TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP
Climate change under discussion
In recent years the debate on climate change has been stepped up as a result of the greater involvement of governments and civil society. With the aim of taking another look at climate change analysis and promoting an open and rigorous discussion of environment-related issues, the Rafael del Pino Foundation organised a series of lectures on the science, economics and politics of climate change entitled “Climate change under discussion”, in which guest speakers and important figures from the academic and political world as well as the third sector took part. With this the Rafael del Pino Foundation sought to contribute to the recovery of a common language, based on scientific arguments.
In July 2008 a discussion of these issues took place between Professors Chris Horner, Director of External Relations, Policy Counsel at the European Enterprise Institute, and Graciela Chichilnisky, UNESCO Professor of Mathematics and Economics, Columbia University.
The following experts took part in this series of lectures from October to December 2008:
Nicholas Stern (author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change), The Economic Fundamentals of the Debate on Climate Change.
In his lecture he said that “the biggest success was for the European Union to keep to its unilateral commitment to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. It is true that due to pressure from the industry, in the Directive on emission allowance trading, the portion of the greenhouse gas emission allowances to be allocated free of charge, instead of by auction, to already established undertakings was reduced. I am in favour of emission allowances being allocated wholly by auction: allocations free of charge delay adjustments and distort competition, because they benefit established undertakings.”
Mario Molina (Winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), Looking to the future: energy, economics and the environment in the 21st Century.
During his lecture he said that “the problem is that climate is less clear than other elements, but the consensus of the scientific community is that it is a problem caused by man. The problem, also, is the notion of time in the short term, the climate is not what we see, but a complex system. Sceptics will say that the climate changed in the ice ages and in other periods; that is true, but there is clear evidence that over the last century it has changed very quickly.”
Christopher W. Monckton (writer and former political adviser to British ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), “Apocalypse? No! Why isn’t global warming a global crisis?”
Christopher W. Monckton argued during his lecture that “only a small minority of scientists believe that man is capable of affecting climate change, an idea promoted by the international left in order to put an end to Western hegemony”. And he added that “climate extremists want the West to cut emissions of carbon dioxide - a perfectly inoffensive gas that has been present in the world for tens of thousands of years - by 80%-90%, which would signify a proportionate reduction of Western economies“.
Antón Uriarte (Doctorate in Geography from Saragossa University), Climate Change, Saying the Unsayable.
In Professor Uriarte’s opinion, the media systematically ignore the critical voices that call the prevailing theories into question, “How can carbon dioxide be bad if together with water it is the principal source of life on earth?“
Juan López de Uralde (Executive Director, Greenpeace Spain), Renewable revolution. An energy alternative in the face of climate change.
In the opinion of Juan López de Uralde, the technical and economic maturity of renewable energy technologies varies from one to another, but sources like windpower, biomass, photovoltaic, solar thermal, geothermal, wavepower and hydroelectric energy offer increasingly attractive options. Some of them are already competitive and their cost-effectiveness will improve even further as their technical development advances.
Richard Lindzen (Professor of Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Global warming: What are we talking about?
Professor Lindzen considered that it is a simplification to blame carbon dioxide for the increase in the global temperature. “There are many significant factors in climate formation: the influence of the Sun or the possible regional divergences that occur on the Earth, with the different winds, temperatures, rainfall or cloud.” Professor Lindzen also maintained that “external factors aren’t needed for the climate to change“.
Patrick J. Michaels (Professor of Environmental Sciences, Virginia University), Global Warming: Facts versus Fears.
During his lecture, Professor Michaels maintained that even if the most alarming hypothesis were to materialise, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubling, the experts’ calculations indicate that the temperature would increase between 1º-1.5º: “the temperature has increased by an average of one degree in the past 100 years and people have adapted to it“.
Fred Singer (President, Science and Environmental Policy Project and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, University of Virginia), Nature, not human activity, is what determines the climate.
During his lecture, Professor Singer said that “the most important issue, if not the only one, is whether global warming is due to natural causes or human activity, that is the question: if it is natural, there is not much we can do and there would be no sense in controlling emissions of carbon dioxide or anything else; it would be pointless“. Despite the difficulties of arranging the series in debate form, these lectures enabled those attending to discuss the core issues and the keys to the controversy over climate change with top level experts. An intense and intellectually stimulating debate that is taking place in Spain and elsewhere.