Climate campaigners condemn 'insidious' cocktail party for MPs and coal industry

Environmental campaigners say a cocktail night involving the fossil fuel industry and federal politicians represents an “insidious” lobbying effort to undermine climate action.

Pro-coal Liberal MP Craig Kelly, pictured, and Labor’s Joel
 Fitzgibbon have hosted a cocktail event to discuss carbon capture
and storage with industry leaders.

The pro-coal Liberal MP Craig Kelly and Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon hosted a cocktail event at Parliament House to discuss carbon capture and storage with industry leaders on Wednesday night.

An invite seen by the Guardian was sent out by Kelly and Fitzgibbon, who chair the parliamentary friends of resources, together with representatives of Santos and the carbon capture body CO2CRC. The event is described as a “cocktail event to mark the inaugural meeting of the CO2CRC Carbon Capture and Storage Policy Forum”.

Read the story from The Guardian by Christopher Knaus - “Climate campaigners condemn 'insidious' cocktail party for MPs and coal industry.”

Scientists hit back at Craig Kelly's 'brainwashed climate cultists' spray

One of the UK's top climate scientists has described federal Liberal MP Craig Kelly's understanding of climate change as being only "partial", after the parliamentarian quoted from a report she co-authored in a social media spray about "brainwashed climate cultists".

Craig Kelly.

In response, Mr Kelly told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald he was happy to be called a climate sceptic, but said calling him a climate change denier was offensive.

"A denier is a slur equating you to a Holocaust denier, and trying to silence debate on this issue," he said.

Read the story from The Age by Bianca Hall - “Scientists hit back at Craig Kelly's 'brainwashed climate cultists' spray.”

Scott Morrison banned Liberal MP Craig Kelly from the ABC's Q&A program

Prime Minister Scott Morrison banned outspoken Liberal MP Craig Kelly from appearing on the ABC's flagship Q&A program last month in an attempt to moderate public perceptions of the government on climate change.

PM Scott  Morison has banned climate sceptic, Craig Kelly
 (above), from appearing on the ABC's Q&A program.

Privately, many Liberal MPs are concerned about the government's climate change position, arguing it was a weakness in the election campaign despite Mr Morrison's surprise win.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Michael Koziol - “Scott Morrison banned Liberal MP Craig Kelly from the ABC's Q&A program.”

Coalition loses the plot as window closes on fantasy coal plans

Giles Parkison.

Craig Kelly hasn’t been very noisy of late – too preoccupied, it seems, on filling his Facebook page with some of the biggest nonsense you will find anywhere about climate hoaxes, renewables and batteries.

This week, however, he couldn’t help himself, when it was revealed that a consortium comprising a couple of two-bit companies from western Sydney and the Cayman Islands and a Chinese backer had agreed to explore a plan to build some new coal-fired generators in the Hunter Valley.

Never mind that this could never happen – the proposed site is too close to a hospital and homes, and it has not even filed a DA, yet alone considered a business plan or a market opportunity.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Giles Parkinson - “Coalition loses the plot as window closes on fantasy coal plans.”

Is the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu growing, and not sinking, as Craig Kelly says?

Liberal MP and climate sceptic Craig Kelly made headlines in November when he was caught on tape mocking "lefties" for exaggerating the effects of climate change.

Coalition backbencher, Craig Kelly, says Pacific
island nations are growing rather than shrinking,

Speaking at a local party event, audio of which was leaked to the Guardian, Mr Kelly set out to debunk several justifications for climate change action, including the argument that Tuvalu, the Pacific island nation, was slipping beneath the sea.

Read the ABC News factcheck story - “Is the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu growing, and not sinking, as Craig Kelly says?”

Craig Kelly takes a roasting in The Age

Letters from the Melbourne Age:-

‘Fossil fuels protect us': Liberal backbencher tells party not to worry about climate

Craig Kelly, a prominent Liberal Party backbencher, has told party members in Sydney they should not worry about climate change and that fossil fuels were among the reasons "we are so safe”.

Craig Kelly, chair of the Coalition's backbench environment
 and energy, told Liberal Party members not to be concerned
about climate change.

Addressing a gathering of members last week at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club, Mr Kelly said "we've always had dangerous weather" and that "even the climate has changed in space”.

"The reality is today, we live in a time where our generation has never ever been as safe from the climate at any time in human history," Mr Kelly told the group on Wednesday, according to a recording of his speech.

"The climate was always dangerous. We didn't make it dangerous, [and] it's fossil fuels that protect us from that climate.”

Read the story by Peter Hannam from The Sydney Morning Herald - “‘Fossil fuels protect us': Liberal backbencher tells party not to worry about climate.”

Truce in sight on climate wars but what price peace for the PM?

Craig Kelly was careful when responding to the latest inducement being offered to the states to secure the National Energy Guarantee. Understandable after his disastrous "let bygones be bygones" apologia for Donald Trump's Russia appeasement.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been an outspoken critic of emission reductions.

But the conservative backbencher, as one of the party room's most vocal coal spruikers, could disguise his grievance over the Turnbull cabinet's creeping environmentalism, only so well.

Asked during his regular Sky News spot about the "olive branch" now being extended by Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg to the states - an offer of a five-year review of the emissions reduction target (rather than locking it in for 10),  Kelly was initially circumspect. "Well I'd imagine if you had a [target] review, you could also downscale it as well." Clearly this was said more in hope than belief.

Read the analysis by Mark Kenny from The Age - “Truce in sight on climate wars but what price peace for the PM?”

Craig Kelly slams RenewEconomy: “Shameless propaganda arm of green rent seekers

Craig Kelly, the chairman of the Coalition’s backbench energy committee, clearly doesn’t think much of wind and solar, and it appears he thinks even less of this website.

Craig Kelly - chairman of the Coalition’s
backbench energy committee,

A reader this week sent Kelly a link to a story we published on Monday – or, more to the point, republished from The Conversation – which was co-authored by ANU researchers Andrew Blakers and Matthew Stocks, and which predicted a rapid switch from fossil fuels to renewables.

It was titled: Solar PV and wind on track to replace all coal, oil and gas within two decades.

Read the story by Gile Parkinson from RenewEconomy - “Craig Kelly slams RenewEconomy: “Shameless propaganda arm of green rent seekers.”

Renewable energy will kill people this winter, Liberal MP Craig Kelly says.

Renewable energy is killing people this winter, Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly says.

Liberal backbencher - renewable energy claims are
"at best mischievous and at worst outright lies".

Mr Kelly said high power prices meant many households were unable to adequately heat their homes.

"People will die," he told AM.

"We've seen reports only recently that one-in-four Australian households this winter will be frightened to turn the heater on because of the price of electricity.

Read Tom Iggulden’ story on ABC News - “Renewable energy will kill people this winter, Liberal MP Craig Kelly says.”

(Craig Kelly's arguments about renewable energy are at best mischievous and at worst, outright lies - the responsibility for what now confronts Australians rests clearly at the feet of the Turnbull Coalition Government, which has refused to acknowledge that the fossil fuel era is over and the time has arrived (well, it is long past) for our leaders to establish a Renewable Energy Target (RET) and work with communities and industry to create and build a renewable energy infrastructure that will take Australia into and through the 21st Century - Robert McLean)

People in the wrong place with the wrong values and ideals - 'I weep'

(I weep, metaphorically, when people who doubt and question climate science are elected and subsequently appointed to influential positions within government – here is another example of people desperately clinging to 20^th Century values and ideas being given the responsibility of influencing decisions of the 21^st Century that will have a legacy well into the 22^nd Century, and even longer. It is obvious that most people have serious trouble thinking beyond the lives of their grandchildren, and some are not able, even to consider life that far advanced – Robert McLean.)

Liberal member for Hughes Craig Kelly with Tony Abbott
during question time in 2015. Kelly has been appointed
chairman of the environment and energy committee.

The  Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been appointed chairman of the backbench environment and energy committee, with National party MP Kevin Hogan as secretary.

The committee will provide feedback on legislation and policies relating to the environment and energy, including to the minister, Josh Frydenberg

Kelly served on the committee during the last parliament and previously invited climate sceptics to “balance” a presentation given by top climate scientists.

He has been writing on the issue for a number of years, noting that the convicts found it hotter in the 1700s.

“But I wonder if any of these people actually knew that Sydney’s so-called ‘record hot day’ on Tuesday 8th Jan this year [2013], that had them screaming “Global Warming”, was actually COOLER than the weather experienced by the convicts of the First Fleet in Sydney way back in the summer of 1790/91?” Kelly wrote.

He wrote on his Facebook page during the election campaign: “And with freezing temperatures and even snow forecast for Melbourne’s outskirts and in parts of New South Wales, I hope many of the warmists haven’t sold their coats.”

Read The Guardian story - “Climate sceptic MP appointed chair of environment and energy committee.”

We'll 'probably' allow overseas emission reduction permits: Greg Hunt

Greg Hunt.

The Turnbull government will “probably” allow emission reduction permits to be bought from overseas, giving Australia flexibility to increase the targets it pledged at the Paris climate conference, Greg Hunt has predicted.

The environment minister signalled there was scope to tighten Australia’s international commitments to curb climate change, as some of his Coalition colleagues rubbished the significance of the deal reached in the French capital at the weekend.

The West Australian backbencher Dennis Jensen said the agreement, which enshrined a goal of limiting temperature increases to 1.5C to 2C compared with pre-industrial levels, was accompanied by “a lot of hype”. And the Sydney-based Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly mocked any suggestion that “the world is saved”.

Read The Guardian Australia story - “Greg Hunt says overseas emissions credits will'probably' be allowed.”