In this newsletter:
1) China, India & 20 developing nations call for key emissions section to be ditched from COP26 agreement
CNN, 11 November 2021
2) China and others resist new climate targets in final days of COP26
Financial Times, 10 November 2021
Financial Times, 10 November 2021
3) Climate activists isolated as EU Commission readies to back €13bn gas mega-projects
EU Observer, 11 November 2021
4) Belarus threatens to shut Russian gas flow to Europe in border spat
Bloomberg, 11 November 2021
EU Observer, 11 November 2021
4) Belarus threatens to shut Russian gas flow to Europe in border spat
Bloomberg, 11 November 2021
5) Philip Patrick:Is climate change scepticism growing in Japan?
The Spectator, 10 November 2021
6) Michael Shellenberger: ‘COP26 is a neo-feudal performance’
Spiked, 8 November 2021
7) Biden's bank nominee caught telling the truth about the US left's real agenda: 'We want oil and gas companies to go bankrupt'
The Washington Examiner, 11 November 2021
Spiked, 8 November 2021
7) Biden's bank nominee caught telling the truth about the US left's real agenda: 'We want oil and gas companies to go bankrupt'
The Washington Examiner, 11 November 2021
Full details:
1) China, India & 20 developing nations call for key emissions section to be ditched from COP26 agreement
CNN, 11 November 2021
A group of 22 nations known at the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), which include China and India, asked for the entire section on the mitigation of climate change to be removed from the draft COP26 text, in a sign of the enormous gaps that still remain a day before talks are due to close.
Bolivia's chief negotiator, Diego Pacheco, who represents the LMDC group, said Thursday that the countries felt the developed world was trying to transfer its responsibilities for the climate crisis onto the developing world.
"We requested the presidency remove completely the section on mitigation," Pacheco said at a press conference in Glasgow. CNN is reaching out to Chinese and Indian officials for comment.
The LMDC does not believe developing countries should have to have the same deadlines and ambitions on emissions as wealthy nations.
Pacheco pointed to developed countries' greater historical role in the climate crisis, accusing rich nations of trying to "transfer responsibility" to developing nations but asking them to meet the same deadlines on emissions reductions as the developed world.
"History matters and history is very important to understand and to put in the context in the discussion on ambition," he said. He added that it would be impossible for many countries in the group to achieve Net Zero by mid-century, as many countries have signed up for.
It's highly unlikely that the entire section would be removed from a final agreement. However, the call for it to be scrapped is a bold request from the group, indicating huge gaps between the demands of countries. It also suggests the measures outlined on emissions cuts could be watered down, or different rules adopted for developed and developing countries.
The final agreement needs consensus from all 197 parties taking part in the talks.
3) Climate activists isolated as EU Commission readies to back €13bn gas mega-projects
EU Observer, 11 November 2021
The European Commission on Wednesday (11 November) is expected to present to MEPs in the energy committee a new draft list of cross-border energy infrastructure projects, containing 30 major gas developments worth some €13bn.
The so-called Projects of Common Interest (PCI) list is updated every two years, and rules governing the selection criteria of these projects are currently being reformed. Under the PCI list, all selected projects are eligible for public funds and fast-tracked permits.
The draft list, seen by EUobserver, includes the controversial EastMed pipeline between Israel and Greece, the Baltic Pipe carrying Norwegian gas to Denmark and Poland, and the Cyprus2EU liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
However, it still needs to be adopted by the commission, which is expected to come forward with an official proposal before the end of the year. Once adopted, EU countries and MEPs have two months to accept it or reject it.
Many of the projects included under the fifth PCI list were also part of the previous list, which was slammed by the EU Ombudsman because climate risks were "not sufficiently taken into account".
Following the recommendations of the ombudsman, the commission now claims that it has improved the PCI assessment methodology for gas projects included in the current list.
However, according to green groups and MEPs, these criteria fall short of measuring the potential impact of other environmental aspects such as leakages of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Frida Kieninger, a campaigner from NGO Food & Water Watch, said that the new sustainability assessment is just "a fig leaf for a highly-biased process full of fossil gas lobby vested interests".
She also argued that the process is not transparent, since enforcement agencies such as the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) cannot verify how and in which way the sustainability criteria has been applied to the current list.
The Greens, for their part, have called for the rejection of the current list – while putting forward a proposal to replace all gas projects with alternative green developments.
Full story
4) Belarus threatens to shut Russian gas flow to Europe in border spat
Bloomberg, 11 November 2021
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to shut down a key pipeline carrying Russia gas to the European Union if Poland closes the border as thousands of migrants seek to cross into EU territory.
“We’re heating Europe and they are threatening us that they will close the border,” Lukashenko said at the meeting with government on Thursday, citing the Yamal-Europe pipeline across Belarus, according to state-owned news agency Belta. “What if we cut off natural gas flows there? Therefore, I would recommend the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other empty-headed people to think before speaking.”
Lukashenko’s threat comes as Europe is dealing with the worst energy crisis in decades amid capped Russian gas deliveries and competition with Asia for liquefied-gas cargoes. Russia, the key supplier of the fuel to the continent, started to boost gas deliveries earlier this week, yet so far the flows remain below the seasonal norm.
Benchmark European natural gas futures reversed earlier losses after Lukashenko’s statement. About 20% of Russian gas flows to EU were sent from Belarus territory so far this year, mainly through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, running via Belarus and Poland to Germany.
Sanctions Threat
The EU is considering more sanctions against the Lukashenko government over the refugee crisis. Lukashenko said he asked Russia to deploy strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons to patrol his country’s border and mulled shutting down cargo transit to Europe as well as other possible measures to retaliate for any additional sanctions.
Full story
5) Philip Patrick: Is climate change scepticism growing in Japan?
The Spectator, 10 November 2021
Fumio Kishida, the newly-installed Japanese prime minister, could have been forgiven for giving COP26 a miss. The opening ceremony in Glasgow coincided with the general election he was fighting back home. But Kishida, having won the election, did make the trip, where he gave a speech broadly but not unreservedly supportive of international efforts to cut Co2 emissions.
The reward for his restrained tone and tepid assurances? Japan was named ‘fossil of the day’ by the Climate Action Network group, an ‘honour’ bestowed on countries deemed insufficiently devoted to the cause.
Kishida’s specific crime was that while he did promise substantial financial aid to developing nations in Asia to work on low emission energy technologies, he didn’t confirm whether Japan would be phasing out coal production any time soon. Nor did he repeat previously stated (by his predecessor Yoshihide Suga) net-zero emissions pledges.
Suspicions, or hopes – depending on your viewpoint – are growing that Kishida’s administration will be one of the developed world’s most sceptical on climate change and will push back against the commitments made by Suga. One of Kishida’s first acts after winning the election was to enact a small-scale purge of the greenest members of the party hierarchy. This included environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, to whom the figure of 46 per cent – Japan’s ambitious Co2 reduction target (by 2030 from 2013 levels) – had come in a ‘vision’.
Suspicions, or hopes – depending on your viewpoint – are growing that Kishida’s administration will be one of the developed world’s most sceptical on climate change
Also gone is the strongly pro-renewables Taro Kono, the man Kishida beat into second place in the recent leadership contest. By contrast, the woman who came third in that contest, Sanae Takaichi, a proponent of more nuclear power plants, is now the party’s policy chief.
Takaichi’s sponsor, the pro coal and pro nuclear former PM Shinzo Abe remains a hugely influential figure in the party, as does another former PM Taro Aso, who quipped recently that global warming ‘wasn’t all bad’ and made the rice in Hokkaido ‘more delicious’.
Japan’s new energy plan, approved at the end of October, calls for less reliance on fossil fuels and an increased use of renewables. But it is a heavily caveated document with what looks like aspirations rather than firm promises. It contains few hard deadlines. Without powerful advocates in key positions it could easily be watered down or even ditched.
It has been rumoured that Kishida, who is renowned for being a pragmatist, has had reservations about the green agenda for a while. During the leadership election campaign, he questioned whether it was ‘wise’ to rely simply on renewables as the dominant source of energy, which is about as forcefully as climate change scepticism is ever expressed by a public figure these days.
He got away with this as Japanese politicians have a bit more leeway than their counterparts in the west. The nuclear issue – in terms of safety – remains understandably contentious, but climate change is not quite the burning issue it has become elsewhere.
This may be partly because it has not attracted charismatic figureheads. Respect for one’s elders is still a powerful societal norm in Japan, so lauding a precocious teenager like Greta would seem perverse here.
Celebrities, tightly controlled by their talent agencies, generally steer clear of any kind of potentially controversial activity. Direct action, particularly of the currently modish theatrical variety, such as lying down on roads, would be out of national character. It would also be unwise: the police, who are never far away here, would not tolerate it for a minute.
In Japan, there is also increased scepticism and scrutiny of the renewables industry since July's Atami flood disaster. The pleasant seaside resort 60 miles southwest of Tokyo was hit by torrential rain, which led to mudslides that destroyed dozens of homes and killed 19 people. Dramatic footage, showing a river of black debris-strewn sludge coursing through the town, played on a loop on the Japanese news for days.
Initially blamed on ‘freak weather’, a counter-theory soon emerged: that the disaster may have been exacerbated by a nearby renewable energy initiative. High up on the mountainside above Atami, work had been undertaken on an extensive solar panel facility. Over the course of the construction of thus, and other building work, a huge mound of earth piled up precariously. Under pressure from the deluge of rain, the mound collapsed into the town, adding greatly to the devastation. Other renewable projects are now being looked at closely by government investigators.
A distinctive Japanese position may be forming on climate change, which the thoughtful and diplomatic Fumio Kishida is well suited to represent. It amounts to this: making supportive noises that chime with the international mood music, while, in reality, moving cautiously, with a close watch being kept on the home economy.
It’s a subtle, grown up approach, not dissimilar to Japan’s lockdown in name only in response to Covid-19. Many will find it as refreshing as a cool breeze in contrast to the overheated rhetoric of some of Kishda’s fellow delegates in Glasgow.
CNN, 11 November 2021
A group of 22 nations known at the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), which include China and India, asked for the entire section on the mitigation of climate change to be removed from the draft COP26 text, in a sign of the enormous gaps that still remain a day before talks are due to close.
Bolivia's chief negotiator, Diego Pacheco, who represents the LMDC group, said Thursday that the countries felt the developed world was trying to transfer its responsibilities for the climate crisis onto the developing world.
"We requested the presidency remove completely the section on mitigation," Pacheco said at a press conference in Glasgow. CNN is reaching out to Chinese and Indian officials for comment.
The LMDC does not believe developing countries should have to have the same deadlines and ambitions on emissions as wealthy nations.
Pacheco pointed to developed countries' greater historical role in the climate crisis, accusing rich nations of trying to "transfer responsibility" to developing nations but asking them to meet the same deadlines on emissions reductions as the developed world.
"History matters and history is very important to understand and to put in the context in the discussion on ambition," he said. He added that it would be impossible for many countries in the group to achieve Net Zero by mid-century, as many countries have signed up for.
It's highly unlikely that the entire section would be removed from a final agreement. However, the call for it to be scrapped is a bold request from the group, indicating huge gaps between the demands of countries. It also suggests the measures outlined on emissions cuts could be watered down, or different rules adopted for developed and developing countries.
The final agreement needs consensus from all 197 parties taking part in the talks.
2) China and others resist new climate targets in final days of COP26
Financial Times, 10 November 2021
China and other big polluters are resisting a push to bring forward the submission of new emissions targets to the UN as negotiations enter the final stretch of the COP26 summit.
The UK, US and EU are among those demanding that all countries come up with new targets by the end of 2022, a significant acceleration from the 2025 deadline in the Paris climate accord.
But China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other big emitters are insisting on staying with the original five-year timeframes in the 2015 Paris pact.
The UK, as the COP host country, aims to address the issue as one of the major sticking points in the final texts that will sum up the conclusions of the COP26 when negotiations end, according to officials.
The first versions of those texts were published on Wednesday morning. The texts will still undergo significant revisions as countries fight over the language in the coming days.
The document “urges parties to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in what is known as nationally determined contributions, as necessary to align with the Paris agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022”.
The documents also propose to “accelerate” the phase out of coal, and of fossil fuel subsidies, but some negotiators warned those provisions were unlikely to survive negotiations in coming days.
Significant rifts remained between countries over how to approach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C, set down as ideal in the Paris accord.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the negotiations had entered the “hard yards” and were “getting tough”, in a low-key press conference on a one-day visit to Glasgow that was overshadowed by questions about sleaze allegations in his party.
Full story
Financial Times, 10 November 2021
China and other big polluters are resisting a push to bring forward the submission of new emissions targets to the UN as negotiations enter the final stretch of the COP26 summit.
The UK, US and EU are among those demanding that all countries come up with new targets by the end of 2022, a significant acceleration from the 2025 deadline in the Paris climate accord.
But China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other big emitters are insisting on staying with the original five-year timeframes in the 2015 Paris pact.
The UK, as the COP host country, aims to address the issue as one of the major sticking points in the final texts that will sum up the conclusions of the COP26 when negotiations end, according to officials.
The first versions of those texts were published on Wednesday morning. The texts will still undergo significant revisions as countries fight over the language in the coming days.
The document “urges parties to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in what is known as nationally determined contributions, as necessary to align with the Paris agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022”.
The documents also propose to “accelerate” the phase out of coal, and of fossil fuel subsidies, but some negotiators warned those provisions were unlikely to survive negotiations in coming days.
Significant rifts remained between countries over how to approach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C, set down as ideal in the Paris accord.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the negotiations had entered the “hard yards” and were “getting tough”, in a low-key press conference on a one-day visit to Glasgow that was overshadowed by questions about sleaze allegations in his party.
Full story
3) Climate activists isolated as EU Commission readies to back €13bn gas mega-projects
EU Observer, 11 November 2021
The European Commission on Wednesday (11 November) is expected to present to MEPs in the energy committee a new draft list of cross-border energy infrastructure projects, containing 30 major gas developments worth some €13bn.
The so-called Projects of Common Interest (PCI) list is updated every two years, and rules governing the selection criteria of these projects are currently being reformed. Under the PCI list, all selected projects are eligible for public funds and fast-tracked permits.
The draft list, seen by EUobserver, includes the controversial EastMed pipeline between Israel and Greece, the Baltic Pipe carrying Norwegian gas to Denmark and Poland, and the Cyprus2EU liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
However, it still needs to be adopted by the commission, which is expected to come forward with an official proposal before the end of the year. Once adopted, EU countries and MEPs have two months to accept it or reject it.
Many of the projects included under the fifth PCI list were also part of the previous list, which was slammed by the EU Ombudsman because climate risks were "not sufficiently taken into account".
Following the recommendations of the ombudsman, the commission now claims that it has improved the PCI assessment methodology for gas projects included in the current list.
However, according to green groups and MEPs, these criteria fall short of measuring the potential impact of other environmental aspects such as leakages of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Frida Kieninger, a campaigner from NGO Food & Water Watch, said that the new sustainability assessment is just "a fig leaf for a highly-biased process full of fossil gas lobby vested interests".
She also argued that the process is not transparent, since enforcement agencies such as the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) cannot verify how and in which way the sustainability criteria has been applied to the current list.
The Greens, for their part, have called for the rejection of the current list – while putting forward a proposal to replace all gas projects with alternative green developments.
Full story
4) Belarus threatens to shut Russian gas flow to Europe in border spat
Bloomberg, 11 November 2021
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to shut down a key pipeline carrying Russia gas to the European Union if Poland closes the border as thousands of migrants seek to cross into EU territory.
“We’re heating Europe and they are threatening us that they will close the border,” Lukashenko said at the meeting with government on Thursday, citing the Yamal-Europe pipeline across Belarus, according to state-owned news agency Belta. “What if we cut off natural gas flows there? Therefore, I would recommend the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other empty-headed people to think before speaking.”
Lukashenko’s threat comes as Europe is dealing with the worst energy crisis in decades amid capped Russian gas deliveries and competition with Asia for liquefied-gas cargoes. Russia, the key supplier of the fuel to the continent, started to boost gas deliveries earlier this week, yet so far the flows remain below the seasonal norm.
Benchmark European natural gas futures reversed earlier losses after Lukashenko’s statement. About 20% of Russian gas flows to EU were sent from Belarus territory so far this year, mainly through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, running via Belarus and Poland to Germany.
Sanctions Threat
The EU is considering more sanctions against the Lukashenko government over the refugee crisis. Lukashenko said he asked Russia to deploy strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons to patrol his country’s border and mulled shutting down cargo transit to Europe as well as other possible measures to retaliate for any additional sanctions.
Full story
5) Philip Patrick: Is climate change scepticism growing in Japan?
The Spectator, 10 November 2021
Fumio Kishida, the newly-installed Japanese prime minister, could have been forgiven for giving COP26 a miss. The opening ceremony in Glasgow coincided with the general election he was fighting back home. But Kishida, having won the election, did make the trip, where he gave a speech broadly but not unreservedly supportive of international efforts to cut Co2 emissions.
The reward for his restrained tone and tepid assurances? Japan was named ‘fossil of the day’ by the Climate Action Network group, an ‘honour’ bestowed on countries deemed insufficiently devoted to the cause.
Kishida’s specific crime was that while he did promise substantial financial aid to developing nations in Asia to work on low emission energy technologies, he didn’t confirm whether Japan would be phasing out coal production any time soon. Nor did he repeat previously stated (by his predecessor Yoshihide Suga) net-zero emissions pledges.
Suspicions, or hopes – depending on your viewpoint – are growing that Kishida’s administration will be one of the developed world’s most sceptical on climate change and will push back against the commitments made by Suga. One of Kishida’s first acts after winning the election was to enact a small-scale purge of the greenest members of the party hierarchy. This included environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, to whom the figure of 46 per cent – Japan’s ambitious Co2 reduction target (by 2030 from 2013 levels) – had come in a ‘vision’.
Suspicions, or hopes – depending on your viewpoint – are growing that Kishida’s administration will be one of the developed world’s most sceptical on climate change
Also gone is the strongly pro-renewables Taro Kono, the man Kishida beat into second place in the recent leadership contest. By contrast, the woman who came third in that contest, Sanae Takaichi, a proponent of more nuclear power plants, is now the party’s policy chief.
Takaichi’s sponsor, the pro coal and pro nuclear former PM Shinzo Abe remains a hugely influential figure in the party, as does another former PM Taro Aso, who quipped recently that global warming ‘wasn’t all bad’ and made the rice in Hokkaido ‘more delicious’.
Japan’s new energy plan, approved at the end of October, calls for less reliance on fossil fuels and an increased use of renewables. But it is a heavily caveated document with what looks like aspirations rather than firm promises. It contains few hard deadlines. Without powerful advocates in key positions it could easily be watered down or even ditched.
It has been rumoured that Kishida, who is renowned for being a pragmatist, has had reservations about the green agenda for a while. During the leadership election campaign, he questioned whether it was ‘wise’ to rely simply on renewables as the dominant source of energy, which is about as forcefully as climate change scepticism is ever expressed by a public figure these days.
He got away with this as Japanese politicians have a bit more leeway than their counterparts in the west. The nuclear issue – in terms of safety – remains understandably contentious, but climate change is not quite the burning issue it has become elsewhere.
This may be partly because it has not attracted charismatic figureheads. Respect for one’s elders is still a powerful societal norm in Japan, so lauding a precocious teenager like Greta would seem perverse here.
Celebrities, tightly controlled by their talent agencies, generally steer clear of any kind of potentially controversial activity. Direct action, particularly of the currently modish theatrical variety, such as lying down on roads, would be out of national character. It would also be unwise: the police, who are never far away here, would not tolerate it for a minute.
In Japan, there is also increased scepticism and scrutiny of the renewables industry since July's Atami flood disaster. The pleasant seaside resort 60 miles southwest of Tokyo was hit by torrential rain, which led to mudslides that destroyed dozens of homes and killed 19 people. Dramatic footage, showing a river of black debris-strewn sludge coursing through the town, played on a loop on the Japanese news for days.
Initially blamed on ‘freak weather’, a counter-theory soon emerged: that the disaster may have been exacerbated by a nearby renewable energy initiative. High up on the mountainside above Atami, work had been undertaken on an extensive solar panel facility. Over the course of the construction of thus, and other building work, a huge mound of earth piled up precariously. Under pressure from the deluge of rain, the mound collapsed into the town, adding greatly to the devastation. Other renewable projects are now being looked at closely by government investigators.
A distinctive Japanese position may be forming on climate change, which the thoughtful and diplomatic Fumio Kishida is well suited to represent. It amounts to this: making supportive noises that chime with the international mood music, while, in reality, moving cautiously, with a close watch being kept on the home economy.
It’s a subtle, grown up approach, not dissimilar to Japan’s lockdown in name only in response to Covid-19. Many will find it as refreshing as a cool breeze in contrast to the overheated rhetoric of some of Kishda’s fellow delegates in Glasgow.
6) Michael Shellenberger: ‘COP26 is a neo-feudal performance’
Spiked, 8 November 2021
Michael Shellenberger on the staggering arrogance of the green elites.
The COP26 climate talks have been defined by brazen hypocrisy. It has escaped few people’s notice that the very same world leaders who have spent the week warning of a CO2-fuelled armageddon arrived in Glasgow on a fleet of private jets. And the very same world leaders calling for us all to cut back on our consumption have been lodging and dining in staggering opulence. So what lies behind this mismatch? And is there more to it than just hypocrisy?
Michael Shellenberger is the founder of Environmental Progress. He is also author of Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All and San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. He joined Brendan O’Neill for the latest episode of his podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. What follows is an edited extract from their conversation. Listen to the full episode here.
Brendan O’Neill: I want to ask you about COP26. The planet is apparently still on fire. We have, I don’t know, eight years, seven years, three years to save the world – I have lost track. There has been a ratcheting up of the kind of apocalypticism that you have previously taken down. You have argued that for too long the climate-change discussion has flitted between the denialists on one side, who think everything is absolutely fine, and the apocalyptics on the other, who think that the world is going to end. What do you think about what’s happening at COP26?
Michael Shellenberger: The elites are completely delusional. Emissions have declined by 26 per cent in Europe and 22 per cent in the US since 2005, thanks to the transition from coal to gas. Meanwhile, there is a global-energy crisis because of the renewables the climate activists have pushed for.
At the same time, they have gathered all of the world’s douchebags in a single conference, flying them in on 400 private jets. You have to ask, are they really that tone deaf? Is this a kind of performance – are they performing their superiority in some neo-feudal way? Remember, feudalism was full of pageantry. There’s so much pageantry here – the self-celebration, the narcissism and the histrionics.
Yet, on the substance, their agenda is falling apart around them. They could not even achieve a ban on financing coal plants, which was low-hanging fruit given the gas revolution. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin did not even come to COP26. China has announced a huge project for new nuclear power plants anyway. Using gas and nuclear is really all that matters on climate change. That’s it.
All of this other garbage is just neo-feudalism. Those at COP are calling for more renewables, for energy to be made more expensive, while they fly around on private jets. They are saying that they follow a different set of rules to us.
Full interview
7) Biden's bank nominee caught telling the truth about the US left's real agenda: 'We want oil and gas companies to go bankrupt'
The Washington Examiner, 11 November 2021
President Joe Biden’s pick for a top banking regulatory position said “we want” oil and gas companies to go bankrupt, although she acknowledged the country couldn’t afford the loss of jobs.
Saule Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University who graduated college in the USSR, has faced pushback over her nomination to be comptroller of the currency from business groups and Republicans, who have said that she is extreme and opposed to the industry as a whole.
A video of her discussing the idea of a National Investment Authority — a new government bureaucracy that would act directly in financial markets to allocate “both public and private capital” to fight social ills — has resurfaced in which she muses about oil and coal companies failing in order to fight climate change.
“A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to, probably, go bankrupt in short order — at least, we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change,” Omarova said as part of the Jain Family Institute’s “Social Wealth Seminar” series in March.
“But that creates a lot of this sort of loss of jobs, a lot of displacement, and economic fallback that we cannot afford, really, so [the National Capital Management Corporation] could actually become a kind of equity investor at that point, taking over management of those companies and basically leading them through restructuring to a new technological basis and to a new technological business model, and in that sense, it’s the same type of activity but a different context,” she added.
Sen. Ted Cruz tore into Omarova over Twitter after a video of her remarks about energy companies began circulating.
"Biden’s pick of Moscow State University’s Saule Omarova for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a grave threat to our economy," the Texas Republican said.
"She wants to destroy energy independence, wants to nationalize consumer banks, & she has called to 'effectively end banking as we know it.'"
Omarova has faced flak for her theoretical proposals, including a recent paper she authored, titled “The People’s Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy,” which offers a blueprint for “radically reshaping the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance.”
Full story
Spiked, 8 November 2021
Michael Shellenberger on the staggering arrogance of the green elites.
The COP26 climate talks have been defined by brazen hypocrisy. It has escaped few people’s notice that the very same world leaders who have spent the week warning of a CO2-fuelled armageddon arrived in Glasgow on a fleet of private jets. And the very same world leaders calling for us all to cut back on our consumption have been lodging and dining in staggering opulence. So what lies behind this mismatch? And is there more to it than just hypocrisy?
Michael Shellenberger is the founder of Environmental Progress. He is also author of Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All and San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. He joined Brendan O’Neill for the latest episode of his podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. What follows is an edited extract from their conversation. Listen to the full episode here.
Brendan O’Neill: I want to ask you about COP26. The planet is apparently still on fire. We have, I don’t know, eight years, seven years, three years to save the world – I have lost track. There has been a ratcheting up of the kind of apocalypticism that you have previously taken down. You have argued that for too long the climate-change discussion has flitted between the denialists on one side, who think everything is absolutely fine, and the apocalyptics on the other, who think that the world is going to end. What do you think about what’s happening at COP26?
Michael Shellenberger: The elites are completely delusional. Emissions have declined by 26 per cent in Europe and 22 per cent in the US since 2005, thanks to the transition from coal to gas. Meanwhile, there is a global-energy crisis because of the renewables the climate activists have pushed for.
At the same time, they have gathered all of the world’s douchebags in a single conference, flying them in on 400 private jets. You have to ask, are they really that tone deaf? Is this a kind of performance – are they performing their superiority in some neo-feudal way? Remember, feudalism was full of pageantry. There’s so much pageantry here – the self-celebration, the narcissism and the histrionics.
Yet, on the substance, their agenda is falling apart around them. They could not even achieve a ban on financing coal plants, which was low-hanging fruit given the gas revolution. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin did not even come to COP26. China has announced a huge project for new nuclear power plants anyway. Using gas and nuclear is really all that matters on climate change. That’s it.
All of this other garbage is just neo-feudalism. Those at COP are calling for more renewables, for energy to be made more expensive, while they fly around on private jets. They are saying that they follow a different set of rules to us.
Full interview
7) Biden's bank nominee caught telling the truth about the US left's real agenda: 'We want oil and gas companies to go bankrupt'
The Washington Examiner, 11 November 2021
President Joe Biden’s pick for a top banking regulatory position said “we want” oil and gas companies to go bankrupt, although she acknowledged the country couldn’t afford the loss of jobs.
Saule Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University who graduated college in the USSR, has faced pushback over her nomination to be comptroller of the currency from business groups and Republicans, who have said that she is extreme and opposed to the industry as a whole.
A video of her discussing the idea of a National Investment Authority — a new government bureaucracy that would act directly in financial markets to allocate “both public and private capital” to fight social ills — has resurfaced in which she muses about oil and coal companies failing in order to fight climate change.
“A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to, probably, go bankrupt in short order — at least, we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change,” Omarova said as part of the Jain Family Institute’s “Social Wealth Seminar” series in March.
“But that creates a lot of this sort of loss of jobs, a lot of displacement, and economic fallback that we cannot afford, really, so [the National Capital Management Corporation] could actually become a kind of equity investor at that point, taking over management of those companies and basically leading them through restructuring to a new technological basis and to a new technological business model, and in that sense, it’s the same type of activity but a different context,” she added.
Sen. Ted Cruz tore into Omarova over Twitter after a video of her remarks about energy companies began circulating.
"Biden’s pick of Moscow State University’s Saule Omarova for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a grave threat to our economy," the Texas Republican said.
"She wants to destroy energy independence, wants to nationalize consumer banks, & she has called to 'effectively end banking as we know it.'"
Omarova has faced flak for her theoretical proposals, including a recent paper she authored, titled “The People’s Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy,” which offers a blueprint for “radically reshaping the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance.”
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The London-based Net Zero Watch is a campaign group set up to highlight and discuss the serious implications of expensive and poorly considered climate change policies. The Net Zero Watch newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.netzerowatch.com.
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