The planned electricity shortages begin and duped Australians say “thanks”

Once upon a time Australians were rich enough to afford electricity on demand

Now obedient Australian’s are impressed with getting tiny refund for having voluntary mini-kinda-blackout.

Presumably, people are either desperate or already so trained in paying unnecessarily exorbitant electricity bills that they are grateful just to get a tiny fraction of their electricity payments back as an incentive for switching off when it suits those managing our inadequate infrastructure.

Demand response is a sales term for a voluntarily “doing without”. The ABC describes it as a wonderful new market force held back by selfish corporate greed (wouldn’t you know it?). The ABC doesn’t mention that electricity used to cost much less before we artificially forced renewables onto the grid and drove out the cheap reliable baseload generators or make the remaining ones less efficient and more expensive. But who remembers 1995?  Were ABC researchers even born then?

It’s like 50 years of history doesn’t exist:

Electricity prices in Australia

Another graph the ABC won’t show on TV

Behind-the-scenes battle over future of Australia’s energy market

It’s called demand response – it allows customers to save thousands of dollars by switching their appliances to lower electricity use at peak times.

These payments are funded by taxpayers:

LIZ HOBDAY: But Bethany James and Michael Basson are trying to save power and money by taking part in a big experiment that’s part-funded by Australia’s clean energy agency.

Cheers to the Big Experiment. We’re paying for electricity twice, through the meter and through our taxes. We pay when we use it and pay when we don’t use it too.

It’s called demand response.

They’re trying to cut their energy use at times when electricity demand is high – not just reducing their bills, but even getting paid.

MICHAEL BASSON: We’re been offered a $10 discount, or $10 credit on the account, for each time we’ve met our goal.

BETHANY JAMES: I think it’s quite doable, and I think that it’s good for the environment, helps out the grid.

I think it’s a really positive thing to do.

 Obedient serfs rejoice!

How tiny is “tiny”? This small:

LIZ HOBDAY: Last year [Oxford cold storage’s] electricity bills went up by almost $4 million.

But reducing their power use for short periods with demand response has taken about 10 per cent off those bills.

GABOR HILTON: I think it’s fantastic. It helps to stabilise the grid and it also helps the bottom line.

So demand response is portrayed as a smart development, not as what it is — a desperate band-aid measure to compensate for a grid that’s struggling to keep up with a demand that is lower than it was ten years ago. Failing.

Lies by omission

DAN CASS, THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE: Few people realise, we pay a lot for electricity during the heatwaves of summer.

Generally, wholesale energy is about $100 a megawatt hour. During summer it, goes up to $14,500 a megawatt hour, and we all pay for that.

Dan Cass doesn’t say that for years  wholesale electricity were only $30 a megawatt hour. And it’s obvious why, renewables indirectly make electricity MORE expensive, wind generation makes gas power $30/MWh pricier,  and solar power at $70 per megawatt hour is still twice the price of brown coal.

And having more spinning reserve meant fewer electricity spikes. More renewables means higher prices, both as an average quarterly cost, and in the spikes.

Bottom line

There’s nothing wrong with efficiency improvements in a free market. But this is an inflated fixed fake market, and there are better cheaper options. This is not about a productivity gain.  Demand response wouldn’t have worked in 1995 because electricity was so cheap people wouldn’t have bothered.

Demand response (voluntary planned lack of electricity) is better than real unplanned blackouts, but it’s a sign of the decline, not a big step forward. It also adds a layer of complexity, reporting, and bureaucratic stranglehold on a market getting further from free market efficiency every day.

As an aside I see that this inadequate, one sided and poorly researched page expires 2,738 years from today.

Posted 
9.7 out of 10 based on 87 ratings

103 comments to The planned electricity shortages begin and duped Australians say “thanks”

  • #

    Crash dummy, meet wall. Wall, meet crash dummy.

    310

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      More like : sheep meet abbatoir…..

      250

    • #
      PeterS

      Crash and burn, crash and burn. Rinse and repeat. History demands this be so.

      110

    • #
      Geoff

      Latest from the lab is that we have hydrogen manufactured from water splitting at 9% of Faraday voltage. Thats about A$3.33/GJ at a power cost of A$100/MWhr. I have a quote from Energy Australia that includes a RET charge of A$16-19/MWhr. It was $60 only one year ago.

      I am now looking at an offer from the New Zealand Government to move there. Tempting! No RET. DC power at my door NZ$80/MWhr. The cost of hydrogen is the key to making hydrocarbons. https://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/en/catalysts-and-technology-licensing/synthetic-fuels

      T wonder what the Japanese would offer? Too bad about our methane exports, guess they will no longer need them.

      70

      • #
        Latus Dextro

        The New Zealand Gas-to-Gasoline Project. Maiden (1988),
        Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, Vol36, 1988, pp 1-16

        Synthetic fuels (Methanol to gasoline) ExxonMobil commercialized the first gas-to-gasoline plant in New Zealand in 1985. The New Zealand plant produced 14,500 BPD of gasoline and was operated by the New Zealand Synthetic Fuels Corporation, a joint venture between the government of New Zealand and ExxonMobil, until 1995. [The NZ SynFuel plant closed in 1999] Operation of the first coal-to-gasoline plant via 2nd generation MTG technology began in 2009 in China by Jincheng Antracite Mining Group (JAMG).
        Methanol has been produced at the NZ site since 1999. This is exported or blended with other fuel stock for use within New Zealand.

        I cannot determine what happened to SynFuel production in NZ and why it did not continue? Economics? Ideology? Does anyone have a link to an answer? @Geoff #1.3: “I am now looking at an offer from the New Zealand Government” … who exactly is making that offer since the UN sycophantic globalist corporatist Leftist minority coalition have virtue signalled an end to all oil/gas exploration and development by 2050 … sigh and the Taranaki petroleum region have opened a new government funded institute of virtue signalling to look at “alternatives.”

        50

        • #
          Geoff

          A low price for hydrogen will change everything. It is the easiest path to methanol.

          Australia is at a pivot point. Low cost energy = rich country. Highest cost of energy in world = no industrial economy. Not making stuff seems ok until you get the bill.

          50

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          So what happened to the VERY large gas reserves of Taranaki? Can use that gas for production, plenty of methane in that.
          I remember the thing being setup in 1985. I have also no idea where it is at now.

          30

      • #
        Mal

        Burning hydrogen creates water., which is green house gas.
        Greenie logic.
        Go figure!

        80

      • #
        Bobl

        So ignorant of chemistry! Voltage means nothing I can generate thousands of volts at no current. Power on the other hand is the derivative of energy, can’t be created or destroyed just transformed from one form to another.

        If the voltage is 9% then the current will be 1100% it takes a certain number of joules to dissociate water, which you get back when you burn it so burning hydrogen can never supply enough energy to make hydrogen, unless some of the energy comes from a natural source. Once you take into account the losses the best this process can get is maybe 30% efficient.

        10

      • #
        Graeme#4

        Geoff, I’m not sure what you are saying, when you mention obtaining hydrogen. To what purpose? To power something? Also lab results are a long, long way from actual production. You also also mention a cost of $100/MWh. What is this cost for?

        10

  • #
    Bright Red

    The ABC should lead the way and turn off their Mega Watt transmitters and data centres etc. so that those who actually do useful things with electricity can get on with business. After all nobody will miss the ABC.

    350

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Yes if anyone would know about “selfish corporate greed” its their ABC, apart from costing taxpayers 1 billion dollars a year from 2013 and rising Australians have to put up with sanctimonious lefty grubs telling them how terrible they are in life while they blithely report fake news that greatly assists in damaging the infrastructure of a nation that offers some of the best living standards in the world for the price of national loyalty, working and abiding by its laws.

      This corporation is so infested with a destructive culture of Marxism it cannot be saved, it makes a mockery of its charter on an hourly basis therefore negating its falsely perceived benefits to the nation and the citizens it claims to serve, the public’s money would be better spent on a new HELE power plant or sensible water management.

      Anything but this.

      301

    • #
      Rot therebber

      The ABC should be allowed to transmit when the sun shines, after all, they do have a useful kiddies channel. And then they can collect their $10 or 10% by not transmitting during the evening peak demand.

      150

      • #
        Ted O'Brien

        Have you checked out what is on their “Kiddies Channels”?

        I never found time to, but fear there might be a lot of Marxist propaganda.

        I don’t know what channel it was on, but about ten years ago while visiting family interstate I watched a breakfast time kids cartoon. The heroine was a teenage girl. The villain her father in his business suit. She saved the world by thwarting his plans. Everybody lived happily ever after.

        What did I do about it? Nothing. What could I? But I feared that it might be daily fare for the kids.

        10

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    ABC NEWS ” COUPLE WITH TINY BABY GIVEN OPTION OF TUNING OFF THE POWER WHEN PRICES ARE HIGH ”

    DUHHHH ?

    Whenever do young families have the option of turning off the power ?

    This is so dopy it beggars belief.

    Village idiot type nonsense from the ABC

    280

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Headlines these day seem to be written by morons who left school at 13. Completely out of touch with any reality of what a real world is like.

      70

  • #
    mem

    It grieves me to say it but many Australians have become lazy and acquiescent.It’s all too hard to do your own research even into a matter as important as the cost and reliability of your electricity supply. Too comfortable and used to everything being supplied. Besides which even if you had some doubts about the climate change thing and the practicality of renewable energy who wants to rock the boat. Unfortunately the penny won’t drop until the lights really go out.

    291

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      ‘lazy and acquiescent’ means if its not an ‘app’ on my fone I dont want to know..

      20

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    Jo it’s a shame that you cannot find an update of that chart to include 2018- 2019.
    I chased down an ABC reporter Joshua Byrd who wrote an article on how expensive power was now in 2018.I wrote this email :
    “Joshua you wrote an ABC story last July with this headline :
    ” Chart of the day: Something has gone terribly wrong with electricity prices”
    It’s almost a year since that chart was released. Is there an update showing what has happened since ?
    Cheers

    Bill”
    ///////////
    I got this reply

    “Hi Bill, Thanks for contacting me. The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases these figures quarterly I believe so they will be in this data somewhere https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/6401.0Main+Features1Mar%202019?OpenDocument in the downloads.
    I’m quite busy on other projects at the moment, but may get around to charting some additional figures if I have a spare moment. And I will let you know.
    Kind regards,
    Josh”

    So an urgent situation which really needs reporting on is now to be ignored by the ABC. No doubt he got his instructions from the global warming climate gurus in the ABC.

    What is really not so amusing is that the reply had an ABC icon at the bottom ” The ABC logo with the phrase “YOURS TO CHILL”

    Ummmmm ! maybe they know we are freezing and choose to make a joke of it ?

    210

    • #
      Robber

      It’s unclear what the end date is for the Dr Crawford chart of consumer electricity price index (next quarterly update by ABS will be in late July) – Jo published it in Feb 2018, but was the price index up to June 2017 or June 2016? There is a footnote saying “for 2017-2018 nominal 15% increase to take account of price increases announced by electricity distributors in June 2016”.
      Since June 2016 wholesale prices have increased as follows:
      Vic 2015/16 $46/MWhr; 2016/17 $67; 2017/18 $92; 2018/19 $110/MWhr.
      For NSW wholesale prices increased from $52 to $89/MWhr.
      It’s much harder to find reports of the trends in network and retail costs, (although the Australian Energy Regulator does approve network tariffs) so generally have to depend on the ABS reports of consumer index which have shown little increase in the last 12 months to March 2019.
      Reports from AER says SA network tariffs will rise by 10% from July, while in NSW Ausgrid customers will save $124.

      70

  • #
    Gerry, England

    If it was possible, it would be good in times of supply shortage to have a group that would do a timed demand dump on the grid to bring it down. In times gone by, when our FA Cup Final was on there were 2 demand surges – half time and full time – as the kettles of the nation went on.

    160

    • #
      Destroyer D69

      Turn EVERTHING on and off in 20 minute cycles and see how long it takes for the message that the system is useless in its present form takes to sink in.. A few transformers on fire may finally wake them up.

      70

  • #

    Coming soon at your INGSOC controlled medja outlet, the 6.pm daily messaging: ‘You Loyalty is to the Stability of the Grid.’

    100

  • #

    What sort of Demand Response are we talking about here.

    The two weekend days have the lowest power consumption of any days of the week, always have, always will, down on average around 2000MW per hour.

    So then, let’s look at the last seven working days, and all these peaks are around 6.15PM to 6.30PM.

    Tuesday 18June – Peak 29900MW.
    Wednesday 19June – Peak 30500MW. (above 30000MW for an hour and a half)
    Thursday 20June – Peak 31000MW. (above 30000MW for two and a half hours)
    Friday 21June – Peak 30200. (above 30000MW for forty minutes)
    Monday 24June – Peak 319000MW (above 30000MW for three hours)
    Tuesday 25June – Peak 30400MW (above 30000MW for an hour and a half)
    Wednesday 26June – Peak 29700MW.

    The average home consumes around 20KWH per day, and the bulk of that is around that peak time, and would be around 5KWH over a two to three hour period.

    So, to save 5KWH per home off the top of that peak, you need 200 homes for every MWH, 2,000 homes for 10MW, 20,000 for 100MWH, and 200,000 for 1000MWH.

    That will take that peak down to around 29000MWH.

    It’s totally and utterly insignificant.

    TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND homes. They come home from work, and have to wait till who knows when before they can have their dinner, do their chores, homework, watch TV, warm up a cold home.

    Try changing those things we have done ….. FOREVER at that time of the daily cycle, and see what feedback you get, all for a little bit off your electricity bill.

    I think not.

    Tony.

    710

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Tony
      You deserve 10 green thumbs
      Fact based thinking
      Trumps
      Village idiot story from ABC.

      281

    • #

      Thanks for taking the trouble again, Tony.

      With so little to gain in hard terms, it seems this is another test of the public’s gratitude and dupability. They make something vastly more expensive, then offer a paltry discount provided the punters are willing to jump through a few pointless hoops. The types who take up the offer will no doubt get spammed with lots more exciting opportunities to jump through even more useless hoops while those who can’t run appliances in the middle of the day or night will be objects of pity in government ads. (“Fred, don’t you know you can make your morning coffee in a thermos the night before? We do it…and with the savings we’re off to Bali!”)

      Pity about our coal. I dare say not even E Jean Carroll thinks brownouts, blackouts, shutdowns, food wastage and frozen smelter runs are sexy.

      280

    • #
      Robber

      There are tariff structures that include time of day pricing. The simplest: essentially half price electricity 11pm-7am and all weekend. But others now include peak, shoulder, and off-peak rates.

      50

      • #

        Tariff structures! Bah Humbug!

        Again note how it is absolutely blatant profiteering by the electricity retailers.

        They KNOW absolutely that the peak time is at that same time every day, has ever been, always will ever be.

        People come home from work, turn on their heaters/coolers, turn on the TV, have their hot showers, cook their evening meals. The working people do their chores, the clothes washing, and now it’s night time, and the clothes need to be ready for the next day, the clothes go in the dryer. The children do their homework. Everyone ‘plays’ on their devices.

        It all happens around that one time each and every day, day in, day out, and has forever been like that.

        Hence power consumption spikes at that time, every day, the highest power consumption ….. in that RESIDENTIAL sector of the three sector market.

        The retailers know this, an absolutely captive market locked into power consumption at that time.

        So they introduce a HIGHER rate for electricity usage right around that time, knowing how much extra money can be made from it.

        And now they magnanimously offer you a tiny little rebate if you change the habits of a lifetime, you know, save that evening meal for the whole family until after that peak passes, say 10PM to midnight. DO the chores after midnight. Do your homework then too.

        Good luck changing that, and those retailers know that. For the tiny amount they give back, they are making windfall profits, based on Centuries of lifetime habits.

        Excuse my rank cynicism.

        Tony.

        290

        • #
          Bill in Oz

          Cynicism justified and so excused Tony
          Humbug from journo’s is standard operating procedure………
          After all they are just regurgitating the propaganda from the power companies.

          80

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          This requires that (we) the people managing the gov who manages the cooporations and the way they operate and charge, not the reverse.
          Either the gov manages the companies or the companies manage the gov..which do the people want.

          20

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    This comment of mine directed at Peter Fitzroy
    Was locked up in moderation for hours
    And then when it finally appeared, was posted a
    Above the query that Peter Fitzroy asked.

    So I’m pasting a copy of it here again
    In the interests of an informed conclusion.

    @ Peter Fitzroy : you wrote ” Fine Bill, and your proof is?”
    Fact 1 : Here in the Adelaide Hills we have ever increasing CO2 – Now at 408 ppm gradually increasing for the past 150 years.

    Fact 2 : Here in the Adelaide Hills we have we also have just had 8 days of frosts on the trot.. And Winer arived early in late April with a couple of frosts.

    Fact 3 I’ve had the gas fired heater on the whole time, churning out heat to stay warm AND putting out lots of CO2 in the hope of boosting the Anthropogenic Global Warming effect.

    Fact 4 : The frosts continued with increased vigour. Frozen pipes the other morning and ice in the gutters at 12.30 pm

    Conclusion : Clearly increased CO2 does not have any effect on our climate here in the Adelaide Hills.

    Need any help with any other proofs ?

    281

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Answer seems to be yes !

      50

    • #
      AndyG55

      Its quite ironic that the PF trollette would ask anyone for proof, considering the fact that he has been totally bereft of any sort of proof of anything since he first poked his obnoxious ignorance and lying deceit into the forum.

      110

    • #
      Latus Dextro

      Didn’t everyone know that climate was local not global?

      50

  • #
    pat

    this is all over the MSM, and is suitably Orwellian, given it is CAGW policies that will cause the poor to suffer:

    25 Jun: Reuters: In ‘climate apartheid’, rich will save themselves while poor suffer: U.N. report
    by Tom Miles
    The report, submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council by its special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, said business was supposed to play a vital role in coping with climate change, but could not be relied on to look after the poor.
    “An over-reliance on the private sector could lead to a climate apartheid scenario in which the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger, and conflict, while the rest of the world is left to suffer,” he wrote…

    There had been some positive developments, with renewable energy prices falling, coal becoming uncompetitive, emissions declining in 49 countries, and 7,000 cities, 245 regions, and 6,000 companies committing to climate mitigation…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un/in-climate-apartheid-rich-will-save-themselves-while-poor-suffer-un-report-idUSKCN1TQ1KY

    reminder from BBC re Philip Alston: The Australian native is part of the UN’s panel of independent experts, and submitted his report – which is based on existing research – to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.

    26 Jun: NewStatesman: Tackling the climate crisis means the end of capitalism as we know it
    Centralised state intervention, planning and ownership could be the only way to achieve the rapid reduction in carbon
    by ***Paul Mason
    When John McDonnell announced plans to de-list the companies wilfully destroying the planet through unchecked carbon emissions, the response from the City was predictably hyperbolic. “Financial totalitarianism,” said one banker. “Kamikaze communism,” said the right-wing propaganda website Guido Fawkes…
    As someone who supports these measures, I need to be brutally honest: they are not “totalitarian” enough…

    Only now that we have serious socialist politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, contemplating radical redistribution, does the language of climate priorities have to be spoken…

    Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on human rights and poverty, spells out the consequences (of CAGW) in a new report…READ ON
    https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2019/06/tackling-climate-crisis-means-end-capitalism-we-know-it

    ***Wikipedia: Paul Mason
    In August 2001 Mason joined the BBC Two television programme Newsnight taking up a post as Business Editor…In August 2013 it was announced that Mason would join Channel 4 News as its culture and digital editor. In May 2014, it was announced that he would become the programme’s Economics Editor…
    Mason is a former member of the Workers’ Power group…

    In a speech in 2015 marking the publication of Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything, he declared that “capitalism is dying”…
    Mason has called for an alliance of “bond traders from Canary Wharf, arm in arm with placard-carrying Trots” against right-wing populist groups such as UKIP…

    In 2016, Mason distanced himself from his former involvement in far-left Trotskyist politics, by saying that he no longer holds such views and identifies with a “radical social democracy”…

    However, Mason subsequently wrote positively about Marxism: in a piece for New Statesman published in May 2018 for the bicentenary of Marx’s birth, he praised Marxist humanism inspired by Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 in general, and the thought of Raya Dunayevskaya in particular, for its emphasis on overcoming alienation from labour in order to achieve individual freedom…ETC
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mason_(journalist)

    111

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Houston we (us ‘deniers’) have a problem, its getting worse. How do we fight it? The onslaught of fake statements and downright lies from the climatariate is non ending.

      110

      • #
        Latus Dextro

        It will be answered eventually, from the business end of a barrel.
        It will be seen that Western democracies, now subverted by those once pledged to protect them, require a second civil war, a revolution to restore the opportunity, sanity, liberty, prosperity and happiness that was once a birth right and the purpose of small governance.
        I think Ayn Rand presciently laid it out in ‘Atlas Shrugged’.

        50

  • #
    pat

    26 Jun: LondonNewsOnline: More than 10,000 households in Southwark are living in fuel poverty
    Charity National Energy Action has warned of the devastating effects of being unable to afford heating bills, and urged the Government to take steps to protect vulnerable households.
    Official figures reveal that 11,349 households in Southwark cannot afford to heat and light their homes properly without being pushed into poverty.

    It means that the issue affects 9% of households in the area, according to the report from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
    That’s lower than the average of 12% across London. Across England, the rate is 11%…

    Rising energy costs, low incomes and energy-inefficient housing are the main factors behind fuel poverty, according to NEA chief executive Adam Scorer…
    Mr Scorer added that the cost of treating cold temperature-related illnesses brought on by fuel poverty is a burden on the NHS, while energy inefficient homes are a major cause of CO2 emissions…

    A BEIS spokesperson said: “No one should be cold in their own home. That’s why we’re protecting all households from rip-off deals with our energy price cap, and helping 2 million low-income households get money off their winter energy bills.
    “On top of this, we’re targeting support at the most vulnerable, giving extra money to pensioners during the winter and improving the energy efficiency of households on low income.”
    https://www.londonnewsonline.co.uk/more-than-10000-households-in-southwark-are-living-in-fuel-poverty/

    80

    • #
      Latus Dextro

      Subsidies… useless, unsustainable bandaids to keep votes.
      Anyone want to mention the 40,000 excess winter deaths?
      No, I thought not.

      70

  • #
    pat

    Carbon Brief gives an overview of the FakeNewsMSM hysteria of the day (meanwhile, at the cricket in Birmingham, England, everyone is rugged up and feeling the cold):

    Europe on alert as ‘dangerous’ heatwave approaches
    Publications continue to report on the “dangerous” and “unprecedented” heatwave sweeping central Europe. The Financial Times reports that the forecasted heat has triggered public warnings in France, Spain and Germany and has led to the rescheduling of exams for hundreds of thousands of French students. “Hell is coming,” said Spanish meteorologist Silvia Laplana in a tweet showing a time-lapse map of red heat spreading across Spain, where temperatures in some parts are predicted to exceed 40C, the FT reports. “Extreme heatwaves are expected to become more frequent owing to climate change, particularly in southern Europe, where the likelihood of heatwaves is already 10 times greater than it was during pre-industrial times,” the FT says. The Guardian adds that Météo-France is now predicting peaks of 45C in the southern towns of Nîmes and Carpentras on Friday. The New York Times covers the news with the headline: “Europe is bracing for a heatwave. It’s the new normal.”

    100

  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    Forced energy poverty, and implied virtue.
    It is but a short step to sending the elites into the countryside to understand the virtue of the peasants.
    OF course, that could never happen in our modern world.

    100

  • #
    pat

    you’d never know there are climate talks going on, would you?

    25 Jun: Guardian: Climate crisis: Al Gore says global economy needs major upgrade, fast
    Ex-US vice-president says only big solutions can offset impact of systemic shifts and avert disaster
    by Jillian Ambrose
    The environmentalist and former US vice-president said the world was in the early stages of a “sustainability revolution” that had “the magnitude of the Industrial Revolution and the speed of the digital revolution”…
    The urgent need to address the world’s sustainability crisis is laid bare in the latest annual report from Generation Investment Management, which was co-founded by Gore and David Blood, a veteran Goldman Sachs investor, in 2004.
    The fund has more than $22bn worth of assets under its management, which it invests in technologies that can improve food production, healthcare and energy provision…

    The report concludes that an environmental breakdown is taking place alongside a fraying of the “social and economic fabric”. This threatens to create a “disruptive”, economy-wide sustainability crisis…
    Colin le Duc, a partner in Generation, said the world was continuing to grow its use of coal and combustion engine vehicles even though the negative effects of fossil fuels on the climate and human health were well known…
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/25/climate-crisis-al-gore-global-economy-needs-major-upgrade-fast

    meanwhile, Obama is no doubt obsessing over CAGW with his equally-concerned pal Clooney:

    See George Clooney Blast ‘Dumbf-ckery’ of Trump, Climate Change …
    Rolling Stone-8 May 2019
    George Clooney took a stand against “rampant dumbf*ckery” — including climate deniers…

    George Clooney Mocks Trump’s Climate Change Commentary on …
    The New York Times-8 May 2019

    25 Jun: Evening Standard UK: Barack and Michelle Obama are visiting George and Amal Clooney at their Lake Como villa
    by Megan C. Hills and Lauren Keary
    Cars which come within 300 feet of the Clooneys’ home will also be fined 500 Euros…
    It is believed that the Obamas joined the A-list couple at a “charity dinner for the Clooney Foundation for Justice on Saturday evening”…
    According to the Daily Mail, the family have been travelling by private jet and have stayed in Provence’s wine-rich Châteauneuf-du-Pape region in a £47,000 a week villa, with a security detail in tow…
    The Obama family isn’t the first high profile couple to stop by the Clooneys Como mansion, as the couple’s friends Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are also believed to have visited…

    Inside George Clooney’s property portfolio
    Clooney fell in love with Lake Como in the early 2000s and has invested millions in the Italian property market since…
    https://www.loveproperty.com/gallerylist/73699/inside-george-clooneys-property-portfolio

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Clooneys stock in trade is playing dress ups and doing make believe….

      Hmmm…scientist vs thespian…..who to choose?

      /sarc

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    • #
      Lawrie

      The sudden upsurge in panic among climate alarmists and the raucous cries to do something sounds like they are really spooked by something. Maybe they have been warned that the sun is in a cooling phase and that the world will soon be cooling down a tad. When that happens the fraud will collapse entirely unless long term expenditure is already on the books. They know the end is nigh.

      60

  • #
    pat

    26 Jun: Reuters: Exclusive: Investors with $34 trillion demand urgent climate change action
    by Simon Jessop, Nina Chestney
    Investors managing more than $34 trillion in assets, nearly half the world’s invested capital, are demanding urgent action from governments on climate change, piling pressure on leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies meeting this week.
    In an open letter to the “governments of the world” seen by Reuters, groups representing 477 investors stressed “the urgency of decisive action” on climate change to achieve the Paris Agreement target…READ ON
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-investment-letter-exclu/exclusive-investors-with-34-trillion-demand-urgent-climate-change-action-idUSKCN1TQ31X

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    pat

    all British MSM seems to be inflicted with CAGW syndrome:

    26 Jun: UK Times: Britain led the world on climate change — now we must do it again
    by Kerry McCarthy and John McNally
    (Kerry Gillian McCarthy is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Bristol East since 2005 and was the Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from September 2015 to June 2016.
    John McNally is a Scottish National Party politician. At the 2015 general election he was elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Falkirk)

    Today is a significant day in parliament. MPs are expecting thousands of people from nearly every constituency in the UK to come to Westminster to meet us. What unites these people with the firefighters, surfers, schoolchildren, faith leaders, doctors and many other professions who will be coming to parliament?

    Quite simply, that they care. They care about our warming climate. They care that our natural world is in decline. They care enough to take the time to seek out and talk to their MP. They want us, their elected representatives, to take urgent and decisive action in parliament and to press our party leaders and the government to act now.

    Amidst the continuing political uncertainty, one thing is clear: the environmental crisis is growing…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-must-not-rest-on-our-laurels-in-fighting-climate-change-mnbtjlpcp

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      Graeme No.3

      What warming?
      What crisis?
      And who would think that panicked politicians would come up with a rational solution?

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    pat

    ***Christopher John Snowdon is an author and freelance journalist based in the UK. He writes for Sp!ked and other publications…He is also a research fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs.

    25 Jun: UK Telegraph: These green targets waved through by MPs will make the cost of no deal look like small change
    By ***Christopher Snowdon
    PIC: Climate change activist Greta Thunberg addresses politicians, media and guests with the Houses of Parliament on April 23, 2019 Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images
    This legislation was approved with little scrutiny, all to boost the ego of one of Britain’s worst prime ministers…
    Never let it be said that Parliament cannot get things done when it wants to. In the three years since the referendum, MPs have not only rejected Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement but have failed to produce a majority for every other conceivable plan to exit the European Union.

    Those who never wanted Brexit in the first place say that it will cost the country billions. Britain is too small and insignificant to stand alone, they say. Nobody voted to be poorer, they say.

    Contrast this parliamentary rigor mortis with the passage of the Climate Change Act 2008 (2050 Target Amendment)…
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/25/without-even-voting-mps-have-waved-green-targets-will-make-cost/

    25 Jun: LSE Grantham: Bob Ward: Lord Lawson’s desperate last attempt at misinformation about net zero target
    Lord Lawson of Blaby has written a rather feeble letter (PDF) (LINK) to other peers asking them to delay the legislation. He is Honorary President of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a club for climate change deniers that lobbies against policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels.
    Lord Lawson’s letter urges other peers to ignore the careful and rigorous analysis published by the Committee on Climate Change…
    http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/news/lord-lawsons-desperate-last-attempt-at-misinformation-about-net-zero-target/

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    pat

    26 Jun: Guardian: Why I’m climate striking against Fox News on Friday
    The news media is society’s alarm clock – it needs to wake us up
    by Alexandria Villaseñor
    This past Saturday, I was among hundreds of activists with the group Extinction Rebellion NYC who protested outside the New York Times headquarters in midtown Manhattan to demand better coverage of the climate crisis…

    ***Somewhat to our surprise, our protest received a good deal of news coverage. CBS, CNN, the Guardian, and the Associated Press ran stories. The Times even published one, a Reuters dispatch that quoted a Times spokesperson defending the newspaper’s coverage. “There is no national news organization that devotes more time, staff or resources to producing deeply reported coverage to help readers understand climate change than the New York Times,” the spokesperson said…

    I agree with the Swedish teenager who started the climate strike movement, Greta Thunberg, who says that if the media were reporting responsibly on the climate crisis “we would rarely talk about anything else. As soon as you turn on the TV, almost everything would be about that: headlines, radio, newspapers.”
    I am 14 years old; Greta is 16…

    This Friday, I will be striking outside Fox News headquarters in New York City because Fox’s coverage of the climate crisis is especially terrible. Unlike the other broadcast networks, Fox doesn’t practice climate silence. It does something worse: it spreads climate misinformation — for example, by reporting as fact the lie that the well-established science linking greenhouse gas emissions with rising temperatures is unfounded…
    So I’m calling on fellow youth climate strikers the world over to join me in targeting any irresponsible news outlets in their communities on 28 June…

    Alexandria Villaseñor is the 14-year-old founder of Earth Uprising International and lives in New York City, where she strikes every Friday in front of the United Nations headquarters, demanding world leaders take action on the climate crisis.
    This article is being co-published by the Nation, the Columbia Journalism Review and the Guardian as part of Covering Climate Now, a project to catalyze improved media coverage of the climate crisis.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/25/why-im-climate-striking-against-fox-news-on-friday

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    pat

    shameless:

    25 Jun: The Hill: Florida news outlets partnering for climate change reporting
    By Marina Pitofsky
    Six Florida news outlets are partnering to create the Florida Climate Reporting Network to increase climate reporting across the state, the Miami Herald announced Monday.
    “This is an opportunity to maximize our ability to cover the biggest story of our lives — the threat of climate change,” Julie Anderson, editor and chief of the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel, said in a Tuesday statement, as reported by the Herald.

    The collaboration will include the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times, the Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel and WLRN Public Media. The outlets will share editorials, columns and climate change-related news stories, and journalists from the outlets will also report on climate stories together…
    More outlets are also expected to join the partnership, according to the Miami Herald…

    The partnership was inspired by another successful collaboration between opinion editors at the Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, the South Florida Sun Sentinel and WLRN, known as “The Invading Sea.” Those stories focused on how rising sea level adaptation was affecting Florida, the Miami Herald reported.
    WLRN Vice President of News Tom Hudson said the project reflects a need for climate change reporting in the state.
    “This collaborative is a bold move that harnesses the top news organizations in Florida in ways that are innovative, unique and meaningful,” Hudson said.
    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/450275-florida-news-outlets-partnering-for-climate-change-reporting

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  • #
    pat

    25 Jun: EurActiv: EU must block Greece’s desperate attempt to subsidise coal power
    By Joanna Flisowska and Nikos Mantzaris
    (Joanna Flisowska is a senior coal policy coordinator at Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, an environmental organisation. Nikos Mantzaris is a senior policy analyst & partner at The Green Tank, a think tank specialised in environmental issues)

    Greek consumers could end up footing the bill for new coal plants well beyond 2050 under a proposed government scheme, despite recently agreed EU electricity market rules specifically designed to call time on coal subsidies, write Joanna Flisowska and Nikos Mantzaris.
    On 7 June, the Greek government won a parliamentary vote on setting up a new capacity mechanism to subsidise coal power. This is clearly designed to get the European Commission to turn a blind eye before new rules in the EU’s Clean Energy Package, which prohibit such practices, enter into force in the coming weeks.
    It must not succeed…

    Worse still, these plants will continue to block cleaner (and cheaper) alternatives from accessing the market.
    https://www.euractiv.com/section/electricity/opinion/eu-must-block-greeces-desperate-attempt-to-subsidise-coal-power/

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  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    at 12:01 am, in text by Pat:

    A BEIS spokesperson said: “No one should be cold in their own home.
    Then the person mentions an “energy price cap” and ” giving extra money to pensioners” and “improving the energy efficiency.”

    The things mentioned involve “costs” that have to be paid with tax money. In the case of the “price cap” the path to taxes may go through several steps, but there is still a cost.

    However, about being cold in one’s own home.
    When young, my family lived in a small house. There was a coal stove when I was born, but by the time my memory kicks in the coal was replaced by a gas heater in the center of the house. In winter, bedrooms were cold, and we slept with clothes under the bed covers. We would get up, grab the clothes and run to the front of the heater. There we would dress.
    Mom would have been in the kitchen fixing hot oatmeal and toast from her own-baked bread.
    Somehow we missed the memo about how bad off we were.

    For the past 25 years we have lived in an all-electric home with heating and air conditioning.
    We do prefer this to the old way.

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  • #

    This one-sided and poorly researched paper has already reached its expiry date. The date 2,738 years from today is just for laughs! It is just another brick in the toppling wall of CAGW alarmism.

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  • #
    John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

    Coal Protest by Greenpeace
    Full story from Lubos Motl

    30

  • #
    PeterS

    As I’ve been saying for a long while now, crash and burn here we come. The lesson will be taught to all eventually but we will have to suffer a lot of pain in the process. That’s life.

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  • #
    graham dunton

    Just been watching Resiliency and Readiness—Contending with Natural Disasters in the Wake of Climate Change (Climate Change, Part III)
    In recess now. Judith Curry was good, but take your blood pressure pills if you download it, when available as Michael Mann was to form.
    Link to the live broadcast
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6893&v=ZJeCuc5JkJ8

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  • #
    Tel

    Always mark the chart with April Fool’s Day 2001 marking the start of the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target, which is what transfers profit away from coal and onto more expensive generation technologies.

    Keep repeating until people start to get it. Never fail to mention RET in any discussion about power prices.

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  • #
    glen Michel

    Yeah,yeah. The Mistral often picks up the heat from Africa and delivers it to Mediterranean Europe.I lived in Carcassonne for a while and 40 plus is usual.The last major heatwave in Europe was in the early part of the millenium.

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  • #
    James Murphy

    Demand response, or damned response…?

    40

  • #
    pat

    26 Jun: Breitbart: James Delingpole: Watch: Sky News Eco Propaganda Gets Ratioed on Twitter
    Watch in agony – and then enjoy as Sky News gets horribly ratioed for an excruciatingly embarrassing piece of eco-propaganda it posted on Twitter…

    The response seems to confirm that, on climate change, there is a massive gulf of understanding between the mainstream media and the general public. While Sky News, the BBC and many newspapers now take it for granted that climate change represents a major threat and that we are now facing a so-called ‘planetary emergency’, the audience which they claim to serve is much more sanguine and sceptical on these issues.
    This, in turn, raises questions about the wisdom of the political class’s position on climate change, which currently appears to presuppose that the electorate is as hungry for climate action as campaigners like the Prince of Wales, George Monbiot and Greta Thunberg…READ ON
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/06/26/watch-sky-news-eco-propaganda-ratioed-on-twitter/

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    • #
      Latus Dextro

      Tricky to maintain a head of green pus on the climatism boil when NASA data shows inconvenient truths like this for example:

      PIA23147: Jakobshavn Glacier Grows for Third Year in a Row

      These images show the mass Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier has gained from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. Areas with the most growth — about 33 yards (30 meters) — are shown in dark blue. Red areas represent thinning. The images were produced using GLISTIN-A radar data as part of NASA’s Ocean’s Melting Greenland (OMG) mission.

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      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Funny who in NASA management allowed this REAL data to be presented? Against their mantra of warming hobgoblins.

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  • #
    Lawrie

    The ABC is a major user of electricity so why would it not be also subject to voluntary blackout. I would suggest it be shut down from 1800 to 2100 every night when demand is highest.

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    pat

    27 Jun: BrisbaneTimes: Climate change activists in canoe block Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge
    By Toby Crockford
    PIC: Firefighters prepare to cut the activists from their canoe on the footpath next to Stanley Street.Credit:Toby Crockford

    Four climate change activists in a canoe blocked traffic in the heart of Brisbane during the Thursday morning peak-hour and forced a major emergency services response.
    The protest began about 7.30am when four activists in their canoe positioned themselves in the middle of the Victoria Bridge.

    Police said drivers were threatening to hit the protesters, so officers moved their canoe off the Victoria Bridge and onto Stanley Street to defuse the situation and get traffic moving again…
    Climate change action group Extinction Rebellion SEQ were responsible for the peak-hour protest.
    Extinction Rebellion SEQ spokesman Daniel Heggie said the four activists were attached to the canoe with elbow locks and it would require grinders to cut them free…

    The protesters chose a canoe to represent those people who live on islands and fear they may one day have to leave their homes because of rising sea levels.
    Several police vehicles, paramedics and the fire service’s technical rescue team responded…
    https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/climate-change-activists-in-canoe-block-brisbane-s-victoria-bridge-20190627-p521q8.html

    7News: One of the members was seen holding a placard promoting a “Rebellion Day” scheduled in Brisbane’s inner city for August 6.

    27 Jun: ABC Science: Australian cities are declaring a ‘climate emergency’, but does that actually mean anything?
    ABC Science By environment reporter Nick Kilvert
    PIC: Extinction Rebellion has called for honesty and action from media and government on climate change. (Supplied: Extinction Rebellion)

    Climate emergency, not ‘state of emergency’
    Although the language may sound similar, a ‘state of emergency’ and a ‘climate emergency’ don’t mean the same thing, according to legal expert Michael Eburn of the Australian National University…

    Adam Hastie from the New South Wales branch of Extinction Rebellion, which pushed hard for the City of Sydney declaration, said he was under no illusions about the power of the local government’s gesture.
    “This is stage one, this is ‘tell the truth’, and hopefully we can get through the [next] two [demands] as quickly as possible,” he said.
    Extinction Rebellion has issued three demands globally…
    Similarly, Greenpeace claims that while the declaration itself is only symbolic, it is a step in the right direction toward strong climate action…
    Activists not likely to settle for hollow gestures…

    Movements like Extinction Rebellion and youth climate action networks inspired by Swedish teen-activist Greta Thunberg, represent a significant groundswell of people saying they’re not willing to accept the status quo…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-06-27/climate-emergency-sydney-extinction-rebellion/11243486

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      pat

      27 Jun: ABC: Protesters locked together inside canoe in South Brisbane after blocking bridge
      PIC: Photo:Protesters started by blocking part of the Victoria Bridge in their canoe. (ABC News)
      The group, believed to represent Extinction Rebellion SEQ, were holding signs and handing out flyers for another demonstration in August…
      PIC: Photo:The protesters locked themselves together at South Brisbane. (ABC News: Talissa Siganto)
      VIDEO: Video: Anti-Adani protesters march during Brisbane peak hour (ABC News)
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-27/brisbane-protestors-lock-themselves-together/11251358

      26 Jun: ABC The World Today: Industry super urges Australia to consider the nuclear power option
      The World Today By senior business correspondent Peter Ryan
      ISA’s chief economist Stephen Anthony: “The fundamental challenge that our nation faces is we have to decarbonise within 50 years or we are facing a climate disaster and right now the only technology that looks really, really good in that context is nuclear.”…

      The study also raised concerns about battery schemes, finding that using Tesla batteries to achieve 1.5 days power backup would cost $6.5 trillion, or the cost of building around 1,000 nuclear reactors.
      It warned that generating power for a renewable energy system in the same period would require 100 Snowy Hyrdo 2.0 schemes at a cost of $700 billion…

      The Australian Energy Market Operator estimates that about 60 per cent of current coal-fired generation capacity will be retired by 2040…
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-26/industry-super-funds-consider-the-nuclear-option/11248202

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    pat

    following repeatedly promo-ed this as a “race”, giving the impression there was a desperate need to find this 1m-year-old ice core in case it melted! instead, it is a co-opertive effort. the use of “carbon” for CO2 emissions throughout:

    AUDIO: 7min28sec: 27 Jun: ABC Breakfast: Fran Kelly: International race to find and drill world’s oldest ice core
    The goal is to unlock some of the major riddles of earth’s climate history.
    Guest: Tas van Ommen, senior principal research scientist, Australian Antarctic Division
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/international-race-to-find-and-drill-worlds-oldest-ice-core/11251288

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    Bill in Oz

    OFF TOPIC : Yet another killing software glitch found in the Boeing 737 MAXX.
    I don’t think these birds will be flying again anytime soon..
    And even if they are approved to fly
    Who would want to take the risk.
    And HTF was it ever approved to fly is another question that has bot been answered.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-26/new-software-glitch-found-737-max-results-uncontrollable-nosedives

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    pat

    segment lasts the entire first 13min51sec. program broadcast on ABC Radio National this morning:

    AUDIO: 26min29sec: BBC World Business Report: Health warnings hit Europe as temperatures soar
    As Europe faces a heatwave, we meet young people leading the fight against global warming. 11-year-old activist Elliot Powell tells us about his hopes and fears for the environment, and we hear from his mother, Emma, who is one of the organisers of the youth climate movement. And our environment correspondent Matt McGrath tells us whether young people are affecting the climate conversation at a policy level…
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172wx8pbz8ftpy

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  • #
    pat

    behind paywall:

    25 Jun: New Scientist: Solar farms could be wildlife havens that tackle biodiversity crisis
    By Adam Vaughan
    The online SPIES tool (LINK) by the Universities of Lancaster and York found evidence from 450 peer-reviewed papers for actions solar farm owners can take to benefit nature, such as planting and maintaining hedgerows.
    “There is limited research on the impacts of solar parks, hence the tool,” says Alona Armstrong of Lancaster University, ***who developed it with the solar industry, plus conservation groups, ecologists, landowners and the UK’s National Farmers’ Union. …
    https://www.newscientist.com/article/2207491-solar-farms-could-be-wildlife-havens-that-tackle-biodiversity-crisis/

    26 Jun: UK Times: Scottish wind farms may be forced into signing local deals
    by Greig Cameron, Scottish Business Editor
    The Scottish government is exploring legal options to force companies building offshore wind farms to use local suppliers.
    Derek Mackay, the finance minister, told the economy, energy and fair work committee at Holyrood that he wanted to “incentivise better behaviour” from renewable energy developers.
    Unions have raised concerns in recent months as large-scale manufacturing contracts for Scottish projects have been awarded to overseas bidders. Mr Mackay said that government officials were looking at ways to use the powers of the Crown Estate Scotland, as well as the decommissioning agreements which have to be signed for developments…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/scottish-wind-farms-may-be-forced-into-signing-local-deals-tcxdg2p38

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  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Winning.

    Triple whammy’ threatens UN action on [global warming]

    At a meeting in Bonn, Saudi Arabia has continued to object to a key IPCC scientific report that urges drastic cuts in carbon emissions.
    Added to that, the EU has so far failed to agree to a long term net zero emissions target.
    Thirdly, a draft text from the G20 summit in Japan later this week waters down commitments to tackle warming.

    As well as Japan, other leading economies are continuing to support coal based power generation.

    A study released by the Overseas Development Institute says that G20 nations have almost tripled the subsidies given to coal fired plants in recent years, despite the growing need to cut emissions.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48746137

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    pat

    26 Jun: Guardian: Shell is not a green saviour. It’s a planetary death machine
    by George Monbiot
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/26/shell-not-green-saviour-death-machine-greenwash-oil-gas

    26 Jun: BBC: ‘Triple whammy’ threatens UN action on climate change
    By Matt McGrath
    PIC: Children – “climate” protest
    At a meeting in Bonn, Saudi Arabia has continued to object to a key IPCC scientific report that urges drastic cuts in carbon emissions.
    Added to that, the EU has so far failed to agree to a long term net zero emissions target.
    Thirdly, a draft text from the G20 summit in Japan later this week waters down commitments to tackle warming.

    One attendee in Bonn said that, taken together, the moves represented a fierce backlash from countries with strong fossil fuel interests…
    Many environmental campaigners see the Saudi pressure on the IPCC as part of campaign to discredit the science…

    Contributing to the downbeat mood in Bonn is the forthcoming G20 meeting of global leaders in Osaka, Japan.
    A draft of the closing communiqué mentions climate change as just one issue among many and omits to use the phrases “global warming” and “decarbonisation”.
    Critics believe that Japan is trying hard to win favour with the US on trade issues by downplaying the scale of the climate question and possible solutions to it…

    “The story, based on a draft of the communiqué, shows Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a weak host and his G20 climate promises are full of hot air, undermining his previous claims that he seeks to save the planet.” said Kimiko Hirata, director of the Kiko Network Japan, a non-governmental organisation.

    “Japan, alongside China, is the biggest financier of coal overseas in the world and the government continues to build new coal plants domestically despite our huge solar and wind power potential.”
    As well as Japan, other leading economies are continuing to support coal based power generation. A study released by the Overseas Development Institute says that G20 nations have almost tripled the subsidies given to coal fired plants in recent years, despite the growing need to cut emissions.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48746137

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      theRealUniverse

      “As well as Japan, other leading economies are continuing to support coal based power generation.” Yes they have figured out that either:
      1. CO2 zero emissions in a non reality.
      2. CO2 heating the planet is a scam.
      3. Real power needs REAL solutions not namby pamby trendy windmills taking up valuable real-estate.
      4. Someone in their govts actually thinks or has more than one brain cell.
      5. All of the above.

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      • #
        theRealUniverse

        “Thirdly, a draft text from the G20 summit in Japan later this week waters down commitments to tackle warming.”
        Funny, ironic, it was in Japan Kyoto that was a main conference and the instigator of the protocol that pushed the ‘decarbonization’ scam.

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  • #
    pat

    26 Jun: The Hill: ‘Unmasker in Chief’ Samantha Power spewed anti-Trump bias in government emails
    by John Solomon
    Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power may share an unflattering stage with a text-loving FBI agent and his Donald Trump-hating paramour from the bureau…
    It turns out that Power — the diplomat whose authority inexplicably was used to unmask hundreds of Americans’ names in secret intelligence reports during the 2016 election — engaged in similar Trump-bashing on her official government email, according to documents unearthed by an American Center for Law and Justice lawsuit. The conservative legal group is run by Trump defense attorney Jay Sekulow…

    After Trump stunned the world with his general election win over Hillary Clinton, the observations of Power and those emailing her on her official government account turned more vitriolic…

    ***When Trump announced his intent to withdraw the U.S. from a global climate deal, Power emailed a colleague: “Lord help us all.”…

    One thing clear from Power’s emails is an effort to turn a burgeoning Russia scandal against Trump during her final days in office…
    https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/450490-unmasker-in-chief-samantha-power-spewed-anti-trump-bias-in-government

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      pat

      ***reminder of what is at stake:

      6 Jun: Bloomberg: Green Finance Is Now $31 Trillion and Growing
      By Reed Landberg, Annie Massa and Demetrios Pogkas
      Money is gushing into any kind of asset labeled green or sustainable. The frenzy now has investors and firms alike grappling with what counts as “green finance” — and with funds that are no longer seen as green enough.
      At least $30.7 trillion of funds is held in sustainable or green investments, up 34% from 2016, according to a report by the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, a group of organizations tracking those moves in five regions from the U.S. to Australia
      The shift comes even as U.S. President Donald Trump loosens environment and climate change regulations and promotes rules benefitting polluters…

      Renewables developers have drawn in ***pension funds to back new projects, offering securities with steady yields backed by contracts to sell electricity. That helped create a market for green bonds and loans that barely existed a few years ago, as BloombergNEF data show…
      https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-green-finance/

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      • #
        Maptram

        Investors in these green or sustainable funds should be hoping the funds haven’t invested in companies like Windlab. Windlab is an ASX listed company (Code WND) initial share price $1, now $0.75. Windlab builds wind farms, solar farms and renewable energy storage. Two wind projects are currently delayed for various reasons. The company recently increased its debt facility with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation from $3 million to $10 million.

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    pat

    looks like everyone is loving it:

    26 Jun: ABC: European authorities issue heatwave warnings as temperatures rise across the continent
    by ABC/Wires
    The heatwave has revived memories in France of August 2003, when the searing heat overwhelmed hospitals and caused the deaths of some 15,000 people, mostly the elderly…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-26/european-heat-wave-tourists-animals/11247250

    can’s see any of this Australian story on theirABC:

    27 Jun: NthQldRegister: Cold snap sees temperatures fall to lowest levels in decades in some centres
    by Gregor Heard
    Glen Innes on the New England tablelands in NSW saw the temperature plummet to -8.6 degrees last Thursday, while in Coonawarra, South Australia on the same day the mercury dropped to a 37 year low at -3.8…
    The duration of the cold spell was notable, hanging around for around a week in many centres…
    Kanagulk, in Victoria’s southern Wimmera, registered seven consecutive nights with temperatures below 2 degrees, the most since the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) weather station opened there 15 years ago, while nearby Edenhope had six nights below zero, the most since it opened 14 years ago…

    The cold temperatures pushed up into Queensland, with Roma recording a toe-curling -4.8 on June 22.
    In Victoria, June 24 was the coldest night, with centres such as Horsham, Ararat and Mortlake recording their coldest June night since the notorious run of frosts 13 years ago in 2006…
    Lowland parts of NSW were not spared the cold conditions, with -4.6 recorded at both Narrabri and Dubbo…
    https://www.northqueenslandregister.com.au/story/6243831/cold-snap-bites-hard-with-coldest-temps-in-decades-recorded/?cs=4751

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    pat

    27 Jun: DailyMail: June could be a record-breaker! Saturday could be hottest June day ever with temperatures topping 96F high as Met Office warns vulnerable people to stay out of the sun
    •Saharan Bubble that has scorched Europe is finally bringing Sunshine to the UK with 75F so far today
    •Beach-goers were out in force in Boscombe near Bournemouth as Glastonbury started to slap on sun cream
    •Three-day heatwave could see Britain’s hottest June day ever on Saturday, beating ***1976 record of 96F (35.6C)…
    •Met Office warns vulnerable people could die following 2003 heatwave when 2,000 people died in 10 days
    By Lara Keay and Chris Pleasance
    Summer is finally on its away as the clouds clear…
    Coastal areas in the north east of England and Scotland will be cheated out of the good weather, with easterly winds meaning they get highs of just 53F (12C) while the rest of the country boils.

    It will still be a heatwave, however, as long as London reaches 82F (28C), the south east 80F (27C) and the rest of the country 78F (26C) or 77F (25C), according to the Met Office criteria…

    On Sunday northern England and Scotland will see a switch of conditions, with western coasts getting the cold winds experienced by the east and vice versa.
    The Western Isles will feel extremely chilly for the time of year…

    Tomorrow western areas will have above average temperatures, with the Met Office predicting below average in the east.
    As the week progresses, the heatwave will shift from west to east, leaving Belfast, Cardiff and Bristol in the cold by the weekend…

    Disgruntled commuters took to Twitter to express their disbelief at the terrible weather this morning, with one writing: ‘Tell me again, what month is it? Stood at the bus stop in a rain coat with my hood up.’
    Another user tweeted: ‘What is this summer? It’s f****** summer and it’s just rain.’…

    France’s national meteorological service has found an average annual difference between Paris and surrounding rural areas on the order of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (4 – 5 degrees Fahrenheit).
    During a heatwave, the difference ‘can reach close to 10 degrees Celsius’, said Meteo-France…
    A study published in a March 2018 issue of Physical Review Letters found that the more a city is designed into a square grid pattern, the more it traps heat…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7182327/Britain-BOIL-Commuters-face-muggy-slog-work-Saharan-Bubble-turns-heat-UK.html

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    pat

    6 March: ABC: Why heatwaves are the deadliest of Australia’s extreme weather and how you can cope
    ABC Life / By Amanda Collier
    The summer of 2018-19 has been the hottest ever recorded, bringing heatwaves to a number of regions across the country.
    Heatwaves are defined by the Bureau of Meteorology as three or more days of unusually high maximum and above average minimum temperatures…

    We asked members of the ABC Weather Obsessed Facebook group to share their stories of living through heatwaves. The stories they shared from across the decades put a very human face to the phenomenon.
    ‘I thought I was gonna die’…
    ‘I lost consciousness’…
    https://www.abc.net.au/life/heatwaves-the-deadliest-of-extreme-weather/10825580

    below – Related:

    18 Jan 2018: ABC: Heatwaves are Australia’s deadliest natural hazard and many of us are unprepared
    The Conversation By Andrew Gissing and Lucinda Coates, Macquarie University
    Australia has a long history of deadly heatwaves
    An extraordinary heatwave occurred between October 1895 to January 1896 that impacted nearly the entire continent but especially the interior. PerilAUS records 435 deaths, 89 per cent of them within New South Wales.
    Deaths also occurred in South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland. Bourke, in NSW, lost 1.6 per cent of its population to the heat: temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius in the shade were already being recorded in October, mid-spring…

    In 2009, new records of three consecutive days over 43C in Melbourne and eight over 40C in Adelaide were set…
    There is no reason why a deadly heatwave could not strike Australia again this summer, and there’s at least some evidence that the frequency of heatwaves in Australia is increasing…

    Unfortunately, deadly heatwaves are part of Australia’s summer, and it’s likely they will worsen under climate change.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-18/heatwaves-australias-deadliest-hazard-why-you-need-plan/9338918

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    Geoffrey Williams

    I’m afraid to say but the global warming monster is now all over globe and renwable energy is just one of it’s many tentacles. Left wing governments everwhere are doing their utmost to outdo each other with greater and greater measures to achieve carbon free/neutral economies and save the planet. And after generations of brainwashing, the young people of these nations are all embracing it.
    Unfortunately we cannot stop the surge of this vast sunami it is already upon us.Just bunker down and let it pass overas bezt we can. In future years we will count the cost of this maddness. All nations will take a hit and the poorer ones most of all with huge ramifications for hunger and poverty. In Australia we should be enjoying the benefits that should come from a wealthy economy. It wont happen now, and instead we will survive with only a mediocre one at best. Our wealthy assets of farming, raw materials and cheap energy will be gone, blown away by a succession of green left wing socialist and inept governments completely out of touch with reality.
    GeoffW

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      KinkyKeith

      True Geoff, at my age I can’t imagine I’ll see the end of it, it’s too well embedded.

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    Maptram

    Great, get home from work on those record hot days that the climate scientists are predicting we will have because of climate change, the days that the likes of the IPCC are predicting will increase the risk of heat related illness and death, and don’t turn on the airconditioner to save $10.

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    Terry

    It is clear that a modern, First World energy grid cannot accommodate such abject stupidity.

    We are going to need two grids. Yes, (very) expensive but far less than that which the eco-zealots would place on a single grid.

    So, the first grid, based on cheap and reliable Coal, Nuke, Gas & Oil is where I’ll be staying (thanks very much).

    The second will be reserved for our moral superiors. Entirely at their expense, of course. Fair is fair. They wouldn’t want to be sharing their virture anyway, would they?

    They can freeze in the dark, warmed only by the loving gaze of Gaia’s glow of virtue as they chill in noble piety for the sake of the planet, waiting for the wind to blow and the sun to shine.

    Of course, that will be cold comfort given they will have nothing to harness those sources without the fossil-fuel-built wind turbines and solar panels, but hey, don’t ruin their circus of sanctimony with brutal facts and harsh realities.

    I am happy for the snow flakes to melt as they see fit. Just do it quietly and without my time, money and energy.

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    Robber

    What can you trust to provide reliable electricity?
    Thanks to Tony who has recorded highs, lows and averages of electricity supply on a daily basis since January 2019, the results are clear:
    Average demand has been 23.0 GW, but on a daily basis that has varied from 19.3-29.5 GW, with the lowest daily minimum overnight 16.5 GW and the highest daily evening maximum 34.0 GW.
    Coal has delivered daily minimums ranging from 12.6-17.1 GW in response to demand, and daily maximums ranging from 16.3-20.6 GW.
    Unreliable, unresponsive wind has delivered a daily minimum of just 0.13 GW and a maximum of 4.0 GW, average 1.7 GW, lowest week 0.9 GW.
    The lights stay on thanks to coal delivering a reliable 70% of demand, with the gaps filled in with gas varying from 0.5-7.2 GW and hydro 0.4-5.9 GW.
    Those three sources must absolutely be ready to meet 100% of peak demand when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Just think of all the $$$$$$ that could have been saved if investments in unreliables had been avoided.

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    Robber

    What a surprise: “Coal Shutdown to hit State hard” by Perry Williams.
    “Australia’s power grid operator has warned of new market risks from the retirement of coal-fired power plants in Victoria, which could require a bigger shift to renewables and increased transmission links with NSW to ensure stable supplies.”
    “Options in Victoria — which has a renewable energy target of 50 per cent by 2030 — include unlocking new clean electricity supplies and boosting transmission investment.” (Isn’t Liddell to close in NSW in 2022?)
    Blind Freddy can see that more intermittent renewables, more coal shutdowns in the Latrobe Valley, no new gas or hydro, must result in decreased reliability.
    In June, generation in Victoria included 3.8-4.2 GW from coal, 0-1.0 GW from gas, 0-0.5 GW from hydro, 0-1.0 GW from wind, and 0-1.0 GW from solar. That is occasionally supplemented with 0.5 GW from SA gas, 0.3 GW from Tas hydro and 0.5 GW from NSW to meet demand that varies from 5-7 GW. Doubling wind/solar to deliver a further 0-2 GW (additional nameplate capacity of 10 GW) will not help reliability without massive additional storage.

    Reliable electricity supply is doomed unless governments insist that every new intermittent wind or solar generator must be able to deliver dispatchable power.

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    Zane

    Climate carpetbaggers like Al Gore should be locked up.

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    Zane

    This is a job for the Federal Government, or Superman.

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    Zane

    Daniel Andrews can’t wait to shut down ” dirty ” Yallourn. Imagine how many extra votes that will get him in North Fitzroy!

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    Zane

    The Guardian seems to have gone a whole day without a Climate Emergency story, even the water shortages in Chennai are not being spun as CC. Then again, the Grauniad also deems the G20 summit unnewsworthy. Not a peep about the Trump-Xi show out of them.

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    Zane

    ” Grandpa, what was electricity? “

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    John

    I hear a lot of people say the prices rises have nothing to do with renewables, and that it’s maintenance of aging infrastructure, and unnecessary “gold plating” works that have led to price rises?

    00