In this newsletter:
1) Political backing for Europe's Green Deal fizzles despite heat wave
Politico, 18 July 2023
2) Poland files legal complaints against “authoritarian” EU climate policies
Notes from Poland, 18 July 2023
Notes from Poland, 18 July 2023
3) Spain election: Net Zero plans on the chopping block
Reuters, 17 July 2023
Reuters, 17 July 2023
4) Spain election: the most important referendum on climate in years
Bloomberg, 15 July 2023
5) Germany needs 50 new gas-fired power plants by 2030 - to phase out coal6) Biden’s China policy under scrutiny as Kerry is set to meet CCP officials
NTD News, 16 July 2023
7) John Kerry tilts at Chinese coal plants
Editorial, The Wall Street Journal, 17 July 2023
8) Blackrock appoints Saudi oil chief to board amid ‘woke’ investing controversy
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
9) Allison Pearson: First it was Covid – now we’re being scared into submission over the weather
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
Bloomberg, 15 July 2023
5) Germany needs 50 new gas-fired power plants by 2030 - to phase out coal6) Biden’s China policy under scrutiny as Kerry is set to meet CCP officials
NTD News, 16 July 2023
7) John Kerry tilts at Chinese coal plants
Editorial, The Wall Street Journal, 17 July 2023
8) Blackrock appoints Saudi oil chief to board amid ‘woke’ investing controversy
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
9) Allison Pearson: First it was Covid – now we’re being scared into submission over the weather
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
10) Ross Clark: The strange glee over the European heatwave
The Spectator, 18 July 2023
11) Peter Lilley: What on earth is a climate refugee?
The Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2023
12) Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.: Of EVs and Heat Waves
The Spectator, 18 July 2023
11) Peter Lilley: What on earth is a climate refugee?
The Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2023
12) Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.: Of EVs and Heat Waves
Full details:
1) Political backing for Europe's Green Deal fizzles despite heat wave
Politico, 18 July 2023
Politico, 18 July 2023
As the center right changes tack on climate, the bloc’s climate coalition is crumbling.
Dangerous heat fueled by climate change is putting tens of thousands of lives at risk, but a growing number of European politicians want to take a break from Green Deal lawmaking.
For the past few years, the European Union has passed ambitious green legislation by building on the grand coalition that elected Ursula von der Leyen.
But with fresh elections looming next year, von der Leyen’s Green Deal, which aims to make the bloc climate neutral by mid-century, is facing pushback from her own political group, the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) — threatening to slow the bloc’s efforts to cut planet-warming emissions just as extreme heat sweeps across Southern Europe.
“We’re dealing with some really extreme weather in Europe and this is the moment to take some difficult decisions,” said Mohammed Chahim, vice chair of the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament. “But in the end, we need democratic majorities for that.”
Those majorities are becoming slimmer — both in Parliament and among EU governments in the Council, with appetite for more environmental regulation waning in many capitals.
The informal European Parliament coalition between EPP, S&D and the centrist Renew Europe groups — which not only secured von der Leyen's election as Commission president but also delivered reliable majorities for Green Deal laws for years — has crumbled in recent months as the center right changed tack on climate.
While the EPP insists it still backs the Green Deal, the group has called for a “moratorium” on climate rule-making and launched an aggressive campaign against several environmental laws.
“We definitely see a shift in the narrative, especially on the part of the moderate conservatives, represented by the EPP in the European Parliament,” said Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder of Italian climate think tank ECCO.
It’s not just Parliament. Several EU leaders, including centrists like France’s Emmanuel Macron, have taken up the EPP’s call for a regulatory “pause.”
Polling suggests both Council and Parliament are likely to shift further to the right following national and European elections over the next year.
And then there’s a chance that the politician who embodies the Green Deal will leave Brussels soon: Commission climate chief Frans Timmermans may return to Dutch politics for November’s general election.
Green Deal under attack
More than 60,000 Europeans died of heat-related causes last summer, and this year is shaping up to be even hotter. Yet at no other point in von der Leyen’s tenure has the EU’s climate coalition looked this fragile.
Most parties and politicians back Europe’s 2050 climate neutrality target. But measures to achieve this milestone have increasingly come under attack.
Energy-security concerns boosted the case for renewables last year, but rising costs are prompting some to call for a slower pace on climate legislation — or emulate the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act with its lavish subsidies rather than adding more new rules.
The EU’s growing number of green regulations “is a huge problem,” said German MEP Peter Liese, environmental spokesman for the EPP. “It’s important not to demand too much.”
Those calls intensified in spring, when a farmers’ party won the Dutch provincial election amid protests against new emissions rules.
Spooked, the EPP — which sees itself as the main defender of rural interests — launched a campaign against elements of the Green Deal targeting agriculture. That made a target of the EU’s flagship Nature Restoration Law, a proposal key to boosting the Continent’s natural carbon sinks.
While the EPP narrowly failed to kill the law last week, it succeeded in weakening it — for example, completely scrapping restoration targets for wetlands. The group also recently managed to water down other bills, like new rules for livestock farm emissions.
“Sure, the headline is the EPP failed, but if you look at the amendments that passed, then Timmermans and the [Socialist] lead MEP failed,” said Liese. “There is not much left of what they wanted.”
The Commission, it seems, was chastened by the fierce backlash to its nature law; it came forward with only nonbinding targets for a soil law that had also attracted the EPP’s ire.
Shifting majorities
Many MEPs see the battle over the Nature Restoration Law as a rupture. The tone was far rougher than it had been in any other Green Deal legislative debate, with the EPP walking out of negotiations and facing accusations that it was spreading misleading claims.
Liese said “frustration had been building” in the EPP over the feeling its views were ignored by other groupings, and the harsher rhetoric was a “necessary strategy to change the spirit in the environment committee.”
“Without the EPP, there will be no majority, particularly in the next Parliament,” he added.
While there’s almost a year to go until the European election, current polling suggests the next Parliament could be more conservative, particularly with the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists gaining ground.
Full story
Dangerous heat fueled by climate change is putting tens of thousands of lives at risk, but a growing number of European politicians want to take a break from Green Deal lawmaking.
For the past few years, the European Union has passed ambitious green legislation by building on the grand coalition that elected Ursula von der Leyen.
But with fresh elections looming next year, von der Leyen’s Green Deal, which aims to make the bloc climate neutral by mid-century, is facing pushback from her own political group, the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) — threatening to slow the bloc’s efforts to cut planet-warming emissions just as extreme heat sweeps across Southern Europe.
“We’re dealing with some really extreme weather in Europe and this is the moment to take some difficult decisions,” said Mohammed Chahim, vice chair of the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament. “But in the end, we need democratic majorities for that.”
Those majorities are becoming slimmer — both in Parliament and among EU governments in the Council, with appetite for more environmental regulation waning in many capitals.
The informal European Parliament coalition between EPP, S&D and the centrist Renew Europe groups — which not only secured von der Leyen's election as Commission president but also delivered reliable majorities for Green Deal laws for years — has crumbled in recent months as the center right changed tack on climate.
While the EPP insists it still backs the Green Deal, the group has called for a “moratorium” on climate rule-making and launched an aggressive campaign against several environmental laws.
“We definitely see a shift in the narrative, especially on the part of the moderate conservatives, represented by the EPP in the European Parliament,” said Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder of Italian climate think tank ECCO.
It’s not just Parliament. Several EU leaders, including centrists like France’s Emmanuel Macron, have taken up the EPP’s call for a regulatory “pause.”
Polling suggests both Council and Parliament are likely to shift further to the right following national and European elections over the next year.
And then there’s a chance that the politician who embodies the Green Deal will leave Brussels soon: Commission climate chief Frans Timmermans may return to Dutch politics for November’s general election.
Green Deal under attack
More than 60,000 Europeans died of heat-related causes last summer, and this year is shaping up to be even hotter. Yet at no other point in von der Leyen’s tenure has the EU’s climate coalition looked this fragile.
Most parties and politicians back Europe’s 2050 climate neutrality target. But measures to achieve this milestone have increasingly come under attack.
Energy-security concerns boosted the case for renewables last year, but rising costs are prompting some to call for a slower pace on climate legislation — or emulate the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act with its lavish subsidies rather than adding more new rules.
The EU’s growing number of green regulations “is a huge problem,” said German MEP Peter Liese, environmental spokesman for the EPP. “It’s important not to demand too much.”
Those calls intensified in spring, when a farmers’ party won the Dutch provincial election amid protests against new emissions rules.
Spooked, the EPP — which sees itself as the main defender of rural interests — launched a campaign against elements of the Green Deal targeting agriculture. That made a target of the EU’s flagship Nature Restoration Law, a proposal key to boosting the Continent’s natural carbon sinks.
While the EPP narrowly failed to kill the law last week, it succeeded in weakening it — for example, completely scrapping restoration targets for wetlands. The group also recently managed to water down other bills, like new rules for livestock farm emissions.
“Sure, the headline is the EPP failed, but if you look at the amendments that passed, then Timmermans and the [Socialist] lead MEP failed,” said Liese. “There is not much left of what they wanted.”
The Commission, it seems, was chastened by the fierce backlash to its nature law; it came forward with only nonbinding targets for a soil law that had also attracted the EPP’s ire.
Shifting majorities
Many MEPs see the battle over the Nature Restoration Law as a rupture. The tone was far rougher than it had been in any other Green Deal legislative debate, with the EPP walking out of negotiations and facing accusations that it was spreading misleading claims.
Liese said “frustration had been building” in the EPP over the feeling its views were ignored by other groupings, and the harsher rhetoric was a “necessary strategy to change the spirit in the environment committee.”
“Without the EPP, there will be no majority, particularly in the next Parliament,” he added.
While there’s almost a year to go until the European election, current polling suggests the next Parliament could be more conservative, particularly with the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists gaining ground.
Full story
2) Poland files legal complaints against “authoritarian” EU climate policies
Notes from Poland, 18 July 2023
Notes from Poland, 18 July 2023
The Polish government has submitted four complaints against EU climate policies, calling them “authoritarian” and pledging that it “will not allow Brussels’ diktat”.
Three new cases filed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) relate to a ban on the registration of new internal combustion vehicles after 2035, an increase in the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction target, and a reduction of free emission allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
They follow another complaint filed last week against EU rules on land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), which Poland says infringes the competences of member states.
“Does the [European] Union want to decide in an authoritarian manner what kind of vehicles Poles will drive and whether energy prices will rise in Poland?” tweeted climate minister Anna Moskwa on Monday. “The Polish government will not allow Brussels’ diktat.”
This morning, the minister added in an interview with Polskie Radio that the government would also file a fifth complaint this week concerning 35,000 tonnes of rubbish that it says has illegally entered the country from Germany.
Poland’s current national-conservative government has regularly criticised the EU’s climate and environmental policies. Ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński has called them “madness and theories without evidence” and “green communism”.
“At every EU council, we have been against and voted as a government against every single document in the Fit for 55 package,” said Moskwa, referring to the EU’s programme to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
“It is no secret that we were against the whole package, we are against increasing climate ambition and the way [these efforts] are carried and forced [upon member countries],” added the minister.
A recent EU-funded study found Poland to be the bloc’s least green country. It still relies on coal to produce around 70% of its electricity, by far the highest figure in the EU. Poland is Europe’s second-largest producer of brown coal after Germany and the largest producer of hard coal.
In March, Poland was the only member state to oppose the introduction of a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035. In an interview today, Moskwa argued that unanimity should have been required for this decision as its impact is heavily dependent on member countries’ energy mix.
“In our case, [banning combustion engines] is absolutely contrary to climate policy, because it will lead to an increase in coal consumption in the short term if we want to increase electricity production [to power electric vehicles],” she said.
Full story
Three new cases filed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) relate to a ban on the registration of new internal combustion vehicles after 2035, an increase in the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction target, and a reduction of free emission allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
They follow another complaint filed last week against EU rules on land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), which Poland says infringes the competences of member states.
“Does the [European] Union want to decide in an authoritarian manner what kind of vehicles Poles will drive and whether energy prices will rise in Poland?” tweeted climate minister Anna Moskwa on Monday. “The Polish government will not allow Brussels’ diktat.”
This morning, the minister added in an interview with Polskie Radio that the government would also file a fifth complaint this week concerning 35,000 tonnes of rubbish that it says has illegally entered the country from Germany.
Poland’s current national-conservative government has regularly criticised the EU’s climate and environmental policies. Ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński has called them “madness and theories without evidence” and “green communism”.
“At every EU council, we have been against and voted as a government against every single document in the Fit for 55 package,” said Moskwa, referring to the EU’s programme to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
“It is no secret that we were against the whole package, we are against increasing climate ambition and the way [these efforts] are carried and forced [upon member countries],” added the minister.
A recent EU-funded study found Poland to be the bloc’s least green country. It still relies on coal to produce around 70% of its electricity, by far the highest figure in the EU. Poland is Europe’s second-largest producer of brown coal after Germany and the largest producer of hard coal.
In March, Poland was the only member state to oppose the introduction of a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035. In an interview today, Moskwa argued that unanimity should have been required for this decision as its impact is heavily dependent on member countries’ energy mix.
“In our case, [banning combustion engines] is absolutely contrary to climate policy, because it will lead to an increase in coal consumption in the short term if we want to increase electricity production [to power electric vehicles],” she said.
Full story
3) Spain election: Net Zero plans on the chopping block
Reuters, 17 July 2023
Reuters, 17 July 2023
With polls indicating a PP/Vox coalition government as the most likely outcome of next Sunday's national election, the reversal signals what could be a broader shift in Spain's climate change policy.
Aiming to highlight the city of Valladolid's green credentials, Spain's Environment Minister Teresa Ribera arrived by bicycle at a European Union climate meeting there last week.
But even as she pedalled to the event along a recently-built bike lane, programmes that have made Valladolid one of Spain's top cities for green mobility were on the chopping block after a coalition of the conservative People's Party and the far-right Vox took power there.
They have vowed to reduce its low-emission zone (LEZ) and reroute bicycle and bus lanes to accommodate cars.
Similar plans are being carried out or broached in cities such as Gijon, Castello and Elche after the two parties reached coalition deals following local elections in May.
With polls indicating a PP/Vox coalition government as the most likely outcome of next Sunday's national election, the reversal signals what could be a broader shift in Spain's climate change policy.
That could alter the balance in Europe, where the fight over a law to restore degraded ecosystems has shown cracks in support for the EU green agenda. European lawmakers passed it in a close vote on July 12. [...]
'ENERGY SUICIDE'
Under the ruling Socialist-led coalition, Spain has been one of the most vocal champions of the EU's energy transition to net zero carbon emissions, including investing 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) to reduce the use of private cars.
Vox has also pledged to repeal Spain's climate law, which establishes an obligation to create LEZs in cities. The PP manifesto makes no explicit reference to measures to promote green mobility.
"Bike lanes have to be useful and not generate social alarm, so each municipality has to analyse the most appropriate location," a PP official told Reuters.
Vox, founded in 2013, has become increasingly hostile to environmental measures. It says it will not use aid earmarked for the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, which includes sustainable mobility. Vox leader Santiago Abascal has described U.N. climate policies as "energy suicide".
Trailing the PP in polls, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has sought to exploit the threat the right poses to environmental policies to mobilise his voters.
"They are putting people at the head of city councils and regional governments who by action or mission are climate change deniers," Sanchez said on July 6.
Full story
Aiming to highlight the city of Valladolid's green credentials, Spain's Environment Minister Teresa Ribera arrived by bicycle at a European Union climate meeting there last week.
But even as she pedalled to the event along a recently-built bike lane, programmes that have made Valladolid one of Spain's top cities for green mobility were on the chopping block after a coalition of the conservative People's Party and the far-right Vox took power there.
They have vowed to reduce its low-emission zone (LEZ) and reroute bicycle and bus lanes to accommodate cars.
Similar plans are being carried out or broached in cities such as Gijon, Castello and Elche after the two parties reached coalition deals following local elections in May.
With polls indicating a PP/Vox coalition government as the most likely outcome of next Sunday's national election, the reversal signals what could be a broader shift in Spain's climate change policy.
That could alter the balance in Europe, where the fight over a law to restore degraded ecosystems has shown cracks in support for the EU green agenda. European lawmakers passed it in a close vote on July 12. [...]
'ENERGY SUICIDE'
Under the ruling Socialist-led coalition, Spain has been one of the most vocal champions of the EU's energy transition to net zero carbon emissions, including investing 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) to reduce the use of private cars.
Vox has also pledged to repeal Spain's climate law, which establishes an obligation to create LEZs in cities. The PP manifesto makes no explicit reference to measures to promote green mobility.
"Bike lanes have to be useful and not generate social alarm, so each municipality has to analyse the most appropriate location," a PP official told Reuters.
Vox, founded in 2013, has become increasingly hostile to environmental measures. It says it will not use aid earmarked for the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, which includes sustainable mobility. Vox leader Santiago Abascal has described U.N. climate policies as "energy suicide".
Trailing the PP in polls, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has sought to exploit the threat the right poses to environmental policies to mobilise his voters.
"They are putting people at the head of city councils and regional governments who by action or mission are climate change deniers," Sanchez said on July 6.
Full story
4) Spain elections: the most important referendum on climate in years
Bloomberg, 15 July 2023
MADRID — As a brutal heat wave grips Spain days before its national election, the contest is shaping up as the most important referendum on climate in years.
Bloomberg, 15 July 2023
MADRID — As a brutal heat wave grips Spain days before its national election, the contest is shaping up as the most important referendum on climate in years.
The country is already a harbinger for the rest of Europe on the risks of global warming, with the worst water stress in the region. This past week saw temperatures raise to the mid-40s Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in large parts of the country, and areas such as Catalonia have been under water-use restrictions for months.
Now, a climate-change denial party is likely to have a key role in the next government and is pledging to roll back many of the green policies from recent years. Vox, a hard-right nativist group, calls Spain’s 2021 Climate Change law “insane,” and says that proposed European new nature protection legislation “is the law for the return to caves and poverty.” Nature conservatism, re-wilding, and policies to encourage solar farm development are among the party’s favorite targets.
Polls show Vox grabbing between 12% and 15% of votes when Spaniards head to the ballot boxes on July 23, with farmers a key constituency. The party has an outsize influence, having set the tone for the election campaign and, more significantly, many of the conservative People Party’s positions.
The PP is likely to win the election, and both parties have formed dozens of coalitions in regional and municipal governments across Spain since local elections in late May. In many cases, Vox used its position to gain leverage over agricultural policy, while also ridding administrations of environmental ministries.
The political switch is all the more surprising after five years of a Socialist-led coalition government that advocated energy transition and fighting climate change.
Full story
5) Germany needs 50 new gas-fired power plants by 2030 - to phase out coal
6) Biden’s China policy under scrutiny as Kerry is set to meet CCP officials
NTD News, 16 July 2023
Now, a climate-change denial party is likely to have a key role in the next government and is pledging to roll back many of the green policies from recent years. Vox, a hard-right nativist group, calls Spain’s 2021 Climate Change law “insane,” and says that proposed European new nature protection legislation “is the law for the return to caves and poverty.” Nature conservatism, re-wilding, and policies to encourage solar farm development are among the party’s favorite targets.
Polls show Vox grabbing between 12% and 15% of votes when Spaniards head to the ballot boxes on July 23, with farmers a key constituency. The party has an outsize influence, having set the tone for the election campaign and, more significantly, many of the conservative People Party’s positions.
The PP is likely to win the election, and both parties have formed dozens of coalitions in regional and municipal governments across Spain since local elections in late May. In many cases, Vox used its position to gain leverage over agricultural policy, while also ridding administrations of environmental ministries.
The political switch is all the more surprising after five years of a Socialist-led coalition government that advocated energy transition and fighting climate change.
Full story
5) Germany needs 50 new gas-fired power plants by 2030 - to phase out coal
Germany's Economics Minister Robert Habeck has to build new gas-fired power plants - fifty, according to an article in Der Spiegel . Renewable energies are not enough. But the past is catching up with the federal government.
Phasing out coal by 2030 requires the construction of new gas-fired power plants in Germany. But a dispute between Berlin and Brussels over subsidies for these reserve plants threatens to jeopardise the coal phase-out.
The fluctuating electricity production from renewable energies requires a reliable back-up solution. These gas-fired power plants are not intended to produce as much electricity as possible, but only to close the gaps in the renewables.
The doctrine according to which gas-fired power plants can finance themselves through high prices when there is no sun or wind is proving to be a fallacy. In the past, energy companies have failed to invest in new plants.
The federal government must now find new ways to promote the construction of gas-fired power plants. But the loss of time is great, and negotiations with the EU Commission are proving difficult.
In order to achieve the goal of phasing out coal by 2030, key points for a tendering process must now be presented quickly. Markus Krebber, CEO of the energy group RWE, urges: "If the coal phase-out is to work by 2030, then we need a tendering regime for hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants very quickly."
The lack of clarity with regard to subsidies and the uncertainty about the future organisation of security of supply pose major challenges for the energy sector. It is becoming clear that the Federal Government's previous strategy of having gas-fired power plants financed solely by the energy market is not sufficient.
The past is catching up with the federal government as a failure to provide sufficient spare capacity is jeopardising coal phase-out plans. A capacity market for supporting power plants was missed, which now leads to problems with the financing of the gas-fired power plants. There is currently an urgent need for action to enable the necessary phase-out of coal.
Phasing out coal by 2030 requires the construction of new gas-fired power plants in Germany. But a dispute between Berlin and Brussels over subsidies for these reserve plants threatens to jeopardise the coal phase-out.
The fluctuating electricity production from renewable energies requires a reliable back-up solution. These gas-fired power plants are not intended to produce as much electricity as possible, but only to close the gaps in the renewables.
The doctrine according to which gas-fired power plants can finance themselves through high prices when there is no sun or wind is proving to be a fallacy. In the past, energy companies have failed to invest in new plants.
The federal government must now find new ways to promote the construction of gas-fired power plants. But the loss of time is great, and negotiations with the EU Commission are proving difficult.
In order to achieve the goal of phasing out coal by 2030, key points for a tendering process must now be presented quickly. Markus Krebber, CEO of the energy group RWE, urges: "If the coal phase-out is to work by 2030, then we need a tendering regime for hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants very quickly."
The lack of clarity with regard to subsidies and the uncertainty about the future organisation of security of supply pose major challenges for the energy sector. It is becoming clear that the Federal Government's previous strategy of having gas-fired power plants financed solely by the energy market is not sufficient.
The past is catching up with the federal government as a failure to provide sufficient spare capacity is jeopardising coal phase-out plans. A capacity market for supporting power plants was missed, which now leads to problems with the financing of the gas-fired power plants. There is currently an urgent need for action to enable the necessary phase-out of coal.
6) Biden’s China policy under scrutiny as Kerry is set to meet CCP officials
NTD News, 16 July 2023
“China has no intention of decarbonizing. Although it says it will reduce CO2 emissions, in reality, the Communists’ hold on power will slip without the constant economic growth that only fossil fuels can bring,” researchers said in a report by Global Warming Policy Foundation, a U.K.-based nonprofit.
President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry arrived in Beijing on July 16 for three days of talks, becoming the third U.S. official to travel to China in less than two months.
While climate talks will dominate the discussions between Kerry and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, it remains to be seen whether these talks will actually lead to an improvement of bilateral ties since there wasn’t any major breakthrough following the trips to China by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Mr. Kerry told Congress that climate change is pressing, noting it’s important for the United States and China to find ways to work together in addressing it.
“China is the world’s second-largest economy, and as the world’s largest emitter, It’s critical to our being able to solve this problem,” Mr. Kerry said at House Committee on Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on July 13. Failing to engage with China “would be malpractice of the worst order, diplomatic and political,” he added.
Mr. Kerry is set to meet China’s special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua as well as other senior Chinese officials. During these meetings, Mr. Kerry said he hoped they could make progress in persuading Beijing to “transition away from coal.”
China accounts for more than half, 53 percent, of global coal consumption, according to a 2022 report by International Energy Agency.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to cut carbon emissions, but it won’t start until 2030.
“We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. We call on all countries to pursue innovative, coordinated, green, and open development for all,” Mr. Xi said at the 75th session of the U.N. Assembly in New York.
Observers, though welcomed Mr. Xi’s pledge, doubted whether the country really delivered the commitment, with some even arguing it appeared to be “a lie.”
“China has no intention of decarbonizing. Although it says it will reduce CO2 emissions, in reality, the Communists’ hold on power will slip without the constant economic growth that only fossil fuels can bring,” researchers said in a report by Global Warming Policy Foundation, a U.K.-based nonprofit.
Currently, with its economy faltering, Chinese authorities continue to approve new coal-fired plants. In the first three months of 2023, local officials have already approved the construction of at least 20.45 gigawatts of power capacity, more than doubled the 8.63 gigawatts approved in the same period last year, accordion to recent research by Greenpeace.
Full story
7) John Kerry tilts at Chinese coal plants
Editorial, The Wall Street Journal, 17 July 2023
President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry arrived in Beijing on July 16 for three days of talks, becoming the third U.S. official to travel to China in less than two months.
While climate talks will dominate the discussions between Kerry and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, it remains to be seen whether these talks will actually lead to an improvement of bilateral ties since there wasn’t any major breakthrough following the trips to China by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Mr. Kerry told Congress that climate change is pressing, noting it’s important for the United States and China to find ways to work together in addressing it.
“China is the world’s second-largest economy, and as the world’s largest emitter, It’s critical to our being able to solve this problem,” Mr. Kerry said at House Committee on Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on July 13. Failing to engage with China “would be malpractice of the worst order, diplomatic and political,” he added.
Mr. Kerry is set to meet China’s special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua as well as other senior Chinese officials. During these meetings, Mr. Kerry said he hoped they could make progress in persuading Beijing to “transition away from coal.”
China accounts for more than half, 53 percent, of global coal consumption, according to a 2022 report by International Energy Agency.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to cut carbon emissions, but it won’t start until 2030.
“We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. We call on all countries to pursue innovative, coordinated, green, and open development for all,” Mr. Xi said at the 75th session of the U.N. Assembly in New York.
Observers, though welcomed Mr. Xi’s pledge, doubted whether the country really delivered the commitment, with some even arguing it appeared to be “a lie.”
“China has no intention of decarbonizing. Although it says it will reduce CO2 emissions, in reality, the Communists’ hold on power will slip without the constant economic growth that only fossil fuels can bring,” researchers said in a report by Global Warming Policy Foundation, a U.K.-based nonprofit.
Currently, with its economy faltering, Chinese authorities continue to approve new coal-fired plants. In the first three months of 2023, local officials have already approved the construction of at least 20.45 gigawatts of power capacity, more than doubled the 8.63 gigawatts approved in the same period last year, accordion to recent research by Greenpeace.
Full story
7) John Kerry tilts at Chinese coal plants
Editorial, The Wall Street Journal, 17 July 2023
Mr. Kerry can tilt at climate targets all he wants, but Beijing isn’t going to risk the political upheaval of mass unemployment to meet emissions targets.
China said Monday that its economy nearly stalled to a 0.8% growth rate in the second quarter, but never fear, John Kerry is here. The U.S. climate envoy is in Beijing this week to tell Chinese officials that they need to follow America in putting their economy further at risk by moving away from fossil fuels at a rapid pace.
Mr. Kerry said last week that he’ll discuss cuts to methane emissions and coal, among other items. Somehow we doubt his Chinese counterparts will take Mr. Kerry’s advice, though they might do their diplomatic best to humor him. That’s how they’ve strung the world along on climate for years.
China signed the 2015 Paris climate accord, but that deal gave Beijing a pass to increase its emissions until 2030. And that’s exactly what it’s doing. According to the Climate Action Tracker, which monitors national progress under the Paris agreement, “China’s emissions under current policies remain sky high with no sign of substantial emission reductions before the 2030 peaking timeline.”
The Climate Action Tracker says that between 2015 and 2022 China’s greenhouse gas emissions increased nearly 12%, while U.S. emissions declined some 5%. China’s methane emissions rose about 3% from 2015 to 2021, the latest year with good data, while the U.S. cut them by 5%.
Mr. Kerry will have an uphill climb on Chinese coal in particular. The Climate Action Tracker says China’s “coal production reached record levels in 2022 for the second year running,” and “coal is set to remain the backbone” of China’s energy system. No kidding: Between 2020 and 2022, China added some 113 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. The entire world managed to retire some 187 gigawatts of coal plants between 2017 and 2022.
As of January China had some 306 coal-fired power stations proposed, permitted or under construction, according to Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit that tracks worldwide coal-fired power projects of 30 megawatts or more. When finished those plants would generate some 366 gigawatts, or about 68% of the world’s total coal capacity under development.
As of April China also had 180 new coal mines or mine expansions proposed, permitted or under construction, the nonprofit reported. These would produce some 657 million metric tonnes per year upon completion and could release as much as eight million tonnes of methane emissions a year.
Some of China’s coal plants serve as back-up capacity for renewable energy. But the energy think tank Ember noted in May that coal still accounted for 61% of China’s electricity generation last year. That’s down from 78% in 2000—but China’s “total power sector emissions were five times higher than in 2000 . . . due to rising coal generation to meet soaring power demand,” Ember reported.
All of this suggests the Communist Party won’t make climate concessions at the expense of economic growth, and you don’t have to take our word for it. In a January 2022 speech, President Xi Jinping said carbon goals shouldn’t come at the expense of the “normal life” of Chinese people or energy or food security, according to a Reuters article citing the state-run Xinhua news service.
Carbon-neutrality goals “can’t be detached from reality,” Mr. Xi reiterated in March, according to a South China Morning Post article citing the state-run People’s Daily. “We can’t toss away what’s feeding us now while what will feed us next is still not in our pocket.”
The post-Covid economic boom that China expected isn’t happening. And data earlier this year revealed that one in five Chinese youth are jobless. Mr. Kerry can tilt at climate targets all he wants, but Beijing isn’t going to risk the political upheaval of mass unemployment to meet emissions targets while raging wildfires in North America offset any CO2 reductions.
Full editorial
8) Blackrock appoints Saudi oil chief to board amid ‘woke’ investing controversy
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
China said Monday that its economy nearly stalled to a 0.8% growth rate in the second quarter, but never fear, John Kerry is here. The U.S. climate envoy is in Beijing this week to tell Chinese officials that they need to follow America in putting their economy further at risk by moving away from fossil fuels at a rapid pace.
Mr. Kerry said last week that he’ll discuss cuts to methane emissions and coal, among other items. Somehow we doubt his Chinese counterparts will take Mr. Kerry’s advice, though they might do their diplomatic best to humor him. That’s how they’ve strung the world along on climate for years.
China signed the 2015 Paris climate accord, but that deal gave Beijing a pass to increase its emissions until 2030. And that’s exactly what it’s doing. According to the Climate Action Tracker, which monitors national progress under the Paris agreement, “China’s emissions under current policies remain sky high with no sign of substantial emission reductions before the 2030 peaking timeline.”
The Climate Action Tracker says that between 2015 and 2022 China’s greenhouse gas emissions increased nearly 12%, while U.S. emissions declined some 5%. China’s methane emissions rose about 3% from 2015 to 2021, the latest year with good data, while the U.S. cut them by 5%.
Mr. Kerry will have an uphill climb on Chinese coal in particular. The Climate Action Tracker says China’s “coal production reached record levels in 2022 for the second year running,” and “coal is set to remain the backbone” of China’s energy system. No kidding: Between 2020 and 2022, China added some 113 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. The entire world managed to retire some 187 gigawatts of coal plants between 2017 and 2022.
As of January China had some 306 coal-fired power stations proposed, permitted or under construction, according to Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit that tracks worldwide coal-fired power projects of 30 megawatts or more. When finished those plants would generate some 366 gigawatts, or about 68% of the world’s total coal capacity under development.
As of April China also had 180 new coal mines or mine expansions proposed, permitted or under construction, the nonprofit reported. These would produce some 657 million metric tonnes per year upon completion and could release as much as eight million tonnes of methane emissions a year.
Some of China’s coal plants serve as back-up capacity for renewable energy. But the energy think tank Ember noted in May that coal still accounted for 61% of China’s electricity generation last year. That’s down from 78% in 2000—but China’s “total power sector emissions were five times higher than in 2000 . . . due to rising coal generation to meet soaring power demand,” Ember reported.
All of this suggests the Communist Party won’t make climate concessions at the expense of economic growth, and you don’t have to take our word for it. In a January 2022 speech, President Xi Jinping said carbon goals shouldn’t come at the expense of the “normal life” of Chinese people or energy or food security, according to a Reuters article citing the state-run Xinhua news service.
Carbon-neutrality goals “can’t be detached from reality,” Mr. Xi reiterated in March, according to a South China Morning Post article citing the state-run People’s Daily. “We can’t toss away what’s feeding us now while what will feed us next is still not in our pocket.”
The post-Covid economic boom that China expected isn’t happening. And data earlier this year revealed that one in five Chinese youth are jobless. Mr. Kerry can tilt at climate targets all he wants, but Beijing isn’t going to risk the political upheaval of mass unemployment to meet emissions targets while raging wildfires in North America offset any CO2 reductions.
Full editorial
8) Blackrock appoints Saudi oil chief to board amid ‘woke’ investing controversy
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
Appointment latest retreat from 'ESG' agenda for world's largest fund manager
Blackrock has appointed the leader of Saudi Arabia’s oil company to its board, in its latest apparent retreat from the “environmental, social and governance” (ESG) emphasis that has made it a target for “anti-woke” criticism.
Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has become a director of the world’s largest fund manager.
Blackrock said the decision reflected the importance of the Middle East to its business and, under Nasser’s leadership, the emergence of Aramco as a “leader in the global energy transition”.
But the move comes after Larry Fink, Blackrock’s chief executive, has faced a backlash for putting so-called ESG issues at the centre of Blackrock’s approach to the markets.
In his widely-followed 2020 letters to clients and chief executives, Mr Fink declared “climate risk is investment risk” and that “sustainability should be our new standard for investing”.
Since then he has rowed back and admitted companies “cannot be the climate police”, however.
Mr Fink also did not mention ESG at all in his letters this year, amid an ongoing row with Republican politicians in the US who have accused Blackrock of putting “woke” ideology before investor returns.
Last year Florida, the state run by Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, said it was pulling $2bn of public assets out of BlackRock’s funds in protest and would hand them over to rival money managers.
Against that backdrop, Mr Nasser’s appointment at BlackRock is likely to raise eyebrows in some quarters.
Full story
9) Allison Pearson: First it was Covid – now we’re being scared into submission over the weather
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
Blackrock has appointed the leader of Saudi Arabia’s oil company to its board, in its latest apparent retreat from the “environmental, social and governance” (ESG) emphasis that has made it a target for “anti-woke” criticism.
Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has become a director of the world’s largest fund manager.
Blackrock said the decision reflected the importance of the Middle East to its business and, under Nasser’s leadership, the emergence of Aramco as a “leader in the global energy transition”.
But the move comes after Larry Fink, Blackrock’s chief executive, has faced a backlash for putting so-called ESG issues at the centre of Blackrock’s approach to the markets.
In his widely-followed 2020 letters to clients and chief executives, Mr Fink declared “climate risk is investment risk” and that “sustainability should be our new standard for investing”.
Since then he has rowed back and admitted companies “cannot be the climate police”, however.
Mr Fink also did not mention ESG at all in his letters this year, amid an ongoing row with Republican politicians in the US who have accused Blackrock of putting “woke” ideology before investor returns.
Last year Florida, the state run by Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, said it was pulling $2bn of public assets out of BlackRock’s funds in protest and would hand them over to rival money managers.
Against that backdrop, Mr Nasser’s appointment at BlackRock is likely to raise eyebrows in some quarters.
Full story
9) Allison Pearson: First it was Covid – now we’re being scared into submission over the weather
The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2023
There’s no denying it’s hot in Europe, but it feels like sunshine is being weaponised in a bid to get us to adjust our ways to hit net zero
[...] You may have noticed that climate catastrophism has gone nuclear over the past week, as if on cue (we’ll come back to that), but the good old British weather refuses to co-operate. Disappointingly for the We’re All Gonna Fry brigade, it’s cool, rainy and sullen here with fitful gusts of wind; almost autumnal at times. As a July baby, I can tell you this is not unusual for July. (Prince George will have to get used to having his parties in the cloudy drizzle on our mutual birthday.)
Still, reporters scour the rest of Europe for better (ie bad) news. Tourists at the Trevi Fountain in Rome are invited to agree that the weather is “unbearable”. If it’s unbearable, why aren’t they back in their hotel rooms with a wet towel on their heads instead of happily licking their pistachio gelato and soaking up the rays? Why are reports of wildfires in La Palma being linked to soaring temperatures, when the weather on the island is in fact unusually mild, and set to be in the mid-20s all week?
Really not very unusual weather events have suddenly acquired important, scary names drawn from the mythological flames of hell. After Cerberus and Charon, get ready for Heatwave Hades. If the current weather in the UK had a name it would be Colin.
Are Brits really “cancelling their holiday plans” because of the “truly terrifying conditions”? Or are they, like me, stocking up on Hawaiian Tropic (used to be sniffy about it, now addicted) from Boots and crawling through the final fortnight of work before I can replenish my stocks of Vitamin D on a Turkish sunlounger.
There is something horribly familiar about all these apocalyptic warnings of catastrophic consequences if people don’t act. “Temperatures across the Mediterranean are nearing the highest ever recorded in Europe with travellers being warned that local medical and health services are strained in some areas.”
Ah, yes, that’s it. Knew we’d heard it before: Stay At Home, Save on Sunscreen, Support Net Zero.
It’s almost as if the same people who scared the pants off us during the pandemic, terrorising people into obeying often idiotic rules, were at it again. The Behavioural Insights Team (aka the Nudge Unit) – spun out of the Cabinet Office, and now working many large corporates, global institutions and national governments – is teaming up with broadcasters to drive messages about climate change.
A report by the BIT in collaboration with Sky TV called ‘The Power of TV: Nudging Viewers to Decarbonise their Lifestyles’ says that “behavioural change on climate can be driven by TV... It comes at a critical time as experts now widely accept that we must shift the behaviour of millions of people to deliver our collective net zero goals”.
You don’t have to be a climate sceptic to find something sinister in the idea of broadcasters plotting to manipulate the public into reaching “our collective goals”.
Full post
[...] You may have noticed that climate catastrophism has gone nuclear over the past week, as if on cue (we’ll come back to that), but the good old British weather refuses to co-operate. Disappointingly for the We’re All Gonna Fry brigade, it’s cool, rainy and sullen here with fitful gusts of wind; almost autumnal at times. As a July baby, I can tell you this is not unusual for July. (Prince George will have to get used to having his parties in the cloudy drizzle on our mutual birthday.)
Still, reporters scour the rest of Europe for better (ie bad) news. Tourists at the Trevi Fountain in Rome are invited to agree that the weather is “unbearable”. If it’s unbearable, why aren’t they back in their hotel rooms with a wet towel on their heads instead of happily licking their pistachio gelato and soaking up the rays? Why are reports of wildfires in La Palma being linked to soaring temperatures, when the weather on the island is in fact unusually mild, and set to be in the mid-20s all week?
Really not very unusual weather events have suddenly acquired important, scary names drawn from the mythological flames of hell. After Cerberus and Charon, get ready for Heatwave Hades. If the current weather in the UK had a name it would be Colin.
Are Brits really “cancelling their holiday plans” because of the “truly terrifying conditions”? Or are they, like me, stocking up on Hawaiian Tropic (used to be sniffy about it, now addicted) from Boots and crawling through the final fortnight of work before I can replenish my stocks of Vitamin D on a Turkish sunlounger.
There is something horribly familiar about all these apocalyptic warnings of catastrophic consequences if people don’t act. “Temperatures across the Mediterranean are nearing the highest ever recorded in Europe with travellers being warned that local medical and health services are strained in some areas.”
Ah, yes, that’s it. Knew we’d heard it before: Stay At Home, Save on Sunscreen, Support Net Zero.
It’s almost as if the same people who scared the pants off us during the pandemic, terrorising people into obeying often idiotic rules, were at it again. The Behavioural Insights Team (aka the Nudge Unit) – spun out of the Cabinet Office, and now working many large corporates, global institutions and national governments – is teaming up with broadcasters to drive messages about climate change.
A report by the BIT in collaboration with Sky TV called ‘The Power of TV: Nudging Viewers to Decarbonise their Lifestyles’ says that “behavioural change on climate can be driven by TV... It comes at a critical time as experts now widely accept that we must shift the behaviour of millions of people to deliver our collective net zero goals”.
You don’t have to be a climate sceptic to find something sinister in the idea of broadcasters plotting to manipulate the public into reaching “our collective goals”.
Full post
10) Ross Clark: The strange glee over the European heatwave
The Spectator, 18 July 2023
The Spectator, 18 July 2023
The BBC has suggested Britain’s cool July might have something to do with global warming.
You could almost sense climate campaigners willing those thermometers in Sardinia to nudge into the unknown – a reading above 48.8°C would have marked a new European record and unleashed yet more forewarnings of climatic Armageddon.
But alas, they don’t appear to have got their way – at least not today. As of 6.30 p.m. the highest reported temperatures measured today were in the region of 45ºC, on Sardinia. There was a consolation prize in that the World Meteorological Organisation did finally verify the reading of 48.8ºC in Sicily made on 10 August 2021. Prior to that, the European record was established way back in 1977, which was beginning to look a little inconvenient for the narrative of an Earth which is ‘on fire’.
The all-time global record for temperature, however, remains that measured at Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California on 10 July 1913 (although, hardly surprisingly, there are campaigners lobbying the WMO to have this kicked out of the record books on the grounds that it might have been measured during a sandstorm, whyever that should make it invalid).
Nevertheless, there are many signs that the heat is getting to some people’s heads – those who report on climate for various news organisations. Here are a few of the symptoms that they are beginning to lose a sense of objectivity.
The weather maps that used to show where it is hot don’t always use intense red to denote temperatures above 40ºC (that shade is so 2022). They have started using an intense, scary pink – or even white – instead. White heat, by the way (when all kinds of materials start to glow white) starts around 1800ºC, approximately 1755ºC higher than the temperature in Sardinia today.
Sky News’ Kirsty McCabe told viewers who were hoping to fly off to the Med for a holiday this week: ‘You won’t be able to have the traditional beach holiday, you want to be staying inside’. Actually, while inland temperatures reached up to 45ºC in a few areas, temperatures at the coast, as usual, were more moderate.Only in a small patch of Northern Majorca did they reach 40ºC.
The BBC has suggested Britain’s cool July might have something to do with global warming. This time last year we were in the grip of a Mediterranean-style heatwave, blamed on climate change. But this year’s below-average temperatures are also, apparently, a symptom of the same thing. In an online explainer entitled Where has the UK summer gone? the Bee asserts that our chilly weather is all down to a blocking pattern in the air circulation over the North Atlantic, and that ‘some studies suggest climate change might make blocked patterns more common’. Note the word ‘might’.
So, there. Whether it is hot, cold or somewhere in between, it is all a sign of rapidly-accelerating climate change. Curious.
11) Peter Lilley: What on earth is a climate refugee?
The Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2023
You could almost sense climate campaigners willing those thermometers in Sardinia to nudge into the unknown – a reading above 48.8°C would have marked a new European record and unleashed yet more forewarnings of climatic Armageddon.
But alas, they don’t appear to have got their way – at least not today. As of 6.30 p.m. the highest reported temperatures measured today were in the region of 45ºC, on Sardinia. There was a consolation prize in that the World Meteorological Organisation did finally verify the reading of 48.8ºC in Sicily made on 10 August 2021. Prior to that, the European record was established way back in 1977, which was beginning to look a little inconvenient for the narrative of an Earth which is ‘on fire’.
The all-time global record for temperature, however, remains that measured at Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California on 10 July 1913 (although, hardly surprisingly, there are campaigners lobbying the WMO to have this kicked out of the record books on the grounds that it might have been measured during a sandstorm, whyever that should make it invalid).
Nevertheless, there are many signs that the heat is getting to some people’s heads – those who report on climate for various news organisations. Here are a few of the symptoms that they are beginning to lose a sense of objectivity.
The weather maps that used to show where it is hot don’t always use intense red to denote temperatures above 40ºC (that shade is so 2022). They have started using an intense, scary pink – or even white – instead. White heat, by the way (when all kinds of materials start to glow white) starts around 1800ºC, approximately 1755ºC higher than the temperature in Sardinia today.
Sky News’ Kirsty McCabe told viewers who were hoping to fly off to the Med for a holiday this week: ‘You won’t be able to have the traditional beach holiday, you want to be staying inside’. Actually, while inland temperatures reached up to 45ºC in a few areas, temperatures at the coast, as usual, were more moderate.Only in a small patch of Northern Majorca did they reach 40ºC.
The BBC has suggested Britain’s cool July might have something to do with global warming. This time last year we were in the grip of a Mediterranean-style heatwave, blamed on climate change. But this year’s below-average temperatures are also, apparently, a symptom of the same thing. In an online explainer entitled Where has the UK summer gone? the Bee asserts that our chilly weather is all down to a blocking pattern in the air circulation over the North Atlantic, and that ‘some studies suggest climate change might make blocked patterns more common’. Note the word ‘might’.
So, there. Whether it is hot, cold or somewhere in between, it is all a sign of rapidly-accelerating climate change. Curious.
11) Peter Lilley: What on earth is a climate refugee?
The Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2023
This vague term can be used to justify both opening our borders and centrally planning our economy to attain Net Zero
What is a climate refugee? Not those enviable people who can afford to flee to Kenya to escape the British winter. Quite the reverse. They are the poor wretches who, we are told with increasing stridency, are already fleeing Africa to escape climate change and will reach European shores in an ever-rising tide as the world warms.
Conjuring up fear of being swamped by alien hordes used to be a right-wing trope. A century ago, populists invoked the spectre of the “Yellow Peril” flooding in from Asia. Now it is the Left who warn us of the flood of refugees driven by climate change which, they say, will become a tsunami as the world warms.
The notion of climate refugees appeals to the Left since it combines their two favourite themes – migration and climate change. It can be used to justify both opening our borders and controlling every aspect of the economy to attain Net Zero.
Because, in the Left’s favourite phrase, “it’s our fault”. The Guardian’s Owen Jones claims that “many of the world’s poorest will be forced to flee their homes because of the actions of the world’s richest”. So, we must decarbonise our economies whatever the cost. And we must accept the influx of climate refugees we have supposedly caused.
But is climate change the cause of the rising tide of refugees? When I worked on development programmes in Africa half a century ago, almost no-one I met, even in the poorest village or slum, dreamt of migrating to Europe. Yet people then were much poorer, their lives much shorter and their homes and livelihoods far more vulnerable to extreme weather.
So why do ever increasing numbers cross the Mediterranean in small boats? Climate change provides a plausible and, for the Left, attractive explanation. Migrants must be escaping more frequent and severe climate disasters.
Not so, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which assesses the scientific evidence and forecasts. It concludes that, though average and extreme temperatures have increased and will rise further, “evidence is lacking... of climate impact drivers of... floods, droughts, landslides, storms or fire weather”. Moreover, even on the most extreme future scenario, IPCC scientists do not expect increasing incidence of these disasters to emerge before 2050 (except increased precipitation). Confronted with the text of this authoritative report on the science, climate alarmists appear to simply reject its inconvenient conclusions.
Although weather extremes were as frequent in the past as now (though reported less), people in poor countries were far more vulnerable to them. But as living standards have risen, homes become less flimsy, infrastructure improved – deaths from environmental disasters in Africa and elsewhere have declined by nearly three quarters since 1970. Of course, disasters still occur, living standards are much lower than in the developed world, and African life expectancy (up from 46 years in 1970 to 64 now) is still below ours.
The real reason migration has risen is not deteriorating climate. Nor worsening poverty. Paradoxically, it is the reverse. Rising living standards mean that more people can afford the large sums needed to pay the people smugglers. Above all, the ubiquitous mobile phone means even in the remotest village in Africa or Asia people can see how much higher living standards are in Europe and America and communicate with compatriots who have already made the journey.
Full post
What is a climate refugee? Not those enviable people who can afford to flee to Kenya to escape the British winter. Quite the reverse. They are the poor wretches who, we are told with increasing stridency, are already fleeing Africa to escape climate change and will reach European shores in an ever-rising tide as the world warms.
Conjuring up fear of being swamped by alien hordes used to be a right-wing trope. A century ago, populists invoked the spectre of the “Yellow Peril” flooding in from Asia. Now it is the Left who warn us of the flood of refugees driven by climate change which, they say, will become a tsunami as the world warms.
The notion of climate refugees appeals to the Left since it combines their two favourite themes – migration and climate change. It can be used to justify both opening our borders and controlling every aspect of the economy to attain Net Zero.
Because, in the Left’s favourite phrase, “it’s our fault”. The Guardian’s Owen Jones claims that “many of the world’s poorest will be forced to flee their homes because of the actions of the world’s richest”. So, we must decarbonise our economies whatever the cost. And we must accept the influx of climate refugees we have supposedly caused.
But is climate change the cause of the rising tide of refugees? When I worked on development programmes in Africa half a century ago, almost no-one I met, even in the poorest village or slum, dreamt of migrating to Europe. Yet people then were much poorer, their lives much shorter and their homes and livelihoods far more vulnerable to extreme weather.
So why do ever increasing numbers cross the Mediterranean in small boats? Climate change provides a plausible and, for the Left, attractive explanation. Migrants must be escaping more frequent and severe climate disasters.
Not so, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which assesses the scientific evidence and forecasts. It concludes that, though average and extreme temperatures have increased and will rise further, “evidence is lacking... of climate impact drivers of... floods, droughts, landslides, storms or fire weather”. Moreover, even on the most extreme future scenario, IPCC scientists do not expect increasing incidence of these disasters to emerge before 2050 (except increased precipitation). Confronted with the text of this authoritative report on the science, climate alarmists appear to simply reject its inconvenient conclusions.
Although weather extremes were as frequent in the past as now (though reported less), people in poor countries were far more vulnerable to them. But as living standards have risen, homes become less flimsy, infrastructure improved – deaths from environmental disasters in Africa and elsewhere have declined by nearly three quarters since 1970. Of course, disasters still occur, living standards are much lower than in the developed world, and African life expectancy (up from 46 years in 1970 to 64 now) is still below ours.
The real reason migration has risen is not deteriorating climate. Nor worsening poverty. Paradoxically, it is the reverse. Rising living standards mean that more people can afford the large sums needed to pay the people smugglers. Above all, the ubiquitous mobile phone means even in the remotest village in Africa or Asia people can see how much higher living standards are in Europe and America and communicate with compatriots who have already made the journey.
Full post
12) Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.: Of EVs and Heat Waves
The Wall Street Journal, 19 July 2023
The Wall Street Journal, 19 July 2023
To help with climate change, grind your Tesla into small particles and inject it into the atmosphere.
A just-so story is making the rounds. Consumer range anxiety is the stumbling block to increased sales of electric vehicles and also the reason car makers have been reduced to rolling out plus-sized EVs with batteries so big they defeat the purpose of emissions reduction.
Range anxiety is indeed a hang-up for consumers as shown in surveys. But this doesn’t even scratch the surface of what has gone wrong—one might say, insane—in our EV policies.
If the goal were to reduce emissions, the world would impose a carbon tax. Then what kind of EVs would we get? Not Teslas but hybrids like Toyota’s Prius. “A wheelbarrow full of rare earths and lithium can power either one [battery-powered car] or over 90 hybrids, but, uh, that fact seems to be lost on policymakers,” a California dealer recently emailed me.
His numbers apparently originate with Toyota, setting off a small donnybrook in the green lobbying community. The same battery minerals in one Tesla can theoretically supply 37 times as much emissions reduction when distributed over a fleet of Priuses.
This is a shock only to those who weren’t paying attention. It certainly isn’t lost on government. Chris Atkinson, the Ohio State University sustainable transportation guru whose slogan I’ve cited before—“the best use of a battery is in a hybrid”—was a key official in the Obama Energy Department.
Our policies don’t exist to incentivize carbon reduction, they exist to lure affluent Americans to make space in their garages for oversized, luxurious EVs so Tesla can report a profit and so other automakers can rack up smaller losses on the “compliance” vehicles they create in obedience to government mandates.
Mining the required minerals produces emissions. Keeping the battery charged produces emissions. Only if a great deal of gasoline-based driving is displaced would there be net reduction in CO2. But who says any gasoline-based driving is being displaced? When government ladles out tax breaks for EVs, when wealthy consumers splurge on a car that burns electrons instead of gasoline, they simply leave more gasoline available for someone else to consume at a lower price.
This may be a secret to you, the public. It’s not to economists.
In Joe Biden, alas, we have a president less likely than many to distinguish something that sounds good from something that actually does good. The press is not much better. Even when willing to acknowledge policy irrationality, it remains cloyingly committed to the electric car as a virtue signal.
EV policy fulfills only one criterion of policy sustainability—it transfers consumer and taxpayer wealth to special interests in ways that voters can be conned into supporting.
The problem here is the problem with any plan to subsidize our way to emissions reduction. Humans are perfectly capable of consuming both renewable and dirty energy in ever-growing quantities if the price is right. The emissions data prove as much. How to explain, along the way, the coevolution of the climate empty gesture with climate rhetoric that increasingly shouts the unfounded claim that climate change threatens human survival? I explain it this way: When it became clear nobody was going to do anything about climate change, it became safe to engage in hysterical rhetoric about climate change.
At the very outset of my career, a wise mentor said of the then-new climate issue, “So what?” By which he meant he couldn’t see humanity giving up fossil fuels.
Full post
A just-so story is making the rounds. Consumer range anxiety is the stumbling block to increased sales of electric vehicles and also the reason car makers have been reduced to rolling out plus-sized EVs with batteries so big they defeat the purpose of emissions reduction.
Range anxiety is indeed a hang-up for consumers as shown in surveys. But this doesn’t even scratch the surface of what has gone wrong—one might say, insane—in our EV policies.
If the goal were to reduce emissions, the world would impose a carbon tax. Then what kind of EVs would we get? Not Teslas but hybrids like Toyota’s Prius. “A wheelbarrow full of rare earths and lithium can power either one [battery-powered car] or over 90 hybrids, but, uh, that fact seems to be lost on policymakers,” a California dealer recently emailed me.
His numbers apparently originate with Toyota, setting off a small donnybrook in the green lobbying community. The same battery minerals in one Tesla can theoretically supply 37 times as much emissions reduction when distributed over a fleet of Priuses.
This is a shock only to those who weren’t paying attention. It certainly isn’t lost on government. Chris Atkinson, the Ohio State University sustainable transportation guru whose slogan I’ve cited before—“the best use of a battery is in a hybrid”—was a key official in the Obama Energy Department.
Our policies don’t exist to incentivize carbon reduction, they exist to lure affluent Americans to make space in their garages for oversized, luxurious EVs so Tesla can report a profit and so other automakers can rack up smaller losses on the “compliance” vehicles they create in obedience to government mandates.
Mining the required minerals produces emissions. Keeping the battery charged produces emissions. Only if a great deal of gasoline-based driving is displaced would there be net reduction in CO2. But who says any gasoline-based driving is being displaced? When government ladles out tax breaks for EVs, when wealthy consumers splurge on a car that burns electrons instead of gasoline, they simply leave more gasoline available for someone else to consume at a lower price.
This may be a secret to you, the public. It’s not to economists.
In Joe Biden, alas, we have a president less likely than many to distinguish something that sounds good from something that actually does good. The press is not much better. Even when willing to acknowledge policy irrationality, it remains cloyingly committed to the electric car as a virtue signal.
EV policy fulfills only one criterion of policy sustainability—it transfers consumer and taxpayer wealth to special interests in ways that voters can be conned into supporting.
The problem here is the problem with any plan to subsidize our way to emissions reduction. Humans are perfectly capable of consuming both renewable and dirty energy in ever-growing quantities if the price is right. The emissions data prove as much. How to explain, along the way, the coevolution of the climate empty gesture with climate rhetoric that increasingly shouts the unfounded claim that climate change threatens human survival? I explain it this way: When it became clear nobody was going to do anything about climate change, it became safe to engage in hysterical rhetoric about climate change.
At the very outset of my career, a wise mentor said of the then-new climate issue, “So what?” By which he meant he couldn’t see humanity giving up fossil fuels.
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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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