Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government aims to double Indian coal production to 1.5 billion tons by 2020. The Modi government, which came to power in May last year, is desperate to increase coal production to facilitate economic growth. The International Energy Exchange projects annual coal consumption in India to grow by 177 million tons, or an average 5% a year, through 2019. –Rosemary Marandi and Kiran Sharma, Nikkei Asian Review, 3 April 2015
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signaled on Monday he would not bow to foreign pressure to commit to cuts in carbon emissions, instead pledging to use more clean energy and traditional methods to lead the fight against climate change. The Indian government has said it needs to emit more to industrialize and lift millions out of poverty. —Reuters, 6 April 2015
Hot on the heels of his meaningless “climate agreement” with China, and being made a fool of by India, it is now the turn of Putin to wrap Obama around his little finger. According to the official CDIAC data, Russian emissions fell from 643MtC in 1990 to 495MtC in 2013. In other words, Russian emissions are currently already down to 77% of 1990 levels. Therefore, under Putin’s proposal, the best he is offering is to reduce by a further 2% to 7% of 1990 emissions. When the forest fudge factor is accounted for, it is quite likely that Russian emissions won’t fall at all. In reality, Putin’s offer is not a deal at all, just smoke and mirrors. –Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 2 April 2015
These climate models are excellent tools for understanding climate, but they are very bad tools for predicting climate. The reason is that they are models that have very few of the factors that may be important, so you can vary one thing at a time to see what happens. But there is a whole lot of things that they leave out. The real world is far more complicated than the models. –Freeman Dyson, Vancouver Sun, 6 April 2015
The government executive in charge of attracting investors to Britain’s struggling nuclear industry has been replaced by an animal health expert. Hergen Haye’s departure from the Office for Nuclear Development will add to the perception that the Department of Energy & Climate Change has fallen into disarray at a crucial time. Speculation is growing that energy department’s days of independence could be numbered. A government source said that if David Cameron is re-elected, he is likely to fold it into the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, where the government has more staff with commercial experience. –John Collingridge and Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times, 5 April 2015
The National Trust was last night warned not to meddle in politics after it vowed to step up attempts to tackle climate change. Critics said the charity risked damaging its popularity by getting mired in a debate that bitterly divides politicians, economists and the public. Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum ‚Äì a think-tank which is sceptical of the extent of climate change ‚Äì added: ‘The National Trust risks alienating a lot of its members over this issue. ‘Why have they come out now after 20 years of debate about climate change? It is a very popular organisation and I fear that this step will cause lots of trouble with its membership. This is a token gesture that will not change anything in terms of policy.’ –Ben Spencer, Daily Mail, 6 April 2015
