the climate brief Accurate Reporting of Climate Science

After slipping quietly off the agenda over the last few months, newly re-elected US President Barack Obama hinted that climate change might, in the US at least, return to the fore. Here's our roundup of the media's take on what the election means for climate politics.

In his  acceptance speech this morning, the president said: "We want our children to live in an America that isn't [...] threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet".

Before this, Obama had remained quiet on the issue -  perhaps, the Huffington Post says, to help win swing states like Ohio, where coal mining still feeds the economy and provides jobs - although the Guardian suggests the president  decided to keep quiet on climate three years ago to try and get some traction with Republicans.

But with his place at the top reconfirmed,  Tom Chivers in the Telegraph asks if an Obama presidency with no concern over reelection might be able to finally shine a light on the issue of climate change?

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As part of our look at media coverage linked to Hurricane Sandy, we look at Telegraph columnist Fraser Nelson's arguments in favour of dropping attempts to slow climate change and focusing on adapting to new conditions.

Hurricane Sandy has prompted new interest in the media over the links between climate change and extreme weather, but journalist Fraser Nelson took a different tack. Writing in the Telegraph, he says New York's response to the storm shows that while efforts to mitigate climate change are faltering, humans are already adapting successfully to the effects of higher temperatures. He says:

"[A]s science evolves, the hysteria is draining out of the climate change debate - and a new rationalism taking its place. We might not be sure that we can make any meaningful difference to its trajectory, but we know that we can adapt to it."

To support his argument, Nelson makes several claims about research on climate change and extreme weather and the ability of different countries to adapt. We take a look at some of them.

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Greenhouse gas emissions aren't falling fast enough to seriously address climate change, according to a new report by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Its analysis suggests that global greenhouse gas emissions associated with economic activity need to fall by more than 5 per cent each year to 2050 to limit temperature rise to two degrees Celsius. Compared to recent reductions of just 0.8 per cent per year, this level of decarbonisation looks "highly unrealistic".

The report led to a  number of  headlines claiming world temperatures may rise six degrees without greater efforts to mitigate climate change. We take a look at its modelling, and find that although it might be a bit simplified, its main conclusion stands - current efforts to mitigate climate change simply aren't enough.

Current state of affairs

The report, called the Low Carbon Economy Index, analyses the amount of carbon emitted per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - a measure called carbon intensity. It concludes that to stand a 50 per cent chance of limiting temperature rise to two degrees celsius, carbon intensity needs to fall by more than 5 per cent per year. If that weren't hard enough, the world's major economies would need to repeat this feat every year until 2050.

Over the last decade or so, carbon intensity has been falling by about 0.8 per cent per year. According to the analysis by PwC, if the rates of decarbonisation don't improve the world will be a long way off meeting its two degree target. Two degrees is a  limit adopted by the European Union, based on IPCC findings, beyond which it becomes unlikely that serious negative effects can be avoided.

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Roger Kidd

Environment minister Owen Paterson introduced an interesting take on windfarm siting in an interview on Radio 4 this weekend - the angle of the trees. Paterson believes windfarms shouldn't be sited in areas such as his own constituency in Shropshire because there's not enough wind in the county. Is that right? And is it the case that a lack of wind is a reason why people don't like wind turbines?

On BBC Radio 4's  Today programme last Saturday at the end of a segment on ash dieback, Paterson was asked some questions about his views on climate change and wind turbines (starting at 05.50). He said:

"I do not like windfarms in the wrong place. I've been absolutely clear as a local MP where the trees grow vertically because we don't get that much wind I think that's an idiotic place to build windfarms and do significant -  not just environmental, but economic damage."

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Yesterday it was announced that Peter Lilley, Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden, has been appointed to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee.

The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee are tasked with overseeing how the Department of Energy and Climate Change spends government money. It also conducts public inquiries and makes policy recommendations to the Department. As a member of the Committee, Lilley will have influence over what form these recommendations take, and what evidence is considered.

Here are Lilley's on-the-record views on some of the key issues.

Lilley on climate change science

Lilley was one of only 5 MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act of 2008. The parliamentary scrutiny website, The Public Whip, categorises Lilley as 'strongly against' the issue of 'Stopping Climate Change'.

Lilley has called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  "a slightly shaky pillar" for the basis of climate science.

However, he recently  appeared on Newsnight defending the scientific findings of the IPCC. Here, he claimed the IPCC's scientific findings were a better basis for discussion of climate change than new calculations by Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, which he labelled as something "concocted by the BBC in a rather alarmist fashion".

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Walk into a room hosting an energy policy event and what do you see? A mass of dark suits familiar faces, familiar arguments and a slight sense of déjà vu. But although a discussion of the Energy Bill this morning at the CBI ran true to form, failing to shed much light on key questions, it also illustrated a striking agreement between business and government over what the bill needs to deliver. As chaotic announcements about sudden changes to energy policy once more hit the headlines, the question is whether that's really going to happen.

CBI says: no more room for same old, same old

In his speech, CBI deputy director-general Neil Bentley seemed rather wearied. He kicked off by saying:

"Giving energy policy speeches can sometimes feel like being stuck in a time warp. Because I've been giving versions of this speech for about four years now".

In 2009 the CBI published a report on electricity market reform called "Decision Time", followed in 2010 by a report called " No Time to Lose". If the CBI put out a report, the title, said Bentley, would need "to make Malcolm Tucker blush".

In the light of Ofgem's report about a potential squeeze on UK energy supply over the next few years, there is little room for more theoretical analysis. Bentley's key message was the need to "stop arguing over the energy mix" and create a secure environment where investors in a wide variety of energy technologies want to invest.

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COP11 in Hyderabad is probably the biggest climate adaptation conference you've never heard of.

Representatives from more than 192 countries have travelled to India, drawing a crowd of 14,000 delegates to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's bi-annual summit.

But aside from a solitary New York Times journalist who arrived on Monday, media coverage outside India is fairly low-key. This is a pity, as the subjects up for discussion are fascinating, and directly relevant to the climate debate.

In the past week geo-engineering, biofuels, REDD+, coastal protection strategies and increased environmental finance commitments have all been on the agenda.

For delegates here it is simple. The future of the oceans, forests and endangered species all depend on how high global temperatures will rise.

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News that Britain's Antarctic research unit will be merged with another scientific body has sparked accusations in the media that budget cuts are harming the quality of the UK's polar research. But some have claimed the merger could make sense. We explore the balance the UK must strike between cutting costs and maintaining a scientific and political presence in Antarctica.

Facing cuts to its funding, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has announced plans to merge two of its research bodies. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS), currently based in Cambridge, looks set to join forces with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton - which NERC says will integrate two areas of closely related science.

Consultation period

In a  consultation document released in September, NERC laid out its vision to create a centre of polar and ocean science. It plans to bring together the two research bodies, pooling services like HR as well as expensive resources like buildings and research ships. 

Scientists we spoke to suggested this is perhaps an obvious place to make cuts. For example,  BAS and NOC currently run individual shipping lines, each with two vessels - both huge operations that cost money and require a lot of manpower. 

As the rising cost of marine gas oil places a heavy burden on resources, NERC says it has to consider ways to save money - and running a single fleet is one of them. It is also considering increasing the extent to which it shares vessels with other research organisations.

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With the Lib Dem conference upon us, and a  motion tabled calling on the party to support the  Committee on Climate Change's proposed target that the UK's power sector should be 'virtually decarbonised' by 2030, we've put together a list of the interesting looking climate and energy fringe events taking place this weekend in sunny Brighton.

If like us you haven't shelled out for a pass, don't panic - these events are outside of the security zone and free to all. Some may even include refreshments. 

Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference
22 - 26 September, Brighton

Saturday

Fracking and the second dash for gas
A Friends of the Earth sponsored event. The blurb says "For some, shale gas is a panacea for Britain's energy challenges. But another dash for gas would bust our climate targets, and wreak havoc on local landscapes." Friends of the Earth, an MP and a local anti-fracking group speaking. 
20:15, Ashdown suite, Holiday Inn

Sunday

To frack or not to frack? 
This event, organised by the British Academy, Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society, asks what the risks and benefits are of shale gas extraction in the UK. 
13:00, Lancaster suite, Hilton Metropole 

Rethinking fossil fuels
Editor in Chief of PoliticsHome, Paul Waugh, and Andrew George MP, discuss whether new technologies can allow the clean use of fossil fuels. 
18:15, Ambassador suite, Hilton Metropole 

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The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) - the government's advisory body on climate targets - has today released a strongly worded letter criticising the government's "apparently ambivalent position" and "mixed messages" on energy policy. Specifically, the CCC expresses "great concern" that the proposed expansion of gas-fired power is incompatible with the UK's carbon targets.

The open letter from the members of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is pretty forthright. It begins:

"We are writing to express the great concern of the Committee on Climate Change about the recent Government statement "that it sees gas as continuing to play an important role in the energy mix well into and beyond 2030...[not] restricted to providing back up to renewables".

In July, it became clear that there was a major row going on behind the scenes in government over energy policy - with George Osborne and the Treasury pushing for the UK to become a hub for gas investors and the Lib Dems resisting, on the basis that it will threaten our climate change targets.

The government then announced that it sees gas "continuing to play an important part in the energy mix well into and beyond 2030, while meeting our carbon budgets."

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