Formal Minutes
Tuesday 15 July 2014
Members present:
Mr Tim Yeo, in the Chair
| Ian Lavery
Mr Peter Lilley
Albert Owen
John Robertson
| | Sir Robert Smith
Graham Stringer
Dr Alan Whitehead
|
The following declarations of interest relating to the inquiry
were made:
28 January 2014, 11 February 2014 and 11 March
2014
Sir Robert Smith declared interests, as listed in
the Register of Members' Interests, in the oil and gas industry,
in particular a shareholding in Shell Transport and Trading (oil-integrated)
Draft Report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change Fifth Assessment Report: Review of Working Group I contribution),
proposed by the Chair, brought up and read.
Ordered, That the draft
Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.
Paragraphs 1 to 11 read and agreed to.
Motion made, and Question put, That paragraph 12
stand part of the Report.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
| | Noes, 1
Graham Stringer
|
Paragraph accordingly agreed to.
Paragraphs 13 to 19 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 20 read.
Amendment proposed, in line 2, to leave out from
"involved" to the end of the paragraph, and insert
".We have received evidence which gives us cause for concern
of chronic political and "activist" interference. The
procedures to safeguard against this influence are either non-existent
or ineffective."—(Graham Stringer.)
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
| | Noes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
|
Amendment accordingly negatived.
Paragraph agreed to.
Paragraph 21 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 22 read.
Amendment proposed, in line 3, to leave out from
"agreement" to the end of the paragraph, and
insert "within the IPCC process although there remains
significant disagreement from a number of reputable scientists."—(Graham
Stringer.)
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
| | Noes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
|
Amendment accordingly negatived.
Paragraph agreed to.
Paragraphs 23 to 30 read and agreed to.
Motion made, to leave out paragraphs 31 to 33 and
insert the following new paragraph:
Representatives from a hundred governments were
involved in a secret four daylong meeting which reduced the original
draft summary for policymakers by 700 words but increased it by
5 pages. This document is clearly a negotiated political statement.
Astonishingly the IPCC announced that they would change the underlying
report of 14 chapters to be consistent with the Summary for Policymakers.
This turns normal procedure on its head. The IPCC is fundamentally
a political body that from its inception has been subject to undue
influence from governments and "activists". This has
distracted it from its ability to collect and summarise the science.
The claim from the IPCC that it is a scientific body is false.
The IPCC should be abolished and a new more transparent body should
be set up in its place. This should be controlled by scientists
with an international reputation and achievements in climate science
and other relevant disciplines. It should report more frequently.
Its objective should be to summarise the latest science in this
field.—(Graham Stringer.)
Question put, That the new paragraph be read a second
time.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
| | Noes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
|
Paragraphs 31 to 33 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 34 read and agreed to.
Motion made, and Question put, That paragraph 35
stand part of the Report.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
| | Noes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
|
Paragraph accordingly agreed to.
Paragraphs 36 to 41 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 42 read.
Amendment proposed, in line 1, to leave out from
"presents" to the end of the paragraph, and insert
"evidence that many of the changes to the climate recorded
in the latter half of the 20th Century were driven by post-industrial
human activity. We have found no credible scientific source that
disputes the claim that human activity has an influence on the
climate. There is still a debate about the quantification of this
impact."—(Graham Stringer.)
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
| | Noes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
|
Amendment accordingly negatived.
Paragraph agreed to.
Paragraphs 43 to 52 read and agreed to.
Motion made, to leave out paragraph 53 and insert
the following new paragraph:
Only 3% of the 251 climate models predicted the
current hiatus in warming. Although the IPCC has qualified its
previous reports by predicting that warming would be non-linear,
it is difficult to have greater confidence in the IPCC's conclusion
at a time when the vast majority of the models' predictions have
failed. At the present time there is no method known for measuring
directly the Earth's energy budget and therefore projections of
future temperature and climate are difficult to make.—(Graham
Stringer.)
Question put, That the new paragraph be read a second
time.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
| | Noes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
|
Paragraph 53 read and agreed to.
Paragraphs 54 to 56 read and agreed to.
Motion made, and Question put, That paragraph 57
stand part of the Report.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
| | Noes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
|
Paragraph accordingly agreed to.
Paragraphs 58 to 63 read and agreed to.
Motion made, and Question put, That paragraph 64
stand part of the Report.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
| | Noes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
|
Paragraph accordingly agreed to.
Paragraphs 65 and 66 read and agreed to.
Motion made, and Question put, That paragraph 67
stand part of the Report.
The Committee divided:
|
Ayes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
| | Noes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
|
Paragraph accordingly agreed to.
Paragraphs 68 to 74 read and agreed to.
Motion made, to leave out paragraph 75 and insert
the following new paragraph:
In our previous report "Consumption-based
emissions reporting" we recommended that the Government acknowledge
that the United Kingdom's consumption is driving up territorial
emissions in other countries. The increased cost of energy in
this country because of the move to renewables will inevitably
exacerbate this situation. The United Kingdom's and Europe's carbon
footprint has increased as greenhouse gas emissions has reduced.
The recognition of this does not just have "intellectual
merit" it represents the perverse consequences of the United
Kingdom's ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
This policy should be reviewed.—(Graham
Stringer.)
Question put, That the new paragraph be read a second
time.
The Committee divided:
| Ayes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
| | Noes, 4
Ian Lavery
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
|
Paragraph 75 read and agreed to.
Paragraphs 76 to 83 read and agreed to.
Annex and Summary agreed to.
Motion made, and Question put, That the Report be
the First Report of the Committee to the House.
The Committee divided.
| Ayes, 5
Ian Lavery
Albert Owen
John Robertson
Sir Robert Smith
Dr Alan Whitehead
| | Noes, 2
Mr Peter Lilley
Graham Stringer
|
Question accordingly agreed to.
Ordered, That the Chair make the Report to the House.
Ordered, That embargoed
copies of the Report be made available, in accordance with the
provisions of Standing Order No. 134.
[Adjourned till Tuesday 22 July at 9.15 am
| 
