Tim Worstall

Umm, really? The chief economist for the International Energy Agency said Monday that current global energy consumption levels put the Earth on a trajectory to warm by 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, an outcome he called “a catastrophe for all of us.”Fatih Birol spoke as as delegates from nearly [...]

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But Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Environmental Protection Agency in Germany, who advises the German government, said: “We are not missionaries, and every country will have to find its own way in energy policy, but it is obvious that nuclear plants are too inflexible and cannot sufficiently respond to variations in wind or solar generation, [...]

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Some more of the emails stolen from the Climate Research Centre in 2009 have been released. This time they are accompanied by a readme with out-of-context quotes that asserts the purpose of the release is information transparency, but that’s an obvious lie, since they’ve sat on them for two years and released them just before [...]

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Wednesday’s report also found that the amount of investment needed to exploit gas reserves – about £32bn – would be enough to build 2,300 offshore wind turbines, which would produce enough renewable energy to meet government targets. Shale gas exploration also supports fewer jobs than renewable energy generation – hundreds of thousands of jobs could [...]

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Green MP Caroline Lucas may instinctively defend the interests of people rich enough to put solar panels on their roofs against those of the lowly consumers who have to pay to subsidise them, but the Treasury is, quite rightly, reducing the feed-in tariff for solar panels.

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Major storms could submerge New York City in next decade Sea-level rise due to climate change could cripple the city in Irene-like storm scenarios, new climate report claims My word, gosh, that’s terrible. How will this happen? The report, commisioned by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said the effects of sea [...]

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The abundance of scientific research showing we have pushed nature beyond its limits does not just demand green products and market-based solutions; it demands a new civilizational paradigm, one grounded not in dominance over nature but in respect for natural cycles of renewal—and acutely sensitive to natural limits, including the limits of human intelligence. ……….. [...]

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We are told that all this tax has to be levied for a reason: to account for the impact of cars’ greenhouse gas emissions, now and in the future, and to pay for the construction and maintenance of our roads. But the numbers don’t stack up. In 2009-10, we spent £9.9 billion on the road [...]

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If the world is to stay below 2C of warming, which scientists regard as the limit of safety, then emissions must be held to no more than 450 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; the level is currently around 390ppm. We see this point being made all the time. But I’m [...]

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Just as with our gas supply, diversity of sources increases our energy security: renewables, fossil fuels and nuclear are not mutually exclusive. They work together to make our energy system more resilient. Our aim is a policy that is technology-neutral. We want to encourage competitive tension between all forms of generation, to get the best [...]

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“At a time when closures and cuts dominate the news cycle, next-generation industries are providing jobs and sinking capital into Britain,” he will say. “I want to take aim at the curmudgeons and faultfinders who hold forth on the impossibility of renewables. The climate sceptics and armchair engineers who are selling Britain’s ingenuity short.” Mr [...]

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Ms. Winterson, the novelist.

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Two hundred people, most of them elderly, will die in Britain of cold-related diseases every day this winter, according to calculations by Britain’s leading advocacy group for old people, Age UK. “The fact that these ‘excess’ deaths occur in winter makes it clear that they are due directly to cold,” the organisation’s research manager, Philip [...]

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Apparently the BEST stuff is out; Tamino has the story so I won’t bother. Summary: the global temperature record is just what we thought it was. Remind me again why they bothered to do this? Because science is the testing of data, hypotheses and theories.

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Plans for UK’s first ‘clean coal’ plant collapse over £1.5bn cost Britain’s coal industry has been dealt a blow as plans for the UK’s first “clean” plant collapsed because it was too expensive. Yup. As Richard has been telling us for some time now, the economics of it all just don’t pan out. You’ve got [...]

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Before privatisation, it used to be simple: British Gas supplied gas while electricity came from the regional electricity boards. But whereas greater competition should have forced prices down, it is now dominated by half a dozen major players. And the way they are behaving has many of the characteristics of a price-fixing cartel — though, [...]

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Hell, it’s Lancashire, so drill baby, drill.

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OK, so that last time around I was given a great big raspberry (several in fact) for not understanding the basic units etc etc. So, let me ask the same question in a different way. With a bit of background so that people can understand why I’m asking this question. Forget domestic, forget lights, fridges, [...]

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During the past century global average temperatures have risen by almost 1C, and climate experts predict 7C of warming by 2100. Where? Who? There are a few fanatics predicting 7 oC, yes, but not any respectable scientists. Are there?

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What I’m looking for is a simple, handy, metric, which would tell me when solar power was actually cost effective. Forget subsidies and carbon costs. OK, so I see around the place that solar panels (panels note, not cells themselves) cost $1.40 or so per watt at present. (A$, US$, no real difference, call this [...]

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