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January 31, 2025 at 01:03PM

“Heartland’s immediate success in the UK/EU reflects a ready opportunity to dial back climate exaggeration and undo forced energy transformation…. Call it “social justice,” a movement that DeSmog continues to promote (unintendedly) through its truth bombs.”

Great news! As reported by DeSmog, James Taylor and the Heartland Institute are off to a resounding start with their new offices in the UK/EU. What a return on investment for donors–and reason to attract more philanthropy to help consumers, taxpayers, and a greener environment.

As DeSmog previously reported, Heartland last December announced that the new branch would provide “resources to conservative policymakers throughout Europe.” And the early results are in, detailed by Sam Bright and Clare Carlile in “U.S. Climate Denial Group Using Far-Right to Attack EU Green Policies” (January 22, 2025). Excerpts follow:

The pro-Trump Heartland Institute claims it spearheaded opposition to a flagship European nature law.

In a post on its website published on 10 January, the Heartland Institute claimed that it helped to encourage Hungarian lawmakers to withdraw their support for the legislation in March. The Nature Restoration Law, which eventually passed in June, sets targets for restoring degraded ecosystems, habitats, and species across the EU.

The Heartland Institute claims that it was assisted by Austrian Members of European Parliament (MEPs) Harald Vilimsky and Roman Haider, who represent the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and have forged close ties with the institute in recent years. 

Results!

Following several meetings between Vilimsky, Haider, and Heartland Institute president James Taylor, the latter was invited in March to speak in the European Parliament. 

“During the session, Taylor explained why there is no climate crisis according to the best available data, and he warned of the economic, political, and geopolitical suicide that net zero would bring,” the Heartland blog post states. “After the session, Taylor met informally with many of the Hungarian MEPs, continuing the conversation over dinner.”

Csaba Molnar, an MEP for the Hungarian Democratic Coalition, told DeSmog it is “more than plausible” that Hungary withdrew its support for the Nature Restoration Law due to the influence of the Heartland Institute. 

Continuing:

Vilimsky and Haider are vocal opponents of EU climate policies – known as the Green Deal – and have called into question long-established climate science. Vilimsky has called the EU Green Deal “eco totalitarianism” and has claimed its supporters are the “eco Taliban,” while Haider has called the climate crisis “conceited bullshit”….

The full article should be read. The bad guys and gals do not like Heartland.

Final Comment

Heartland’s project to export intellectual advocacy is still in early days, but its immediate success in the UK/EU reflects a ready opportunity to dial back climate exaggeration and reject forced energy transformation. The elitist Climate Industrial Complex is out of excuses for wasting resources in a false cause. Call it “social justice,” a movement that DeSmog continues to promote (unintendedly) through its truth bombs.

The Cato Institute has a Friedman Prize every other year for the international figure that has done most to advance liberty. With results like this, the responsible figure(s) of the Heartland Institute should be a candidate for the award for their US/UK/EU work on energy and climate.

The post Heartland Institute in the UK/EU: Guilty as Charged! (DeSmog backfire) appeared first on Master Resource.

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January 31, 2025 at 12:32PM

By Paul Homewood

 

 

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The UK is now officially committed to cutting emissions by 81% from 1990 levels by 2035.

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According to the Telegraph:

Ed Miliband has promised Britain will slash its climate emissions by more than 60pc by 2035 in a move that risks direct conflict with Rachel Reeves’s airport expansion plans.

The Energy Secretary has told the United Nations that the UK will cut its emissions, including from aviation, from 393m tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2023 to 155m tonnes in 2035 – a 61pc reduction.

The 2023 figure excludes emissions from international aviation. However, Mr Miliband made clear that the UK aviation industry must now join with other sectors in making sharp cuts in emissions.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/miliband-vows-halve-uk-emissions-060000697.html

The target, which is now officially part of the UK’s Paris Agreement NDC, is formally a cut of 81% from 1990 levels. These are the current emission statistics:

So what would a cut like this entail?

DESNZ updated its Emissions Projections a month ago, based on what they call the Reference Case. This takes account of any policies that, as of June 2024, have either been implemented or those that are planned where the level of funding has been agreed and the policy design is near final. They project a cut in all GHG emissions, incl shipping/aviation, from 431 MtCO2 in 2023 to 349 MTCO2 in 2035.

In other words, the new target is less than half those projections for 2035.

Most of the savings already projected are centred around electricity generation and transport – 39 and 41 MtCO2 respectively. These reflect the previous government’s 2035 Clean Power targets, (rather than Labour’s 2030 ones) and the various ZEV mandates already in force.

This raises the question of where an additional saving of 194 MtCO2 can come from. The chart below shows how the existing projection of 349 MtCO2 is made up:

 

There is little room for more savings in the power sector (Energy Supply), given that there will still be a need for gas back up. The projections already assume a doubling of renewable electricity generation.

Neither is there any more scope for transport savings, which the ZEV Mandate is already maximising.

Given the pathetically low number of heat pump installations – 60,000 last year – only an immediate ban on gas boiler sales would make a dent in residential emissions, currently 54 MtCO2 and projected to actually rise by 2035.

So where else can savings be made?

Neither industry or agriculture has the money to invest in energy transition, even if it wanted to or could do. Only shutdown of industry and farming would make any substantial cuts in emissions.

Gummer has already come and said that sustainable fuel will make little difference to aviation The Government recently announced a Sustainable Fuel Mandate obliging airlines to use 2pc SAF in 2025 rising to 22pc by 2040, but this will do little more than offset increased air travel.

The other sectors are to small to make any real difference.

The Government has committed the UK to this new target, without having the faintest idea of how to achieve it.

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January 31, 2025 at 12:10PM

The update on the Arctic sea-ice is a bit over time, the Actic sea-ice minimum occurred at the beginning of September of last year. Let’s start with an update of the volume data.

This is the data plotted without trendlines. The 2024 value is lower than the previous year and on par with 2019:

Let’s draw some trendlines. This is the linear trend which doesn’t fit that well, but is rather scary looking:

This is the cubic trend, which fits much more snugly:

Comparing it with the doom prediction of a 2015 iceless Arctic (which sparked my interest in the Arctic trend) clearly shows that something surely happened in the meanwhile:

Now the same for the extent data. The minimum value of 2024 is higher than the previous year, but just barely:

Here is the scary linear trend:

Also here, the cubic trend is fitting much better:

Finally a comparison with a death spiral scenario similar to that of the volume:

Although the Arctic sea-ice minimum extent as well as volume remain among the lowest, there is a trend break from the rapid decline between 2007 and 2012 that gave rise to a barrage of doom claims. The minimum extent as well as volume stay remarkably stable over the last eleven years.

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January 31, 2025 at 11:39AM