From Across Ye Olde Pond

Britain's 'new' Labour party: Hoist by their own petard.

UK's official CO2 figures an illusion
Report reveals Britain's hidden CO2 emissions
Britain is responsible for hundreds of millions more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions than official figures admit, according to a new report that undermines UK claims to lead the world on action against global warming.

The analysis says pollution from aviation, shipping, overseas trade and tourism, which are not measured in the official figures, means that UK carbon consumption has risen significantly over the past decade, and that the government's claims to have tackled global warming are an "illusion".

The report, from a team of economists led by Dieter Helm at Oxford University, could prove embarrassing for British negotiators at the UN climate summit in Bali, where they are trying to persuade countries including the US and China to agree a new worldwide treaty to limit the effects of global warming.

Britain is seen as a main player as the talks enter their second week, partly because it is one of few countries on track to reduce its emissions as required under the Kyoto protocol, the existing global plan to curb carbon emissions.

Ministers are due to arrive for the high-level segment of the talks on Wednesday. By Friday, they aim to agree a road map and timetable for a treaty to succeed Kyoto in 2012.

Under Kyoto, Britain must reduce its greenhouse gas output to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2012. According to official figures filed with the UN, Britain's emissions are currently down 15% compared with 1990.

But the new report says UK carbon output has actually risen by 19% over that period, once the missing emissions are included in the figures.

The report says: "This is a dramatic reversal of fortune. It merits an immediate, more detailed and more robust assessment. It suggests that the decline in greenhouse gas emissions from the UK economy may have been to a considerable degree an illusion."

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Oops.

There'a much more at The Guardian Unlimited

Here's a curious thing.

Around 750 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC) is stored in the atmosphere. The annual interchange of carbon between oceans and atmosphere is estimated at 90 GtC while the annual interchange between the atmosphere and plant life is about 60 gigatonnes. Annual anthropogenic emissions are about 5.5 gigatonnes.

When I do the maths, that makes human emissions contributing just over 7% towards the carbon in the atmosphere. I wonder why then global alarmists choose to more than double this figure? Could it be that the mania that drives so much of global warming alarmisn is in itself immune to science?

The more I think about [it] the more I conclude that this entire climate change fanaticism is just a crock.

That's from David Vance, blogging from Northern Ireland over at A Tangled Web, who also wonders about eco-fraud at the 'climate change' conference in Bali and offers up some interesting info.

"While global warming alarmists revel in self-importance at their 11-day forum in Bali, dissenting scientists are being shut out and credible charges are leveled that the U.N. has doctored sea-level data."

A very interesting quote he cites from Investor's Business Daily. Read it all, you won't be disappointed.

Previously Polar Bears On The Brink?