{Disarmed} GAO knocks cap and trade, Poznan wrap up and the weekly Chilling Effect cartoon

Energy and Environment: Around the Interwebs

Be sure to check out the first round-up from Saturday. Also be sure to check out:

* Solar car “crashes” at end of round the world trip

* Youth whining they aren’t being heard by UN conference … if they could literally cry us a river it might do some actual good for the environment

* Reminder: Obama not yet president, does not get report from Poznana delegates

* Lefty groups form anti-coal “reality” coalition

* Skeptical scientists caution Obama on climate change fixes

* Watts Up With That?: Early snowfalls in Europe hit Historic Levels

* … yet another calculation error in a global warming study …

* The Obama-Gore Consensus; The birth of climate pork

New GAO Study Knocks Cap-and-Trade

The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin has an excellent recap:

The GAO said that Europe’s cap-and-trade system had created “a functioning market for carbon dioxide allowances, but its effects on emissions, the European economy, and technology investment are less certain.” A separate program that grants offsets to industrialized nations for funding energy projects in the developing world, investigators wrote, has had an “uncertain” effect on carbon emissions, “and its impact on sustainable development has been limited.”

The report, released Tuesday, has implications for the United States, which could launch a program to limit greenhouse gas emissions as early as next year. President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are determined to adopt a cap-and-trade system for emissions linked to global warming, and opponents of such a plan seized upon the GAO study as a reason to block it.

See the report’s summary after the jump or view the entire report here.

The Joys of International Cooperation … And Courts

In a must-read on “Criminalizing Carbon” IBD writes:

Stephen Hockman, the former head of the British Bar Council and a deputy High Court judge, has an idea why Kyoto failed to reach its emission goals and has proposed a remedy: creating a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The new court would have the ability to sanction and perhaps even punish those who violate or fail to obey climate change treaties such as Kyoto.

Chilling Effect Exclusive: Hippie-Poor in Poznan?

The long arm of The Chilling Effect reaches, or at least makes general motions at, this week’s UN climate conference in Poznan. We asked our operative … ok, friend … to report back on the nonsensical activities of the hippies activists who said they would be camped out at the event. Here’s what we got in the in-box last week:

“I tried. There were absolutely no hippies about the conference today. Can you believe it?”

Frankly, we can’t believe it. We’re holding out hope of bringing you, dear reader, firsthand pics of the insanity. C’mon, hippies, step up your game!

World Growth or Green Girth?

The World Growth Institute, mentioned on this blog recently, sent out a newsletter to its supporters and it hit on a note that we watch closely: the negative economic impact of unreasonable activists. Read the group’s take on enviros and forestry policy:





	December 8, 2008 Energy and Environment: Around the Interwebs Be sure to check out the first round-up from Saturday. Also be sure to check out: * Solar car “crashes” at end of round the world trip * Youth whining they aren’t being heard by UN conference … if they could literally cry us a river it might do some actual good for the environment * Reminder: Obama not yet president, does not get report from Poznana delegates * Lefty groups form anti-coal “reality” coalition * Skeptical scientists caution Obama on climate change fixes * Watts Up With That?: Early snowfalls in Europe hit Historic Levels * … yet another calculation error in a global warming study … * The Obama-Gore Consensus; The birth of climate pork New GAO Study Knocks Cap-and-Trade The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin has an excellent recap: The GAO said that Europe’s cap-and-trade system had created “a functioning market for carbon dioxide allowances, but its effects on emissions, the European economy, and technology investment are less certain.” A separate program that grants offsets to industrialized nations for funding energy projects in the developing world, investigators wrote, has had an “uncertain” effect on carbon emissions, “and its impact on sustainable development has been limited.” The report, released Tuesday, has implications for the United States, which could launch a program to limit greenhouse gas emissions as early as next year. President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are determined to adopt a cap-and-trade system for emissions linked to global warming, and opponents of such a plan seized upon the GAO study as a reason to block it. See the report’s summary after the jump or view the entire report here. The Joys of International Cooperation … And Courts In a must-read on “Criminalizing Carbon” IBD writes: Stephen Hockman, the former head of the British Bar Council and a deputy High Court judge, has an idea why Kyoto failed to reach its emission goals and has proposed a remedy: creating a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The new court would have the ability to sanction and perhaps even punish those who violate or fail to obey climate change treaties such as Kyoto. Chilling Effect Exclusive: Hippie-Poor in Poznan? The long arm of The Chilling Effect reaches, or at least makes general motions at, this week’s UN climate conference in Poznan. We asked our operative … ok, friend … to report back on the nonsensical activities of the hippies activists who said they would be camped out at the event. Here’s what we got in the in-box last week: “I tried. There were absolutely no hippies about the conference today. Can you believe it?” Frankly, we can’t believe it. We’re holding out hope of bringing you, dear reader, firsthand pics of the insanity. C’mon, hippies, step up your game! World Growth or Green Girth? The World Growth Institute, mentioned on this blog recently, sent out a newsletter to its supporters and it hit on a note that we watch closely: the negative economic impact of unreasonable activists. Read the group’s take on enviros and forestry policy: