EU policy on climate change is right even if science was wrong, says commissioner
Regardless of whether or not scientists are wrong on global warming, the European Union is pursuing the correct energy policies even if they lead to higher prices, Europe’s climate commissioner has said.
Europe's climate action
commissioner Connie Hedegaard Photo: GETTY
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5:07PM BST 16 Sep 2013
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Connie Hedegaard's comments come as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) is expected to admit that previous scientific
predictions for global warming and the effects of
carbon emissions have been proved to be inaccurate.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Europe's most senior climate change official
argued that the current policies are the correct ones because a growing world
population will put pressure on energy supplies regardless of the rate of global
warming.
"I personally have a very pragmatic view.
"Say that 30 years from now, science came back and said, 'wow, we were
mistaken then now we have some new information so we think it is something
else'. In a world with nine billion people, even 10 billion at the middle of
this century, where literally billions of global citizens will still have to get
out of poverty and enter the consuming middle classes, don't you think that
anyway it makes a lot of sense to get more energy and resource efficient," she
said.
"Let's say that science, some decades from now, said 'we were wrong, it was
not about climate', would it not in any case have been good to do many of things
you have to do in order to combat climate change?."
The Danish commissioner also rejected public complaints over increases in
electricity prices to subsidise renewable energies, such as wind farms, as
unrealistic because, she said, increased competition over diminishing energy
resources such as oil and gas will lead to higher bills.
"I believe that in a world with still more people, wanting still more growth for good reasons, the demand for energy, raw materials and resources will increase and so, over time so, over time, will the prices," she said.
"I think we have to realise that in the world of the 21st century for us to have the cheapest possible energy is not the answer."
Mrs Hedegaard, and the European Commission, have not changed their position that the science that is currently used to justify EU climate change policy is "over 90 per cent" certain that global warming exists and that it is manmade.
However, EU and other policymakers are worried that the IPCC's forthcoming admission, expected on Sep 27, that previous forecasts are wrong will damage the legitimacy of climate change policies, such as levies and fuel taxes on consumers to fund renewable energy.
Leaked IPCC reports, reviewing forecasts made in 2007, have called into question how much climate change has taken place by concluding that, even with a doubling of carbon emissions from 1990 levels, the global temperature has risen little or more slowly than predicted over the last 10-20 years.
In the process of defending controversial policies, the EU has often linked extreme weather events to global warming after the IPCC said six years ago that it was more than 50 per cent sure that hurricanes, flooding and droughts were being caused by manmade global warming. That figure is expected to be revised down to less than a 21 per cent certainty that natural disasters are caused by climate change.
Bjorn Lomborg, a professor at the Copenhagen business school and the author of Cool it, a book arguing that too much climate change policy is based on scaremongering, accused the commissioner of being "both callous and wrong".
"EU climate policies have directly increased energy costs and caused more energy poverty - 300,000 households in Germany lost their power last year because they couldn't pay the bills, and millions are energy poor in the UK. EU climate policies will cost £174 billion annually by 2020, the EU commissioner seems to suggest wasting £174 billion is no problem," he said.
"To the extent the EU climate policies have affected the world, it has made energy more costly, reduced growth and consigned more people to poverty."
As part of measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent below the levels of 1990 by the end of decade, the EU has agreed a binding target requiring that 20 per cent of energy must come from renewable sources, such as wind power, by 2020.
The Government's own estimates of meeting the EU target are a cost increase of 33 per cent to the average electricity price paid by households in 2020. New EU levies on carbon emissions from industry are estimated to cost the British economy £700 million, a bill that is passed on to the consumer via higher prices.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, called on both the EU and Britain to scrap policies that have been based on scientific predictions that have proved to be wrong.
"As facts change, so must policy. The EU must change course and in the UK the Climate Change act must be thrown on the scrap heap of mistaken ideas," he said.
"A higher world population means we should stop subsidising inefficient and expensive wind turbines and instead make better use of fracking, nuclear energy and tidal power."
"I believe that in a world with still more people, wanting still more growth for good reasons, the demand for energy, raw materials and resources will increase and so, over time so, over time, will the prices," she said.
"I think we have to realise that in the world of the 21st century for us to have the cheapest possible energy is not the answer."
Mrs Hedegaard, and the European Commission, have not changed their position that the science that is currently used to justify EU climate change policy is "over 90 per cent" certain that global warming exists and that it is manmade.
However, EU and other policymakers are worried that the IPCC's forthcoming admission, expected on Sep 27, that previous forecasts are wrong will damage the legitimacy of climate change policies, such as levies and fuel taxes on consumers to fund renewable energy.
Leaked IPCC reports, reviewing forecasts made in 2007, have called into question how much climate change has taken place by concluding that, even with a doubling of carbon emissions from 1990 levels, the global temperature has risen little or more slowly than predicted over the last 10-20 years.
In the process of defending controversial policies, the EU has often linked extreme weather events to global warming after the IPCC said six years ago that it was more than 50 per cent sure that hurricanes, flooding and droughts were being caused by manmade global warming. That figure is expected to be revised down to less than a 21 per cent certainty that natural disasters are caused by climate change.
Bjorn Lomborg, a professor at the Copenhagen business school and the author of Cool it, a book arguing that too much climate change policy is based on scaremongering, accused the commissioner of being "both callous and wrong".
"EU climate policies have directly increased energy costs and caused more energy poverty - 300,000 households in Germany lost their power last year because they couldn't pay the bills, and millions are energy poor in the UK. EU climate policies will cost £174 billion annually by 2020, the EU commissioner seems to suggest wasting £174 billion is no problem," he said.
"To the extent the EU climate policies have affected the world, it has made energy more costly, reduced growth and consigned more people to poverty."
As part of measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent below the levels of 1990 by the end of decade, the EU has agreed a binding target requiring that 20 per cent of energy must come from renewable sources, such as wind power, by 2020.
The Government's own estimates of meeting the EU target are a cost increase of 33 per cent to the average electricity price paid by households in 2020. New EU levies on carbon emissions from industry are estimated to cost the British economy £700 million, a bill that is passed on to the consumer via higher prices.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, called on both the EU and Britain to scrap policies that have been based on scientific predictions that have proved to be wrong.
"As facts change, so must policy. The EU must change course and in the UK the Climate Change act must be thrown on the scrap heap of mistaken ideas," he said.
"A higher world population means we should stop subsidising inefficient and expensive wind turbines and instead make better use of fracking, nuclear energy and tidal power."
