The climate talks bring pain, not gain What on earth is our Government doing on climate change? Ministers endorse the scientific consensus that man-made CO2 emissions will increase the average temperature around the globe by more than 2ºC over the next 30 years, resulting in rising sea levels and desperate water shortages in many places. And yet far from doing anything useful to diminish that threat, British officials, in common with representatives from almost every country around the world, spent the Doha conference last week arguing about whether compensation should be paid by rich countries to poor ones that suffer from rising temperatures. The delegates failed to agree any new targets for the reduction of emissions. The Coalition, in attempting to convince people that it is true to its word to be "the greenest government ever," is committed to cutting Britain's CO2 emissions by 34 per cent by 2020, a pledge that cannot be met without increasing energy prices to a punitive extent. And yet while China and the US, the world's largest producers of CO2, remain uncommitted to any target to cut their colossal emissions, the effect of our own reduction is pain without gain: we lose the industries that depend on large amounts of electricity, and force householders to pay more for energy, without doing anything substantial to reduce the rise in global temperature. This has happened in a week in which the Chancellor's Autumn Statement outlined a programme of more cuts in spending and further tax rises. What is our Government doing about climate change? As yet, nothing that is remotely sensible.