Question Time: No link between climate change and Typhoon Haiyan, says Lord Lawson
FORMER chancellor Nigel Lawson has refuted claims that Typhoon Haiyan is a result on climate change on Question Time tonight.
The panel on the BBC One show were asked by an audience member in Portsmouth whether the storm which has affected more than 11 million people in the Philippines was further evidence of mankind creating climate change.
The Conservative politician, 81, said there is no link between the two occurrences and there has been no increase in tropical storms for the past 100 years.
Lord Lawson said: "Typhoon Haiyan is terrible but I'm afraid these things happen in the tropics.
Typhoon Haiyan is terrible but I'm afraid these things happen in the tropics
"The Atlantic hurricane season this year has been one of the quietest hurricane seasons in living memory.
"If you look at the inter-governmental panel on climate change they say there is absolutely no connection between climate change and tropical storms.
"This is I'm afraid a scare. There is absolutely no scientific merit in it and no statistical merit in it. This is fact."
Energy secretary Ed Davey agreed that there is no evidence climate change has resulted in an increase of tropical storms.
However, the Liberal Democrat MP said it was increasing the impact and intensity of these storms.
Mr Davey said: "Sea levels are rising, that's a fact. And that's happening because of climate change.
"The higher sea level islands that they have in the Philippines are far more vulnerable to these typhoons than they used to be.
"That's the danger of climate change. It's making these areas far more vulnerable which is why these disasters are on a scale we've never seen before."
Labour's Stella Creasy, the shadow business minister, cited an independent scientific study which said there is a 95 per cent chance climate change is man made.
"We are not immune to our own responsibilities about things we can do to create a more sustainable way of living.
"The fact is climate change is happening. We have to find different ways of addressing it."
David Dimbleby hosted the panel, which also included GMB union general secretary Paul Kenny and Managing Director of Isuzu Nikki King OBE.
