Het rommelt al geruime tijd binnen de Britse Conservatieve partij over de prioriteit die aan het klimaatbeleid dient te worden toegekend. In dit verband was de cri de coeur van de voormalige minister van milieu, Owen Paterson, over de macht van de ‘Green blob’ een niet mis te verstaan signaal. Met de door hem gemunte term ‘Green blob’ bedoelde hij een groene, vormloze, slijmerige massa die overal doordringt: te weten de groene lobbyisten die in elke geleding van het Britse establishment werkzaam zijn.

Lees verder hier.

Ook van Boris Johnson, de nieuwe minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, is bekend dat hij weinig van dat groene gedoe moet hebben. Over klimaat verklaarde hij:

[…] For more than 20 years now, we have been told that this country was going to get hotter and hotter and hotter, and that global warming was going to change our climate in a fundamental way. Do you remember that? We were told that Britain was going to have short, wet winters and long, roasting summers. It was going to be like 1976 all over again, with streakers at Lord’s and your Mr Whippy melting before you could even lick it, and Hyde Park scorched into a mini Kalahari.

They said we were never going to have snow again, and that we should prepare for southern England to turn gradually into a Mediterranean world. There were going to be olive groves in the Weald of Kent, and the whole place was going to be so generally broiling in summer that no one would be able to move between noon and 4pm, after which people would come out to play boules and sip pastis, to the whine of a mandolin, in the dusty square that had once been a village green.

That’s what they said: the BBC, and all the respectable meteorologists – and I reckon there were tens of thousands of people who took these prophecies entirely seriously. Omigod, they said to themselves, we are all going to fry…

I hope I don’t need to tell you that we have not experienced a Mediterranean climate – not since they started to tell us to expect it. On the contrary, we have had some pretty long and miserable winters – including the last one, in which I saw snow settle in London on four separate occasions – and our summer is at risk of becoming a bit of a farce.

Aldus Johnson.

Lees verder hier.

Reeds een jaar geleden hadden Benny Peiser (directeur van de klimaatrealistische ‘Global Warming Policy Foundation’, GWPF) en Daniel Mahoney, gepleit voor opheffing van van de ‘Department Of Energy And Climate Change’ (DECC). In een artikel, getiteld: ‘Let’s Scrap The Department Of Energy And Climate Change’, schreven zij:

The abolition of DECC would not be difficult to achieve. Energy policy could be transferred to the Department for Business and climate policy moved to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It is likely to happen after the Paris conference.

Lees verder hier.

Brexit heeft de ontwikkelingen versneld, zij het niet geheel volgens het voorstel van Peiser en Mahoney, maar toch …. Hoe dan ook, dit joeg groenbevlogen redders van de planeet natuurlijk onmiddellijk in de gordijnen.

Onder de – objectieve, neutrale, evenwichtige, afstandelijke en onpartijdige, sarc – titel, ‘Climate change department closed by Theresa May in ‘plain stupid’ and ‘deeply worrying’ move’, schreef Ian Johnston voor ‘The Independent’.

Campaigners called for ‘urgent reassurance from the new government’ that the fight against climate change and pollution will not be ‘abandoned’.

The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and “terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts. [Noot HL: Het is weer een fraai voorbeeld van politieke partijdigheid van vele MSM in het VK. Voor alle zekerheid is de auteur maar voorbijgegaan aan de mening van de voorstanders van een dergelijke reorganisatie.]

One of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

Only on Monday, Government advisers had warned of the need to take urgent action to prepare the UK for floods, droughts, heatwaves and food shortages caused by climate change. [Noot HL: De bekende paniekverhalen die zelfs niet door het VN-klimaatpanel (IPCC) worden bevestigd.]

En de voorspelbare reactie van Greenpeace:

Greenpeace said it was concerned that the new Government did not view climate change as a serious threat.

John Sauven, the campaign group’s executive director, said: “The voting record and affiliation with climate sceptics of key cabinet appointees are deeply worrying.

“They show a lack of understanding posed by climate change to the UK and the world. If we are to continue to have a key global role in environmental action, we need urgent reassurance from the new government that the hard won progress on climate and renewables targets, air pollution and the protection of wildlife will not be sidelined or abandoned in the Brexit negotiations.”

She said she would work with any Minister “willing to take climate change seriously”, but added she would seek to hold Government to account for “any backpeddling on our climate change commitments”.

Ook andere woordvoerders van de milieubeweging lieten zich in gelijke zin uit over de rampspoed die op ons afkomt.

A letter by DECC’s permanent secretary, Alex Chisholm, to staff in his department, which was leaked to Civil Service World, confirmed that its responsibilities were being transferred to the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, under its new Secretary, Greg Clark.

“We can make sure we have the 21st century infrastructure we need. Business will have a strong champion in government,” he wrote.

“Energy and climate change will continue in a single department ensuring efficient paths to carbon reduction.”

A spokesman for DECC told The Independent: “Nothing is changing. The commitment [to dealing with climate change] is still there.”

Lees verder hier.

In controversiële kwesties is het een gebruikelijke reflex van regeringen en bureaucratieën om de schijn te wekken dat er niets veranderd, terwijl er in alle stilte aan een substantiële verlegging van de koers wordt gewerkt. Dat lijkt hier duidelijk het geval.

De positie van de nieuwe Britse premier is enigszins onduidelijk. Maar de analyse van het vroegere stemgedrag van Theresa May inzake klimaat, energie en aanverwante zaken geeft aan dat zij zich in het verleden verre heeft gehouden van de klimaathysterie. Een verstandige politica dus! Koersverlegging lijkt derhalve inderdaad waarschijnlijk.

Voor mijn eerdere bijdragen over klimaat en aanverwante zaken zie hierhier, hier, hier en hier.