Timsbury Environment Group meeting with Mr Rees-Mogg MP

In October 2012 the Timsbury Environment Group published a report of a meeting with Mr Rees-Mogg MP on his views on carbon emissions and climate change. The report is available from www.timsbury.net. The group “found alarming the opinions on climate change of our M.P., Jacob Rees-Mogg”. This report was shown to the MP and it was made clear by the group that it would have a wider circulation. Selected observations from the report include:

“R-M favours development towards exploitation of shale gas despite the fact that this might be incompatible with meeting carbon targets of the Climate Change Act of 2008. He is prepared to see the carbon reduction targets of the Climate Change Act of 2008 changed to allow increased carbon emissions.”

“R-M did not appear to accept the judgement on climate change of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), endorsed by the Royal Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the leading science academies in most of the world, and believes that lots of scientists hold seriously different views.”

“R-M said he found "attractive" the opinions of the pressure group led by Nigel Lawson,
former chancellor of the exchequer.”

The pressure group led by Nigel Lawson is the climate sceptic Global Warming Policy Foundation. The former Energy Minister Chris Huhne has described the GWPF as "misinformed", "wrong" and "perverse".

The GWPF’s first briefing paper can be found here.
Chris Huhne’s response to the briefing paper as Energy Minister can be found here.
A media response can be found here.

Obfuscating behind media reports (frequently from the USA) and cherry picking information is a common tactic of the GWPF. The same tactic used by Mr Rees-Mogg in relation to his shale gas figures.