european declaration

<div>see MAIN Petitions (terms vary) eg manhattan declaration, vs heidelberg
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</div><div></div><div>claim 500 sci but don't bother to list]</div><div>
</div><div><h1 class="entry-title fusion-post-title" data-fontsize="18" data-lineheight="27" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Brief CLINTEL aan VN-baas Guterres</h1><div class="post-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; margin-left: -30px; margin-right: -30px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 0px 30px;"><div class="fusion-builder-row fusion-row " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; zoom: 1; width: 882.516px; position: relative; z-index: 10; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><div class="fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion_builder_column_1_1 fusion-builder-column-1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last 1_1" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; position: relative; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><div class="fusion-column-wrapper" data-bg-url="" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; background-position: left top; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; height: auto;"><div class="fusion-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Professor Guus Berkhout The Hague guus.berkhout@clintel.org23 September 2019Sr. António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations, United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY 10017, United States of America.Ms. Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC Secretariat, UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, GermanyYour Excellencies,There is no climate emergency.A global network of more than 500 knowledgeable and experienced scientists and professionals in climate and related fields have the honor to address to Your Excellencies the attached European Climate Declaration, for which the signatories to this letter are the national ambassadors.The general-circulation models of climate on which international policy is at present founded are unfit for their purpose. Therefore, it is cruel as well as imprudent to advocate the squandering of trillions on the basis of results from such immature models. Current climate policies pointlessly, grievously undermine the economic system, putting lives at risk in countries denied access to affordable, continuous electrical power.We urge you to follow a climate policy based on sound science, realistic economics and genuine concern for those harmed by costly but unnecessary attempts at mitigation. We ask you to place the Declaration on the agenda of your imminent New York session.We also invite you to organize with us a constructive high-level meeting between world-class scientists on both sides of the climate debate early in 2020. The meeting will give effect to the sound and ancient principle no less of sound science than of natural justice that both sides should be fully and fairly heard. Audiatur et altera pars!Please let us know your thoughts about such a joint meeting.Yours sincerely, ambassadors of the European Climate Declaration,<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; padding: 15px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: var(--testimonial_bg_color); border-left: 4px solid rgb(0, 181, 226); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; border-top-color: rgb(0, 181, 226); border-right-color: rgb(0, 181, 226); border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 181, 226); letter-spacing: 0px;">Professor Guus Berkhout – The Netherlands Professor Richard Lindzen – USA Professor Reynald Du Berger – French Canada Professor Ingemar Nordin – Sweden Terry Dunleavy  – New Zealand Jim O’Brien – Rep. of Ireland Viv Forbes – Australia Professor Alberto Prestininzi – Italy Professor Jeffrey Foss – English Canada Professor Benoît Rittaud – France Morten Jødal – Norway Professor Fritz Vahrenholt – Germany Rob Lemeire – Belgium The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley – UK</blockquote><h3 data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0px;">There is no climate emergency</h3>A global network of 500 scientists and professionals has prepared this urgent message. Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address the uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real benefits as well as the imagined costs of adaptation to global warming, and the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of mitigation.<h3 data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0px;">Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming</h3>The geological archive reveals that Earth’s climate has varied as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age ended as recently as 1850. Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming.<h3 data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0px;">Warming is far slower than predicted</h3>The world has warmed at less than half the originally-predicted rate, and at less than half the rate to be expected on the basis of net anthropogenic forcing and radiative imbalance. It tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.<h3 data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0px;">Climate policy relies on inadequate models</h3>Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools. Moreover, they most likely exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.<h3 data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0px;">CO2 is plant food, the basis of all life on Earth</h3>CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crop worldwide.<h3 data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0px;">Global warming has not increased natural disasters</h3>There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent. However, CO2-mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly. For instance, wind turbines kill birds and bats, and palm-oil plantations destroy the biodiversity of the rainforests.<h3 data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0px;">Policy must respect scientific and economic realities</h3>There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. If better approaches emerge, and they certainly will, we have ample time to reflect and adapt. The aim of international policy should be to provide reliable and affordable energy at all times, and throughout the world.</div><div class="fusion-clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; zoom: 1;" /></div></div></div></div></div><div class="fusion-meta-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; overflow: hidden; margin-top: 20px; padding: 5px 0px; border-top: 1px solid rgb(224, 222, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(224, 222, 222); border-right-color: rgb(224, 222, 222); border-left-color: rgb(224, 222, 222); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="fusion-meta-info-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Door <a href="https://clintel.nl/author/marcelcrok/" title="Berichten van Marcel Crok" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition-property: color, background-color, border-color; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-timing-function: linear;">Marcel Crok</a>|22 september 2019|<a href="https://clintel.nl/category/clintel/" rel="category tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition-property: color, background-color, border-color; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-timing-function: linear;">Clintel</a>, <a href="https://clintel.nl/category/klimaatbeleid/" rel="category tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition-property: color, background-color, border-color; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-timing-function: linear;">Klimaatbeleid</a>, <a href="https://clintel.nl/category/klimaatwetenschap/" rel="category tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition-property: color, background-color, border-color; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-timing-function: linear;">Klimaatwetenschap</a>|Reacties uitgeschakeld</div></div></div><div>=<div>bit lost see clintel
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</div><div><a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/09/06/climate-science-deniers-planning-coordinated-european-misinformation-campaign-leaked-documents-reveal">https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/09/06/climate-science-deniers-planning-coordinated-european-misinformation-campaign-leaked-documents-reveal</a></div><div>
</div><div>A coalition of climate science denial groups is gearing up for a European media blitz later this month, in an apparent bid to derail efforts to set an EU-wide “net zero” emissions target, documents obtained by DeSmog show.Plans for a self-styled “European Declaration” include press conferences in Brussels, Rome and Oslo and a letter to be sent to leaders of EU and UN institutions, scheduled for mid-September. The letter claims to have “400 independent Climate Scientists and Professionals” signed up so far.Some notable signatories are part of a <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/06/07/brexit-climate-denier-map" style="text-decoration-line: none;">trans-Atlantic network of thinktanks</a> pushing for environmental deregulation post-Brexit, and have a history of climate science denial. A number of former employees of the network’s member organisations are now staffers in Boris Johnson’s cabinet  Brulle, Professor of Sociology at Drexel University and an expert on climate science denial, told DeSmog the campaign looked like a panicked response to recent high-profile efforts to highlight the climate crisis:<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: url(" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“The rise of the Extinction Rebellion movement, and the immense popularity and influence of Greta Thunberg, are having a significant impact on media coverage of climate change and concern about this issue. I would suspect that the aim of the campaign is to blunt the impact of these climate advocacy efforts.”<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: url(">“The talking points are stale and patently scientific nonsense. That isn't critical. The point would be to keep the ‘contested’ nature of climate change alive.”<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: url(">Geoffrey Supran, a Research Associate at Harvard University who <font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: url(">gave evidence to the European Parliament in March on oil giant ExxonMobil’s historic promotion of climate science denial, said he thought the move was an attempt to distract from the various upcoming efforts to increase action on climate change globally, such as the UN Climate Action Summit at the end of the month:“These people are the rhetorical equivalent to the kid in the classroom screaming ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ They're desperate for attention.” “As always, they presumably hope to muddy the waters of public and political discourse on the climate crisis. To feed the echo chamber of sympathetic right-wing media and blogs, and to prey on naive and unsuspecting journalists who may be tempted to exercise false balance in their climate coverage.”<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Coordinated effort</h3>The campaign is being spearheaded by a new Netherlands-based climate science denial group called the Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL), launched in April with funding from Niek Sandmann, a multimillionaire real estate developer.The group’s co-founder Guus Berkhout, an engineering professor who <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20190904134324/http:/www.cfgsec.com/Bio%20Professor%20Guus%20Berkhout/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">began</a> his career at Shell and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190906120430/https://www.delphi-consortium.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">set up</a> the Delphi Consortium in the 1980s to develop new exploration methods for the oil and gas industry, told DeSmog that interest in the campaign had been “overwhelming”. Berkhout said there were plans to hold press conferences in European capitals and that the effort was being “expanded to a World Climate Declaration”. He declined to offer further details or comment.In addition to CLINTEL, the international organising group includes some well-known figures from the climate misinformation world, including: <ul style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;"><li>Professor <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/richard-lindzen" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Lindzen</a>, former Distinguished Senior Fellow at the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/cato-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Cato Institute</a> (USA)</li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/viv-forbes" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Viv Forbes</a>, Chairman of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/carbon-sense-coalition" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Carbon Sense Coalition</a> (Australia)</li><li>Professor <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fritz-vahrenholt" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Fritz Vahrenholt</a>, Speaker at the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/european-institute-climate-and-energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">European Institute for Climate and Energy</a> (Germany)</li><li>Professor Jeffrey Foss, Contributor to the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/frontier-centre-public-policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Frontier Centre for Public Policy</a> (Canada)</li><li>Jim O’Brien, Chair and Co-founder of the <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/irish-climate-science-forum" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Irish Climate Science Forum</a> (Ireland)</li><li>Terence Dunleavy, Founding Chairman of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/international-climate-science-coalition" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">International Climate Science Coalition</a> (New Zealand)</li></ul>In an email seen by DeSmog, Berkhout explains that “signatures are being collected from persons who give a valuable contribution to the climate debate and are recognised as such”. He goes on to boast that there are “already a lot of great names on the list”.Of the 400 signatories, only a handful have a background in climate science, with the majority being writers, engineers and geologists with no direct expertise in the field.In addition to the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/cato-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Cato Institute</a>'s <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/richard-lindzen" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Lindzen</a>,<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/cato-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> </a>the list features numerous figures from US-based libertarian groups, including <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-michaels" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Patrick Michaels</a> of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Competitive Enterprise Institute</a>, and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/charles-battig" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Charles Battig</a> and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/willie-soon" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Willie Soon</a> from the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Heartland Institute</a>, which provides a total of 12 signatures alone. All three organisations are members of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/atlas-economic-research-foundation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Atlas Network</a>, a <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-family-foundations" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Koch-funded</a> international umbrella body of free-market groups.UK affiliates of the network include the <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/institute-economic-affairs" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)</a>, the <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/adam-smith-institute" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Adam Smith Institute (ASI)</a> and the <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/taxpayers-alliance" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Taxpayers’ Alliance</a>. A number of former employees of these groups are now working in <a href="https://desmog.co.uk/boris-johnson" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Boris Johnson</a>’s government.Taxpayers’ Alliance founder <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/matthew-elliott" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Matthew Elliott</a> is reportedly advising new Chancellor Sajid Javid, whose Conservative leadership campaign he ran, while former employee Chloe Westley has joined Boris Johnson’s Number 10 team. International Trade Secretary <a href="https://desmog.co.uk/liz-truss" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Liz Truss</a> has appointed two special advisors from the IEA and ASI.<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">UK support</h3>The UK’s principal climate science denial group, the <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/global-warming-policy-foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Global Warming Policy Foundation</a><a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/global-warming-policy-foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> (GWPF)</a>, founded by former Chancellor <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/nigel-lawson" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Nigel Lawson</a> in the run-up to the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit, is also well-represented in the campaign.At least four members of its Academic Advisory Council feature in the letter’s signatories, and other contributors to the GWPF have also backed the “declaration”. One is Northumbria University Professor Valentina Zharkova, who gave a lecture to the group last year claiming that climate change is caused by natural solar cycles. A paper Zharkova co-authored in June on the same subject was <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2209895-journal-criticised-for-study-claiming-sun-is-causing-global-warming/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">criticised</a> for containing “basic errors” and an investigation into how it came to be published was launched by the scientific journal that printed it.CLINTEL also has close ties to the GWPF. Berkhout wrote an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190904131131/https:/www.thegwpf.org/climate-thinking-broadening-the-horizons/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">essay</a> for the UK group last year insisting that climate change was purely a natural phenomenon. And in February, the GWPF <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20190903163551/https:/www.thegwpf.com/dutch-climate-intelligence-foundation-challenges-belgian-climate-alarmists/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">published</a> an article by its Dutch counterpart that said: “Yes, the Earth is warming up. But that is business as usual. Earth’s history tells us that climate change has always happened.” The following month GWPF director <a href="https://desmog.co.uk/benny-peiser" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Benny Peiser</a> spoke at a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20190903162359/https:/www.thegwpf.com/benny-peiser-energy-revolts-the-crisis-of-europes-green-energy-agenda/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">gathering in Amsterdam</a> where CLINTEL announced its upcoming launch. At that event, Berkhout <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLrbo5LYgHQ" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">admitted</a>: “in this whole audience, apart from the organisation and a few brave ones, I don't see young people. So the first thing we are going to do is talk with the young people.” CLINTEL currently has a youth wing called “<a href="https://clintel.nl/young-clintel/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Young Clintel</a>”. The GWPF did not respond to a request for comment.Other UK signatories include directors and former directors of lesser-known oil and gas companies, as well as five Fellows of the Geological Society, a professional body representing Earth scientists.In addition to the EU “net zero” emissions target under consideration, planned “climate strike” protests and the upcoming UN Climate Action Summit, the media offensive may also, given its European focus, be timed to coincide with a <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/merkel-speaks-out-in-favour-of-more-ambitious-eu-climate-targets/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">crunch government meeting in Germany</a> on how the country will meet its 2030 emissions target, set to take place on 20 September.German signatories to the letter include a spokesperson for the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/european-institute-climate-and-energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">European Institute for Climate and Energy</a> (EIKE), which a Der Spiegel <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/afd-seeks-votes-by-opposing-climate-protection-a-1265494.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">investigation</a> earlier this year found had been working closely with the insurgent, far-right <a href="https://desmog.co.uk/2019/05/16/right-wing-populist-parties-climate-science-denial-european-parliament-elections" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Alternative for Germany</a> party to campaign against action on climate change.=</div></div></div><div>=</div></div>