“ON June 22, Poland opposed all the other EU countries to block the conclusions of the EU environmental ministers council. Were it not for Poland’s opposition, the council would have adopted stricter carbon emission targets, endorsing the commission’s 2050 Roadmap calling for a 40 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030, a 60 percent cut by 2040 and a 80 percent cut by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.
“Just days before, Brussels audiences were shocked to hear a statement from the EU budget commissioner, Poland’s Janusz Lewandowski, who declared to national media: ‘We already have overambitious agreements on CO2 emission reduction. There is a notion that the thesis that coal energy is the main cause of global warming is highly questionable. Moreover, more and more often there is a question mark put over the whole [issue of] global warming as such.’
“Such reactions were not unpredictable for Poles: inside the largest of the new member states, scepticism towards climate change science and defiance of the EU climate and energy package has predominated in governmental and mainstream media discourses for months…
Read more here: http://euobserver.com/9/32570
Coal-friendly Poland: a bad climate leader for the EU by Kuba Gogolewski, June 30, 2011
Via Benny Peiser
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
Looks like the EU environmental thought police got to him in the end:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8610998/Polands-EU-budget-commissioner-in-climate-change-controversy.html
Simon,
notice he didn’t use the terms AGW, Climate Change, Climate Confusion… He simply admitted to global warming. He is right, most people believe the earth has warmed. The argument is how much, over what periods, what causes it, and whether it is a problem. His statement did not cover any of that!!! When the Alarmists realize this they will probably hound him for more concessions!!
Global warming was real, no question about that, the man deserves a medal for trying to introduce intellectual reasoning into the discussion.
J Storrs Hall in a guest post at Watts argues that at the end of every downturn there is a rise in temperatures which lasts around 250 years.
This has happened ten times throughout the Holocene and he presents this graph to illustrate.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/spikes.png
Poland’s also looking at fracking for natural gas. Which also upsets the eco-whackos.
They’re probably tied in with the Russians and Gazprom, to protect Russia’s exports of natural gas.
Poland also has a deal to supply coal to Germany’s 26 new coal fired power stations.
“They’re probably tied in with the Russians and Gazprom, to protect Russia’s exports of natural gas”
Yes, indeedy
In the early 80’s, the Polish coal miners went on a prolonged strike during the Northern Hemisphere winter period
During this period, I was shown a time series of night time satellite photos of Northern Europe (24 hour cycles). One could see the lights going out across Northern Europe in falling domino fashion. Every city that lost power represented many hundred thousand to millions of people freezing in the dark
The choice now is between Polish coal, French nuclear power or Russian methane (LNG). Marketing these various sources is now hard-ball
@ kuhnkat…
You are right. This is where the terminology continues to obfuscate. When Mr Lewandowski used the term “confirm the phenomenon of global warming”, I would assume most people would interpret this to mean dangerous anthropogenic global warming. Even if he was being clever by saying but not saying, I’m afraid I still have to see this as a “win” for the alarmists.
Relevant newspaper report:
“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8612716/Proof-that-the-Government-is-tilting-at-windmills.html”
The article doesn’t say by WHOM this was initially reported, so I haven’t checked the accuracy of the core story. Running base load gas power to insure against the vagaries of windmills is behind the NSW and Vic desal plants, however. This is also the reason that coal-fired stations will be kept on line, along with the need to insure against the unpredictability of solar power during daylight hours and the absolute zero output of solar during night time
Ian, also because quite often nearly half of Tas power is coming from brown coal in Vic by way of the HTDC cable across Bass Strait.
Very reliable stuff this “renewable” energy.
“Very reliable stuff this “renewable” energy”
That’s why I labelled it renewabubbles some years ago – comic book bubble thoughts
For those who still wonder why the Greens push renewabubbles so relentlessly, against all empirical evidence that they (wind and solar) are disastrously unreliable and expensive as base load supplies, the short answer is that the Greens do NOT care
My recent question to a card-carrying Greenie member: “Pursuing your way, the lights will go out ?” Answer: “I don’t care”