A Message to COP26 Attendees

At COP26, the wealthy global elite arrived in Glasgow on 400 private jets to lecture those attending. They said that our technological achievements have caused a global “climate emergency”, that it was “one minute to midnight” and that if we failed to stop this supposedly disastrous trend a catastrophe would ensue. Their solution is: “Back to the Past”.

Distracted by a scientific community that profits by exaggerating the imagined threat from a mildly warmer global climate, world leaders in Glasgow declared that “to go beyond a rise of 1.5 ⁰C would unleash extreme sea level rises and catastrophes, including crippling droughts, monstrous storms and wildfires far worse than those the world is already suffering”.

But is this scaremongering story true? Note for instance that the difference between the mean annual temperature in cold Finland and warm Singapore is more than 20 degrees? Yet, both these countries are very successful. They just adapted successfully to their very different climates. How many delegates at COP26 have any idea about how the Earth’s climate works?  

CLINTEL has individual messages for three groups attending the COP26 conference: heads of government, young people and climate scientists. The messages make four key points:

First, what is the problem? Yes, the climate is changing – as it always has – but there is NO “climate emergency”. The 1.5 ⁰C crisis limit for global warming is a political fiction and has nothing to do with honest science. Moreover, while CO2-concentration has continued to increase, there has been little or no global warming in the past decade (HadCRUT4, UAH). Climate change is much more than CO2 and CO2 is much more than climate change.

Secondly, supply-driven energy sources are a big mistake. They are unreliable, unaffordable and destabilize the electricity supply. Similarly, calling the destruction of ecosystems for wood burning a clean and sustainable solution is hypocritical and irresponsible.

Thirdly, for affordability and strategic security of supply we need multiple energy sources. Coal, gas and nuclear power should all be used. Coal is by far the cheapest of all and – with modern technology – remarkably clean; gas is less cheap but readily dispatchable; nuclear stations require high upfront investments, but they emit no CO2 and they have a long lifetime.

Fourthly, we ought to prioritize the development of concrete climate adaptation plans. Global mitigation policies cost an exorbitant amount of money and they have never saved one life. National adaptation plans work, whatever the causes of climate change may be. Governments, please look at the costs and benefits of your climate policies.

The four messages are signed by the CLINTEL ambassadors from 26 countries:

Nobel Laureate Professor Ivar Giaever, Norway and USA
Professor Guus Berkhout, The Netherlands
Dr. Kees Lepair, The Netherlands
Professor Reynald Du Berger, Francophone Canada
Terry Dunleavy, New Zealand
Viv Forbes, Australia
Professor Jeffrey Foss, Anglophone Canada
Jens Morton Hansen, Denmark
Sotiris Kamenopoulos, Greece
Ferdinand Meeus, Dutch Speaking Belgium
Professor Richard Lindzen, US
Henri A. Masson, Francophone Belgium
Professor Ingemar Nordin, Sweden
Jim O’Brien, Republic Of Ireland
Professor Ian Plimer, Australia
Douglas Pollock, Chile
Dr. Blanca Parga Landa, Spain
Professor Alberto Prestininzi, Italy
Professor Benoît Rittaud, France
Dr. Thiago Maia, Brazil
Professor Fritz Vahrenholt, Germany
The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, United Kingdom
Dušan Biži?, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro

About CLINTEL

Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) is an independent foundation that operates in the fields of climate change and climate policy. CLINTEL was founded in 2019 by emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and science journalist Marcel Crok. CLINTEL’s main objective is to generate knowledge and understanding of the causes and effects of climate change as well as the effects of climate policy on welfare and wellbeing of society.

World Climate Declaration
The climate view of CLINTEL can be easily summarized as: There is no climate emergency. We therefore initiated the World Climate Declaration, a one-page summary of the view of many climate realists in the world.

The Declaration is a living document that is frequently updated based on input from all its ambassadors and other experts. Today, it has been signed by almost one thousand scientists and engineers. The most up-to-date version of both the Declaration and the list of signatories can be found on www.clintel.org.