IPCC Chair has the IPCC talking points down pat.
Although, to his credit, Hoesung Lee recycles the IPCC mantras and buzzwords of the week with a greater measure of articulation than Pachauri was ever able to muster without a script to hand.
Nonetheless, as Paul suggested, for your laugh of the day, this 30 minute video is definitely worth a watch. And you'll be doing the poor chap a favour by increasing the mere 176 views to date (at least that's the number of views from here!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giiGW2ll5_k