Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

There are certainly people who are encouraging developing countries to include alternative energies in a diverse energy mix, and for very good reasons: Africa is still expanding its energy infrastructure, making both grid-connected and decentralized alternative energy options cost-competitive in different situations. Most developed nations planned their infrastructure in an era when fossil fuels were assumed to be endless and benign; and now they have a host of issues because of it.

Most environmentalists accept that coal will continue to be important for India and China, as well as South Africa. But there is large scope for emissions reductions from their coal use: by energy efficiency improvements, and – in time – from the use of carbon capture and storage (if it can be demonstrated to work). For more detail on this, see the International Energy Agency’s series of World Energy Outlook reports at http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org.]

(In breach of the 2003 Communications Act Section 265, Ofcom 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, 5.11, 5.12)

[Comment 133: So far as we are aware, no one is actually advocating this.]

(In breach of Ofcom 5.7)

[Comment 134: So far as we are aware, no one is actually advocating this either; and the above statement is also highly misleading, because there are low-carbon power generation technologies available now that can deliver enough power for large scale applications such as steel mills or trains. Some of these are: hydroelectric power, large scale wind farms (such as the offshore wind farms being installed in Denmark and now the UK); coal fired power plants with carbon capture and sequestration (although this is still being developed), nuclear power, and biomass.

In addition, in the tropics, photovoltaic solar panels can produce large amounts of electricity very efficiently. As already discussed, for rural villages photovoltaic solar generators are often far more efficient and cost-effective than a national grid; but in tropical and sub-tropical regions, photovoltaic panels can also form an efficient part of the supply mix used by a national grid – for example see Watt et al, 2006. Photovoltaics research and development in Australia, http://tinyurl.com/yttmoj.]

(In breach of Ofcom 5.7)