IPCC

Richard Tol's Gremlins Continue to Undermine His Work

Guest | August 3, 2015

By Guest • Monday, August 3, 2015 - 17:01

This is a guest post by Brandon Shollenberger 

Global warming is, if you'll forgive the pun, possibly the most heated topic of debate this century.  While most debate over it focuses on extreme weather, sea level rise and climatic events, there is another part.  This is the part that focuses on the economics of global warming.  That is, how will global warming affect our wallets?

At the forefront of this debate is Richard Tol, professor of economics at the University of Sussex.  His work on the economics of global warming is relied upon by climate skeptics like Matt Ridley, who has used it to argue, “Climate change has done more good than harm so far and is likely to continue doing so for most of this century,” based on graphs like:

Remember When Lord Lawson Brought Climate Denial to the House of Lords?

Brendan Montague | July 2, 2015

By Brendan Montague • Thursday, July 2, 2015 - 00:01

Lord Lawson would command the admiration and gratitude of the sceptic cause when he raised the economics of climate change in the House of Lords. DeSmog UK’s epic history series continues.

Lord Nigel Lawson delivered the coup de grâce in June 2005 when he persuaded his fellow peers on the economic affairs committee of the House of Lords to examine the economics of climate change.

As a committee member, Lawson persuaded the House of Lords to launch a powerful and high profile Parliamentary inquiry examining allegations that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had based its analysis on poor statistics and economics.

How David Henderson Became One of the IPCC’s Most Able and Determined Foes

Brendan Montague | May 26, 2015

By Brendan Montague • Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - 00:01

In this DeSmog UK epic history post we meet David Henderson, who accidentally became one of the IPCC’s fiercest opponents.

David Henderson is a fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) where he is valued as an eloquent and modest advocate of radical free market capitalism. But, his engagement with climate scepticism “came about in an entirely unplanned and fortuitous way.”

The former head of the economic division of the state-funded international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was, in April 2003, spending his retirement busily devising a book which he planned to call False Consensus: Dark Visions and Collectivist Remedies.

That Time When an IPCC Report Clashed with ExxonMobil's Climate Denial Spending Spree

Brendan Montague | May 7, 2015

By Brendan Montague • Thursday, May 7, 2015 - 00:01

Our latest DeSmog UK epic history post recalls how the IPCC COP 6 was held in the midst of the ExxonMobil funding splurge.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reconvened in Bonn, Germany in 2001 for the sixth Conference of the Parties (COP).

Michael Mann’s hockey stick took centre stage of the IPCC’s third report, appearing twice in the synthesis report and another two times on the Working Group I Summary for Policymakers.

Media Coverage of Climate Science Is Stunting Climate Action, Especially in US

Mike Gaworecki | April 12, 2015

By Mike Gaworecki • Sunday, April 12, 2015 - 05:58

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change plays an enormous role in shaping how climate science gets translated into policy in countries around the world, but so does the media.

A new report finds that, while the IPCC could have managed the rollout of its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) better, lack of compelling coverage, especially in US media, is leading to less public demand for action and hence political will to adopt policies to deal with climate change.

The report, published in Nature Climate Change, examines how the IPCC’s release strategy around AR5 contributed to diminishing returns in terms of media coverage, as well as the ways media outlets chose to frame the issue and how that impacts public perception of climate issues.

Researchers with the University of Exeter studied print, broadcast, and online media in both the US and the UK and found that the biggest difference was that there is simply more climate coverage in the UK. A lot more: three times as many articles and five times as many broadcasts were dedicated to climate change in the UK as in the US.

Can You Guess What Climate Deniers Said of the IPCC 20 Years Ago?

Brendan Montague | March 14, 2015

By Brendan Montague • Saturday, March 14, 2015 - 00:01

The DeSmog UK epic history series recalls how the war between the climate sceptics and the IPCC heated up as they tried to cast doubt over the science.

The climate sceptics were ever ready to attack the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) following its second report, released in 1995. They well understood the political dangers that confronted them.

Frederick Seitz, (pictured) then chairman of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) – which argues against the existence of climate change – demanded that IPCC chairman Bert Bolin draft a statement immediately saying that the IPCC had “not been able to quantify the magnitude of the greenhouse gas”; he even took the extra step of drafting the proposed letter, ready for Bolin to sign.

Pachauri Steps Down as Head of UN Climate Panel

Guest | February 24, 2015

By Guest • Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 04:02

This article has been cross-posted from Carbon Brief

Dr Rajendra Pachauri has stepped down from his role as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), effective today.

After nearly 13 years in the job, Pachauri was due to step down later this year. However, his departure has been brought forward pending allegations of sexual harassment at the New Delhi-based research centre TERI, where he is director general.

Pachauri has strongly denied the allegations, saying his personal email account had been hacked to send inappropriate messages to a colleague.

How Often Were Willie Soon’s Industry-Funded “Deliverables” Referenced by the IPCC?

Ben Jervey | February 23, 2015

By Ben Jervey • Monday, February 23, 2015 - 09:31

Thanks to a bombshell investigation reported over the weekend by The New York Times, The Guardian, Inside Climate News and more, we now know that the prominent climate denialist Willie Soon, oft-cited by climate denying politicians and industry figures, calls his publications “deliverables” to his fossil fuel funders.

Some of these “deliverables” have even found their way into the reports produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), generally regarded as the most comprehensive evaluation of the current state of climate science.

Richard Tol

Richard Tol

Credentials

  • M.Sc. Econometrics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1992 [1]
  • Ph.D. Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1997 [1]

Background

Tags: 
global warming denier database
Copenhagen Consensus Center
GWPF
global warming policy foundation
Richard Tol
climate change
climate deniers
IPCC

How Clinton's Presidency Caused Oil-Funded Lobbyists to Intensify Attacks on Climate Science

Brendan Montague | January 28, 2015

By Brendan Montague • Wednesday, January 28, 2015 - 00:05

The DeSmog UK epic history series continues with a look at how oil-funded lobbyists increased their attacks on climate science as Bill Clinton’s new policy era began.

The 1993 election of President Bill Clinton in the US heralded a new era in climate policy. And, in turn, the oil industry lobbyists would intensify their attacks on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Clinton appointed the accomplished and charismatic British climate scientist Dr Robert Watson as an adviser to the White House. Watson was also promoted to co-chairman of one of the three working groups within the IPCC.

The industry campaign was, at this time, still relatively transparent, with lobbyists Don Pearlman of the coal-funded Climate Council and John Shlaes, executive director of the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), receiving funding directly from the coal and oil industries respectively.

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