Making liberal democracies in the West feel guilty for all the mischief they’ve caused in the past has been a Third World specialty since the colonial era ended in the 1950s and 60s. The poorer nations use that guilt as a way to separate rich nations from their national wealth.
But in recent decades, their act has worn stale. That’s because as time passes, it becomes harder and harder to blame “colonialism” for the ills of nations that are setting the example for thuggery and brutality.
So climate change has been a gift from God for these nations. They can play upon the very public fear in rich nations that they’re causing the earth to meltdown by building all the things that human beings need to survive — even poor nations.
The problem is, the poor nations can’t afford all those things that western nations are building that make the world a semi-livable place. So they must create “climate justice” to take what no one really wants to give them since it will probably be squandered on projects and investments that benefit the few.
Related: Greta Thunberg Expands Her Concerns: ‘Climate Justice Also Means Social Justice’
In Glasgow, Scotland this last week, rich nations have been engaging in an orgy of self-loathing, helped along by representatives of poor nations who know the gold mine they’re tapping into.
The COP26 climate conference will make sure that the guilt for warming the planet is placed on the one country that’s dumb enough to actually cut its greenhouse gas emissions. The United States has earnestly set strict goals to end the scourge of carbon “pollution,” but the world is clamoring for more.
The draft agreement is indicative of the disconnect from the reality of participants.
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The draft seeks to speed up emissions cuts. Noting that current national pledges are insufficient to avert catastrophic warming, the draft urges countries to update their formal carbon-cutting goals before the end of 2022 — especially those countries that have not adopted more ambitious targets since the Paris agreement was signed six years ago.
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The text calls on participants in the agreement to phase out coal and subsidies for fossil fuels. Neither “coal” nor “fossil fuels” more generally were mentioned in the landmark Paris agreement.
The reason coal phase-outs weren’t mentioned in the Paris Climate Agreement was that China objects to them. The Chinese Communists are planning 43 new coal-fired electric plants in 2021. That’s top of the 1,082 coal-fired power plants already in operation. China gets an astonishing 58% of its energy from coal. Its cities are becoming unlivable from the pollution. And they are by far the leading carbon polluter on the planet.
China has pledged to begin cutting its emissions by 2030. Meanwhile, the Chinese continue to build coal-fired plants. The commies will stop building coal plants only when Marx or Mao tells them it’s OK.
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The draft calls for developed countries to boost their aid to lower-income nations, including doubling funds to help with adaptation and providing “enhanced and additional support” for addressing the irreversible impacts of climate change, known as loss and damage. But it does not mention a clear financial mechanism for addressing loss and damage, nor does it offer details on what support rich nations would be expected to deliver beyond 2025.
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The draft text only includes “placeholder” paragraphs for one of the thorniest issues being discussed: rules for measuring and reporting countries’ emissions back to the United Nations.
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The text doesn’t mention the contentious “Article 6″ of the Paris agreement, which would establish the rules for a global market for buying and selling carbon.
Why don’t they just throw a couple of trillion dollars into a kitty and let the poor nations fight for it — a Hunger Games on steroids? It won’t happen, of course. Instead, the poor nations will be graded on their ability to beg. And western nations will be judged on how well their leaders emote for the camera.
It will be a sickening spectacle. Especially since there won’t be a reduction of a single, solitary molecule of CO2 on the planet.
“I don’t see how we can wait another five years,” Juan Pablo Osornio, senior political lead for Greenpeace International, said Tuesday. “We need to see an acceleration.”
If we can’t wait five years, it’s already too late to save the planet. Does anyone really fall for the “end is nigh” rhetoric from the miscreants at Greenpeace?
If so, I’ve got a great used car I can sell you.
