Bob Burton's News Articles

450 Parts Per Million of Greenwash

by Bob Burton — December 16, 2009 - 2:34pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, International

    • Whatever the outcome of the final hours of wrangling at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen, the odds are that the leaders of some of the world's richest countries will earnestly declare that they are working hard to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 450 parts per million (ppm) and ensure that global average temperatures don't exceed 2 degrees centigrade.

    Will Copenhagen Resuscitate Carbon Capture and Storage?

    by Bob Burton — December 16, 2009 - 1:33pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, International, Lobbying

    • In a final end-game bid, the governments of Saudi Arabia and Australia are frantically trying to shoe-horn support for the experimental Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology into a final agreement from the COP15 conference in Copenhagen. By the end of the first week of negotiations, promoters of the technology failed to win support from one of the major committees of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

    But just two days later, draft text prepared by the chair of one of the two 'tracks' of UNFCCC negotiations threw a lifeline to the coal and power generation industries by flagging that whether or not to include CCS in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) as one of the most important issues requiring resolution. Including CCS projects in the CDM would provide a massive financial incentive for the development of trial CCS projects, most of which would be attached to massive new coal-fired power stations in developing countries. And this is just what groups such as the World Coal Institute and the International Emissions Trading Association have been lobbying for.

    Who'd Pay for Rupert Murdoch's Climate Change Skepticism?

    by Bob Burton — December 15, 2009 - 8:01am

    The climate change skeptics may be a lonely lot in Copenhagen, but no one disputes that they have had an effect, however hard to quantify. British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, recently cautioned against the public being distracted by the "anti-science, flat-earth climate skeptics" while Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, derided them as being the "comfortable bedfellows of the global conspiracy theorists."

    While very few of the skeptics have any scientific credentials in climate sciences, that doesn't prevent them gaining significant coverage in pockets of the mainstream media? Why is this the case?

    Dragging Anchor

    by Bob Burton — December 7, 2009 - 10:35pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, International, Lobbying

    • If a captain fell asleep at the helm of an oil tanker traversing dangerous waters, the ship owners and the public would demand that they never be put in command of a ship again. But, despite 12 years of being asleep at the wheel, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized United Nations agency responsible for international shipping, is demanding that it be re-appointed to have sole responsibility for addressing the rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector.

    A Roadmap to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

    by Bob Burton — December 2, 2009 - 5:55am
  • Topics: Global Warming, International, Science, Weekly Radio Spin

    • Next week, up to 20,000 people will descend on Copenhagen for the COP15 climate change conference, which aims to negotiate a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. Aside from the thousands of members comprising the 192 national delegations, there will be thousands more lobbyists from numerous industry lobby groups.

    The Airline Industry's Global Warming Denial

    by Bob Burton — December 1, 2009 - 7:28pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, Energy, Lobbying

    • Giovanni Bisignani, the director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), is a worried man. As the head of the global civil aviation's main lobby group, which represents companies such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Qantas, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, Bisignani (right) has been frantically working to ensure that IATA isn't stripped of its its exemption from the Kyoto Protocol at the COP15 conference, which opens in Copenhagen next week.

     

    The Coal Industry Wants Your Cash to Save Them

    by Bob Burton — November 16, 2009 - 11:35pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, International, Lobbying

    • A recently-released report by the World Coal Institute (WCI) on how to finance the experimental Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology for power stations, reminded me of a cartoon from years ago by the Australian cartoonist, Patrick Cook. In the cartoon, a huge bloated budgie (parakeet) with the letters "BHP" emblazoned on its chest, was holding a gun to its own head while proclaiming to a cowering politician, "Hand over the loot or the budgie gets it." (At the time, BHP -- which owned iron ore mines and steel mills -- was haggling for government support for its ailing steel operations).

    BHP-Billiton ditched its steel interests long ago and is now one of the world's biggest miners and exporters of coal for power stations. It is also a member of the WCI. In its report, titled Securing the Future: Financing Carbon Capture and Storage in a Post-2012 World, the WCI argue that there is an urgent need for massive funding of CCS trials by governments and with a generous slice of revenues from emissions trading schemes. Current funding, the WCI claims, is "too slow to allow necessary global GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions reductions goals to be achieved." Not surprisingly, they identify that "the appetite for this will largely hinge on public acceptance."

    What the coal industry realises is that without massive public funding, CCS is dead. Without CCS, the coal industry and power companies locked into coal-fired power stations will, at best, be on life support.

    Ian Plimer's Mining Connections

    by Bob Burton — November 12, 2009 - 2:02pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, International, Science

    • Since the publication in May of his book, Heaven and Earth: Global Warming - The Missing Science, Ian Plimer has been the darling of conservative media commentators and the global network of climate change skeptics. Plimer, an Australian geologist, has been strongly criticized by climate scientists for errors in his book. More recently, he has been in the news over his challenge to British journalist, George Monbiot, for a debate over climate science. Monbiot agreed, subject to Plimer answering some questions in writing ahead of a debate, but Plimer retreated.

    While a few news stories have made a passing mention that Plimer is a director of several mining companies, none have looked with any detail at which companies he is involved with, and how substantial his interest is. Recently, a volunteer editor on SourceWatch (hat-tip to Scribe), did some digging into Plimer's directorships with three mining companies, Ivanhoe Australia, CBH Resources and Kefi Minerals.

    Elmendorf Strategies and the Carbon Lobby

    by Bob Burton — August 17, 2009 - 4:12pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, Lobbying, U.S. Government

    • Lobbyists will often argue that a major reason clients hire them is because of their deep personal connections with decision makers.

    Steve Elmendorf, who founded Elmendorf Strategies in 2007, was an adviser to various Democratic Party campaigns and politicians for over 25 years. So his connections with Democratic Party movers and shakers seem beyond dispute.

    Tobacco-Free Coverage for Australian Honoree

    by Bob Burton — June 10, 2009 - 3:53pm
  • Topics: Journalism, International, Tobacco

    • Should someone who worked for one the world's biggest tobacco companies be celebrated as a national role model?

    Ms. Quentin Bryce, the Australian Governor-General who acts as the representative of the Queen of England, apparently thinks so. To coincide with the Queen's Birthday long weekend in early June, Bryce announced that Carla Zampatti had been made a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia for "service through leadership and management roles in the fashion and retail property sectors, to multicultural broadcasting, and to women as a role model and mentor." Two others were also made companions, the most prestigious honorary titles bestowed on individuals.The awards, announced twice a year, are extensively publicised in the mainstream media.

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