The Labour Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, who was the first city mayor brave enough to declare a climate crisis in the UK, has fulfilled his moral duty to save the planet by hopping on a nine hour flight to Canada and lecturing his fellow political leaders on the dangers of pumping carbon into the atmosphere. Appearing as a speaker at the TED climate conference, Rees’ spokesperson said he was there “to share ideas and help change attitudes” on climate policies. Presumably “use Zoom more often” wasn’t one of those ideas…

Climate campaigners are already claiming Rees’ flight pumped out 2.016 tonnes of CO2 per passenger, travelling over 4,600 miles each way to tell everyone to stop using so much carbon. Apparently he had to be there in person because he had “a full agenda”:

“[Rees] has been clear – the fight against climate change will be won or lost in cities, which generate three-quarters of global carbon emissions. And it is therefore the duty of city leaders to come together… the mayor’s visit to Vancouver was not just to deliver the talk. He had a full agenda…At the conference he was able to network with other influential speakers, sharing Bristol’s story and challenges with the aim of attracting future funding and inward investment.”

To be fair to Rees, he’s got to take advantage of all these flashy trips while he can; his own city voted to abolish the mayoralty earlier this month. Two more years and he’s out of a job. Bristol’s own extinction rebellion…

Guido’s co-conspirator at Sky News reckons the dire Daily Climate Show has been axed from the evening schedule with immediate affect. The tedious show consistently cratered the viewing figures and virtually guaranteed viewers would switch channels. With Sky News now consistently being beaten by GB News into third place in the primetime ratings battle, this is evidence that they are feeling the competition.  It would seem that Sky News boss John Ryley has woken up to the competition…

The Daily Climate Show will be reduced to just 10 minutes and will air at the very much off-peak time of 3.30pm in the afternoon. A weekly half hour climate show will also play out once a week from July – only to be aired at weekends when no one is watching. Turns out that the willing audience for scaremongering propaganda was non-existent…

See also Sky News Doomsday Climate Report Flooded with Misleading Sea Rise Claims 

Despite the SNP’s usual claims about Scotland’s ‘world-leading’ climate change efforts, a new report co-authored by Scottish government officials and Newcastle University has found the SNP have ignored more than a third of the recommendations put forward by their own ‘Climate Assembly’ on environmental policies. More broadly, the report says there is “no evidence” that the assembly’s work has influenced government policy. Somehow SNP Net Zero Secretary Michael Matheson says he’s still “exceedingly proud” of the work…

The Assembly published 81 recommendations to the Scottish government back in June, with Sturgeon claiming she was “delighted to support this package of recommendations” in the government’s response in December. Looking at those recommendations the report finds:

“A third of recommendations appear to broadly match existing or planned policy, with around a fifth being explored by government in some way albeit with no commitment to implementing… Over a third of recommendations include policy that will not be taken forward. Whilst 14 recommendations relate to UK Government reserved matters, the Scottish Government committed to contacting the UK Government about these, and has done so.”

“Member survey results indicate that between the end of the main assembly period and after receiving the government response, there was a decline in members’ confidence in the Scottish Government taking the assembly seriously.”

This isn’t the first time the SNP have paid lip service to environmentalism, only to then sit on their hands. Just last month, the Climate Change Committee accused them of “hollow rhetoric” and failing to deliver on policies. Now it’s happened again – from officials within their own government. If the SNP doesn’t actually believe in radical green policies, it should say so. Guido would be glad to listen. Instead, it looks like they’re happy to promise “transformational actions”, and then blame Westminster when they realise it’s impractical…

Boris has just wrapped up his speech at the Global Investment Summit, outlining the government’s green agenda ahead of COP26 and stressing the UK’s commitment to a net zero future. “Coal, cars, cash and trees” is the refrain you can expect to hear a lot in the next few weeks. Guido’s had his doubts (to say the least) about the benefits of COP and the plans for net zero, although an acknowledgement that the “innovation” and “capitalism” behind the vaccine development should be an important lesson for climate action is bare minimum red meat from a Tory government.

As usual, Boris speech drew on some interesting cultural references to drive home his point, including Eddie Murphy’s Trading Places and Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. One line is getting more pick-up than the others, however:

“We have a cultural and media footprint so massive that Peppa Pig is – which I know a lot about at the moment – is teaching kids in America to say ‘tomato’ and ‘petrol’ and ‘mummy’ instead of ‘mom’, apparently…”

Hopefully Peppa doesn’t face being culled like her fellow pork pals…

The annual Climate Transparency Report has been released for 2021, and it’s not great news for Europe: not only are their per capita emissions higher than the G20 average (7.9 to 7.5), their overall climate commitments have been dubbed “insufficient” and in need of “substantial improvements“:

“The EU’s climate policies and commitments need substantial improvements to be consistent with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature limit […] The EU is not meeting its ‘fairshare’ contributions to climate action.”

Grim reading for Ursula von der Leyen, who promised in July that the EU is “ready to lead the way” on climate action. Although perhaps she has less to answer for than liberal golden child Justin Trudeau; Canada’s emissions are still 2.6x higher than the G20 average…

Despite being constantly painted as the world’s bad guy, the UK still scored an overall rating of “almost sufficient” and remains “the only G20 member with a domestic target that aligns with a 1.5°C modelled domestic pathway in 2030″. The report also says the UK boasts lower per capita emissions than the G20 average, 6.8 to 7.5. Worth bearing in mind the next time Extinction Rebellion smash windows or Insulate Britain glue themselves to the motorway…

Doom-mongering journalists at Sky News are reporting unsubstantiated graphic claims that London is on course to be flooded, illustrated with an image of Buckingham Palace in 3 metres of water. The only thing that is flooded is the report – flooded with misleading climate claims. Using graphics from hyperbolic campaign group, Climate Central, Sky News implies that famous world sites including Buckingham Palace, the Burj Khalifa and the Lincoln Memorial will be completely flooded by water due to fast rising sea levels if the UK fails to halve annual emissions by 2030. Hardly water tight journalism… 

The image used by Sky News shows water reaching near the top of the 3 metre high fence surrounding Buckingham Palace. According to elevation maps Buckingham Palace is itself some 17 metres above sea level, which means for the image to be a realistic representation of any scenario, the sea level would have to rise some 20 metres from where it is now. This is just not feasible, it is not scientific, it is fake news.

Worst case scenario predictions from reputable climate researchers are well off these apocalyptic predictions. In high emission climate scenarios, sea levels are expected to rise by around 77 cm above the 1995-2014 average by the year 2100. In lower emissions scenarios sea levels are forecast to rise 38 cm by 2100. Similarly the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts sea levels will rise by 30 cm to 90 cm on average by 2100, with most coastal locations experiencing a sea level rise within 20% of this projection. No reputable source’s climate scenario predicts that tourists will need life jackets in order to get a picture next to Buckingham Palace…

Sky News is submerging viewers in end-of-days fantasies that create damaging climate anxiety in children. Co-conspirators can rest easy knowing that this climate alarmism is nonsense. Don’t let the doomsters get you down!