The Sydney Morning Herald is mourning a predictably disappointing end to Poznan, with only a few technical projects agreed:

A CALL-TO-ARMS by former US vice-president Al Gore and a contentious European deal to cut its greenhouse emissions have overshadowed an anti-climactic finale to UN climate talks in Poland.

Critics said the talks made only tentative steps to a new global treaty.

Promised as a stepping stone towards a post-Kyoto climate deal to be signed in Copenhagen next year, the Poznan talks edged towards conclusion yesterday amid accusations that developed nations, including Australia, had blocked progress on greenhouse targets.

As expected, there was no deal on how to share the responsibility of cutting emissions even though developed countries acknowledged that scientists recommended cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent.

Al Gore’s appearance was described by AFP as “breathing fire into the talks”. The journos clearly haven’t seen this picture doing the rounds on the ‘net:

Read it here.

… when in fact it’s anything but. It’s basically a wish-list of issues to be negotiated during 2009, and an unwritten edict to everyone involved to keep their fingers, legs, toes and anything else handy firmly crossed for Copenhagen next year.

The agreement overnight sets the stage for a year-long process revolving around two big issues: who should make the biggest sacrifices on curbing greenhouse gases, and how to beef up support for poor countries exposed to climate change.

The talks in Poznan, Poland ended with a two-day ministerial-level gathering that failed to make any big advance on these core issues.

And why should those “big advances” suddenly be made next year, when the issues involved are exactly the same as in Poznan? Wishful thinking.

Read it here.

Al Gore has added his ever-increasing weight to the hysteria at Poznan claiming that tinkering with a harmless trace gas is the “greatest challenge humankind has ever faced” (ignoring, of course, poverty, clean drinking water, cures for cancer and other terminal diseases), and The Age goes into full arse-lick mode over this peddler of misinformation:

Mr Gore, a Nobel laureate for his crusading work to combat climate change, highlighted steps already being taken to make a case that a new deal was possible by next year’s deadline meeting in Copenhagen.

And, true to form, Gore throws in yet more alarmism:

But he also warned that the predictions of the UN’s climate scientists had now been surpassed, and that deeper cuts in emissions than were currently being considered would be needed. Stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at 450 parts per million – factoring in a temperature rise of about two degrees – would be an incredibly difficult first step but ultimately not enough, he said.

“We will have to toughen that goal to 350 parts per million – we understand that,” he said. Carbon dioxide concentrations are already more than 380 parts per million.

“Very simply put, it is wrong for this generation to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every future generation,” Mr Gore said.

The predictions of the IPCC didn’t see the current cooling, did they, so how can they possibly be being surpassed? More lies and deception. And no-one is actually sure what the carbon-fuelled gab-fest in Poznan has actually achieved, if anything. The papers are full of stories about the EU deal on emissions, but are strangely silent on Poznan. However, the WWF was a little less than complementary about the EU deal, which was only reached by including rafts of exemptions rendering the deal almost meaningless:

“This is a flagship EU policy with no captain, a mutinous crew and several gaping holes in it,” said Sanjeev Kumar of environment pressure group WWF.

I never thought I’d find myself agreeing with the WWF!

Read it here.

Kevin Rudd is sounding more like a cracked record every day. The same old nonsense, spouted day after day:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he will not bow to pressure from business groups to delay the start of an emissions trading scheme.

On Monday the Federal Government will unveil the design of the scheme and reveal its mid-term targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The head of the Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout, says the impact of the global financial crisis will make it difficult for many businesses to cope when the scheme is due to start in 2010.

Mr Rudd has told the ABC’s 7.30 Report he is still determined to stick to the original deadline.

“We have not changed our ambition in terms of that 2010 introduction… our ambition remains and we have no cause to change it,” he said.

No cause to change it, except for the worst financial crisis since the 1920’s, that is. Idiotic.

Link.

As usual, a great read.

A great article in The Australian:

KEVIN Rudd’s ambition of an emissions trading scheme in Australia by 2010 has suffered two setbacks, with both the Coalition and independent senator Nick Xenophon warning they may push for a delay.

Read it all here.

Headline:

Countries agree on goals for new UN climate treaty

First paragraph of article:

A UN climate conference attended by 190 countries has failed to make a real commitment to reduce the amount of carbon emissions.

Read it here.

Even the IPCC, in its worst case scenario, only forecasts a 59 cm rise, and given there has been no change in the rate of sea level rise from its long term value of about 2 mm per year, even that looks wildly alarmist. But that’s not enough for the Victorian government, apparently:

Heeding warnings from climate change experts, the Government has ruled that new developments must assume sea-level rises of 80 centimetres by 2100. The rule will take effect on Monday, but not apply retrospectively.

Which “experts” are they, exactly?

Read it here.

It now looks even less likely that a global deal on emissions will be reached in Copenhagen in 2009, as more and more countries get cold feet about the harsh realities of emissions reductions, and talks in Poznan get bogged down:

The executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, said it was possible only ”the key political issues” would be nailed down by this deadline [2009] and further talks needed to complete the details of the accord.

”We won’t see a fully elaborated, long-term agreement in Copenhagen in 2009. It won’t be feasible,” Mr de Boer said.

Australia will reveal its 2020 target under the government’s wrongly-named “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme” on Monday, widely expected to be between 5 and 15%. This is much less than the enviro-loonies are demanding, and shows that even Krudd & Co are secretly aware of the damage a higher target would inflict on Australia’s economy. Watch this space!

Read it here.

The Australian wins ACM Idiotic Comment of the Day two days running. Yesterday it was Leigh Dayton, and today Emma Tom, writing in “The Wry Side”, under the headline “Apply anti-sceptic” – v. witty:

The thing that’s so irksome about hardline climate change sceptics is that the planet will need to be twitching and coughing up blood before they’ll agree to do anything. And while it’s always enormously gratifying to be proved right, even the narkiest greenie is unlikely to gain much pleasure from screeching “I told you so” as the last of the polar ice caps fizzes sadly into the sea like a stale Berocca.
…
Once you look at environmental issues through this lens, setting a 2020 greenhouse emissions target of a paltry 5 to 15 per cent becomes the equivalent of only conducting airport security checks on Mondays and Wednesdays.

And there’s a “D” Word alert into the bargain:

Contrary to the smug rhetoric of the deniers, taking out expensive or inconvenient insurance policies against tiny risks is not irrational or even that uncommon.
…
We take out insurance to protect our cars, our mobile phones and (if we live in the US of A) our celebrity boobs. Let’s not leave ourselves hideously underinsured when it comes to our primary residence.

Res ipsa loquitur.

Read it here.