The world economic crisis is providing a wake up call for climate realism.  As registration for COP 17, December's UN  conference on climate  change in Durban, South Africa, opens on Tuesday, support for the UN climate agenda continues to deteriorate. 

Take the UK example.  Reuters reports that with half of major energy suppliers in the UK announcing double digit price increases for electricity and gas the British public has had enough.  75 percent now favor abandoning Britain's green agenda if it means higher prices.

The problem of course is after you thwart efficient nuclear, coal and gas generation and lock in guarantees, subsidies and high prices for alternative energy profiteers it is almost impossible to go back.

Developed nations like the UK already price their labor out of the marketplace with the high costs of their social welfare states.   Affordable energy is one area in which developed nations should have the edge, yet they toss that advantage away in the name of useless carbon initiatives...

Continue reading Economy trumps climate as registration for COP 17 Durban opens

Using scare stories and other unethical practices to advance anti-people political agendas

Now that yet another climate conference has concluded, with even less accomplished than at Copenhagen, it is time to address the roots of the environmental movement that has brought us to the point of considering the shutdown of modern civilization in the name of "Saving the Planet"

Blog posts from the radical environmental faction during Cancun are most revealing.

Not only do they completely ignore the staggering revelations of the past year that showed the UN IPCC process is hopelessly corrupt, and the science far from "settled." Environmentalist posts on the Cancun Insider have also:

* Used the inflammatory "climate change denialists" to describe scientists and elected officials who don't question climate change, but do challenge the notion that humans are causing an unprecedented global warming catastrophe.
* Claimed that "atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations (above) 350 parts per million carbon dioxide" will cause "permanent, irreversi...

Continue reading The (im)morality of Environmentalism

The international climate talks have closed in Cancún, but without making substantial progress on the central issue of establishing science-based greenhouse pollution reduction targets. The enormous gap between the cuts required by science and the pledges made in Copenhagen was the elephant in the room throughout the Cancún talks. Tragically, it appears that this elephant will travel to Durban for the 2011 talks, as the conference failed to adequately acknowledge the gap, let alone establish a concrete process to close it. The current pledges will lead to warming of more than 3.5 degrees Celsius, or 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit -- a truly horrifying prospect.

The gap between the greenhouse pollution reductions needed to keep warming below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the stated goal of the Copenhagen accord, and the Copenhagen pledges, is between five and nine gigatons of carbon dioxide. For comparison, the annual emissions of all the world's cars, trucks and buses is about five gigatons; annual U.S. emissions are about 7 gigatons. Negotiators failed to adopt any of...

Continue reading The Elephant in the Room

Early this morning, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa gaveled home an agreement by over 190 countries which came together and demonstrated a renewed commitment to the fight against global warming. The Cancun Agreements* are a detailed set of visionary, yet pragmatic principles that make important strides to begin implementing the agreement reached in Copenhagen last year.  The countries gathered in Cancun made progress on emissions reductions, greater transparency, forest preservation and the creation of the green fund to help mobilize much needed investments throughout the world. 

We aren't done in our battle to address global warming, but these agreements provide a foundation from which to build further action.  It does this in four important ways which were essential steps in Cancun.  I'll hit the high points as I already covered some of these key elements of the draft Cancun Agreements and my colleagues covered the other elements in m...

Continue reading Foundation For Greater Global Action

COP16 has come and gone. Every COP drags through two weeks of impotent spectacle while the real activity takes place behind closed doors. COP16 was no exception. Deals are struck and then rushed before the plenary session at the 11th hour. In Cancun the real action started 7 PM Friday night and lasted until 3 AM.

On Thursday, the metaphor of the day was the climate talks zombie - an animated corpse which staggers along producing nothing, yet feasts upon the flesh of anyone constructive who blunders into its path. This was a terrifying moment for the global warming brigades. If Cancun collapsed like Copenhagen, this could have been their end - nothing left but zombie apocalypse.

By Saturday morning things had changed. Following the all night session we now heard talk of bridges built, forward steps and faith. Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC proclaimed, "Cancun has done its job. The beacon of hope has been reignited, and faith in the multilateral ...

Continue reading Cancun endgame: Kyoto II or climate talks of the living dead?

So what accounts for Cancun's success?  I can see a number of factors that thankfully conspired to produce the most tangible progress in the U.N. climate talks in years.

 

The first, without doubt, is the savvy and skill of the Mexican diplomatic corps.  The Mexicans have been widely praised for doing their utmost to keep the negotiations inclusive and above-board.  Less noted, but equally important, was the firm hand they maintained in the crucial closing hours.  Taking the very practical view that consensus does not mean strict unanimity, they refused to allow a vocal minority to impede the will of the vast majority.  In short, they ensured that everyone had their say, even if all didn't get their way.

 

A second big change from Copenhagen was the apparent non-aggression pact between the United States and China.  Up until a few weeks ago, they were openly sniping, each working hard to make sure that in the event of ...

Continue reading Why Cancun Delivered

In spite of last ditch efforts by environment ministers who were negotiating through the night here in Cancun, global agreement to curb climate change appears as elusive as ever.  As has become all-too-common at these annual talks, while some disputed legal wording is settled, other issues continue to remain in deadlock.

Even the most veteran of climate politic watchers are unable to predict what will happen in the final hours. But the most likely outcome expected is for consensus to be reached for the debate to continue, in the hope that a deal to replace the 13 year-old Kyoto treaty might be finally achieved at COP 17, slated for next December.

If you were to focus on these international negotiations alone, it might be easy to conclude that Cancun has been a failure. As crucial as a political solution is for the future wellbeing of our planet, this ambitious U.N. initiative is thankfully about far more than just intergo...

Continue reading Is Business Moving Ahead of Government?

As the negotiations in Cancun are drawing to a close, many discussions are being held about an underlying consequence of climate change - known as ocean acidification. At a side event hosted by IUCN this week, a panel was constructed to discuss the science, research activities and policy developments surrounding ocean acidification, and how it can be incorporated into the UNFCCC process.

Since ocean acidification is caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the UNFCCC is the most appropriate body to house discussions about preventing rising ocean acidity. However, there are key differences between climate change and ocean acidification, and as a result the UNFCCC will need to address these differences to effectively incorporate ocean acidification into its policies and mechanisms.

Following are a few steps that will need to be taken in order to effectively incorporate acidification into the UNFCCC process:

Establish an Effective Indicator - Currently...

Continue reading Incorporating Ocean Acidification into Climate Change Negotitations

In the early 1960's, President Kennedy set out two major goals for the decade - to put a man on the moon and to end poverty as we knew it.  In 1969, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon's surface, but not much of a dent had been made in poverty.  We solved the easier problem. 

In 1977, Richard Nelson an economist specializing in innovation wrote a book titled "The Moon and the Ghetto" that examined this phenomenon.  As technically complex as space travel was, it was and is an engineering problem with a well-defined goal and well-defined means.  Enough brainpower organized effectively around a single goal with strong backing can achieve remarkable things.  Still, nine years  from proclamation to success? This was certainly one of the amazing feats of human history.

Ending poverty would be an even more amazing and socially redeeming feat, but the roots of the problem are behavioral, sociological, and institutional.  These are not as well-defined systems as math, physics, ...

Continue reading Forging a Climate Agreement is not Rocket Science; it's Harder

This was a big day for CFACT at COP16. We held our press conference in the Cancunmesse. The last few days have been jam packed.

Yesterday my colleague David Rothbard reported on the tour CFACT conducted of a Mexican village minutes from the conference where people live without electricity. While we heard tales of how hard it is to cook when you can't afford fuel, Marc Morano, founder of CFACT's award winning Climate Depot web site released a major new report which turns the idea of consensus science on its head.

Morano's 321-page report lists 1,000 + scientists who dissent over man-made global warming. "I am ashamed of what climate science has become today," Swedish climatologist Dr. Hans Jelbring is quoted as saying in the report. "The science community is relying on an inadequate model to blame CO2 and innocent citizens for global warm...

Continue reading CFACT press conference: 1000+ scientists dissent on warming -- The Morano Report

1 response: Elliot Diringer

By CFACT's president David Rothbard

On one side of this tropical strip, UN delegates, media, and observers shuttle between

luxurious hotels, posh restaurants, a white sandy beach with turquoise water, and a modern convention center where they spend their time bemoaning man-made climate change and planning the energy future for the rest of the globe.

One the other side of the Cancun "Hotel Zoneria," just 10 or 15 kilometers from downtown, live countless numbers of Mexican families without electricity, running water, or any of the other modern conveniences we in the developed world take for granted everyday.

It was to this other side that CFACT traveled today, bringing delegates and reporters to see what energy poverty looks like, up-close and in-person.

Continue reading Seeing the face of energy poverty, up-close, in Cancun