Former chancellor Nigel Lawson.“The [Paris] draft is unacceptable. It is an attempt to rewrite the convention (UNFCCC) through the backdoor and does not respect the existing principles and provisions of the very convention under which the Paris agreement is to be housed. It does not reflect most of our or other developing countries’ concerns. It breaches our red-lines (non-negotiable issues) and favours some developed countries,” said a senior Indian negotiator. –Nitin Sethi, Business Standard, 14 October 2015
Factories may have to shut down on weekday evenings this winter to keep household lights on as Britain faces the worst power crunch in a decade, National Grid has warned. There is an “increased likelihood” that there will be “insufficient supply available in the market to meet demand”, forcing the UK to rely on “last resort” measures such as paying factories to power down, National Grid warned. –Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph, 15 October 2015
Families could pay more for energy this winter as power stations invest to minimise the threat of power cuts. The retirement of ageing coal-fired stations and a reliance on intermittent wind energy have left Britain’s system more vulnerable to supply shocks than at any time for at least a decade, National Grid said yesterday. It warned that the margin of spare capacity this winter would be 5.1 per cent, compared with 6.1 per cent a year ago. Power companies will be paid up to ¬£3,000 per megawatt hour during shortfalls. The wholesale price is about ¬£40 per megawatt hour. —Robin Pagnamenta, The Times, 16 October 2015
The United Kingdom is pledging to end all green energy subsidies by the mid-2020s. Stephen Lovegrove, the permanent secretary of Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, said subsidies should end because “there is a cost being imposed on consumers which distorts the U.K.’s competitiveness and the [British] pound in people’s pockets when they get home.” Lovegrove is referencing the additional green energy tax attached to the bills British homeowners pay. Lovegrove’s announcement comes as 38 percent of British households are cutting back essential purchases, like food, to pay for high energy bills. Another 59 percent of homes are worried about how they are going to pay energy bills. –Andrew Follett, Daily Caller Foundation, 15 October 2015
Lancashire’s decision to block fracking in the county was “deplorable” and curbed its ability to exploit its “best possible prospect”, Margaret Thatcher’s former chancellor has said. During questions in the House of Lords, Lord Lawson said: “Is it not clear that what would be the best possible prospect for the commune of the North West and for Lancashire in particular would be the development of the immense natural gas resources of the Bowland shale? And is it not deplorable that the Labour-led Lancashire County Council has prevented this from happening so far?” Lady Williams replied: “You make an excellent point. —The Blackpool Gazette, 15 October 2015
Theoretical physicist and Democrat voter Freeman Dyson has expressed his disappointment with President Obama’s stance on climate change. “It’s very sad that in this country, political opinion parted [people’s views on climate change],” he said, in an interview with The Register. “I’m 100 percent Democrat myself, and I like Obama. But he took the wrong side on this issue, and the Republicans took the right side.” Dyson also wrote a strong foreword to a report published Monday by The Global Warming Policy Foundation, which calls for a reassessment of carbon dioxide. —Fox News, 14 October 2015
Philippe Verdier, weather chief at France T√©l√©visions, the country’s state broadcaster, reportedly sent on “forced holiday” for releasing book accusing top climatologists of “taking the world hostage.” In a promotional video, Mr Verdier said: “Every night I address five million French people to talk to you about the wind, the clouds and the sun. And yet there is something important, very important that I haven’t been able to tell you, because it’s neither the time nor the place to do so. We are hostage to a planetary scandal over climate change ‚Äì a war machine whose aim is to keep us in fear.” –Henry Samuel, The Daily Telegraph, 14 October 2015
