EU Embroiled In €24 Billion Bogus Climate Accounting Scandal
In this newsletter:
1) Europe’s ‘Green Recovery’ Plan In Disarray
GWPF News, 20 July 2020
2) EU Embroiled In €24 Billion Bogus Climate Accounting Scandal
Daily Express, 15 July 2020
3) Brilliant: UK Govt Won’t Bail Out Censorship Universities
The Guardian, 17 July 2020
Daily Express, 15 July 2020
3) Brilliant: UK Govt Won’t Bail Out Censorship Universities
The Guardian, 17 July 2020
4) Princess Anne Blasts Prince Charles’s Views On Climate Change And Veganism
Daily Mail, 17 July 2020
Daily Mail, 17 July 2020
5) Siberian Heatwaves Are Fairly Common: Hottest Summer On Record Was In 1917
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 17 July 2020
6) And Finally: Britain's Latest Green Subsidy Disaster
The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 2020
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 17 July 2020
6) And Finally: Britain's Latest Green Subsidy Disaster
The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 2020
Full details:
1) Europe’s ‘Green Recovery’ Plan In Disarray
GWPF News, 20 July 2020
In May, the European Commission published its proposal for a €750 billion Green Deal which promised to boost economic growth, create millions of new jobs and save the planet. Now, at their current meeting, EU leader are struggling to save their green recovery plan.
After the meeting on Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron were seen haggling with members of the Dutch-led camp, who are demanding cuts to the 1.8 trillion euro ($2.06 trillion) package [Francois Lenoir/Pool Photo via AP]
When she presented the Green Deal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed that “the European Green Deal and digitalization will boost jobs and growth, the resilience of our societies and the health of our environment. This is Europe’s moment. Our willingness to act must live up to the challenges we are all facing.”
Meeting in Brussels, EU leader are deadlocked over its Green Recovery plan which is prioritising climate hysteria over economic reality and which is now threatening to deepen Europe’s economic and political crisis.
€750bn recovery fund in chaos as EU squabbles over purse strings
European leaders were struggling last night to save a €750 billion coronavirus rescue fund after three days of deadlock in Brussels that pitted north against south and east against west.
Wide differences remained at the first face-to-face summit for five months. The Dutch were leading five “frugal” allies demanding tougher terms for handing billions in loans and outright grants to Italy, Spain and Greece, the southern nations that they regard as inveterate profligates with their state finances.
As the sun dipped behind the council building in Brussels, Xavier Bettel, the Luxembourg prime minister, said that after seven years of European summits, “I have never seen positions as diametrically opposed as this”.
Postponement to a fresh summit was being floated last night by Charles Michel, the European Council president. Diplomats said that if the talks failed, the summit would be adjourned until August, throwing the German EU presidency’s timetable to agree a virus plan and a long-term EU budget into disarray — and underlining bitter divides.
In the worst economic crisis since the Second World War the bloc’s leaders are unwilling to contemplate failure to deliver a fund that symbolises the solidarity among members that the EU is supposed to embody.
Full story (£)
GWPF News, 20 July 2020
In May, the European Commission published its proposal for a €750 billion Green Deal which promised to boost economic growth, create millions of new jobs and save the planet. Now, at their current meeting, EU leader are struggling to save their green recovery plan.
After the meeting on Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron were seen haggling with members of the Dutch-led camp, who are demanding cuts to the 1.8 trillion euro ($2.06 trillion) package [Francois Lenoir/Pool Photo via AP]
When she presented the Green Deal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed that “the European Green Deal and digitalization will boost jobs and growth, the resilience of our societies and the health of our environment. This is Europe’s moment. Our willingness to act must live up to the challenges we are all facing.”
Meeting in Brussels, EU leader are deadlocked over its Green Recovery plan which is prioritising climate hysteria over economic reality and which is now threatening to deepen Europe’s economic and political crisis.
€750bn recovery fund in chaos as EU squabbles over purse strings
European leaders were struggling last night to save a €750 billion coronavirus rescue fund after three days of deadlock in Brussels that pitted north against south and east against west.
Wide differences remained at the first face-to-face summit for five months. The Dutch were leading five “frugal” allies demanding tougher terms for handing billions in loans and outright grants to Italy, Spain and Greece, the southern nations that they regard as inveterate profligates with their state finances.
As the sun dipped behind the council building in Brussels, Xavier Bettel, the Luxembourg prime minister, said that after seven years of European summits, “I have never seen positions as diametrically opposed as this”.
Postponement to a fresh summit was being floated last night by Charles Michel, the European Council president. Diplomats said that if the talks failed, the summit would be adjourned until August, throwing the German EU presidency’s timetable to agree a virus plan and a long-term EU budget into disarray — and underlining bitter divides.
In the worst economic crisis since the Second World War the bloc’s leaders are unwilling to contemplate failure to deliver a fund that symbolises the solidarity among members that the EU is supposed to embody.
Full story (£)
2) EU Embroiled In €24 Billion Bogus Climate Accounting Scandal
Daily Express, 15 July 2020
Brussels has been dragged into a bogus accounting scandal after it was claimed climate change spending had been overblown by at least €24 billion.
Ursula von der Leyen’s EU Commission has overestimated spending, says report (Image: GETTY)
The European Court of Auditors has questioned the European Commission’s claims about its climate-change programmes. It was found the European Union’s powerful executive had substantially overestimated the amount it spent on preventing global warming though the use of clever-accounting.
Farmers have been handed cash subsidies which have been counted as agriculture-based spending aimed at climate protection by the Commission.
Eurocrats pass off their subsistence payments to farmers as climate spending, as long as the farmers fulfil a certain level of climate standards.
The ECA said in its report the Commission had overstated the current 2014-2020 budget’s contribution to tackling climate change.
They warned the same was likely to be true for the next seven-year cycle.
The auditors said:
"Our analysis of Member State rural development programmes in the same report showed that the Commission was overestimating their contribution to climate action by more than 40 percent, or almost €24billion."
"This is because the Commission did not adequately distinguish between climate contributions made by different activities.
"The Commission justified this approach by the need to strike a balance between minimising the administrative burden and costs and providing a reasonably reliable estimate for climate-related spending within the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.”
ECA auditor Joelle Elvinger called on the Commission to develop more robust methods for tracking its spending.
She said:
"The anticipated contributions to climate-related spending, in particular from some agricultural schemes, are likely to be overstated."
“Without a robust methodology, the estimated climate spending may not be reliable.”
Agriculture spending is expected to make up nearly half of the climate spending from the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget, which has been muted at a total of €1.075trillion.
Full story
3) Brilliant: UK Govt Won’t Bail Out Censorship Universities
The Guardian, 17 July 2020
English universities must prove ‘commitment’ to free speech for bailouts
Universities in England needing bailouts to survive the impact of Covid-19 will have to “demonstrate their commitment” to free speech as well as closing courses with low graduate pay, Gavin Williamson has announced.
The education secretary laid out stringent conditions for universities facing bankruptcy to receive government loans – including the scrapping of “low-value” courses with high dropout rates or whose graduates did not often end up in skilled employment – and said institutions would close or be taken over if they failed to make a strong business case.
“We need a future [higher education] sector which delivers the skills the country needs: universities should ensure courses are consistently high quality and focus more heavily upon subjects which deliver strong graduate employment outcomes in areas of economic and societal importance, such as Stem, nursing and teaching,” Williamson said.
It has been forecast that 10 universities in England face long-term financial struggle following the lockdown. University leaders are anxiously looking towards how many students arrive on campus in autumn.
The Department for Education’s guidance said it would “require assurance that providers are fully complying with their legal duties to secure freedom of speech” before granting emergency loans.
However, the University and College Union (UCU) accused the government of using the pandemic to enforce political objectives taken from the Conservative party’s election manifesto.
“Higher education is one of the few things we remain a world leader in, yet the government is prepared to exploit universities’ financial difficulties to impose evidence-free ideology and reduce the diversity and strength in depth of university courses and research,” said Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary.
Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, said: “Instead of using this crisis as an excuse to centralise control over universities and force through cuts to courses, the government should pledge that no university will be allowed to go bust.”
The DfE’s guidance states that emergency loans would only be considered if there was “a clear economic and value-for-money case” and that closure would “cause significant harm to the national or local economy or society”.
Full story
Daily Express, 15 July 2020
Brussels has been dragged into a bogus accounting scandal after it was claimed climate change spending had been overblown by at least €24 billion.
Ursula von der Leyen’s EU Commission has overestimated spending, says report (Image: GETTY)
The European Court of Auditors has questioned the European Commission’s claims about its climate-change programmes. It was found the European Union’s powerful executive had substantially overestimated the amount it spent on preventing global warming though the use of clever-accounting.
Farmers have been handed cash subsidies which have been counted as agriculture-based spending aimed at climate protection by the Commission.
Eurocrats pass off their subsistence payments to farmers as climate spending, as long as the farmers fulfil a certain level of climate standards.
The ECA said in its report the Commission had overstated the current 2014-2020 budget’s contribution to tackling climate change.
They warned the same was likely to be true for the next seven-year cycle.
The auditors said:
"Our analysis of Member State rural development programmes in the same report showed that the Commission was overestimating their contribution to climate action by more than 40 percent, or almost €24billion."
"This is because the Commission did not adequately distinguish between climate contributions made by different activities.
"The Commission justified this approach by the need to strike a balance between minimising the administrative burden and costs and providing a reasonably reliable estimate for climate-related spending within the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.”
ECA auditor Joelle Elvinger called on the Commission to develop more robust methods for tracking its spending.
She said:
"The anticipated contributions to climate-related spending, in particular from some agricultural schemes, are likely to be overstated."
“Without a robust methodology, the estimated climate spending may not be reliable.”
Agriculture spending is expected to make up nearly half of the climate spending from the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget, which has been muted at a total of €1.075trillion.
Full story
3) Brilliant: UK Govt Won’t Bail Out Censorship Universities
The Guardian, 17 July 2020
English universities must prove ‘commitment’ to free speech for bailouts
Universities in England needing bailouts to survive the impact of Covid-19 will have to “demonstrate their commitment” to free speech as well as closing courses with low graduate pay, Gavin Williamson has announced.
The education secretary laid out stringent conditions for universities facing bankruptcy to receive government loans – including the scrapping of “low-value” courses with high dropout rates or whose graduates did not often end up in skilled employment – and said institutions would close or be taken over if they failed to make a strong business case.
“We need a future [higher education] sector which delivers the skills the country needs: universities should ensure courses are consistently high quality and focus more heavily upon subjects which deliver strong graduate employment outcomes in areas of economic and societal importance, such as Stem, nursing and teaching,” Williamson said.
It has been forecast that 10 universities in England face long-term financial struggle following the lockdown. University leaders are anxiously looking towards how many students arrive on campus in autumn.
The Department for Education’s guidance said it would “require assurance that providers are fully complying with their legal duties to secure freedom of speech” before granting emergency loans.
However, the University and College Union (UCU) accused the government of using the pandemic to enforce political objectives taken from the Conservative party’s election manifesto.
“Higher education is one of the few things we remain a world leader in, yet the government is prepared to exploit universities’ financial difficulties to impose evidence-free ideology and reduce the diversity and strength in depth of university courses and research,” said Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary.
Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, said: “Instead of using this crisis as an excuse to centralise control over universities and force through cuts to courses, the government should pledge that no university will be allowed to go bust.”
The DfE’s guidance states that emergency loans would only be considered if there was “a clear economic and value-for-money case” and that closure would “cause significant harm to the national or local economy or society”.
Full story
4) Princess Anne Blasts Prince Charles’s Views On Climate Change And Veganism
Daily Mail, 17 July 2020
Enthusing about genetically modified crops and dismissing the effects of climate change and veganism couldn’t be further away from the green views of Prince Charles.
Daily Mail, 17 July 2020
Enthusing about genetically modified crops and dismissing the effects of climate change and veganism couldn’t be further away from the green views of Prince Charles.
But these are the very forthright opinions of his sister, Princess Anne.
Giving a rare interview to mark her 70th birthday next month, the Queen’s fiercely independent daughter jokes that her conversations with her elder brother are by necessity ‘short’ due to their wildly differing opinions.
Charles has openly lobbied against genetically modified crops, but Anne counters: ‘It has been an enormous advantage in many parts of the world to use GM wisely for very specific environments.
‘It makes it much more likely to be able to grow what you need.
‘I have to remind people that rapeseed oil was only made non-toxic to humans by the Canadians after the Second World War by genetically modifying the plant.
‘It’s [ironically] quite popular with all those people who don’t like GM.’
Asked if she and Charles have conversations about farming, she quips: ‘Yes… occasionally, but rather short.’
‘I don’t go down the climate change route’
The princess was speaking to Australian Women’s Weekly magazine via a video call from Gatcombe Park, the 500-acre Gloucestershire estate and farm where she has spent lockdown.
Princes William and Harry as well as Charles have linked last year’s devastating Australian bushfires to climate change, but Anne said: ‘I don’t even go down the climate change route.
‘I think the way people manage ground is part of the discussion… Climate changes all the time. It has done so throughout the globe’s history, so there’s nothing new under the sun.
‘Somehow, we’ve got to learn that our kind of life is changing. We’ve got to remember to respect what’s out there and how to live with it.’
Full story
Giving a rare interview to mark her 70th birthday next month, the Queen’s fiercely independent daughter jokes that her conversations with her elder brother are by necessity ‘short’ due to their wildly differing opinions.
Charles has openly lobbied against genetically modified crops, but Anne counters: ‘It has been an enormous advantage in many parts of the world to use GM wisely for very specific environments.
‘It makes it much more likely to be able to grow what you need.
‘I have to remind people that rapeseed oil was only made non-toxic to humans by the Canadians after the Second World War by genetically modifying the plant.
‘It’s [ironically] quite popular with all those people who don’t like GM.’
Asked if she and Charles have conversations about farming, she quips: ‘Yes… occasionally, but rather short.’
‘I don’t go down the climate change route’
The princess was speaking to Australian Women’s Weekly magazine via a video call from Gatcombe Park, the 500-acre Gloucestershire estate and farm where she has spent lockdown.
Princes William and Harry as well as Charles have linked last year’s devastating Australian bushfires to climate change, but Anne said: ‘I don’t even go down the climate change route.
‘I think the way people manage ground is part of the discussion… Climate changes all the time. It has done so throughout the globe’s history, so there’s nothing new under the sun.
‘Somehow, we’ve got to learn that our kind of life is changing. We’ve got to remember to respect what’s out there and how to live with it.’
Full story
5) Siberian Heatwaves Are Fairly Common: Hottest Summer On Record Was In 1917
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 17 July 2020
BBC hype and a reality check: There was nothing remotely exceptional about the heatwave at Verhojansk, with the hottest summer on record way back in 1917.
Why do the BBC need three environmental reporters, when all they do is cut and paste the latest alarmist study without actually doing any cross checking or ask awkward questions?
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 17 July 2020
BBC hype and a reality check: There was nothing remotely exceptional about the heatwave at Verhojansk, with the hottest summer on record way back in 1917.
Why do the BBC need three environmental reporters, when all they do is cut and paste the latest alarmist study without actually doing any cross checking or ask awkward questions?
A record-breaking heatwave in Siberia would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change, a study has found.
The Russian region’s temperatures were more than 5C above average between January and June of this year.
Temperatures exceeded 38C in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on 20 June, the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic circle.
The Arctic is believed to be warming twice as fast as the global average.
An international team of climate scientists, led by the UK Met Office, found the record average temperatures were likely to happen less than once every 80,000 years without human-induced climate change.
That makes such an event “almost impossible” had the world not been warmed by greenhouse gas emissions, they conclude in the study.
The scientists described the finding as “unequivocal evidence of the impact of climate change on the planet”.
It is, says co-author Prof Peter Stott of the Met Office, the strongest result of any attribution study to date.
Attribution studies attempt to work out the role that human-induced climate change plays in major weather events.
Climate scientists use computer simulations to compare the climate as it is today with the climate as it would have been without human influence to see how likely different weather events would have been.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53415297
As already pointed out, there was nothing remotely exceptional about the heatwave at Verhojansk last month, as temperatures were only half a degree higher than in 1988.
Now we have the full monthly data in, we can compare June temperatures at Verhojansk:
The Russian region’s temperatures were more than 5C above average between January and June of this year.
Temperatures exceeded 38C in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on 20 June, the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic circle.
The Arctic is believed to be warming twice as fast as the global average.
An international team of climate scientists, led by the UK Met Office, found the record average temperatures were likely to happen less than once every 80,000 years without human-induced climate change.
That makes such an event “almost impossible” had the world not been warmed by greenhouse gas emissions, they conclude in the study.
The scientists described the finding as “unequivocal evidence of the impact of climate change on the planet”.
It is, says co-author Prof Peter Stott of the Met Office, the strongest result of any attribution study to date.
Attribution studies attempt to work out the role that human-induced climate change plays in major weather events.
Climate scientists use computer simulations to compare the climate as it is today with the climate as it would have been without human influence to see how likely different weather events would have been.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53415297
As already pointed out, there was nothing remotely exceptional about the heatwave at Verhojansk last month, as temperatures were only half a degree higher than in 1988.
Now we have the full monthly data in, we can compare June temperatures at Verhojansk:
While last month was a degree or two higher than usual, we can see that it was actually hotter in 1912!
Meanwhile there seems to be little trend in overall summer temperatures, with the hottest summer on record way back in 1917:
Meanwhile there seems to be little trend in overall summer temperatures, with the hottest summer on record way back in 1917:
If anything extreme was happening to the climate in Siberia, it would be immediately apparent in these graphs.
As is well accepted, the heatwave in Siberia last month was the result of loops in the jet stream, which brought hot air up from the south in conjunction with a large and fixed area of high pressure.. But there is nothing unusual about such a phenomenon.
Full post
6) And Finally: Britain's Latest Green Subsidy Disaster
The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 2020
The Chancellor’s £2bn green homes vouchers scheme has backfired after firms blasted its “reckless” September start date for causing customers to cancel installations and hold off on purchases.
Window firms and trade suppliers warned of suffering a collapse in business that has forced many to re-furlough staff after the scheme incentivised customers to wait until September.
“Our appointments diary collapsed by 70pc with people preferring not to have an appointment but to wait until September,” said Allan Forbes, boss of Brackenwood Windows, a double glazing company with sales of £10m.
The Government had been “reckless”, he said. “We have got no sales coming in. We are going to have to re-furlough staff, it’s like Covid-19 all over again.”
Roy Frost, managing director of GJB, a trade supplier with a £30m turnover, said there had been “unprecedented numbers of delays and cancelled installations that have had an immediate impact”.
Full story
As is well accepted, the heatwave in Siberia last month was the result of loops in the jet stream, which brought hot air up from the south in conjunction with a large and fixed area of high pressure.. But there is nothing unusual about such a phenomenon.
Full post
6) And Finally: Britain's Latest Green Subsidy Disaster
The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 2020
The Chancellor’s £2bn green homes vouchers scheme has backfired after firms blasted its “reckless” September start date for causing customers to cancel installations and hold off on purchases.
Window firms and trade suppliers warned of suffering a collapse in business that has forced many to re-furlough staff after the scheme incentivised customers to wait until September.
“Our appointments diary collapsed by 70pc with people preferring not to have an appointment but to wait until September,” said Allan Forbes, boss of Brackenwood Windows, a double glazing company with sales of £10m.
The Government had been “reckless”, he said. “We have got no sales coming in. We are going to have to re-furlough staff, it’s like Covid-19 all over again.”
Roy Frost, managing director of GJB, a trade supplier with a £30m turnover, said there had been “unprecedented numbers of delays and cancelled installations that have had an immediate impact”.
Full story
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.
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