December 10, 2009 - By Martin Wingfield

HERE’S a bite-size guide to some of the arguments that you might hear next week at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. BNP leader Nick Griffin will be attending the Conference as a representative of the European Parliament.

1.  Tsunamis are caused by tectonic plate movements, not climate change.

2.  Biofuels divert land from food production to fuel production, causing food price rises – a major cause of starvation in developing countries.

3.  Warming advisors to local and regional authorities, governments, corporations and others must justify their existence.  The IPCC is similar;  its survival depends upon the warming thesis.

4.  Axial tilt – axial wobbling is believed to have an effect on glaciation.

5.  From the early ’40s to the mid ’70s there occurred global cooling, despite rising levels of CO2.  This created a widely shared fear of an approaching new ice age.

6.   Since 1998, global temperatures have fallen, especially during the last two years.

7.  The most significant atmospheric greenhouse gas is water vapour.

8.  Temperature rises precede rises in atmospheric CO2 levels (not vice versa) by between 800-1000 years – which is argued to be a feature of sea warming, causing this release of CO2.

9.  The release of CO2 is governed by a law of diminishing returns.  Thus, from zero, the first 50 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 would have a marked warming effect;  a further release of 50ppm would have a much reduced rate.  From our current level of around 385ppm, a further rise of 20ppm will have a miniscule effect.

10. Ground stations, which measure warming, are sited close to cities which are warmer than countryside.  Tarmac, buildings, concrete, vehicles, etc, create an artificially warm environment. Since the USSR collapsed, many meteorological stations in Russia (above) and Siberia have ceased to function in cold locations.

11. Sun spots create a strengthening of the sun’s magnetic field. There is evidence to demonstrate a direct link between sunspots and warm weather. The astronomer Edward Maunder attributed the ‘little ice age’ to low sun spot activity.

12. The cost of mitigating global warming far exceeds the cost of the damage. Indeed, the beneficial effects of warming in terms of crop yields arguably outweigh the negative effects and open up lands in Northern areas of Canada and Russia.

13. Bjorn Lomborg notes that the Kyoto Protocol at best will only reduce average global temperatures by 0.2 deg C by 2100.

14. Under the Emissions Trading Scheme, the UK’s rigorous scheme has caused the transfer of around 0.5bn GBP each year to continental companies (where regulations are less stringent) to buy permits – with no effect on emissions.

15. Wind Farms, constructed to minimise the UK’s output of CO2, are ineffective during the high pressure weather periods that so often appear during mid Summer and mid-Winter. When considered in conjunction with the closure by 2015 of over half a dozen UK coal-fired power plants, resulting from the EU’s large Combustion Plant Directive, the threat to the UK’s energy generation appears substantial.

16. Cost of Wind Power: a House of Commons Report, ‘Wind Power in the UK’ states that the hidden subsidy system  of ‘Renewable Obligation Certificates’ is already adding 14% to domestic UK electricity bills.