Institute of Public Affairs uses Australian tax breaks to push Climate Sceptic agenda
IPA uses Australian tax breaks to help fund U.S. climate skeptic’s libel defence Independent Australia DeSmog Blog 16 May 2015 Environment charities like the ACF face having their Deductible Gift Recipient status stripped by the Abbott government, yet corporate mouthpiece, IPA, keep theirs to help fund U.S. climate skeptic Mark Steyn’s libel suit. Graham Readfearn fromDeSmogBlog reports.
WHEN THE facts on climate change become inconvenient or they start to rub your ideology or vested interest up the wrong way, then there are really only two options available.
Option one is to change your mind. Option two is to try and change, distort, misrepresent or just outright ignore the flood of scientific studies over decades showing the serious impacts of loading the biosphere with fossil fuel emissions.
Mark Steyn is a prominent conservative polemicist and writer in the United States and Canada who has chosen option two.
Australian “free market” think-tank The Institute of Public Affairs chose option two in the late 1980s and has stuck with it since.
Now a climate misinformation book produced by the IPA and paid for with the help of tax breaks in Australia is seemingly helping to finance Steyn in a high profile libel case.
So there are two stories to tell here – one about the libel case and the other about the book. The two meet up at the end……..
Changing Facts
The IPA keeps its funders a secret, although its supporters are known to include billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart and at least one major tobacco company.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the country’s Treasurer Joe Hockey, News Corporation head Rupert Murdoch are all big fans.
The IPA holds Deductible Gift Recipient status with Australia’s tax office, which means that anyone giving money to the think tank for certain prescribed activities, such as research, can claim a tax break on their donation.
Last year, the IPA started fundraising to produce a book called “Climate Change: The Facts” which, when you glance at the list of contributors, should have its semi-colon shifted forward to better reflect the contents. It should really be Climate: Change The Facts.
The IPA decided it would use its DGR status to encourage people to donate cash towards producing the book, which the IPA said would cost about $175,000.
As I wrote on DeSmog last year, this meant Australia’s tax revenue would be a tiny bit reduced so a bunch of climate science deniers could spout their usual conspiratorial mush.
Mark Steyn, who has previously toured Australia thanks to the IPA, was one contributor. He has said the book will help “push back against the climate mullahs”………
On sale
The book has been produced and is now on sale internationally.
But according to retailers Amazon and Kobo, the book’s publisher is not the IPA but “Stockade Books” – a venture that’s actually owned by Mark Steyn. ……..https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/ipa-uses-australian-tax-breaks-to-help-fund-us-climate-skeptics-libel-defense,7715
Sea level rise a serious consideration for Mid North Coast councils
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-13/mid-north-coast-councils-advised-to-take-sea-level-rise-serious/6465684 One of the authors of a new study into sea level rise is advising Mid North Coast councils not to cave-in to landholder concerns about property values.The study has found sea levels are rising faster than previously thought, and appear to be accelerating.Coastal councils, coastal planners, do need to take account of sea level rise in the 21st century – Dr John Church, CSIRO
It found seas have risen faster since 1993, compared to previous decades, and its observations are in line with projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
CSIRO Fellow, John Church, was among the authors and said the findings have major implications for coastal planning. Continue reading
Australia’s budget trashes action on climate change
There is hardly any mention of climate change in the budget documents, apart from the Coalition’s continued determination to remove the phrase from the government’s lexicon, and to dismantle the remaining initiatives of Labor’s clean energy package, presumably when (and if) it wins the election in late 2016/17.
spending for the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Climate Change Authority will be halted in fiscal 2016/17.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency…— will also be absorbed back into the department and defunded.
Budget losers: climate agencies up in smoke, Crikey GILES PARKINSON | MAY 13, 2015 Like true conservatives, the Coalition’s leadership team thinks the best environmental strategy is to defund every climate science body but boost spending for a bunch of people to pick up litter.
Just a few months ago, the newly constituted and Republican-dominated US Senate was asked to vote on a motion that “human activity significantly contributes to climate change”.
They voted against it. By a slim majority, 50-49, the senior conservative legislators in US Congress collectively declared that, well, climate science is crap.
In Australia’s ruling Coalition, that view is noisily shared by Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s closest advisers, such as Maurice “it’s all a UN plot” Newman and Dick “I’m not a climate sceptic, I just don’t accept the science”Warburton, and of course some rogue members of Parliament such as Barnaby“it’s cold down here” Joyce.
Abbott, the man who made the climate science “is absolute crap” phrase his own, doesn’t like to repeat it 
so much in public these days. Indeed, he has in environment minister Greg Hunt a man whose principal role seems to be Minister for Saying That The Coalition Really Takes Climate Change Seriously, despite its policies that suggest the opposite.
The budget handed down on Tuesday night by Treasurer Joe “I don’t like wind turbines” Hockey continues the recent trend of Coalition policy documents that sweeps the idea that Australia should be acting — urgently or otherwise — on climate action under the carpet.
As CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology warn on extreme weather, Budget ignores climate change
Budget 2015: An assault on Australia’s climate programs http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/business/oyster-creek-nuclear-plant-offline-for-fifth-straight-day/article_bff63088-f7e9-11e4-98a9-1bde50cc13e9.html JOHN CONNOR LAST NIGHT’S BUDGET IGNORES THE GLOBAL REALITY THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS HAPPENING AND OTHER COUNTRIES ARE MOVING TO ADDRESS IT. IT’S A LIABILITY FOR OUR FUTURE.
AS THE TREASURER was finalising his Budget speech yesterday, the World Bank released a report onDecarbonising Development: Three Steps to a Zero Carbon Future (pdf) and our announced that El Nino was back — a big problem for Australia as global warming puts our already extreme weather on steroids.
These are hardly ‘radical’ organisations. Yet the Treasurer’s speech made no mention of policies to modernise and decarbonise our economy. There was no mention of climate costs and the physical impacts of climate change that CSIRO has now repeatedly warned are happening now, and will only grow. The Treasurer did laud the truly awesome power of our fossil fuel exports — sufficient to power Mumbai, Tokyo and Singapore, apparently.
Last night’s budget highlights a number of problems with the government’s approach to climate and economic policy. Continue reading
Climate Council exposes Bjorn Lomborg’s climate fallacies
The low down on Lomborg BY CLIMATE COUNCIL 13.05.2015 Last week’s announcement that the University of Western Australia would no longer house Bjorn Lomborg’s ‘Consensus Centre’ was a fantastic outcome for science. However, the fact that the Centre is still trying to establish itself in Australia is deeply troubling.Misinformation is harmful. Just as false information about the ‘benefits’ of tobacco misled the public and damaged health, so false information about climate change and its impacts can mislead the public and decision-makers, delaying much needed action to stabilise the climate system. Here are the top four reasons why Lomborg’s arguments about climate change are flawed. Continue reading
University of Western Australia praised for ditching Bjorn Lomborg Consensus Centre
Students praise UWA for ditching controversial $4m Bjorn Lomborg Consensus Centre think tank ABC News 9 May 15 Students at the University of Western Australia (UWA) say the decision to can controversial Danish academic Bjorn Lomborg’s Australian Consensus Centre is a win for academic integrity and common sense.
The Australian Consensus Centre was going to be set up with the help of a $4 million Federal Government grant, but University Vice Chancellor Paul Johnson last night said the proposed centre was untenable and lacked academic support.
UWA student guild president Lizzy O’Shea said students were concerned about the impact the centre, inspired by self-proclaimed “sceptical environmentalist” Dr Lomborg, could have on the university’s reputation. “It’s a really good sign as far as community action goes that if enough people have mobilised against something, and don’t support it, that people will change their minds,” she said.
“The fact that we had international partners saying they wanted to pull out because of the association. So the reputational damage was probably the main complaint. Continue reading
Abbott govt’s new Renewable Energy Target ensures uncertainty for renewables
Government’s RET compromise guarantees uncertainty for renewables, Michelle Grattan, The Conversation 8 May 15 As the Abbott government prepares Australia’s post-2020 emissions targets for this year’s Paris conference, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s business advisory council has make an extraordinary intervention in the climate debate.Maurice Newman, writing in the Australian, maintains it’s all a United Nations conspiracy – a power 
grab of massive proportions.“This is not about facts or logic. It’s about a new world order under the control of the UN. It is opposed to capitalism and freedom and has made environmental catastrophism a household topic to achieve its objective.” Newman claims that 95% of the climate models that we’re told prove the link between human emissions and global warming “have been found … to be in error”.
In his article he targets Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN’s Framework on Climate Change, who has been visiting Australia. Newman writes that “there is a real chance Figueres and those who share her centralised power ambitions will succeed.
“As the UN’s December climate change conference in Paris approaches, Australia will be pressed to sign even more futile job-destroying climate change treaties.”………….. Continue reading
Abbott advisor Maurice Newman has embarrassed even our climate sceptic government
the leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Richard di Natale, suggests Mr Newman’s views have been influential.
MARK BUTLER: I’ve never been particularly clear why Maurice Newman holds the position he does hold, given how central climate change is to the future economic prosperity of Australia.
SIMON LAUDER: Mr Newman says the UN (United Nations) is not working alone, that it’s enlisted compliant academics and gullible media, including the ABC, using fear and appeals to morality to push its agenda.
AUDIO: Little support for PM’s top business adviser over UN climate conspiracy theory ABC Radio PM 8 May 15 MARK COLVIN: The Prime Minister’s top business adviser says the United Nations is trying to use the fear of climate change to orchestrate an anti-freedom, anti-capitalist new world order.
Maurice Newman chairs the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council.
In today’s edition of The Australian he urges Tony Abbott not to listen to the UN and resist attempts to get Australia to sign a climate treaty. Continue reading
Australia’s Education Minister Pyne seeks new home for Bjørn Lomborg climate sceptic centre
Christopher Pyne vows to find new home for Bjørn Lomborg centre, Guardian, Lenore Taylor Calla Wahlquist 8 May 15 Education minister and Lomborg say ‘Australia consensus centre’ will go ahead in a new home after WA university handed back $4m in funding Australia’s education minister, Christopher Pyne, has vowed to find another university to host the Bjorn Lomborg “consensus centre” and is seeking legal advice about a decision by the University of Western Australia (UWA) to hand back $4m in federal government funding awarded for it.
UWA handed back the funding and dropped its connection with Lomborg, saying that lack of support among its academics made the centre untenable….
Pyne accused the UWA academics of “shouting down” views with which they disagreed…………..
UWA academics have been vocal in their opposition to the centre anddemanded that the university sever its contract with the federal government or risk jeopardising its international reputation.
Rachel Siewert, Greens senator for WA and a UWA alumnus, told Guardian Australia that she was relieved the university had responded to pressure from its academics.
“I can now be proud of my university again,” she said…………..http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/08/climate-contrarian-bjrn-lomborgs-centre-dropped-by-wa-university
Public and academic outcry force Uni of Western Australia to ditch Bjorn Lomborg centre
University of Western Australia pulls out of Bjorn Lomborg centre, The Age May 8, 2015 -Kate Aubusson The University of Western Australia has pulled out of its deal to create a “consensus centre” run by climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg and partly funded by the federal government.
The decision is a blow to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose office drove the push to fund the centre.
UWA appears to have bowed to pressure from staff and the public following news the think tank would receive $4 million in government funding.
“I have today spoken to the federal government and Bjorn Lomborg, advising them of the barriers that currently exist to the creation of the centre and the university’s decision to cancel the contract and return the money to the government,” UWA vice-chancellor Paul Johnson said.
“The scale of the strong and passionate emotional reaction was one that the university did not predict,” Professor Johnson said on Friday evening. Continue reading
CHRISTIANA FIGUERES answers Maurice Newman’s attack on United Nations
CHRISTIANA FIGUERES:...” he is certainly not in the majority, not only the majority of scientists, but the majority of citizens around the world, the majority of leaders around the world, are quite clear about the effects that we are actually playing with here and the risks that we have to manage ahead of us.”
UN climate chief responds to tirade from PM’s adviser Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lateline Broadcast: 08/05/2015 Reporter: Emma Alberici
UN climate negotiator Christiana Figueres says she is willing to meet business leader Maurice Newman in the wake of his extraordinary attack against on UN climate policy – and warns that it would be dangerous for Australia not to act on climate change.
Transcript……………
Christiana Figueres joins us now from our studio in Canberra……………
Climate change making Australia’s hot spells even more costly
Severe heat costs the Australian economy US$6.2 billion a year, New Scientist, May 2015 by Michael Slezak Heat stress costs the Australian economy a whopping US$6.2 billion a year – a finding that shows what other countries might be facing in areas where global warming will make extremely hot days more common. Continue reading
Environment Minister Greg Hunt’s hype about “Direct Action” doesn’t ring true
Greg Hunt hasn’t a lot to show for $660m spent on reducing greenhouse emissions, Guardian, Lenore Taylor, 1 May 15
While the environment minister is proclaiming a ‘stunning’ result, the money mostly went on projects begun under the previous government
Last week the government spent $660m to reduce Australia’s expected greenhouse emissions by 47m tonnes – a result the environment minister, Greg Hunt, described as “stunning” and one starry-eyed commentator suggested was so completely amazing it may have won the next election for the coalition.
So what stunning things did we get for our money? Did we start to transform our economy so we use less fossil fuel in the future? Did we buy lasting change? Not a lot. Mostly we spent it on making sure that projects begun under the former government kept going…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/01/greg-hunt-660m-spent-reducing-greenhouse-emissions
New Matilda’s Guide to Greg Hunt’s Climate Nonsense
A Simple Guide To Understanding Greg Hunt’s ‘Nonsense’ Carbon Con, New Matilda 26 Apr 15 More than a decade in, Australia still doesn’t have a credible carbon abatement policy. Thom Mitchell explains.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt is doing a stellar job of muddying the rising, warming waters which threaten to submerge the government’s “inadequate” climate policies, but experts say his claims are “quite outrageously misleading”.
After half a decade of rhetoric the government’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), the centre-piece of its ‘Direct Action’ climate policy, has faced its first real test. Continue reading
Australian tax-payers funding shonky climate economics with $4m Bjørn Lomborg centre
So is this “methodology” the Abbott Government has spent $4million on any good?……
while cost-benefit analysis can be useful, it doesn’t work when you apply it to climate change policy.
How do you price, for example, the loss of a Pacific island nation and what that would mean for the cultures that have thrived there? What’s the price losing multiple species of flora and fauna or the Great Barrier Reef Jotzo adds:
Climate change is exceptional because it has all of these dimensions that go beyond the practical capability of cost benefit analysis.
Australian taxpayers funding climate contrarian’s methods with $4m Bjørn Lomborg centre Graham Readfearn, Guardian 23 Apr 15 Lomborg’s think tank methods underplay the impact of climate change and have ‘no academic credibility’ says leading climate economist. Danish political scientist and climate change contrarian Bjørn Lomborg says the poorest countries in the world need coal and climate change just isn’t as big a problem as some people make out.
Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott says “coal is good for humanity” and there are more pressing problems in the world than climate change, which he once described as “crap” but now says he accepts.
So it’s not surprising then that the latter should furnish the former with $4 million of taxpayer funds to start an Australian arm of Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre (CCC) at the University of Western Australia’s business school.
The CCC has consistently said that targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions are too expensive and money should be spent elsewhere
After a couple of weeks of doubt and confusion over the origins and the funding of the centre, latest reports suggest that the idea came from the Prime Minister’s office.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister told Fairfax media it was “the government’s decision to bring the Lomborg consensus methodology to Australia”.
More on this “methodology” and some pretty fundamental problems with it in a bit.
Students at UWA are gathering names on a petition and campaigning in protest, saying Lomborg’s appointment as an adjunct (unpaid) professor there damages the university’s reputation and is an embarrassment. The University’s Student Guild claimed that “students, staff and alumni” were outraged. Continue reading
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