Paris Climate Summit Was A Waste Of Time And C02 Emissions

[Anonymous]

It's going to get expensive folks.....really expensive.

The political leaders who gathered at the UN climate summit in Paris last week may as well have been dressed in ornate kimonos and elaborate stage makeup, because for all intents and purposes they were participating in kabuki – the ritualized Japanese theatre. Their performances were predictable and the outcome of their choreographed moves was known to all in advance.



The Paris climate declaration, even if implemented, will achieve almost nothing – except hand tens of billions of tax dollars from Western countries (Canada included) over to UN bureaucrats.



By even the most optimistic projections, the Paris accord will only slow global warming by between two-tenths and half a degree Celsius over the next century.



Because the deal (worked out long before Justin Trudeau and the 150 other heads of government headed to Paris) carries no scientifically based emission targets, it will be a mere coincidence if it helps stop climate change.



The point is, Paris was all about style not substance.



Most of the politicians there will never do anything back home to implement the emission reductions they committed to. And there is nothing the UN will be able to do to make them.



The UN will content itself with taking $100 billion or more a year by 2020 from ordinary people in rich countries to give to rich people in poor countries to pay for dubious "green" projects.



Because the accord's emission targets were "self-set," meaning set by each country on its own, the Paris agreement will not stop even one of the more than 2,000 coal-fired power plants currently under construction or on the drawing board around the world over the next 20 years.



Ontario has just finished sabotaging its own power supply and doubling the price of electricity, all so it can boast it is coal-free. And Alberta is about to do the same thing – closing its coal-fired generating stations by 2030 and converting to wind turbines.



As if shutting Ontario's six coal plants and Alberta's 18 will make any difference at all in the face of China, India and other developing countries bringing more than 2,000 new ones online in roughly the same time.



Gestures like that, while expensive to real people and costly to real jobs, are why Paris was mostly political kabuki.



But in a way, Paris was exactly the deal most voters in the developed world wanted – a deal with bold objectives but few consequences.



Slim majorities of voters in most western countries claim they are worried about climate change and want their governments to act to stop it. (I maintain this is because many people confuse greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide with smog or soot or other real air pollution. But that's for another day.)



But whenever governments do anything real – such as jacking up taxes or raising power rates or building wind turbines or solar farms in your backyard – voters resist.



For instance, last month Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley announced a $3 billion to $4 billion-a-year carbon tax on all fuel and electricity. About two-thirds of Albertan's insist they are worried about global warming, but polls taken since Notley's announcement show the same percentage are opposed to her tax.



Similarly, Trudeau gets a 51% approval for his actions in Paris, yet just 13% of Canadians told IPSOS pollsters last week that they were concerned about climate change. It was ninth on a list of their nine top concerns, well below health care (40%), jobs (39%), taxes (32%) and refugee control (23%).



So just maybe all that stage-managed drama in the French capital was exactly what voters wanted to see – sound and fury signifying nothing.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/climate-summit-was-pure-theatre">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/c ... re-theatre">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/climate-summit-was-pure-theatre

[Anonymous]

A slush fund of $100 billion/year for the UN to dole out to dictators. Gawd knows they will not use that money for anything other than wholesome C02 emission cutting measures. ac_lmfao

With the environmental reputation of 150 world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, riding on the outcome, the United Nations' climate conference scheduled to wrap up Friday in Paris will be declared a historic success.



But it will be a failure because whatever agreement is reached at COP 21 (the 21st meeting of the Conference of the Parties), it will not include legally binding, enforceable greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets for the 190 participating nations.



That is what the UN has insisted for a quarter century is the only thing that can save the planet from runaway global warming caused by the emission of man-made GHGs when fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) are burned for energy.



The failure to achieve it is why the UN's Kyoto Protocol, approved in 1997 at Cop 3 in Kyoto, Japan failed.



It's why the UN's attempt to draft a successor agreement to Kyoto in 2009 at COP 15 in Copenhagen failed.



If past practice is any indication, the Paris conference will blow past its official Friday deadline amid breathless media reporting based on leaked information from the negotiators about how the negotiators are heroically working-round-the-clock on "humanity's last chance" to "save the planet" from global warming, before a "miraculous" deal emerges on the weekend.



We've heard it all before -- including at COP 11 in 2005 held in Montreal during the dying gasps of the Jean Chretien-Paul Martin Liberal government, which ratified the Kyoto Protocol and then did nothing to implement it.



But Canada, responsible for 1.6% of global GHG emissions, is a bit player.



COP 21 will fail for the same reason COP 15 in Copenhagen failed, because neither China, the world's largest GHG emitter, nor the U.S., the second-largest, will accept a binding treaty on reducing their emissions.



Indeed, the UN is twisting itself into a pretzel in Paris to avoid directly criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama, who at Copenhagen said a legally binding global treaty was ultimately needed to effectively combat climate change.



Now he doesn't want one because he can't get it through the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress, especially the Senate, which must ratify international treaties.



Because the UN knows no treaty has credibility unless the U.S., the de facto leader of the developed world, backs it, it has been tip-toeing around the fact Obama now opposes the very thing he said was needed at the start of his presidency to save the planet, when he foolishly boasted his election victory would mark, "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."



China, the leader of the developing world, has never budged from its position it will not accept binding targets to cut its emissions imposed by the UN, the U.S. or anyone else.



China argues the developed world owes financial reparations to the developing world for being the prime causer of global warming.



That's why the UN wants Canada and other developed nations to contribute $100 billion annually to a so-called Green Climate Fund starting in 2020.



Indeed, that's what the UN climate effort is really all about -- not reducing GHG emissions but global wealth redistribution.



As for emissions, the only time they've fallen is during recessions, when less fossil fuel is burned to produce energy, not because of anything the UN has done.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/09/why-the-paris-climate-deal-will-fail">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/09/w ... -will-fail">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/09/why-the-paris-climate-deal-will-fail

[Anonymous]

How much will this meeting with the premiers cost us to make meaningless emissions cuts?

It's time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to come clean -- pardon the pun -- and tell Canadians what national carbon price his government will impose on them.



That's because Canadians will have to pay for his plan through higher taxes and prices on virtually all goods and service.



They have a right to know what it's going to cost them.



While Trudeau boasted that Canada was a key player at the United Nations conference that produced a global agreement on climate change in Paris Saturday, talk is cheap.



Trudeau is now going to put our money where his mouth is.



We presume Trudeau will reveal his national carbon price before his upcoming meeting with Canada's premiers -- which he promised to hold within 90 days of the Paris agreement -- to devise a national climate change strategy.



So far, Trudeau has said only that Canada's minimum goal for reducing greenhouse gases linked to climate change is that of the previous Conservative government.



That means a 30% reduction in emissions compared to 2005 levels by 2030, with a short-term goal of 17% by 2020.



At a minimum, then, Trudeau has to reduce Canada's emissions by 104 megatonnes (Mt) annually by 2020 and by 202 Mt by 2030.



Reducing emissions by 104 Mt by 2020 means the equivalent of shutting down 58% of Canada's oil and gas industry within five years.



Reducing them by 202 Mt by 2030 means the equivalent of shutting down all of Canada's oil and gas sector within 15 years and still coming up 23 Mt short.



Trudeau cannot rely on provincial initiatives to get him anywhere near these targets.



British Columbia's carbon tax is expected to reduce emissions by only 3 Mt annually by 2020.



Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne's cap-and-trade plan, along with Alberta Premier Rachel Notley's carbon tax, don't even start until 2017 and Wynne's plan won't lower emissions (if ever) until 2018.



Will Trudeau meet Canada's target by buying billions of dollars worth of so-called "hot air" carbon credits on the fraud-ridden international carbon market, using federal tax money?



Finally, how much money will Trudeau give to the UN's Green Climate Fund for developing countries over the long term?



These are all questions the prime minister has yet to answer.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/13/pm-must-reveal-his-carbon-price">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/13/p ... rbon-price">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/13/pm-must-reveal-his-carbon-price

[Anonymous]

It's going to get expensive folks.....really expensive.

The political leaders who gathered at the UN climate summit in Paris last week may as well have been dressed in ornate kimonos and elaborate stage makeup, because for all intents and purposes they were participating in kabuki – the ritualized Japanese theatre. Their performances were predictable and the outcome of their choreographed moves was known to all in advance.



The Paris climate declaration, even if implemented, will achieve almost nothing – except hand tens of billions of tax dollars from Western countries (Canada included) over to UN bureaucrats.



By even the most optimistic projections, the Paris accord will only slow global warming by between two-tenths and half a degree Celsius over the next century.



Because the deal (worked out long before Justin Trudeau and the 150 other heads of government headed to Paris) carries no scientifically based emission targets, it will be a mere coincidence if it helps stop climate change.



The point is, Paris was all about style not substance.



Most of the politicians there will never do anything back home to implement the emission reductions they committed to. And there is nothing the UN will be able to do to make them.



The UN will content itself with taking $100 billion or more a year by 2020 from ordinary people in rich countries to give to rich people in poor countries to pay for dubious "green" projects.



Because the accord's emission targets were "self-set," meaning set by each country on its own, the Paris agreement will not stop even one of the more than 2,000 coal-fired power plants currently under construction or on the drawing board around the world over the next 20 years.



Ontario has just finished sabotaging its own power supply and doubling the price of electricity, all so it can boast it is coal-free. And Alberta is about to do the same thing – closing its coal-fired generating stations by 2030 and converting to wind turbines.



As if shutting Ontario's six coal plants and Alberta's 18 will make any difference at all in the face of China, India and other developing countries bringing more than 2,000 new ones online in roughly the same time.



Gestures like that, while expensive to real people and costly to real jobs, are why Paris was mostly political kabuki.



But in a way, Paris was exactly the deal most voters in the developed world wanted – a deal with bold objectives but few consequences.



Slim majorities of voters in most western countries claim they are worried about climate change and want their governments to act to stop it. (I maintain this is because many people confuse greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide with smog or soot or other real air pollution. But that's for another day.)



But whenever governments do anything real – such as jacking up taxes or raising power rates or building wind turbines or solar farms in your backyard – voters resist.



For instance, last month Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley announced a $3 billion to $4 billion-a-year carbon tax on all fuel and electricity. About two-thirds of Albertan's insist they are worried about global warming, but polls taken since Notley's announcement show the same percentage are opposed to her tax.



Similarly, Trudeau gets a 51% approval for his actions in Paris, yet just 13% of Canadians told IPSOS pollsters last week that they were concerned about climate change. It was ninth on a list of their nine top concerns, well below health care (40%), jobs (39%), taxes (32%) and refugee control (23%).



So just maybe all that stage-managed drama in the French capital was exactly what voters wanted to see – sound and fury signifying nothing.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/climate-summit-was-pure-theatre">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/c ... re-theatre">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/climate-summit-was-pure-theatre

And it will not stop or reverse any changes in climate.

[Anonymous]

It's going to get expensive folks.....really expensive.

The political leaders who gathered at the UN climate summit in Paris last week may as well have been dressed in ornate kimonos and elaborate stage makeup, because for all intents and purposes they were participating in kabuki – the ritualized Japanese theatre. Their performances were predictable and the outcome of their choreographed moves was known to all in advance.



The Paris climate declaration, even if implemented, will achieve almost nothing – except hand tens of billions of tax dollars from Western countries (Canada included) over to UN bureaucrats.



By even the most optimistic projections, the Paris accord will only slow global warming by between two-tenths and half a degree Celsius over the next century.



Because the deal (worked out long before Justin Trudeau and the 150 other heads of government headed to Paris) carries no scientifically based emission targets, it will be a mere coincidence if it helps stop climate change.



The point is, Paris was all about style not substance.



Most of the politicians there will never do anything back home to implement the emission reductions they committed to. And there is nothing the UN will be able to do to make them.



The UN will content itself with taking $100 billion or more a year by 2020 from ordinary people in rich countries to give to rich people in poor countries to pay for dubious "green" projects.



Because the accord's emission targets were "self-set," meaning set by each country on its own, the Paris agreement will not stop even one of the more than 2,000 coal-fired power plants currently under construction or on the drawing board around the world over the next 20 years.



Ontario has just finished sabotaging its own power supply and doubling the price of electricity, all so it can boast it is coal-free. And Alberta is about to do the same thing – closing its coal-fired generating stations by 2030 and converting to wind turbines.



As if shutting Ontario's six coal plants and Alberta's 18 will make any difference at all in the face of China, India and other developing countries bringing more than 2,000 new ones online in roughly the same time.



Gestures like that, while expensive to real people and costly to real jobs, are why Paris was mostly political kabuki.



But in a way, Paris was exactly the deal most voters in the developed world wanted – a deal with bold objectives but few consequences.



Slim majorities of voters in most western countries claim they are worried about climate change and want their governments to act to stop it. (I maintain this is because many people confuse greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide with smog or soot or other real air pollution. But that's for another day.)



But whenever governments do anything real – such as jacking up taxes or raising power rates or building wind turbines or solar farms in your backyard – voters resist.



For instance, last month Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley announced a $3 billion to $4 billion-a-year carbon tax on all fuel and electricity. About two-thirds of Albertan's insist they are worried about global warming, but polls taken since Notley's announcement show the same percentage are opposed to her tax.



Similarly, Trudeau gets a 51% approval for his actions in Paris, yet just 13% of Canadians told IPSOS pollsters last week that they were concerned about climate change. It was ninth on a list of their nine top concerns, well below health care (40%), jobs (39%), taxes (32%) and refugee control (23%).



So just maybe all that stage-managed drama in the French capital was exactly what voters wanted to see – sound and fury signifying nothing.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/climate-summit-was-pure-theatre">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/c ... re-theatre">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/12/12/climate-summit-was-pure-theatre

And it will not stop or reverse any changes in climate.

I would not mind making sacrifices if I knew it would make a real difference.

[Anonymous]

^The only diff it will make is increase the cost of everything. Albertans in particular can count on much higher power bills.

[cc]

Oh goody. ANOTHER BO BS non-binding (AKA meaningless) agreement



This one is even stupider and phonier than the Iran not-signed agreement

[Anonymous]

Oh goody. ANOTHER BO BS non-binding (AKA meaningless) agreement

No doubt it will be held up as an historic agreement that began the healing of the earth or some insultingly stupid bullshit like that. Again, what a fucking waste of time, money and C02 emissions. Canada sent more people to the than the US, Australia and the UK.

[RW]

What a bloody joke!

[Anonymous]

What a bloody joke!

You got that right.

[Anonymous]

Oh goody. ANOTHER BO BS non-binding (AKA meaningless) agreement

No doubt it will be held up as an historic agreement that began the healing of the earth or some insultingly stupid bullshit like that. Again, what a fucking waste of time, money and C02 emissions. Canada sent more people to the than the US, Australia and the UK.

I read the provincial carbon tax could cost the average family about one thousand dollars a year..



And maybe a federal one now too.

 

[Anonymous]

Picking the pockets of North Americans and Europeans.

[Anonymous]

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/12347892_825638250881810_3156392683181118268_n.jpg?oh=033c7e94b7ed7a32156dc1b1bfe78e97&oe=57221537">

John Kerry is onboard with the bs claims.

[Anonymous]

Few pleas were heard more often in Paris than those from "small island nations" such as Kiribati in the Pacific, whose president insisted that, unless the rise in world temperatures was kept below 1.5 degrees, his country would soon be "underwater" from rising seas. In fact, far from being inundated, the latest study shows that its area has in recent decades been expanding.



As many now also recognise – however fiercely it is denied – the late 20th century rise in temperatures, which set off the warming scare in the first place, has simply not continued. The pressure to keep the panic going dies away a little further with each passing year.

So Paris does indeed mark a historic turning point. It is the moment when the political panic over climate change finally begins to collide with inescapable realities. However much President Obama and the EU may still want to commit economic suicide by abandoning those fossil fuels which alone make modern civilisation possible, the rest of the world just isn't going to follow. And this leaves us in the West in a very odd position.

[Anonymous]

According to the Climate Change Business Journal it will cost $1.5 trillion each year to "combat" climate change.  All that expense that will make little difference to the climate.



Oh – and that's the optimistic scenario, calculated by Bjorn Lomborg, assuming that countries like, say, China don't lie or cheat about how much CO2 they're burning secretly.



His more pessimistic – ie more realistic – scenario is that the best we can hope for is a reduction in global warming by the end of the century of 0.048 degrees C.



This temperature reduction – five hundredths of one degree – is so small as to be almost immeasurable. But if you want to know what it feels like, Willis Eschenbach has done the calculations. It's the equivalent of walking five metres higher up a mountain. Or, if you prefer, climbing two flights of stairs.



And there you have it: the lunacy of the Paris climate conference in one sentence: $1.5 trillion every year till the end of the century to effect the equivalent of walking to your bedroom.