GWPF Newsletter: Anti-Carbon Tax Campaigner Wins Canadian Province Elections

Germany’s Christian Democrats Reject Carbon Tax

In this newsletter:

1) Anti-Carbon Tax Campaigner Wins Canadian Province Elections
Bloomberg, 11 September 2019

2) Canada Election Poll: Climate Change, Oil And Gas Shaping Up As Top Issues
The Catholic Register, 11 September 2019 


3) ‘Friends Of Science’ Thanks Elections Canada For Warning On Climate-Change Talk
The Canadian Press, 9 September 2019 

4) Germany’s Christian Democrats Reject Carbon Tax
Die Zeit, 12 September 2019

5) German Wind Industry In A Coma
No Tricks Zone, 11 September 2019 

6) Germany 'In Recession' As Factory Output Slumps

The Daily Telegraph, 12 September 2019

7) Volkswagen CEO: Climate Change Hysteria Killing Germany’s Auto Industry
World Tribune, 11 September 2019 
 

Full details:

1) Anti-Carbon Tax Campaigner Wins Canadian Province Elections
Bloomberg, 11 September 2019

(Bloomberg) — Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, who has cut taxes and plans to balance the budget in three years, won a second straight majority government in the Canadian province.

Pallister’s Progressive Conservatives took 36 of 57 districts, according to unofficial results from Elections Manitoba Wednesday. The opposition New Democratic Party took 18 seats.

“We face our challenges together, Manitobans do that and today and tonight they said they appreciated the fact that we fixed the finances and we’re repairing the services and we’re rebuilding the economy of our province,” Pallister said from the Canad Inns Polo Park in Winnipeg Tuesday night.

A second term for Pallister, 65, will help solidify Conservative administrations in key provinces of Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba, increasing opposition to Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s push for a national carbon tax and increased spending on social programs.

The former insurance company executive became premier in 2016 after toppling the NDP, which had ruled the central province for almost 17 years. Since then, Pallister has lowered the pace of spending and reduced taxes, and pledged to balance the budget by 2022, two years earlier than previously planned.

Pallister’s main opponent was NDP leader Wab Kinew, a former CBC journalist, who took over as party leader following the 2016 election. The NDP were able to add to their 14 seats won in the last election, while the Conservatives were down from their historic high of 40 seats.

Full story

2) Canada Election Poll: Climate Change, Oil And Gas Shaping Up As Top Issues
The Catholic Register, 11 September 2019 

OTTAWA -- Canadians want to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to preventing climate change and producing oil and gas, an Angus Reid poll reveals.

In a Sept. 5 poll, Angus Reid revealed nearly 70 per cent of Canadians see dealing with climate change as one of the priorities for the next government heading toward the federal election Oct. 21. Yet that same poll shows 58 per cent put oil and gas development among the priorities.

“While different Canadians may lean further to one side of the ‘economy-versus­-environment’ discussion, in most cases this does not mean they’d ignore the other side completely,” said the Angus Reid study.

“Among those who said the next federal government should prioritize climate change efforts, three-quarters want at least some investment in the oil and gas sector. And among those who say the energy industry should have the next government’s main focus, four-in-five would still wish to see at least some investment in climate change efforts.”

When asked what the top issue is for the country, 33 per cent of respondents said the environment.

The poll revealed 25 per cent view the Conservative Party as the best to lead on the climate issue, followed closely by the Green Party (23 per cent), Liberals (18 per cent) and NDP (10 per cent).

“One of the most unfortunate things about the upcoming election is we may see another big divide in the country,” said Joe Gunn, executive director of the Oblate Centre at St. Paul University. In speaking with Oblates from Saskatchewan and Alberta, Gunn said he has heard about the hardship families are experiencing after job losses in the oil and gas sector.

 “Places like Saskatchewan and Alberta are concerned about fossil fuel development,” Gunn said.  “I would be surprised if Liberals win a seat in either of those provinces.

“We’ve had these kinds of divisions in Canada in the past, and they make it a hard country to govern,” he said.

Full story

3) ‘Friends Of Science’ Thanks Elections Canada For Warning On Climate-Change Talk
The Canadian Press, 9 September 2019 

OTTAWA—A Calgary organization that argues climate change is nothing close to a global emergency says Elections Canada is right to keep a close eye on campaign-period communications from the climate-change lobby.

In an open letter, the Friends of Science Society praises the federal agency that oversees Canadian elections for indicating that the science on climate change has not been settled.

“Thank you to Elections Canada for recognizing that climate change has become a political issue,” Friends of Science wrote in a letter to Stephane Perrault, Canada’s chief electoral offer.

The group bills itself as a non-partisan advocate for civil debate on climate change, which it says is not caused by people or carbon-dioxide emissions but rather simply by the sun. It argues the established consensus on climate change is driven by “foreign green billionaires” with interests in renewable energy trying to take down their main competition: fossil fuels.

Environment groups targeted by Friends of Science say the group’s response is exactly why they were concerned about Elections Canada’s decision over the summer that climate change could be considered a debatable political topic rather than scientific fact.

Tim Gray, executive director of the charity Environmental Defence, said Elections Canada’s move has opened up a “crazy space” where charities can’t release paid communications — advertising — on scientific facts for the duration of a critical election campaign.

Full story 

4) Germany’s Christian Democrats Reject Carbon Tax
Die Zeit, 12 September 2019

Germany’s Christian Democratic parties have agreed a joint position on future climate policy. In a joint paper, the governing CDU and CSU argue instead for an emissions trading scheme with a minimum price.

According to reports, the CDU and CSU are have rejected to adopt a carbon tax in their climate policy framework. Above all, both parties are focusing on cap and trade, a party document submitted to the Climate Cabinet meeting on 20 September shows.

At the meeting on 20 September, the grand coalition (CDU, CSU and SPD) intends to adopt new policy measures for climate protection. Participants include the ministries of environment, economics, finance, transport, construction, agriculture and the chancellor Angela Merkel. The Social Democrats (SPD) are linking the continuation of the grand coalition with progress in new climate policies.

Full story (in German)

5) German Wind Industry In A Coma
No Tricks Zone, 11 September 2019 

Tenders for new wind energy projects in Germany “have fallen to a new, all-time low”, the online IWR reports here.

After the installation of thousands of megawatts of German wind power capacity led to instability in the power grid, exploding electricity prices and the destruction of natural landscapes and biotopes, protests against wind projects ratcheted up to the point where the government was forced to scale back on subsidies two years ago. The result: investments in wind parks, once seen as the future of Germany’s energy supply, have since collapsed.

The IWR writes: ”

The negative trend in the construction of new wind turbines in Germany, which has persisted for more than a year, is thus intensifying.”

And: “A short- or medium-term change is not to be expected,” the IWR reports.

As of September 1, 2019, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has put out to tender 500 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity, but so far “only 176 MW could be awarded in permissible bids”.

The grinding halt in wind energy by Germany flies in the face of the country’s commitment to transition over to green energies by 2050. Already experts say Germany will fail to meet its 2020 comitments.

Following the solar energy industry to the graveyard

IWR Director Dr. Norbert Allnoch said: “Politicians are frivolously jeopardizing the economic location of another future-oriented industry, as they did years ago with the solar industry.”

Full post

6) Germany 'In Recession' As Factory Output Slumps

The Daily Telegraph, 12 September 2019

The German car industry has been hit hard by falling global sales

Germany is in recession and will suffer its worst growth in six years in 2019, the influential Ifo Institute has predicted, as production in eurozone factories continued to sputter.

The research group cut its forecast for 2019 economic growth to 0.5pc, warning that the weakness in Germany's huge industrial sector is spilling over into the rest of the economy.

The Ifo expects GDP to contract by a further 0.1pc in the third quarter, a second consecutive quarter of falling output - meaning a technical recession.

“This downturn was triggered by a series of world political events that call into question a global economic order that has grown over decades,” warned Timo Wollmershaeuser, head of forecasts at Ifo.

He said the outlook in Germany had been darkened by “high uncertainties”, with its grim forecasts assuming no hard Brexit or a further escalation in the trade war.

Another slump in eurozone industrial production added to the gloom ahead of the European Central Bank’s crucial decision on Thursday afternoon.

Full story

7) Volkswagen CEO: Climate Change Hysteria Killing Germany’s Auto Industry
World Tribune, 11 September 2019 

Climate change protests against cars in general and stricter CO2 emission limits imposed by the European Union are pushing Germany’s vital auto industry to the “brink of collapse,” Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said.

“The current campaign against individual mobility and thus against conventional cars is reaching existence-threatening proportions,” Diess told Spiegel Online.

The VW chief called out climate activists who seek to force a shift from gas-driven cars to electric ones. The electricity used to run the electric cars, he said, will still come largely from fossil fuels, so where will be the environmental benefit?

“Instead of using petrol or diesel, we’ll basically use coal, even if we’re electrically powered, and in the worst case we’ll use even lignite,” he said. “That drives the idea of electric mobility ad absurdum!”

Germany employs around 830,000 people in motor manufacturing, which is the country’s largest industry.
“Since motor manufacturing is Germany’s biggest industry sector, this effectively means: Auf Wiedersehen to the German economy,” James Delingpole wrote for Breitbart on Sept. 10.

The industry, Delinpole wrote, “faces a perfect storm of disasters: from ever more stringent EU carbon emissions regulations; from U.S. tariffs; from weakening exports to the Chinese market; from Angela Merkel’s ailing coalition government trying to appease Greens with a new comprehensive climate strategy; from lack of consumer interest in all the electric cars it has built but appears unable to sell; from the diesel emissions cheating scam which is finally hitting the courts next month, with VW facing legal action from 400,000 car owners; from Germany’s Energiewende – the replacement of fossil fuels with more expensive renewables; and from environmental campaigners calling for a ‘transport revolution’ which will lead to the phasing out of private cars altogether.”

According to Reuters, reporting on the eve of Frankfurt’s biennial International Auto Show (IAA), which opens on Sept. 12: “You have cars that cost an extra 10,000 euros to build, fleet-emissions targets requiring a certain sales volume and consumers who may or may not want them,” said one PSA executive. [PSA is the French holding group for marques including Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and Vauxhall.] “All the ingredients are there for a powerful explosive.”

The Reuters report noted that, by next year, “CO2 must be cut to 95 grammes per kilometre for 95 percent of cars from the current 120.5g average – a figure that has risen of late as consumers spurn fuel-efficient diesels and embrace SUVs. All new cars in the EU must be compliant in 2021.”

Full story

The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.