I noted this juxtaposing today, and thought I would share it. First this story from Reuters today:
EU capped emissions fall below expectations
* Carbon prices drop to record low
* Power sector down 3.1 pct, others off by 0.5 pct
* Germany emissions down 1.2 pct; UK off 7.2 pct (Releads with record low carbon price, adds UBS analyst quote)
By Jeff Coelho
LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) – Carbon prices plunged to record lows on Monday after data showing emissions in the European Union’s main scheme to fight greenhouse gases dropped below expectations last year.
Carbon dioxide emissions in the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) fell by 2.4 percent in 2011 from 2010, prompting carbon prices to fall by more than 11 percent to well below 7 euros a tonne.
While the preliminary data published by the European Commission on Monday suggests the bloc is on track to achieve its 2020 climate target, it also confirms a fall in power production due to weak industrial output and a slowing economy.
Many analysts had expected a slight rise in emissions for the year.
“The fall was mainly attributable to lower power generation and stagnating industrial production,” Matteo Mazzoni, an analyst at Nomisma Energia, told Reuters.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/02/eu-emissions-idUSL6E8F22GT20120402
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Now this one from WSJ:
China Uses Nearly as Much Coal as Rest of World Combined, EIA Says
By CASSANDRA SWEET
China’s use of coal has grown quickly over the last decade and now rivals the amount of coal consumed by the rest of the world combined, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.
China consumed 3.8 billion short tons, or 3.45 billion metric tons, of coal in 2011, nearly half the world’s total consumption, the EIA said, citing international data.
A short ton, a measurement used in the U.S., is equal to 0.9 metric ton, a measurement used in most other countries.
Electricity generation in China has grown more than threefold since 2000, driving ever greater demand for coal, the EIA said.
China was also the world’s largest coal producer in 2011, producing more than 3.5 billion metric tons, or nearly 46% of global coal production that year, according to data published by the International Energy Agency. China was also the world’s largest net importer of coal in 2011, importing about 177 million metric tons of coal, according to the IEA.
The U.S. produced a little more than one billion metric tons of coal in 2011, or nearly 13% of the world supply, according to the IEA.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323829504578272233059490240.html
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So on one hand, we have draconian regulations that are stagnating the economies of the countries in the EU, while at the same time, China is thumbing their nose at the idea and going at coal like pigs in a buffet line.
Nothing the western world does is going to make one bit of difference in the scheme of things, except to cripple their own economies while China laughs.
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I’ve often wondered which Western politicians are taking bribes from the Chinese to push policies that destroy their own economies. I’m sure when the final history of the ‘Global Warming’ scare is written a few decades from now there’ll be some interesting stories to tell.
Ah so……grasshopper.
And this one from TIME: http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/shock-news-time-magazine-reports-that-obama-does-not-control-the-climate/
Do US and European politicians figure the Chinese will not take advantage of their growing economic power and use it to their even greater advantage? If so, said politicians are stupid indeed.
I don’t see this as some great sinister conspiracy.
China is simply doing what makes economic sense for China — generating energy by the cheapest means available.
Europe and the USA are pursuing a lofty “save the planet” agenda which sadly, has no solid basis in scientific or economic theory. But our leaders are still running like lemmings toward their green utopia, apparently unaware of the looming cliff.
China becomes the new West, while the West becomes the new East, thanks in a large part to our climate scientist comrades and their parasitic environmental scumbag cousins, green pissing us back to the Stone Age.
The theory of AGW never made it out of a working hypothesis, but the MSM with Mat Lauer this morning tells us that 4 out of 5 truly believe. One word that comes to mind is. “CULT”!
The CAGW crowd must know that their end game has been changed for them and now consists of the masses with torches and pitchforks chasing them down!
“Carbon dioxide emissions in the EU’s emissions trading scheme”
This sounds as though they do not actually measure emissions across the EU but rather guess based on the paper (or digital) indulgences being created by bureaucrats and thieves. Several stories have surfaced about the disappearance of trees from forests and other individual acts of surreptitiously freeing unauthorized carbon. Then there seems to be imports of electricity from Norway (not EU) to Germany (EU). How is that counted? There are also reports of restricting electricity (cutting it off?) to many thousands that are a bit short of funds because of having low incomes. Tourism seems to be flat or down, in Greece, at least.
If some or all of the above are operating to lower emissions, it is probably not a good thing.
I’m guessing one of the reasons the power sector is down so sharply is because their business models assumed large profits selling their free carbon permits to their customers at market prices much higher than €7 / tonne.
I wonder when we’ll see the reductions in our bills?
Go look at EIA’s sources and methodology for how much/what type of coal China burns.
I dare ya. Last time I tried, the results were sobering.
China’s per capita CO2 emissions are well below the U.S. and a little below the E.U.’s
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm?id=1410&dt_code=NWS&obj_id=15150&ori=RSS
REPLY: Per capita isn’t the issue, gross volume is. – Anthony
This is why CAGW theory/draconian CO2 EPA rules and regulations will destroy Western economies and increase the drive of production to China.
Since 2000, China’s coal burning electrical plants have increased coal consumption 300%!!, and now accounts for 50%! of ALL worldwide coal consumption.
The draconian measures implemented in the US and EU haven’t decreased annual CO2 emissions, in fact, worldwide annual CO2 emissions have increased 60%!!! since 1997!
Now here is the kicker…. Even though worldwide CO2 emissions have increased 60%, the global warming trend has statistically increased ZERO!
Global temps are ACTUALLY FALLING slightly if you look at the RSS global temperature data.
….FALLING global temperatures.. You just gotta love it.
So while all Western countries are busy destroying their industrial sectors and their economies in the process with expensive solar/wind power generation, VERY expensive CO2 emission standards and CO2 trading markets, China continues to eat our lunch by burning 300% MORE coal since 2000, and most of China’s power plants don’t even have scrubbers to remove black carbon, Hg, Pb, SO2, O3, and other harmful pollutants, so worldwide CO2 and REAL air pollution increases dramatically!
But the irony of ironies is that global warming has stopped all on its lonesome for the past 16 years, even though Western countries have wasted $trillions on meaningless CO2 controls.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
Now here comes the REAL ironic part…….
China is now feverishly developing Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTRS– technology developed by the US Defense Dept back in the 1960’s, btw–LOL!!) to replace their coal-fired plants. Once implemented on a large scale, China will be able to produce electricity at a cost/kWh CHEAPER than coal or any other source for that matter AND with ZERO CO2, Hg, Pb, SO2, O3, emissions. LOL!
This is what happens when stupid politicians try to pick winners and losers in the market and when envio-wacko lobbyist control the EPA and Washington.
Oh, the irony. I’m choking on it and the dirty air being pumped out by China.
BTW, for more irony, when China implements LFTRs on a large scale, there will be second wave of production that shifts to China to take advantage of the cheapest electricity on the planet.
When this second wave hits, Western economies will be so devastated by debt, CO2 rules/regs, high taxes and trashed currencies, that it will be very difficult for Western economies to invest the money to build LFTRs; we blew it all on debt, wealth redistribution programs, expensive rules/regulations, solar panels and windmills….
We live in an insane world being run into the ground by lunatic politicians…..
Couple that with the complete inability for CO2 to heat anything by itself (no magical spontaneous heat generation to cause the mythical greenhouse effect), and you have the slam-dunk of politicians complicity exposure, or is that plain old stupidity and collective blindness?
Yet certain people tell us that China is a model for us to follow. On a number of fronts, including this one.
Our ‘green’ friends in Oz must be apoplectic because of the demand for coal in China and India is expected to increase dramatically over the next decade in line with these countries’ projected need for coal for energy and manufacturing and the Australian coal industry is fuelling this need.
http://www.australiancoal.com.au/exports.html
Nothing like exporting to reduce the carbon footprint?
australia exports its coal to china, but isn’t allowed to build coal-fired power stations.
however, australia doesn’t need to count the CO2 emissions from the Chinese coal-fired power stations as part of its own emissions. LOL. anyway, everyone’s in on the act, and fossil fuels are the future:
(pdf) Nov 2012: World Resources Institute: Working Paper
(page 1) According to WRI’s estimates, 1,199 new coal-fired plants, with a total installed capacity of 1,401,278 megawatts (MW), are being proposed globally. These projects are spread across 59 countries. China and India together account for 76 percent of the proposed new coal power capacities…
(page 18) International public financial institutions are important and long-time contributors to the coal industry. Since 1994, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and industrialized countries’ export credit agencies (ECAs) have helped finance 88 new and expanded coal plants in developing countries, as well as projects in Europe. Together, MDBs and ECAs have provided more than US$37 billion
in direct and indirect financial support for new coal-fired power plants worldwide. The World Bank has actually increased lending for fossil fuel projects and coal plants in recent years.78 An analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund concludes that the lending strategies of MDBs and ECAs in the energy sector do not sufficiently consider the environmental harm wrought by fossil fuel projects…
http://pdf.wri.org/global_coal_risk_assessment.pdf
Marc says:
January 29, 2013 at 9:27 pm
China’s per capita CO2 emissions are well below the U.S. and a little below the E.U.’s
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm?id=1410&dt_code=NWS&obj_id=15150&ori=RSS
REPLY: Per capita isn’t the issue, gross volume is. – Anthony.
===
Well Anthony, Per Capita is the only issue… that concerns the eco-egalitarians when it comes to finding a scheme for individual wealth redistribution and guilt spewing justification of their totalitarism. Per Capita is a political tool, and a dangerous one.
Shift of production location?
Sometimes you have to wonder at the insanity of politicians who lead Western economies. My prediction is that all the co2 reduction schemes will not affect the climate one bit. It will just carry on as normal. Yet, they will not stop because they have politicized the issue and now cannot lose face, no matter what.
And how is this going to affect global mean temperature? China’s standard of living and consumption is going up so expect a narrowing of the per capita Co2 emissions.
Anthony:
“…China is thumbing their nose at the idea and going at coal like pigs in a buffet line.”
Snort!
When I was a kid we heated our old farmhouse with coal. When the coal bin was about empty we’d scrape up the fines, put them in buckets and take them out to feed the pigs. They went wild over it! And all the minerals were good for them; not sure about their emissions though!
SAMURAI says:
January 29, 2013 at 9:31 pm
“This is what happens when stupid politicians try to pick winners and losers in the market and when envio-wacko lobbyist control the EPA and Washington”
I see your point but politicians in China are also stupid (to be diplomatic) at the fundamental human rights level but seem brighter in ecomomics – the communist party still calls the shots (litterally) after all. Western politicians have lost any sense they might have had of economics and, I fear, are quite preparped to erode human rights in the war against ‘carbon’. In fact I think there is ample evidence of that.
I have read several books about the madness and hysteria which overtook China in the 60’s and early 70’s with their ‘Great Leap Forward’. At that time they were an impoverished country bent upon self destruction while the West was an economic powerhouse and bastion of liberty. What a difference forty years makes!
I am hoping for a Berlin Wall moment soon in which the whole shambles of the UN, the EU and all the symptoms of the underlying disease are all turned over as everyone wakes up to the absolute madness of what is going on now in the West.
If we don’t have our Berlin Wall moment soon it is going to be a long cold era ahead of us.
All the people here bitchen about cheap coal – just imagine what it would be like to live in a place like this http://www.smh.com.au/environment/beijing-under-cloud-as-air-pollution-threat-sparks-emergency-response-20130114-2cppl.html
China will have their comeuppance in huge health care costs when their population turns older
So, will Jimmy Hansen be marching off to China to go and stage a protest outside one of their new coal-fired plants?
Nah, thought not – he only holds demonstrations and gives rabble-rousing speeches in the Western World, where the most that’ll happen when he gets arrested is that he’ll just have to fill out some boring paperwork to get released. Also, Hansen can’t beat people over the head with liberal guilt in China – they’ll just beat him over the head with a large police truncheon.
As my mother here in Blighty says: Hansen’s all mouth and no trousers.
Here in the UK the Government (whatever flavour) is attempting to mitigate the costs of energy to consumer’s (industrial and domestic). They have set up a multitude of schemes for industry which, on first blush, are designed to persuade manufacturing industries not to move abroad, until you peel away the layers to expose the futility.
https://www.gov.uk/policy-impacts-on-prices-and-bills
Likewise there are a multitude of schemes to help domestic consumers which are patently not working for the vulnerable in the UK because of the increasing numbers falling into energy poverty. 3.5 million in 2011 and a projected increase of 0.4 million in 2012.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuel-poverty-annual-report-on-statistics-2012
As to the fate of UK manufacturing because of ‘Green’ Tax hikes, who knows?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2173414/Soaring-green-energy-taxes-force-firms-UK-industry-uncompetitive.html
(PS those who are avid Daily Mail haters, just read the article)
Enjoy