On March 30-31 there will be another climate conference, this time in Washington, D.C. After this conference, four panels of experts are supposed to release consensus reports in late 2009. Then, the Committee on America’s Climate Choices will issue a final report in 2010 that will integrate the findings and recommendations from the four panel reports.

My question is: how much money is put into these conferences, congresses, summits, meetings and seminars? Kyoto, Bali, Washington, Copenhagen? And what is the result? Evidently, millions of dollars are spent on conference facilities, speakers’ fees, travel etc etc. For what good? What have we accomplished so far? And what do we hope to accomplish in the future?

European cap-and-trade is a miserable example of how climate politics don’t work. Now, it may be time for the US to discover the beauties of carbon trading.

I am surprised that, while climate alarmists always call for the precautionary principle when speaking of the dire consequences of CO2-emissions, no one even mentions it when talking about climate politics.

Lunch speakers will be Bob Carter and John Theon. Unfortunately, I will be unable to cover the last speech by Lord Christopher Monckton. I need to catch a flight home. The broadcast will start around 12.15pm.

This morning’s speakers are Hon. John Sununu and Willie Soon. The broadcast will start at around 7.00am EDT.

Update: I am very sorry. The wireless connection in the sessions rooms is too bad for live broadcasting. I will be sending live from the lunch session, when Harrison Schmitt and Arthur Robinson will be speaking. That session starts at 12.15 EDT. Once again, sorry for not being able to send live from the sessions.

I have the great pleasure to attend the 2d International Conference on Climate Change in New York. The event is starts this evening and is sponsored by The Heartland Institute.

Tonight’s Opening Dinner, starting at 6.30 pm EDT, features Hon. Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, and Richard Lindzen, one of the most prominent climate researchers in the world.

I am hoping to be able to broadcast live from tonight’s dinner, as well as parts of the proceedings during Monday and Tuesday. You will find more information here later during the day.

The Guardian’s Leo Hickman has been studying registration details for the 2d International Conference on Climate Change, arranged by Heartland Institute in New York, March 8-10. What bothers him is that Heartland offers a 20 percent discount off the registration fee for those who have signed the Oregon Petition, a well-known list of skeptics to AGW.

According to Leo Hickman, signing the petition is worth the massive amount of 144 dollars. No wonder there are so many climate skeptics in the world.

What Leo Hickman forgets to mention is, however, that free admission is available to all qualified journalists. Why then bother putting your name on a petition and risking to look like a fool? It’s enough to get a part-time reporter job at some obscure local paper.

source: The Korea Times