Bishop Hill Diary dates, intellectual conformity edition
Feb 12, 2015 Climate: Parliament Diary dates The Energy and Climate Change Committee are holding an end of session public event to chew the fat over the policy quagmire into which Westminster has driven energy policy. Although that's not exactly how they put it themselves.
To launch its final report of this Parliament, Fuelling the debate: ECC Committee successes and future challenges, the Energy and Climate Change Committee is to host a morning conference in the City of London on 12 March for energy investors, specialists and campaigners to discuss future challenges and opportunities in energy and climate change policy.
Energy and Climate Change Committee Chair, Tim Yeo MP, said:
"The UK is committed to creating a secure and affordable, low-carbon energy system. Yet oil price volatility, opposition to onshore renewable energy development and shale gas exploration, and events in Ukraine and the Middle East all present considerable challenges to policymakers trying to achieve those goals. As we launch our final report we will be bringing together some of the leading participants in the energy debate to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the next Parliament on energy and climate policy."
The conference will feature a keynote speech from the Chair of the Committee, Tim Yeo MP, and contributions from industry leaders and energy experts. The event will be chaired by Nick Butler, Visiting Professor and Chair of the King’s Policy Institute, King’s College London. The list of speakers includes:
- Jeremy Oppenheim, Director, McKinsey & Co; New Climate Economy
- Professor Catherine Mitchell, Professor of Energy Policy, University of Exeter
- Mathew Bell, CEO, Committee on Climate Change
- Dr Jeremy Leggett, Chair, Carbon Tracker Initiative
- Jonathan Brearley, Founder, Brearley Economics
- Major energy company (tbc)
Details here.
Reader Comments (27)
It might be more interesting if the Energy and Climate Change Committee could provide a list of their successes, and the "panel of speakers" listed their earnings, so that tax payers could see what their money was paying for.
Tim Yeo's final fanfare before he gets put in the House of Lords. No doubt he will continue with his dream to destroy the economy from there whilst improving the contents of his own personal economy.
Interesting that there is a Select Committee on Climate Change, a Climate Audit Committee and an Energy and Climate Change Committee but no committee dedicated to making sure that the population and our industries get the cheapest and most secure energy possible.
Perhaps they had an Ed Miliband moment?
◾Dr Jeremy Leggett, Chair, Carbon Tracker Initiative
According to Wikipedia:
Interestingly it also says of Dr Jeremy Leggett,
In other words, just another industry shill.
They need to keep firmly in mind that if we suffer serious shortages of energy in the next twenty or so years the public will eat them. With or without Sancerre.
Professor Catherine Mitchell, Professor of Energy Policy, University of Exeter, is s fully paid up member of the green blob. Her undergraduate degree is History (London); her Masters was in Energy and Environmental Studies within the Geography Department of Boston University (USA); and her PhD is in the field of Technology and Innovation from the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. She is a member of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU). She won't contribute anything sensible.
Find out more about her green blob activities here
Well Phillip, I agree she is extremely unlikely to contribute anything sensible in a real-world sense, but she may well help develop the dramatic theme of the tragi-comedy of which she is but one of many players. They develop the plot and the dialogue as they go, and events like this are important for them since they allow a public performance of new material but in a safe environment to help iron out any awkward bits or deal with storyline inconsistencies too jarring to ignore.
Would it be off message to ask each of them, what is their personal, politically-correct method of boiling sufficient water for a cup of tea or coffee?
Particularly, if they are observed drinking hot refreshments at this morning conference.
Golf Charlie, no doubt they will be using green water, which takes only half the energy to boil, but costs ten times more than ordinary water (which, as everyone knows, is a by-product of Big Oil).
Phillip Bratby- the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit????
Was this Unit made up by, and for the benefit of, The Guild of Comedy Writers? They could have a week's conference on that alone. Longer, if they were not paying the bill.
So when oil prices go up it's an inevitable rise due to peak oil, when they go down it's volatility.
Jeremy Leggett also featured at last night's green-activist echo chamber at the RSA, along with Rapley, Stern, Jenny Jones etc for a "dialogue". See the twitter tag #RSAclimate for the mutual congratulations about how marvellous the event was.
Salopian, good point. Especially if the water is freshly recycled, and does not require so much heating to reach boiling point.
Your Grace
If the result of government's energy security theatre is an increasing number of deaths from hypothermia over the coming years, whom among these will be personally responsible for them, and liable to face charges of manslaughter?
DP
@ TinyCO2 Feb 12, 2015 at 5:00 PM
"They need to keep firmly in mind that if we suffer serious shortages of energy in the next twenty or so years the public will eat them. With or without Sancerre."
Human flesh (allegedly) tastes like pork, and is known amongst discerning cannibals as 'long pig', therefore a red would be more appropriate - Chianti, for example, has been strongly recommended. Whites are not precluded according to Fiona Beckett, who writes for the Guardian and favours German wines.
http://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/news/pairings/20081015/?tag=food:pork
Most search results for human flesh seem to be aimed at a zombie audience. Perhaps you might wish to pass on those.
DP
DP they may be listing enhanced mortality as one of their success stories, due to savings in pensions, and unblocking of NHS beds. If they are not including it as one of their success stories, perhaps through false modesty, it would only be fair of someone to point this out at the conference.
@ Golf Charlie Feb 12, 2015 at 6:37 PM
Silly me ...
DP
DP, lol. When the climate control fails on the Guardianista's climate controlled wine cellars due to electricy shortage anarchy, I believe that Debrette's say that rules on the correct wine can be broken. One must never admit to the faux pas once the crisis is over.
TinyCO2 I think the correct etiquette for Grauniadistas, is to blame the butler, sack him, and replace with someone seeking politcal asylum. They can join the dog in the outdoor kennel, allowing savings in the cost of heating one bedroom, whilst demonstrating their commitment to putting a roof over the head of a refugee.
Successes? They must be joking..
Messenger, I believe that to be invited to earn money for doing nothing on a QUANGO, you have to be able to read a list of successes, and keep a straight face.
This is made easier if you have no idea what you are talking about, which is of course, one of the requirements to be invited to do nothing, for money on a QUANGO.
Catherine Mitchell wrote a snotty article about a David Rose Green blob story (which I and Ben contributed to) - the European Climate Foundation, and Climate Works.
Catherine forgot to mention she received money's from Big Green discussed in the article.
Ben's correspondence with her is amusing., which finished with:
Dear Professor Mitchell,
Since sending you my email, I notice from your profile that you are a board member of the US Regulatory Assistance Project, which was the beneficiary of $8,674,434 of grants from ClimateWorks in 2012.
Given that you discuss in your blog post the need for transparency, do you not think you should have mentioned your relationship with the organisations identified in the Mail on Sunday article?
Best wishes,
http://www.climate-resistance.org/2014/10/the-green-blob-in-academe.html
Oh I forgot to mention, the Green blob - The European ClImate Foundation, is a major funder of the ECIU - The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit - (run by ex BBC Richard Black) think of it as a grown up version of the Carbon Brief (now run by Leo Hickman) which is also funded (in totality) by the European Climate Foundation...
Nice to know Catherin Mitchell is involved with ECIU as well..
Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.
If they are looking for evidence of intelligence, in the world of Energy and Climate, they could be a while reporting back.
Will there be a hotline, to report suspicious looking clouds?
How will border security deal with unruly hot air crossing the channel?
Will there be a tax on emissions following a visit to a curry house?
Will the Russians have control over depressive lows settling over the country?
Will the BBC cancel coverage of winter skiing, so they can pretend it doesn't exist?
Will the Grauniad continue to leak intelligence from the USA but deplore the Climategate release of information?
Real nuclear weapons will be detonated to melt the Inconvenient polar ice sheets, and Agent Orange will be deployed so that the death of rainforests can be photographed from space.
With cameras fitted to every wrist watch, live footage of storms in teacups will be transmitted during commercial breaks on TV, as people rush back from the kitchen with a cup of tea.
With full control of the media, science, education and blogs, the public will have no choice, but to accept the truth of The Hockey Stick Graph
@@ TinyCO2
...Human flesh (allegedly) tastes like pork...
I can personally vouch for the fact that this is true...
You bite your thumbs I assume.
Yes I noticed that straight away that instead of writing "Jeremy Leggett solar businessman" they made it look like he is a scientist.
- What other large conflicts of interest are there ?
This March 12th ECC Committee event must be a warm up event for another bunch of clowns