HOME


The Stern Report

The Stern report into climate change last week predicted dire economic and social effects of unchecked global warming.

The report was welcomed by France and Italy yesterday, but almost ignored by the U.S, Japan and Australia. It was also ignored by China and India, which will expand their carbon dioxide production enormously over the next few years.

Here are the figures for carbon dioxide production for different countries (2005):

United States 6928 million tonnes
China 4938
Russia 1915
India 1884
Japan 1317
Germany 1009
Brazil 851
Canada 680
Britain 654

You can see that the UK is pretty insignificant when compared to the rest. I would suggest that imiting our greenhouse gases won't help the world very much - and the energy used by our own industries will cost more. Their prices will go up, and their competitiveness will be reduced. Jobs will go.

France has no difficulty in limiting carbon dioxide emissions because about 80% of its electricity comes from nuclear energy.

Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, said that you cannot have an effective response to global warming unless you have all of the culprits in the net.

In spite of what politicians say, there is no proof that man is capable of altering the global climate. It makes sense to use energy more efficiently, but we must not let political hype stop us from making sensible decisions. Remember these are the same politicians who recommended us to use up our gas reserves in their "Dash for Gas" (which is still going on).

Climate change has always been with us. The energy reaching the earth from the sun varies. The medieval period was warmer than now. There was a later cold period when the Thames used to freeze over each year.

...in the words of Terry Langford of Milford Haven..".... perhaps the most significant words in the Stern report are "Commissioned by H.M. Treasury".

A cynical person might conclude that we are being softened up for more tax increases.

Back to top

Energy Policy
Fuel to Electricity
Nuclear Power
Coal
Gas
Solar
Wind
Wind Turbines