by Mish Shedlock, Mish Talk:
In a fake attempt to portray global unanimity on climate change, the United Arab Emirates negotiated a “phaseout” of fossil fuels. John Kerry is singing hallelujah over nothing.
The Phony Climate Promises of COP28
The Wall Street Journal comments on The Phony Climate Promises of COP28
The COP28 climate confab in Dubai didn’t end with white smoke on Wednesday, but Biden climate envoy John Kerry is nonetheless singing hallelujah after nearly 200 countries agreed to “transition” from fossil fuels. The point of the deal is to preserve the West’s illusion that its climate policies are accomplishing something.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
China and oil-producing countries refused to sign onto an agreement committing to “phase out” fossil fuels. But Mr. Kerry and European leaders insisted that governments at the United Nations summit demonstrate a common purpose to reduce CO2 emissions.
The deal calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade.”
This “just transition” isn’t defined and isn’t binding on governments. It won’t stop China from building more coal plants or the United Arab Emirates from drilling more oil. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries projects that oil demand will grow 10.6% between 2022 and 2028, and nothing in the agreement is likely to change that forecast.
This explains why, as we noted last week, China is building massive coal plants even as it boasts about its growth in solar and wind.
The COP28 agreement, weak as it is, reflects the arrogance of global elites who are ignoring what electorates are saying about the costs they are willing to pay. Elites have turned to government mandates and vast subsidies—i.e., coercion—because they can’t persuade voters that the climate benefits from reducing CO2 emissions justify the social and economic costs.
China and developing countries certainly don’t believe this, and they are refusing to make economic sacrifices for what the left claims is the global climate good. So why is President Biden forcing Americans to do so?
A Mish Headline That Never Was
Here is the headline I wrote on December 11. A few days ago “Hopes Dim and Tensions Flare at COP28 “Carbon Capture Won’t Save Us”
I had the article slated for December 12, but smelling a setup, I never posted the article.
The Wall Street Journal reports At COP28, Hopes Dim for Fossil Fuel Phaseout
The U.S., Europe and a handful of nations on the front lines of climate change went into the U.N. conference, known as COP28, pushing for an agreement that would mark a turning point in the fight against global warming. Their hopes were buoyed by a draft of the agreement circulated late last week that called for “a phase out of fossil fuels in line with best available science.”
Instead, a new draft by the U.A.E. negotiators says “unabated” fossil-fuel burning—in which carbon-dioxide emissions aren’t captured and stored—could be substituted by a host of other energy technologies. Those include renewables such as wind and solar, nuclear, hydrogen and fossil-fuel burning in facilities that can capture and store emissions, the draft says.
“What we have seen today is unacceptable,” said John Silk, minister of natural resources and commerce of the Marshall Islands. “We will not go silently to our watery graves.”
“The objective must be to eliminate emissions linked to fossil fuels, and for this carbon capture will not save us,” said French energy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
Hello French Energy Minister
Pannier-Runacher wants to eliminate fossil fuels, not just phase them out.
But after any deal nearly collapsed (or so the headlines read), United Arab Emirates, a huge oil producing nation, saves the day with a deal everyone agrees to, simply because it says nothing.
I have questions.
Hello Mr. Agnès Pannier-Runacher is it OK if I refresh your memory?
Do you recall what was the deal on March 17, 2019 when I reported Paris Burning: Luxury Stores Looted and Burned in Latest Yellow Vest Uprising.
For those new to the story, these riots started 18 weeks ago in response to Macron’s ill-advised gas tax hike to save the planet from CO2.
Might I remind you of the polls? How is President Emmanuel Macron doing?
The latest polls I can find are from April when his popularity was 73% bad and only 26% good. What is it now?
And what happened in the Netherlands?
New Green Goals Would Force You to Be Vegan and Eliminate Cows
I discussed the Netherlands in New Green Goals Would Force You to Be Vegan and Eliminate Cows
Pitchforks Fly for an Empire of Cows
The Dutch government’s announcement last year that it was planning a 50% cut in nitrogen emissions by 2030 sent shockwaves through the countryside
the farmers weren’t just pushing back against Dutch regulatory overreach, they were fighting “elites” who they claimed were using climate and environmental scaremongering to impose a radical agenda.
In the BBB’s first-ever election, one characterized by unusually high turnout and widely seen as a referendum on Rutte’s rule, it won a bigger share of the vote than any other party in the Netherlands. Gaining 16 out of 75 seats, overnight the BBB went from an insurgent outsider’s movement to the largest single party in the Dutch Senate.
[Mish Note – The Farmer–Citizen Movement (Dutch: BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB) is an agrarian and right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands].
Almost immediately, the BBB’s shocking win upended the Dutch cabinet’s plans for addressing the nitrogen crisis. Badly beaten at the polls and facing a no-confidence vote in parliament, Rutte agreed to hit pause on the plans and signaled that his government was open to pushing back the emissions reduction deadline from 2030 to 2035.
And on December 3, In a totally unexpected election (but shouldn’t have been), the WSJ reported Far-Right Populist Geert Wilders Scores Major Victory in Dutch Election
So Mr. Agnès Pannier-Runacher does that properly refresh your memory?
