'Green blob'

De groene lobby die zich in elke uithoek van het establishment heeft genesteld.

'Green blob' is de term die werd gemunt door de onlangs ontslagen Britse minister voor milieu, Owen Paterson, 'Green blob' is een groene, vormloze, slijmerige massa die overal doordringt. Daarmee bedoelde hij de groene lobbyisten die in elke geleding van het Britse establishment werkzaam zijn.

Onder de titel, 'How a shadowy network funded by foreign millions is making our household energy bills soar – for a low–carbon Britain', schreef David Rose voor de 'The Mail on Sunday':

The Mail on Sunday today exposes how a ‘Green Blob’ financed by a shadowy group of hugely wealthy foreign donors is driving Britain towards economically ruinous eco targets.

The phrase the ‘Green Blob’ was coined by former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson after he was sacked from the Cabinet in July.

He was referring to a network of pro-green lobbyists working at every level of the British Establishment, who have helped shape the eco policies sending household energy bills soaring.

But investigations by this newspaper reveal the Blob is not just an abstract concept.

We have found that innocuous-sounding bodies such as the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, the American William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Swiss Oak Foundation are channelling tens of millions of pounds each year to climate change lobbyists in Britain, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

They have publicly congratulated themselves on their ability to create green Government policy in the UK – most notably after Ed Miliband steered through aggressive CO2 reduction targets in his 2008 Climate Change Act, and announced there would be no more coal power stations.

Yet the consequences of their continuing success are certain: further eye–watering rises in energy costs for millions of Britons and an increasing risk of blackouts.

According to leading energy analyst Peter Atherton of Liberum Capital, current UK energy policies shaped by the Blob will cost between £360 billion and £400 billion to implement by 2030. He said this will see bills rise by at least a third in real terms – on top of the increases already seen over the past ten years.

This bill dwarfs the EU’s £1.7 billion demand from Britain last week. ...

At the heart of the Blob is a single institution – the European Climate Foundation (ECF) – which has offices in London, Brussels, The Hague, Berlin and Warsaw.

Every year it receives about £20 million from ‘philanthropic’ foundations in America, Holland and Switzerland, and channels most of it to green campaign and lobby groups.

It refuses to disclose how much it gives to each recipient, and does not publish its accounts. But it admits that the purpose of these grants is to influence British and EU climate and energy policy across a broad front. ...

Het Verenigd Koninkrijk kent een klimaatveranderingswet, waarin het zich unilaterale verplichtingen tot reductie van de CO2–uitstoot heeft opgelegd, die aanmerkelijk verder gaan dat het recente akkoord dat binnen de EU werd bereikt. De EU heeft afgesproken de uitstoot van CO2 in 2030 met 40% te verminderen t.a.v. het niveau van 1990. Eerder gold 20% voor 2020. Maar het nieuwe streefgetal is voorwaardelijk. Zouden andere landen in de wereld bijvoorbeeld de EU niet volgen, dat houdt zij zich het recht voor om het getal te wijzigen. Volgens de Britse klimaatveranderingswet zou de uitstootvermindering van CO2 minsten 80% in 2050 dienen te bedragen - maar dan onvoorwaardelijk.

While the Act was going through Parliament, the ECF, which was launched in 2007–8, was giving money to Greenpeace UK, FoE, Christian Aid and the WWF to mount a campaign against coal–fired power plants. Also funded was Client Earth, a group of lawyers who secured court acquittals for ‘direct action’ protesters who broke into the Kingsnorth plant in Kent, climbed its chimneys and occupied it.

The campaign persuaded Mr Miliband to announce the cancellation of a planned new generating unit at Kingsnorth – and that there would be no new coal plants built in Britain.

Afterwards, the ECF president, Jules Kortenhorst, boasted that Miliband had acted in response to ‘a complex, multifaceted effort over a year and a half, with grass–roots mobilisation campaigns [and] behind the scenes lobbying’.

He added: ‘All of this work, backed by substantial philanthropic investment, resulted in UK Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband announcing that no new coal–fired power plants would be built This is an example of a policy that can be replicated, increasing its impact.’...

Climate Works [ ] achieved its ambitious fundraising target, with a grant in 2008 of $500 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which spends the fortune amassed by the co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard computer firm. This was followed by further grants of up to $100 million, and donations of $60 million from the sister Packard foundation. In July, a report by a US Senate committee named the Hewlett foundation as a key element in a ‘billionaires’ club’ which effectively controlled the environmental movement, pumping more than half a billion dollars a year into green groups around the world.

It claimed these ‘wealthy liberals fully exploit the benefits of a generous tax code meant to promote genuine philanthropy and charitable acts’, but instead were transferring money to ‘activists’ to ‘promote shared political goals’.

Het spreekt vanzelf dat dit soort activiteiten de economie en samenleving meer in het algemeen grote schade toebrengen. Sterker nog, zij zijn een regelrechte aanzet tot economische zelfmoord. En waarom? Het is in wezen allemaal bedoeld om die verschrikkelijk opwarming van de aarde te voorkomen. Maar die is al lang geleden gestopt. Maar mensen als Jules Kortenhorst – voormalig CDA-kamerlid en om onnavolgbare redenen door NRC/HB ooit eens als de Nederlandse Al Gore getipt – ontkennen dat glashard, zoals uit deze vermakelijke video van Theo Richel en Roelof–Jan Wentholt van de Groene Rekenkamer blijkt. Dit filmpje werd in 2008 opgenomen. Inmiddels zijn we zo'n zes jaar verder en nog steeds is er geen opwarming, terwijl mainstream klimatologen als Mojib Latif et al ons nog een verdere stagnatie van temperatuur hebben beloofd van zo'n 10 jaar.

Lees verder hier.

Waneer komt er nu eens een eind aan dat klimaatgedoe?

Voor mijn eerdere DDS–bijdragen zie hier.