It has been a while since my last blog.  Much as happened and there will be a number of interesting IES Press Releases over the next few months so watch out.

So the Cancun climate conference has come and gone.  Did you notice?  How much did you know about it?  Do you know what was agreed?  What will be the lasting impact of the conference?

I come back to Cancun.

In the meantime Northern Europe has had a very cold start to the winter.  Climate Change?  One winter won’t make swallows extinct but what if we see a succession of harsh winters…….

The UK was particularly badly hit.  The UK Meteorological Office reported:

• UK average temperature was -1°C, the coldest since records began in 1910 and the first time December’s average monthly temperature was below freezing.
• The coldest day was 1^st of December with an average UK temperature of -8.7°C.

Nevertheless it appears that 2010 was the second warmest in term if global temperature based upon satellite measurements.

We are also seeing unseasonable flooding in Queensland, hopefully the swallows won’t drown.

Can we keep ignoring this catalogue of extreme events that we have been seeing for the last few years around the world?  Well as a matter of fact we can.  Let’s go back to Cancun.

The reports I have seen have said that the Mexican hosts did a great job at pulling together an agreement.  By the sound of it they did well.  But not to belittle the effort what was agreed?

The draft agreement says that deeper cuts in carbon emissions are required, but it did not suggest a mechanism for achieving the pledges countries have made.  There appears to have been much cheering at this ‘progress’.

The attitude appears to be that the global economy is our immediate problem.  Climate Change can be dealt with by the next government.  I can understand this rational.  But if our respective Governments had controlled the banks and the people making a fortune out of helping many people into debt then we would not have these economic problems.

Now if our Governments will not act to mitigate climate change, and remember they do agree about the likely consequences of climate change, then I fear they will have a much greater economic disaster to ‘manage’.

Have a Happy New Year.