Just picked up this rather wonderful Ladybird book on "Conservation: Energy" from a charity shop.

It was published in 1981 and gives us a fascinating reminder of how energy was explained to children at that time.

No mention of climate change, but lots of other nuggets...

🧵1/9 "This book is about energy and the effect it has on our lives"

"We will probably have less fossil fuel energy to use in the future"

2/9

🧵

On Sunday, during an interview w/ @bbclaurak, the UK prime minister @RishiSunak, said that "all our analysis says" the UK will meet its legally binding carbon budgets.

I asked the govt to clarify what analysis he was referring to.

It pointed me to analysis from March.

1/5 This is the analysis...



The govt also explained that it was "on track" to meet the third budget (2018-22)

And it issued this statement to me gov.uk/government/pub…

+WOW+

As ever, the @IISD_ENB summary of IPCC plenary negotiations is *fascinating*.

They give you a rare insight into the haggling between countries over EACH WORD.

See this bit on "the opening sentence quantifying the total human-caused global surface temperature increase"?! @IISD_ENB And this on "historical cumulative net CO2 emissions"?!

The Daily Mail has decided to relegate news of the new IPCC scientific report about climate change to...

...the bottom of p19 underneath a story about a "parking row" in Dorset

...but it does find space to attack "climate hysteria" in an editorial In stark contrast, the Guardian carries the story on its frontpage (and the whole of p2)

Plus devotes its lead editorial to the subject

For the first-time ever - it was removed at last moment in Glasgow - a COP cover decision includes the term "nature-based solutions" - and a dedicated section on "forest" That's from the CMA (Paris Agreement) cover decision.

The wording is slightly different in the CP (meeting of the Convention) cover decision - and includes "Agriculture"

UK prime minister @RishiSunak has just arrived at launch of the Forests and Climate Leaders' Partnership at #COP27

The UK is committing "£90m today for conservation in the Congo Basin" and a further £65m for "nature" fund which supports Indigenous and local forest communities @RishiSunak

The messaging nations choose to promote at their pavilions at COPs is always fascinating. Here's the US pavilion at #COP27 Here's India next door to the US...

. @grahamstuart is UK's new climate minister (and will attend cabinet):

"Climate change is no doubt one of the greatest challenges we will face in this lifetime, and I share your views on the importance and urgency of action needed on this issue."

grahamstuart.com/campaigns/help… @grahamstuart Interesting to note Stuart's focus on green job creation in his region

In 2014, Jacob Rees-Mogg - now rumoured to be the next business/energy secretary - refused to join a ‘fracking education’ tour of his NE Somerset constituency saying he already knew the geology of the area from William Smith’s 1799 map.

This is that map... It's certainly going to be interesting to see how Rees-Mogg deals with his constituents when they learn that the prospect of fracking the Mendips is back on under his watch. To say there are concerns about how it would affect water running under Mendips would be an understatement

You will no doubt have seen climate sceptics sharing this comparative image below in an attempt to say the media is "manipulating" us to be alarmed about the extraordinary heatwave.

But, as ever, it's the sceptics who are doing the manipulating. Let me explain how...

THREAD 1/4 You can see straight away that the weather maps are from different TV channels in Germany.

The top one (Hessischer Rundfunk, 21/6/2017) is showing a topographical map (mountains, rivers, etc), unlike the lower one (ARD/Das Erste, 21/6/2022) which is showing a heatmap...

So the ‘net zero scrutiny’ group of climate-sceptic Tory MPs has finally revealed names and numbers in today’s Sunday Telegraph.

The most interesting thing tho is not their line of argument ("more fossil fuels!") but just how small the group is - only 20 (usual suspect) people Note how they don’t lay out how they think the UK should meet its legally binding net-zero goal. Why are they not just being brave enough to admit to their constituents their anti-science ideology (check their views on Covid) mean they don’t think climate change is a problem?

This is an ESSENTIAL read by the @IISD_ENB about which countries tried to make which changes to the IPCC WG1 summary for policymakers.

You won't be surprised to learn that Saudi Arabia tried HARD to change the scientists' wording.

For example...

enb.iisd.org/climate/IPCC/I… @IISD_ENB On mention of net-zero...

Here are how the UK national newspapers have reacted to the IPCC report via their editorials.

First up, the Times... The Daily Mail...

The Daily Express...

Dec 2009 vs today Today's Daily Express really is something to behold (esp given the paper's 'previous' on climate change)...

"We need to change our mindset…Over the coming months, the Daily Express will highlights the problems and point to solutions"

BBC News has a special focus on coal throughout today.

This new article by @BBCJustinR quotes @CarbonBrief analysis by @DrSimEvans

"Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels"

bbc.co.uk/news/science-e… @BBCJustinR @CarbonBrief @DrSimEvans Here's another story by @BBCJustinR

bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

Remember that eye-catching Science paper back in July by @bast_jief et al which attracted headlines about how tree-planting had "mind-blowing potential" for tackling climate change?

Well, @sciencemagazine has now published 4x critical responses...

theguardian.com/environment/20… . @SimonLLewis @ProfMarkMaslin et al say in their response that the original paper’s claim that the “restoration potential of new forests globally is 205 gigatonnes of carbon” is “incorrect”.

science.sciencemag.org/content/366/64…

+BREAKING+

The Guardian's editor has just issued this new guidance to all staff on language to use when writing about climate change and the environment... More from @dpcarrington here...

theguardian.com/environment/20…

Hundreds of letters are received each day by national newspapers, but only a handful are ever published.

On the issue of climate change and energy, one letter-writer in particular has had a lot of success over the past decade.

As such, he warrants a closer look...

++THREAD++ In today's edition of The Times, there is a letter on fracking by someone called "James Allan", who describes himself as a "Fellow, Energy Institute, Hartlepool"

We often hear tales about the disrupting/delaying/diluting tactics of "The Saudis" at UN climate change meetings.

It was the same last week at the IPCC meeting in S Korea when the #SR15 special report was finally approved by all the world's govts.

Here's my take...

++THREAD++ Here's what AFP reported last Friday: "Oil giant Saudi Arabia is seeking to block adoption of a key UN climate change report unless a passage highlighting the inadequacy of national carbon-cutting pledges is removed or altered, multiple sources told AFP"

webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache…

. @DetlefvanVuuren explaining the "default strategy" in the models for 1.5C #negco2 Important point by @DetlefvanVuuren:

"IAMs focus on cost-optimisation, not on societal constraints"

For example, diet change is not something normally assessed.