- Bishop Hill blog - Climate video nasty

The tone changes with the second panel discussion, which is veritable video nasty featuring a group of technocrats. The panel features Ralph Cicerone, the head of the US National Academy of Sciences, who is best known for his role in rewriting the job specification for the inquiry into the Hockey Stick, Sir John Beddington (no introduction required), Adair Turner, the chairman of the UK's Climate Change Committee, and a banker who was largely forgettable [Abyd Karmali (Managing Director, Global Head of Carbon Markets, Bank of America Merrill Lynch)].

You will love the moment where Turner, a former partner at McKinsey, peer of the realm, chairman of this that and the other, with a home in the poshest part of London, says that there are some aspects of our current lifestyles that he would like to do something about (or words to that effect). Lots of discussion of "changing behaviour" ensues.

The whole thing has something of the otherwordly air of the Chinese National People's Congress, with economics to match. These are seriously scary people.

UNITED STATES: TAX-AND-DIVIDEND APPROACH TO GLOBAL WARMING GAINS GROUND | Basic Income News

The tax-and-dividend approach to global warming (which sets a price on carbon emissions, charges producers for those emissions, and redistributes the proceeds as a basic income), has been gaining ground since its endorsement by a conference on pricing carbon held at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) on November 20, 2010.

Centrica boss warns of further price rises as Chris Huhne tells customers to vote with their feet

He went on to say that consumers should not be surprised that the costs involved in developing less carbon-intensive energy sources are passed onto them through higher bills.

“Ofgem has said that it would see over the next decade a dual fee bill going up by about £500 a year for a typical consumer. And that’s related to decarbonisation rather than market forces,” the chairman said.

“So there’s a cost of decarbonisation but if as a country you’re committed to managing climate change then you have to accept that the process of doing that is not free of cost.”