MEP for Notts holds climate sceptic conference and calls for nuclear solutions to climate change

In the European Journal issue of February 2007 he wrote an article named: 'Climate Change Policy in the EU: Chaos and Failure'. In it he basically argues that the science surrounding climate change isn't settled as some might say and that the debate is far from over. He explains how he felt priviliged to have met Bjorn Lomborg, a world renowned climate skeptic and writer of the controversial book 'The Skeptical Environmentalist'. Lomborg received worldwide criticism for his work, in what a lot of people classed as 'scientific dishonesty'. At a book launch in Oxford back in 2001, Lomborg got the dessert he deserved.... Anyway, back to Roger Helmers article. Basically Helmer agrues that seeing through the Kyoto Treaty and in fact doing anything sicnificant to tackling global warming is going to damage the economy. He doesn't deny there is a problem with the climate. He just reckons that unlike what most people believe, it is 'probably not caused by anthropogenic CO2 emissions'. He goes on to explain that we should remember that climate change can have some positive consequenses as well: "More people in Europe and America die of cold than of heat. Warming may lead to desertification in Southern France , but it will open huge areas to agriculture in northern Eurasia and Canada . We could be growing grapes in Scotland again, as we did 800 years ago. Some economists take the view that on balance the economic effects would be broadly neutral. If sea level rises, it would certainly be cheaper to relocate the population of the Mald­ives than to implement the sort of emissions reductions that are proposed." As though Southern France is the end of the world. Any consideration for the global South?

The cherry on the top of his writings will have to be his solution to the ever changing climate: "there is only one low-carbon technology which can provide the reliable, continuous base-load power that we need to sustain our industry and our competitiveness. That technology is nuclear. Let no one urge that we respond to the threat of climate change, yet pretend that we can do so without major new investment in expanded nuclear generation capacity." Yep, you read that right. Carry on regardless. business as usual. Helmer also undersigned the Declaration on Climate Change and Nuclear Power, which was supported by 27 members of the European Parliament, which was the result of an initiative launched by the European Atomic Forum (FORATOM), the trade association for the nuclear energy industry in Europe, in October 2005. See PDF.

As a Nottingham activist who believes in getting active locally in order to achieve things globally, I'd say it's time we dealt with corporate driven nuclear supporting climate skeptic politicians like Roger Helmer, especially if they represent Notts up in Brussels. The East Midlands region is currently represented in Brussels by 6 MEP's. One Labour, one Lib Dem, two Conervatives and two independent canidates, including Mr Robert Kilroy-Silk. Trawling through the net I could only find The Lib Dem MEP Bill Newton Dunn giving his support to climate action. Time to hold our local politicians accountable for their inaction on supporting real solutions to climate change?