Saturday, February 06, 2010

Money makes the climate [industry] go round


In all the coverage lately given to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its embattled chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, one rather important part of the story has largely been missed, writes Christopher Booker in his column.

This is the way in which, in its obsession with climate change, different branches of the UK Government have in recent years been pouring hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money into a bewildering array of "climate-related" projects, often throwing a veil of mystery over how much is being paid, to whom and why.

My "favourite", if that is the right word, is £10,000 spent by DFID on a "workshop on women as 'sacred custodians' of the Earth", to "explore the spiritual, religious and philosophical views concerning women and ecology and the policy implications of these belief systems".

Read the rest and weep.

CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD