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Climate change: a renewed commitment

  • by JW

“But acting will cost money. Technical innovation alone will not save the day, as Vallance underlined.”

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Two days ago, the government’s chief scientific advisor led a briefing to MPs, as covered in the Mail:

‘To give three observational facts… the world is warmer than it was, the CO2 levels in the atmosphere are higher than they have ever been, and extreme weather events are more common than before all this happened. That’s what we face, and the aim of this briefing… is to speak about the science.’

Sir Patrick Vallance warns MPs that we will be plunged into crisis due to impacts of climate change | Daily Mail Online

As the Times has said over the last couple of days:

Hot summers long ago are no evidence against climate change | Register | The Times

Climate change reality grows clearer each year | Register | The Times

Would the new PM consider bringing in a carbon tax? 

Explainer: Which countries have introduced a carbon tax? | World Economic Forum

Here’s Will Hutton in today’s Guardian:

But acting will cost money. Technical innovation alone will not save the day, as Vallance underlined. The independent Climate Change Committee has estimated the annual cost at £50bn; the Treasury thinks it could be £70bn. And for the political right, this is the non-negotiable objection. Collective action is anathema: it smacks of enlarging the state, and of course implies an accompanying case for taxation, the ultimate in coercive intrusion into personal choice. The science is thus to be doubted: a Trojan horse to undermine these higher inalienable truths.

Heatwave? No, it’s a national emergency, disrupting lives and threatening our health | Will Hutton | The Guardian

Meanwhile, there has been a change of direction down under:

Pacific leaders welcome Australia’s ‘renewed commitment’ to climate change | Australia news | The Guardian

As this is indeed a global issue:

Opinion | Global heat waves should be a climate change warning – The Washington Post