The collision of economics and politics
A team of Harvard scientists maintains that soon we will be able to remove fossil fuel induced carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a cost of $94 per tonne rather than the $600 per tonne previously estimated. If the research is successful that might mean we will be able to get by with a carbon tax which merely triples the price of coal generated power!
Myron Ebell demonstrates that the Paris Agreement's intent is to radically transform economies and is breaking down as nations start to recognise the costs. Those costs will become even more apparent as other countries recognise the benefits of a US unconstrained energy policy.
“Germany supports responsible but achievable (renewable energy) targets,” said energy Minister Altmaier, adding that present efforts cost the German taxpayer €25 billion per year. Al Gore, unsurprisingly, takes a different view and warns Germany that unless it proceeds full steam ahead to phasing out fossil fuels it risks being left behind. He laments about Germany that, “The leadership provided in years past created a reality that now no longer exists,".
More than 20 nations ranging from Canada to France to Britain to Pacific island states said they would try to limit their greenhouse gas emissions more than already planned under the Paris climate agreement by 2020. This could be ambitious since the Climate Action Network finds 23 of the 28 European countries that are the policy intensification's major proponents are not even meeting their existing commitments. Even poster country Denmark is seeing increased emissions – in this case due to computers and telecoms, forecast to account for 25 per cent of global electricity use by 2025. Doubling down on present policy, France is urging the EU to reject trade agreements with countries that are not implementing the Paris Agreement. Take that Mr Trump!
BP’s authoritative review of world energy finds that coal use grew one percent in 2017 — its first growth since 2013. Coal and gas grew faster than renewables in electricity generation, an outcome that was not part of the green narrative! The global rise in coal consumption came mostly from India and, to a lesser extent, China. Chinese consumers however, following a reduction in feed-in prices of 7-9 per cent for roof-top generated power are responding with a one third reduction in forecast demand for new installations.
Increases in coal use conflict with the recommendations in the final draft of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C. This requires a decline in coal use by two thirds by 2030. It also calls for “dietary changes” (code for the rich to eat less meat).
In the US, some $557 million in grants from 19 major endowments were identified as propagating the climate scare between 2011 and 2015. The study, by Matthew Nisbet of Northeastern University, put the Energy Foundation and the Hewitt Foundation as the leading donors with the Sierra Club, Alliance for Climate Protection and the Nature Conservancy as leading recipients. Such a weight of propaganda doubtless contributed to the stunning primary victory of Democratic Socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (“#globalwarming is the top security threat for the US”) over fourth ranking Democrat Representative Joe Crowley, which is a lurch to the green left by the Democrats. Adding starpower to this development, prominent Kennedy progeny Joe Kennedy argues for a carbon tax, which “Done right ... could not only reduce emissions but increase GDP growth while also placing the United States at the forefront of some … promising technologies”.
In the lawsuit brought against oil companies by Californian cities, the judge found against the cities. He said that he thought that carbon dioxide released from fossil fuels is causing global warming but, “Against that negative, we must weigh this positive: our industrial revolution and the development of our modern world has literally been fuelled by oil and coal. Without those fuels, virtually all of our monumental progress would have been impossible.” Billionaire Tom Steyer is unimpressed and is bankrolling several other lawsuits.
But the green left crusade against coal is evident in energy cost increases in many countries, none more so than Australia, which not long ago had the world’s cheapest electricity. The tragedy of Australia's self-imposed cost increases on the back of the renewable program is illustrated below.
