The COP ritual

GWPF's campaigning arm has just released a completely brilliant paper reviewing the COPs. I say this with some authority, since I compiled the text, although to be fair most of the brilliance is provided by Josh.

Do take a look.

Comments

[Mikky]

The outcome this time is fairly clear, the magic words "legally binding" will appear, but will only apply to reporting and monitoring, not to targets, which can only remain voluntary. The reporting and monitoring will offer scope to both sides, some will justify not meeting their targets because others aren't, others will argue for meeting targets because some will.

CO2 will continue to rise, and another 10-20 years should settle the question of sensitivity.

[MikeHaseler]

Spot on!

[John de Melle]

Superbly done Bish ans Jos. I have sent several copies to our influential "friends"

[Phillip Bratby]

Ah but our local Green Party nutter has not flown to Paris. He is one of those cycling, although I'm not sure how he has got across the Channel from Plymouth under his own (fossil fuel free) steam. He is no doubt camping in his knitted yurt. Read all about it team of cyclists heading from Devon to Paris for COP21

[Green Sand]

The end is nigh for climate-change activists

" Many formerly backward countries will not sacrifice their new-found prosperity on the altar of eco-virtue

Poor Paris. Less than three weeks ago, the scene of carnage; this week, the venue for saving the planet. Because of security after the Isil atrocities, the City of Light was spared a planned climate change march, but London had one on Sunday, attended by what the ever-Green BBC optimistically described as “tens of thousands”. One of the march’s leaders, the fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, said: “Global warming is at a tipping point. If we go past it we can’t stop it. We are there right now.”

In this view, Dame Vivienne accords with the Prince of Wales, who predicted in Rio de Janeiro in March 2009, that there were “less than 100 months to act” to prevent “catastrophic climate change”. In other words, it’s all over by July 2017.

So there is a very real hope that the 21st UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21), which starts on Monday, will be the last. Either Prince Charles and Dame Vivienne will prevail, and COP 21 will rescue Mother Earth from destruction by agreeing worldwide legally binding carbon emission restraints; or they won’t, and then, by their own logic, it will be too late for any international conference to do anything ever again, so they might as well shut up. For those of a more sceptical cast of mind, there is a third possibility, which is that the Prince and the dressmaker will fail, no legally binding targets will be agreed, and the world will go on very much as before. I would bet His Royal Highness an enormous amount of money on this last outcome, secure in the knowledge that, if I am wrong, I will not be around to pay out, but if he is wrong, he will be........."

[Rick Bradford]

It is brilliant, but we must also thank the others who made this possible with their serial stupidity, from Gordon Brown to Desmond Tutu, Obama, Annie Lennox, Lord Stern and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[PMT]

Your Grace,

Bless me Father, for I have sinned.
It has been one year since my last conference of parties...
..
.
Help me to do penance, to do better, and to avoid anything that might lead me to exhale. Amen.

PMT

[michael hart]

It's a good job there is nothing happening in the world today, or else the BBC wouldn't have room to fit in in their webpage along with all the global warming articles.

[Edward Hurst]

Brilliant....that cartoon is going to have me laughing all day! The polar bear set me off.....

[JamesG]

Kumbaya!

[TinyCO2]

Some time back, a group of talented, prominent comedians tried to reach the public on climate change through humour... Well I know which side is laughing! Every time.

Classic work you two. One to add to favourites. Nice to see Theo is still around, he became my favourite after the 24 hour Gore-a-thon.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/climate-fail-files/the-gore-a-thon-on-wuwt/

[Onlooker]

"The outcome this time is fairly clear, the magic words "legally binding" will appear, but will only apply to reporting and monitoring"

Reporting and monitoring are the first steps to mandating. Start with requests for information, then more detailed information, then standardised reporting. Before you know where you are its instructions and orders. Feed the shark and then get eaten. Look at the EU.

[Mike Jackson]

Nice one, Josh.

Phillip Bratby
Tsk!
Yurts are woven. It's yoghurt that's knitted. Do keep up!

[Harry Passfield]

PMT: Your penance will be One Hail Mary. (it used to be three, but with AGW the incidence and intensity of hail is three time what it was, so we find one is sufficient now)
If that doesn't work, it's been known that three bloody-Maries can ease the pain.

[Anthony Hanwell]

I saw the opening cartoons at GWPF but it was not obvious to scroll down to the rest. Only when I read here that the Bish wrote the text did I go back and find the full history. Brilliant!

[kellydown]

He is one of those cycling, although I'm not sure how he has got across the Channel from Plymouth under his own (fossil fuel free) steam.

On a trireme?
Through a hand-cut tunnel excavated with sharp stones and cased with locally-sourced bark?

[Phillip Bratby]

Mike: Sorry, quite clearly I've not been keeping up with modern green technology.

kellydown: I'm sure you can hire a pedalo at Plymouth

[michael hart]

From the COP18 Doha 2012 snippet:

‘Paul McCartney wants climate talks not to forget about the meat industry.’

The BBC, today:

"Moreover, with excessive meat consumption now in the headlines for health reasons, there has never been a better time to act. Governments should seize this opportunity."

[dennisa]

Superb and quite sad really that they are still getting away with it. The carbon traders will push hard as before, led by former Lord Stern carbon trading colleague, Christiana Figueres.

She joined Lord Stern's IDEAcarbon as Vice Chairman of the Carbon Ratings Agency's (CRA) Ratings Committee in February 2009, http://www.ideacarbon.com/about-us/advisory-board/index.htm,

"She sat on all CRA rating committee meetings during her tenure and initiated CRA’s analysis work for programmatic CDM".

However she remained as co-chair of the UNFCCC Ad Hoc Working Group-Kyoto Protocol Contact Group on Flexibility Mechanisms, whose task was to "compile ideas on mechanisms as a means to reach Annex I further commitments". http://www.iisd.ca/climate/ccwg5/2april.html

She left IdeaCarbon in 2010 when she got the UN exec sec job, Stern was still there until 2013. Both still appear on the web site, http://www.ideacarbon.com/about-us/advisory-board/index.htm. She was co-author with Stern in November 2013, with this, "An international deal on climate change is within our reach"

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/international-deal-climate-change-warsaw?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co

As an aside, do participants have to declare their Air Miles, now known as Avios? http://www.airmiles.co.uk/ They must really stack up.

[Radical Rodent]

Mike Jackson: that’s where it has all being going wrong! It should be yurts that are knitted (or nitted, take your choice, with the hair-styles offered) and yoghurt that should be woven! Also, lies should be drawn, and aims should be spun; the hit should be balled, and keep your target on the eye. Well done! We have solved the crisis! I just knew it was all down to semantics.

[sherlock1]

Josh, you are beyond brilliant...

Aside, if only Prince Charles would LISTEN to his plants instead of just talking to them, because they would say: 'PLEEEEEASE can we have more CO2..? We depend on it..!'

[CheshireRed]

Excellent Josh. Not just funny but the steps, claims and realities are exactly right. 97% / 100.

[John Shade]

Brilliant, just brilliant.

A flash of good cheer in the face of what is a wretched, dismal, unedifying pantomime of wasted time, wasted spirit, and wasted resource - all with the apparent goal of massively increasing all three wastes in a globally orchestrated way in the future.

[Bob Tisdale]

Thanks, Andrew and Josh, I enjoyed that.

Cheers.

[esmiff]

Great cartoon.

I see British and European heavyweight champion John (two Jags) Prescott made a return to the climate ring in February. It was Prescott who battered the delegates into shape at Kyoto . He only succeeded at the last millisecond.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11427544/Lord-Prescott-returns-to-frontline-politics-as-climate-change-adviser.html

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott is making a return to frontline politics in the run-up to the general election as a key adviser on climate change. Ed Miliband has handed him the role saying he wanted to exploit Lord Prescott's experience in negotiating the landmark Kyoto Protocol in the run-up to a crucial United Nations summit in Paris at the end of the year.

[SandyS]

Phillip Bratby
Being a modern green I bet he is using a carbon fibre bike with a Shimano Chainset and Cassette with a total of 33 combinations, and not a recycled Raleigh with Sturmey-Archer 3 speed from the 1960s.

[Messenger]

Splendid, both of you!

The first time I looked at GWPF today I missed seeing the link to the subsequent cartoons as well .

[oeman50]

Spot on, Bish 'n' Josh!

[Aila]

I enjoyed this. Thank you.

[Hilary Ostrov]

Brilliant! Bravo to both of you!

Never let it be said that the UNFCCC is not totally dedicated - in spirit, word and deed - to "recycling".

Although, on a more sombre and reflective note, I still can't help wondering how many fewer unsettled refugees there might be in the world today if the funds poured into these annual recyclings had instead been dispensed on meeting such "real world" needs.

Silly me, eh?! Of course, in addition to having perfected the art of recycling, the various arms, elbows hands and fingers - not to mention boots on the ground - of the UN also seem to be totally committed to the principle of "Let's you and him fight"!