Politics
The Paris Treaty
TRUMP EXITS!! “Elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh not Paris”. Refuses to undermine US wealth and prosperity simply to give commercial advantage to other nations and to transfer billions of dollars a year to be redistributed by an international bureaucracy.
Earlier in May, Vice President Mike Pence received a first-hand look at a Montana coal mine and, foreshadowing the June 1 statement, declared that the "war on coal is over."
The UN piled on the pressure, “get on board or get left behind” said incoming Secretary General Antonio Guterres and “The effects of climate change are dangerous and they are accelerating,” and US exiting the agreement would threaten its own security.
The World Bank is also on the cart with a report headed by grant cheat Lord Stern and Joe Stiglitz who estimated the Paris Agreement will need a $100 per tonne global carbon tax; claiming that this would raise $4 trillion, save humanity from global warming, promote growth and eradicate poverty. Who could find fault in that?
EU steelmakers for one! They do not think that the industry could be competitive with the burden of the proposed level of carbon tax necessary to achieve the EUs’s 40 per cent Paris Agreement reduction. Also within the EU, the eastern Europeans are trying to gut and block the implementation of the Paris Agreement measures.
Robert Bryce reports Since 2005, the EU and several of its member countries have enacted various climate-change initiatives, including emissions trading and renewable-energy mandates. During 2008–14, EU-member countries spent some $106 billion on energy subsidies. Three countries—Germany ($27.2 billion), Spain ($11.1 billion), and the U.K. ($14.3 billion)—accounted for nearly half of that sum.
Featuring Greenpeace agitprop, Euractive claims, “Either China and the EU push their American counterparts into doing their fair share, or they resign themselves to picking up the US’s slack, on top of their own commitments.” Hmm, the EU’s 40 per cent reduction is already shaky and China is taking no abatement action – indeed, fearing carbon tariffs, China is urging the EU to stay with the WTO rules. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker however says Trump does not understand the Agreement and cannot just leave. So there!
Other ‘remainer’ voices include Elon Musk, whose fortune rests on green subsidies, and who has confirmed he'll cease offering Trump advice if he leaves the Treaty!
One of the arguments by Paris ‘remainers’ is the deal allows countries to weaken their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But not according Laurence Tubiana, France’s climate diplomat who said the Paris agreement does not allow countries to weaken their pledges. “The sense of the direction is really progress; it’s not going backwards.” Under Article 4.11 of the Paris agreement: “A party may at any time adjust its existing nationally determined contribution but only with a view to enhancing its level of ambition.” and as Andrew McCarthy shows the Vienna treaties convention, which the US joined in 1970 requires signatories “to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of the treaty.” For such reasons, the Australian Environment Foundation joined 41 US think tanks in urging Trump to withdraw. The American Conservative offered an alternative, arguing that Trump should skewer his opponents and submit the Agreement to the Senate for ratification as a treaty. In being open to a renegotiated Paris Agreement, Trump is taking both routes!
In Canberra, the assessment was that because many senior administration members favoured remaining in the pact, there was unlikely to be a US withdrawal that could unravel the entire global agreement. Taxpayers clearly get poor advice from their bureaucrats who are not even well informed. Shellshocked, Environment Minister Frydenberg said he'd spoken to the Prime Minister and Australia will press on with its 26 per cent "National Contribution" emission reduction.
Always a reliable advocate for economic harm, The Guardian set out the “five worst things Trump” has done on climate change (appoint Pruitt to EPA, cut EPA budget, demolish the regulatory “Clean Power” planned climate change programs, open up federal land and waters to drilling, approve new pipelines).
And Scoop reports Trump is set to slash the economy-sapping spending from the energy department with the draft budget allocation for 2018 down 70 per cent.
