GWPF Newsletter: German Parties Agree To Scrap Legally Binding 2020 Climate Target

Angela Merkel Lectured Trump On Global Warming, Now Germany Is Abandoning Its Climate Goal

In this newsletter:

1) It’s All Over: German Parties Agree To Scrap Legally Binding 2020 Climate Target
Reuters, 8 January 2018
 
2) Angela Merkel Lectured Trump On Global Warming, Now Germany Abandoning Its Climate Goal
Daily Caller, 8 January 2018

 
3) Germany’s Energy Priority: Church Demolished To Make Way For Coal Mining
Huffington Post, 10 January 2018 
 
4) BBC Claims That Reindeer Populations Are In ‘Steep Decline’ Due To Climate Change Are False
 
5) David Keighley: BBC Sting In The Reindeers’ Tale
The Conservative Woman, 10 January 2018 
 
6) Why The BBC Was Wrong To Make Reindeer Climate Scare
Global Warming Policy Forum, 9 January 2018

Full details:

1) It’s All Over: German Parties Agree To Scrap Legally Binding 2020 Climate Target
Reuters, 8 January 2018

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s would-be coalition partners have agreed to drop an ambitious plan to lower carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, two sources told Reuters on Monday — a potential embarrassment for Chancellor Angela Merkel.


Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Martin Schulz shakes hands before exploratory talks about forming a new coalition government at the SPD headquarters in Berlin, Germany, January 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Negotiators for her conservative bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) told Reuters the parties had agreed in exploratory talks on forming a government that the targeted cut in emissions could no longer be achieved by 2020.

Instead, they would aim to hit the 40 percent target in the early 2020s, the sources said, adding that both parties are still sticking to their goal of achieving a 55 percent cut in emissions by 2030.

The deal would represent something of a u-turn by Merkel, who has long presented herself as an advocate for climate protection policies on the international stage.

Full story

2) Angela Merkel Lectured Trump On Global Warming, Now Germany Is Abandoning Its Climate Goal
Daily Caller, 8 January 2018
Michael Bastasch

Germany will abandon its 2020 national global warming goal, a huge embarrassment to Chancellor Angela Merkel, as part of a deal to put together a coalition government in the wake of September’s elections.

Sources tell Reuters that Merkel’s would-be coalition will drop a goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Ahead of the elections, Merkel said she’d find a way to meet the 2020 target. That was before she failed to put together a majority governing coalition.

Merkel has been highly critical of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, even promising to confront the U.S. president on the issue at the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg.

“We cannot expect easy discussions on climate change at the G20 summit,” Merkel said in June. “Our differences with the U.S. are clear.”

But now, Merkel’s new government is abandoning its previous climate pledge. Instead, the coalition pushed back its 2020 goal until some time in the 2020s and keeps the goal of reducing emissions 55 percent by 2030.

Reuters reported that would-be coalition members agreed to cut severe taxes and fees on electricity bills to green energy deployment. Germany now has one of the most expensive electricity markets in the world, largely due to taxes.

Though, coalition members still agree to set up a commission to decide when to phase out Germany’s use of coal-fired electricity. Coal currently powers about 40 percent of Germany’s electric needs.

It’s not surprising Germany has decided to abandon its 2020 climate goal. Germany was not on track to meet its climate goal, despite spending nearly $800 billion in green energy subsidies in recent decades.

University of Colorado professor Roger Pielke, Jr. pointed out the impossible math behind Germany’s climate goals.

And those projections assumed no growth in energy demand. That’s not been the case, according to Reuters.

“Due to strong economic growth and higher-than-expected immigration, Germany is likely to miss its national emissions target for 2020 without any additional measures,” Reuters reported.

3) Germany’s Energy Priority: Church Demolished To Make Way For Coal Mining
Huffington Post, 10 January 2018 

A 19th-century village cathedral in western Germany was razed to the ground on Tuesday to make way for the expansion of coal mega mines.

St. Lambertus Cathedral, a double-spired church known locally as the “Immerather Dom,” was destroyed by a wrecking crew despite protests from Greenpeace activists.

It’s the latest stage in the demolition of the entire village of Immerath ― and a sign of Germany’s continued dependance on fossil fuels.



Spectators and journalists look on as St. Lambertus church in Erkelenz-Immerath, western Germany, is demolished on Jan. 8, 2018.  -- HENNING KAISER VIA GETTY IMAGES

Immerath is a rural farming village in west Germany, about 70 miles south of Cologne. At one point, it was home to about 1,200 people, according to The Washington Post.

But for the past few years, Immerath has slowly become a ghost town. German energy company RWE has taken over the land, constructing a new version of the village seven miles away. The village hospital was relocated, and its houses torn down and moved. Even Immerath’s cemetery wasn’t immune to the move ― its centuries-old bodies were dug up and relocated with the village.

Full story

4) BBC Claims That Reindeer Populations Are In ‘Steep Decline’ Due To Climate Change Are False
The Sun, 10 January 2018

TV bosses were forced to issue a correction after BBC2’s Russia with Simon Reeve gave incorrect information about the numbers of deer in Northern Russia

BBC claims that reindeer populations were in “steep decline” because of climate change have been proven to be false, it was confirmed yesterday.

Telly bosses were forced to issue a correction after it was found details in a wildlife series about the numbers of deer in Northern Russia were untrue.
 

AFP – GETTY — False claims about reindeer populations were made on BBC2
 

The statement was made in the first episode of the recent BBC2 series “Russia with Simon Reeve”.

But as the complaint by Lord Lawson pointed out, a 2016 study showed 17 out of 19 sub populations of Eurasian deer were either increasing in number or had a stable population trend.

An official BBC statement admitted: “This programme suggested that many reindeer populations are in steep decline because of climate change.

“It would have been more accurate to say that many reindeer populations are threatened by it.”
Full story

see also Daily Mail: Lord Lawson’s climate victory over the BBC

5) David Keighley: BBC Sting In The Reindeers’ Tale
The Conservative Woman, 10 January 2018 

Hold the front page! The BBC has accepted it has made a mistake – over sensationalist claims about climate change. But don’t faint: as always with the BBC and complaints, there is a sting in the tail.

Simon Reeve, the BBC ‘travel’ presenter (qualifications include working in a supermarket and being an advocate for the World Wide Fund for Nature), claimed in a recent programme about Russia that reindeer populations across the north of the country were ‘in steep decline’ because of climate change.

Lord Lawson of the Global Warming Policy Foundation submitted a complaint pointing out that according to a large-scale 2016 study, despite massive reductions in state support for husbandry 17 out of 19 sub-populations of Eurasian reindeer were either increasing or were stable.

The survey specifically warned against linking numbers to climate change.

So did this monumental economical-with-reality statement by Mr Reeve warrant a full apology to Lord Lawson? Of course not. The Corporation simply stated: ‘This programme suggested that many reindeer populations are in steep decline because of climate change. It would have been more accurate to say that many reindeer populations are threatened by it.’

So in other words, even when BBC presenters are wrong, they are right. And on matters of climate change Lord Lawson is always wrong, as the BBC trumpets as loudly as it can.

6) Why The BBC Was Wrong To Make Reindeer Climate Scare
Global Warming Policy Forum, 9 January 2018

In a recent BBC programme, Simon Reeve made the alarming assertion that reindeer populations across Northern Russia were “in steep decline because of climate change”. The BBC have now admitted that this claim was false. It is just the latest instance in their attempts to whip up public alarm at the consequences of climate change and ignore scientific evidence which contradicts climate alarmism.

The false claim was made during the first episode of the recent BBC2 series: Russia with Simon Reeve. Writing to the BBC, Lord Lawson pointed out that according to a 2016 study, 17 out of 19 sub-populations of Eurasian Reindeer were now either increasing in number, or had a stable population trend.

This paper and others observational studies have documented that other factors have been responsible for recent fluctuations in reindeer populations. Political factors have played the most significant role, and in particular the collapse of the Soviet Union. Konstantin Klokov, of St Petersburg State University, concludes that “the effect of the political context is so large as to conceal the impact of other natural factors on reindeer populations such as climate change.”



The BBC have now accepted the evidence, but have published a typically mealy-mouthed correction which reads: “This programme suggested that many reindeer populations are in steep decline because of climate change. It would have been more accurate to say that many reindeer populations are threatened by it.”

Indeed, this would have been less inaccurate, given that the claim is blatantly false. But even the assertion that they are “threatened” is highly questionable given their growing populations. Sadly, this kind of speculative claim is entirely predictable because any prediction of future climate disaster is impossible to verify, yet likely to be believed by a great many people.

Attempting to provide evidence for the claim that reindeers were “threatened” by climate change, the Executive Producer of the programme, Sam Bagnall, cited a recent mass starvation event in the Yamal Peninsula in which 60,000 reindeer died as rapidly freezing rainwater prevented them from eating the lichen beneath. However, his claim that some scientists have “predicted” these events may become more frequent is based upon speculation and lacks any empirical support. A recently published analysis has found “no robust trend” in the frequency of these so-called ‘Rain-on-Snow’ (ROS) events.

In fact, the Yamal Government has decided to cull 100,000 of these domesticated reindeer because experts have told them that the region has more reindeer than it can support. It turns out that the high population of reindeer in the Yamal peninsula is posing an environmental risk of its own.

The correction should encourage more BBC viewers to come forward whenever they see exaggerated or inaccurate claims being broadcast on the BBC.

The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.