From Manhattan Contrarians
Francis Menton
The overwhelming focus of the environmental movement over the past three decades or so has been the push to eliminate the use of hydrocarbons and transform the world's energy system to one based on so-called cleaner wind and solar energy. Such efforts are doomed to fail because the energy produced by wind and solar power is suboptimal and expensive. So, it's obvious to the well-informed that all this effort will inevitably fizzle out at some point. But how could this happen, after decades of desperate cries and alarms of crisis from thousands of activists, and after trillions of dollars in government funding?
My long-held prediction is that at some point, the whole thing will quietly fade away as if it never happened. It would become like dozens of other (admittedly less common) environmental scares in my lifetime, from acid rain to gypsy moths to bee colony collapse and more. One day, news reports about these things will no longer appear, and they will disappear from public attention. Despite the greater efforts behind the climate scare, there’s no reason the same thing can’t happen. People who create panic will never admit that they are wrong. Those people will just move on to the next venture without mentioning that the venture has been forgotten.
Frankly, regarding the global warming scare, I think this has happened a long time ago. Yet somehow, trillions of dollars in government funding can work wonders, incentivizing those who enjoy the bounty to continue to panic.
But lately, something big seems to be changing. Not only did Donald Trump decisively win the presidency on the promise of “Drill, baby, drill”; or Kamala Harris decided to abandon her previous pledge to ban fracking and internal combustion engine cars in order to win swing states. As an example of something bigger possibly happening, how about this: Did you know that one of the big annual UN climate conferences just took place in Baku, Azerbaijan?
For as long as I can remember, these annual UN meetings have been big news. They began in 1992 with the United Nations' so-called Framework Convention on Climate Change; such meetings have been held almost every year since, under the name “Conference of the Parties” or “COP.” The 21st Conference of the Parties, held in Paris in 2015, was the meeting that signed the Paris Climate Agreement, where countries around the world are said to have committed to emissions reductions and energy transition. Many celebrities attended, including then-US President Barack Obama. The world media reacted enthusiastically. There are hundreds of stories. Six years later, and one year into the pandemic, the 26th Conference of the Parties was held in Glasgow, Scotland. The UK hosted the conference and wowed the world with its strengthened commitment to reducing emissions. No less than 120 heads of state attended, including United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Egyptian President Abdel-Fair Taher El-Sisi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesian President Jokowi, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. The area was once again inundated with media coverage.
By contrast, this year's conference went largely under the radar. This year's event, called COP 29, is now in its second year in an oil country (last year it was in Qatar). It is no exaggeration to say that this meeting was completely overshadowed by the US election. David Wallace-Wells, a climate activist reporter for The New York Times, lamented the new situation in an article yesterday titled “Climate change is losing its grip on our politics.” excerpt:
[Donald Trump’s] The election is… . This not only confirms the warming trend of international politics, but also confirms a sharp or obvious breakthrough in the United States. Yes, the global renewable energy boom is well underway, with global investment in clean energy reaching $2 trillion This year and total solar capacity Doubled since 2022. But the climate logic of this shift is increasingly self-evident in all but the most staunch corners, replaced by head-scratching about energy politics. Governments have even abandoned legally binding decarbonization commitments, trusting markets to deliver relatively modest emissions reductions, a pushback from campaigners that has failed to spark public outrage.
It's like no one cares anymore. Here's the most notable list of those Wallace-Wells didn't attend – anyway, everyone counts:
President Biden will not appear when the COP29 climate conference wraps up next week. . . . The president-elect was also absent. Neither is Vice President Kamala Harris. . . . The world's most powerful leader is rarely seen in Baku, Azerbaijan. . . . Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend, nor will European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. French President Macron. . . Also absent from meetings. Also absent is Lula da Silva, leader not only of Brazil but of the G20. A who's who of power politics. Nowadays, people are more concerned about who is missing.
Another New York Times article noted that this year's conference will be attended by more than 50,000 people, including participants, observers and media. That's a lot of numbers, but far lower than last year's roughly 70,000 people. What will they do? The main point of the meeting appears to be an attempt to strike a new “climate finance deal” – an effort by developing countries' ruling elites to extort more than $100 billion a year from rich countries to enrich them under the guise of “climate” Swiss bank account. Reuters reported yesterday:
The main tasks of nearly 200 countries of the United Nations COP29 climate summit is to broker a deal to secure trillions of dollars in financing for global climate plans. . . . In 2009, rich countries pledged to donate $100 billion annually to help developing countries cope with the costs of transitioning to clean energy and adapting to a warming world. . . . These payments begin in 2020 but are only paid in full by 2022. The $100 billion commitment expires this year. Countries are negotiating higher payment targets starting next year. . . .
Yes, outgoing President Biden fell for this scam and lost billions of U.S. taxpayer funds. Put it at the top of President Trump’s agenda: get it back to zero. Once it becomes clear that the United States is no longer doing this, maybe we can even save on the cost of sending thousands of people to these remote corners of the world each year.
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