From the ‘pinch me; I’m dreaming’ dept. this news from the Gulf Times:
Climate Change panel chief says ‘not invited to COP18’
By Bonnie James
Deputy News Editor
Image Courtesy of joshcartoons.com Click image to visit. Buy a 2013 calendar while you’re there.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will not be attending the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP18/CMP8) in Doha, chairman Dr Rajendra K Pachauri has said.
“For the first time in the 18 years of COP, the IPCC will not be attending, because we have not been invited,” he told Gulf Times in Doha.
COP18 is to be held from November 26 to December 7.
The IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, former vice president of the US and environmental activist, is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. Currently 195 countries are members.
Dr Pachauri first hinted about his ‘anticipated absence’ at COP18, while speaking at the opening session of the International Conference on Food Security in Dry Lands (FSDL) on Wednesday at Qatar University.
Later, he told Gulf Times he did not know why the IPCC has not been invited to COP18, something that has happened never before.
I don’t know what it is. The executive secretary of the climate change secretariat has to decide. I have attended every COP and the chairman of the IPCC addresses the COP in the opening session
Ah, AHA, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 🙂 🙂
But there is more surprise news, from Avaaz.org
Climate leader parties with Big Oil
by Avaaz Team – posted 14 November 2012 11:00
With less than two weeks before the next round of UN climate negotiations in Doha, guess who the president of those crucial climate talks was having a party with? Yes, that’s right, Big Oil chiefs at the Oil & Money 2012 conference in London – a gathering of over 450 senior executives from the fossil fuel industry.
Qatari deputy prime minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, president of the UN Climate Change Summit, spoke yesterday at the oil industry event, extolling the virtues of hydrofracking and other new extraction technologies. His comments came just a day after the International Energy Agency released a report saying that no more than one-third of proven reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if we’re to avoid planetary disaster.
Attiyah also took the time from his busy schedule to congratulate the climate wreckers days before he’s supposed to rein them in, presenting the petroleum executive of the year award – an honour he received himself in 2007.
_____________________________________________________________
What’s going on? Has there been a coup d’etat? Have the UN been ‘given the memo’? Who by??
These developments raise many questions. Not least for our national leaders, who have paid lip service to the IPCC’s ‘scientific expertise’ all these long years. Can they still justify the imposition of taxes and levys on their citizens if the IPCC is now discredited?
What of the Climate Research Unit, which has supplied lead authors to the IPCC? It was noted by BBC presenter Chris Vallance in the ‘Climategate Revisited’ programme put out on Radio 4 recently that they are no longer giving interviews. Are we seeing ‘the consensus’ in full retreat, and the UN cutting it loose?
There is much to discuss in this news.
UPDATES: 18/11
The US is considering a funnel of substantive elements of the Doha Climate Summit away from the UN framework and into the Major Economies Forum (MEF), a platform of the world’s largest CO2 emitters, EurActiv has learned.
Since 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has provided an umbrella for talks to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, and on 26 November, will host the COP18 Climate Summit in Qatar.
But it has been confirmed to EurActiv that Washington is increasingly looking to shift policy action to the MEF whose members account for some 85% of global emissions, and which the US views as a more comfortable venue for agreeing climate goals.
If the idea gains traction, it could demote the UNFCCC to a forum for discussing the monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions reductions projects, sources say. …
…… The MEF is a successor to the Major Economies Meetings set up by President Bush, and criticised by several governments for undermining the UN process.
Its participants include: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Andy Revkin has found an email:
Is @IPCC_ch going to #unfccc #cop18 or not? @GLFT says no. An IPCC e-mail says yes:
Nov. 14:
Dear Colleagues,
The IPCC is organizing a background briefing for media during COP18 on how it operates, and in particular how it produces reports.The briefing will take place on Friday 30 November at 15.00-16.30 Doha time.This background briefing is not intended to generate any stories. It will not give any details of findings of the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), which is still being produced.However, participants will have a good understanding of how the IPCC works when they come to write about AR5, which will appear in four installments between September 2013 and October 2014. This should provide important context for your stories, generate ideas for background material, sidebars and fact boxes, and clear up some of the misunderstandings about the IPCC. The briefing will be informal, and questions are welcome.If you will be in Doha for COP18 and would like to attend, please let us know by sending an email to IPCC-media@wmo.int. Places are limited so it is necessary to register in advance.Looking forward to meeting you in Doha.best wishes
Jonathan LynnHead of Communications and Media Relations
—
IPCC Secretariatc/o World Meteorological Organization7 bis Avenue de la PaixCP 2300 – CH 1211 Geneva 2Switzerland
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
lol
HOLY SPIT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings and commented:
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[…] Disinvited: IPCC will not be going to the UN COP18 Party in Doha « Tallbloke’s Talkshop. […]
[…] directs us to TallBloke’s TalkShop. Apparently, Pachy and the crew at the IPCC isn’t invited to […]
Saw this earlier and it sure seems strange that the IPCC’s “main client” (according to Pachauri) has no interest in hearing from him. Perhaps Achim Steiner (UNEP head honcho) has finally recognized what a liability he’s become … and is now putting his eggs in the IPBES basket, as I had speculated that he might a few years ago!
It’s a fair COP 🙂
Great in depth article Hilary, thanks.
Bankrupt IPCC set, also as a Xmas card
no charge, free p&p, just take them of our hands!
They’ve seen the writing on the wall. With the state of the world’s economies no one is going to throw any more ca$h at green subsidies. The real $$ to be made are in oil and gas as a result of fracking. The last thing anyone wants is the IPCC at their party, trying to flog a dead horse.
Where at one time production was dropping, suddenly huge new reserves of oil and gas have become available, with the sure promise of new fortunes to be made. The IPCC message, that we need to leave this $$ in the ground is as welcome as a fart at a wedding.
So the fig leaf is discarded.
Vuk provides us with a Christmas card.
And on Climate Etc. Manacker produced this heart warming Christmas story which would also be nice if it could be turned into a Christmas card and sent to the ‘team’ and a good number of the priests.
My BS alarm went beserk when I saw this.
Once I calmed down enough to read the rest of the post it seems that the fox (Attiyah) is now in charge of the hen house. Long may it last!
@ J. Martin
Among the IPCC bankrupt stock we also have a consignment of defunct personalized Nobel Certificates.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NoBellCert.htm
Awww … I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a “late” invitation. The political message will have been sent but the personal insult will be withdrawn. Perhaps an apology for falling through a crack and a specific invitation for a “talk”.
The IPCC is a huge, money-generating body. If their rhetoric could be toned down, the IPCC could be useful to mid-East oil: encourage more expensive processing, getting rid of Bunker C oil and all that. Encourage LNG exports with higher gas prices etc.
All it takes is spin. There is never a shortage of spin capability.
Putting my lawyers hat on and looking at the likely strategies that are going on in the background I suggest the following:
i) Fracking technology has deferred any energy crisis for several hundred years. It can only improve in sophistication.
ii) The world can reduce CO2 emissions substantially just by embracing fracking worldwide so CO2 emissions are no longer a problem in any event.
iii) There has been no warming for 16 years.
iv) The IPCC is no longer relevant and is being excluded as a significant player.
v) The current energy producing nations such as Qatar are in a panic and need to negotiate new terms with the oil giants urgently.
vi) COP18 will be used as the first step in a new global energy cartel between governments and producers with the IPCC being sidelined by the inevitable reductions in CO2 emissions from widespread use of natural gas from the fracking process.
Interestingly a large number of nations now have the opportunity to be independent of external energy suppliers, including the UK if the greenies can be sidelined.
Operation Climate, initiated and secretly financed by Big Oil, under the wise guise of opposing it, was successful. Coal, its single most important competitor is regulated out of the market (after killing advanced nuclear reactor initiatives). Useful idiots have played their role well, from now on Czars are free to set any price for their product they are comfortable with.
The key is hydrocarbons produce twice as much energy for unit CO₂ emission than coal, so carbon dioxide must be a pollutant. Especially because coal market, being much more diversified, is impossible to control by any other means.
According to this the US prefers the idea of talking to the Major Economies Forum (‘a platform of the world’s largest CO2 emitters’) in future, and the likes of China and India will go along with it.
https://ktwop.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/is-the-us-throwing-the-unfccc-and-cop18-under-the-bus/
Post updated!
Stephen Wilde writes:
This would certainly seem be be a plausible deduction. And it should come as no surprise to Pachauri because “climate change” has been getting less and less mention in the deliberations of the maze of various and sundry UNEP sponsored committees, panels and prep meetings.
Consider, for example, the “outcome document” from Rio+20 where the final score was “climate change: 22, sustainable 400“.
The IPCC did not fare very well in the mention department in the aftermath of Durban last December, either. Here’s my response to the question Judith Curry had raised: Is the IPCC still relevant to the UNFCCC.
Nonetheless, I don’t think we are out of the green propaganda woods yet; and we should probably prepare for an escalation of scary stories on the “biodiversity/sustainability” front.
Just saw your update, Roger. The E-mail Revkin received strongly suggests that the IPCC’s presence will be merely at the PR level, at one of the myriad “side events” that typically transpire in parallel with these confabs.
Although I find it somewhat ironic that after all these years, the IPCC feels the need to provide journos with “understanding of how the IPCC works” as well as to “clear up some of the misunderstandings about the IPCC.”
Additionally (or alternatively, depending on one’s perspective!), this seems to cast considerable doubt on the veracity Pachauri’s proclamation of July 2009, when he claimed that:
Well, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see how AR5 is received. The impression I’m getting is that by doubling down and playing the ‘It’s worse than we thought!” card, the IPCC have jumped the shark and the major economies don’t want to know any more.
The bearer of bad news is never welcome. If this week’s New Scientist review article is any guide, AR5 is going to be more pessimistic than AR4.
[Reply] It’s good news. Let the shark jumping begin. 🙂
Well, I can’t find an emoticon for crocodile tears, but a 2010 story about crocodile-jumping seems to be doing the rounds again:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10611973
Let’s hope that the Greenies will be sidelined and grown ups will take charge of energy policy. It will take more than one oil sheik to do that.
More bad news and a few nudges to the forcings/negative feedbacks causing the exsanguination of political and public support.
Solar storm as desert plan to power Europe falters
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20357167
*****
Hans-Josef Fell is a Green party MP in the German parliament who has sponsored renewable energy legislation. He’s sometimes referred to as the father of the feed-in tariff that has helped wind and solar power succeed in Germany. He thinks the Desertec initiative is too reliant on public subsidies.”The governments get cold feet for one reason, Desertec needs too much support in tax money – all the public budgets are over borrowed – and tax money is not easily available”
…
Dr Daniel Ayuk Mbi Egbe [ http://www.ansole.org/ ] :
“When you go to many African countries there are constant electricity cuts – if you want to help then you need to think not just about exporting to Europe but about supplying Africa as well.”
One positive element for the project is that there have been suggestions that China might be willing to invest so that it can get access to technology. It is interested in learning how to use high-voltage direct current cables such as those proposed for bringing power across the Mediterranean
*******
So no one has any money and after the solar ponzi scheme collapse in the US we now look to China who are doing their own economic Darwinism experement on their solar industry. No wonder they are cutting down on the invites. At this rate COP19 will be held in a tent with stale cucumber sandwiches washed down with Acme Cider.
Do they need a whip round 😉
The script has changed, now it is called “Sustainability” for Global Governance. The UN will push it harder through the “Agenda 21” , which should be followed and obligatorily enforced by elected officials everywhere in the world, if they do not want to suffer unwanted consequences.
Anyway, there are, already implemented, several working, and signed as binding agreements, UN “Governances”.
I’d like to believe you. Unfortunately Earth is not “Happy Days” and the IPCC is not Fonzie. Nor is there a script, though the politicians seem to be writing themselves in as Nero.
Doug Proctor wrote:
Well, it seems that – whether it was a “late” invitation, or the original just got lost in the mail (or Pachauri is not up to speed on his own travel and speaking arrangements) – the IPCC will be attending COP 18 (according to a “Media Advisory” dated today (h/t Donna Laframboise):
Unfortunately, the UNFCCC site has not yet linked to any of the scheduled “Daily Programs”, so the “context” of Pachauri’s appearance cannot be determined. But, 3:00 p.m. two days into the conference doesn’t strike me as being a prime-time-slot.
There’s an overview schedule from UNFCCC here:
Click to access overview_schedule_cop18-cmp8.pdf
The two IPCC special reports are listed. The 3p.m. slot says ‘Informal groups of the Convention and Protocol bodies’ (which are listed every day for about a week). No speakers named.
Could this be an accurate use of the word unprecedented?
Steve T
[…] Now with the COP 18 Climate Conference in Doha coming on the 28th we find the head of the disgraced U.N. org the IPCC wasn’t even invited! […]
🙂 19 Nov “advisory” from IPCC:
Click to access COP18_Doha_advisory.pdf
IPCC MEDIA ADVISORY
19 November 2012
The IPCC at COP 18 in Doha
GENEVA, 19 November – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be taking part in the Doha Climate Change Conference (COP 18 / CMP 8) with a wide-ranging programme of events as it prepares to launch the first part of its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in September next year.
The Chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, is due to address the conference on Wednesday, 28 November, at 15.00 Doha time.
Also on 28 November, the IPCC will hold two side events to present its two most recent special reports: the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX), at 13.15 Doha time, and the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN), at 18.30. In addition to presentations of the contents, the events will include panel discussions in which policymakers and other users will talk about how they have used the reports.
Among other activities, the IPCC will hold the first in a series of background briefings for media in the run-up to AR5, intended to explain how the IPCC operates and how it produces reports. Further briefings will follow in the coming months.
Besides Mr Pachauri, several members of the IPCC Bureau will be in Doha. Please send any nterview requests to
ipcc-media@wmo.int .
For more information contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Jonathan Lynn, + 41 22 730 8066 or Werani Zabula, + 41 22 730 8120
Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. 😉
Here’s the underlying reality:
Green economics (and economies): imploding
Frac economics (notably the US and Israel): exploding
Place yer bets, ladies and gentlebongs!
Will the IPCC be discussing this in Doha?
http://www.nature.com/news/extreme-weather-1.11428
‘Climate scientists should be prepared for their skills one day to be probed in court’
oldbrew
The climate attribution problem can be likened to “fixing” a dice.
I throw a dice a few thousand times times and get a six on 17 throws per hundred. That’s a fair dice.
I drill a hole in the “1” face, (opposite the six) and insert a small piece of lead shot. When I throw it another few thousand times I get a six on 25 throws per hundred.
My fixing has generated an extra eight sixes per 100 throws, but there is no way of telling which of the sixes would have occured anyway, and which are due to the extra weight.
Now consider extreme weather events like “Sandy”. If they become more frequent due to climate change it is possible to identify the change in frequency, but almost impossible to say which of them would not have occured if the climate had not changed.
For a steady change like a trend in sea level, with measurable coastal erosion as a result, a better case might be made. Given the current state of the climate art you might win a civil case “on the balance of probabilities”, but not a criminal case “beyond reasonable doubt”.
[Reply] The accumulated cyclone index shows a fall over the global warming period. Clearly, more co2 reduces extreme weather events. /sarc
The ‘Nature’ article says: But to make this emerging science of ‘climate attribution’ fit to inform legal and societal decisions will require enormous research effort
In other words, attribution can’t be done properly at present – ’emerging’ science. However, the claims continue unabated, presented as near-certainties or even absolute certainties.