By Martin Banks - 18th November 2009
It amounts to no more than climate hype
Hans Labohm
A conference in parliament has heard that it is "nonsense" to claim that human activity has caused climate change.
Speaking at the one-day hearing on Wednesday, independent economist Hans Labohm described much of what is said as "no more than climate hype".
The hearing, organised by UK Tory MEP Roger Helmer, was entitled, "Have humans changed the climate?"
Labohm, an expert reviewer for the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), said that as someone who had often questioned the impact of human activity on global warming, he was often accused of being an "imposter".
He said, "This is strange given that the same allegation is never made against people like Al Gore and Tony Blair who, like me, are not climatologists either.
"I am a non-scientist but the fact is that much of what is said about climate change is scaremongering nonsense.
"It amounts to no more than climate hype.
"Whenever there is a rise in temperatures we are told it is man-made but if there is a fall it is always put down to nature."
Labohm, a former Dutch deputy permanent representative to the OECD, also questioned the value and benefit of renewable energies.
"It is claimed that renewables will save CO2 and create job but this is just not true," he said.
"Renewables are very expensive - up to 20 times more expensive as energy sourced by electricity, and there is hardly any saving on CO2.
"Subsidised jobs in the green sector are more than offset by job losses elsewhere in the economy.
"The message here is that we really have to be careful when it comes to some of the things said about climate change."
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