7. Plaid Cymru Debate: Climate Change

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:03 pm on 24 October 2018.

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Photo of Mr Neil Hamilton Mr Neil Hamilton UKIP 5:03, 24 October 2018

No, I fundamentally disagree with that. I'm just actually reading you figures from the climatic research institute, which is not a collection of global warming sceptics; in fact, they're quite the opposite. So, the data that I'm quoting at you is from those who support your viewpoint, but there is no obvious correlation in the figures between what's happening in the atmosphere on carbon dioxide and what's happening in global temperature as far as we can—. We don't understand, actually, the full impact of the oceans, which are three quarters of the world's surface, on the climate. We don't understand fully the impact of the sun, which is actually where all warming comes from, and there's a great deal that we don't understand. The first principle of science is to understand your own limitations and what you don't know rather than what you do.

Jenny Rathbone started her speech by talking of carbon dioxide in effect as a pollutant. But of course carbon dioxide is not a pollutant; it's not like other gases, like sulphur dioxide. Of course, we all want to see clean air, but carbon dioxide is essential for the growth of plants. So, as a result of the increases that we've seen in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in recent years, there is a very substantial part of the planet that previously couldn't grow crops that is now capable of growing crops. We're actually seeing a greening of the planet. Water vapour is the biggest contributor to the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere: 95 per cent of it, in fact. And so we don't really understand the full impact of that on possible—[Interruption.] I'm not sure that I've got time to give way a second time, I'm sorry, because, otherwise, I—