By Christopher Horner
The annual “historic agreement” to meet again later — wait, sorry, that’s “to save the planet” — has been agreed, to the also-annual teary-eyed hugging and standing ovations by EU delegates, at “COP-17”, the negotiations to replace the expiring (after 2012) Kyoto Protocol.
On its face, the summary is that the rest of the world agreed to let Europe continue binding itself until some later date. Yesterday, ClimateWire reported that a fund was established to administer the fund agreed in Copenhagen two years ago. Oh.
AP tells us that “a separate document obliges major developing nations like China and India, excluded under Kyoto, to accept legally binding emissions targets in the future”, meaning in a separate document China et al bound themselves to bind themselves later. [So….uh, they bound themselves for later? No. They bound themselves to bind themselves later. THIRD BASE!]
Oddly, no one seems too proud of this latest “breakthrough”, described as countries binding themselves to bind themselves later. The UN isn’t providing what the Telegraph tells us is a whopping two-page text. Takes awhile, you see.
The State Department doesn’t seem too keen on trumpeting their latest “historic agreement”, either, but the home page’s Daily Press Briefing does offer “New Photovoltaic Project Inaugurated At U.S. Embassy in Athens” and “Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Receives South-South Cooperation Award for Partnership”.
So whatever it was it was less historic than these advances. Or no one wants to draw too much attention.
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Well did they or didn’t they? Seems like take away is “lets party again soon”.
When not even the self-loathing flagellants of the EU commit themselves to another decade of growth-destroying measures you know it’s OVER.
“… no one wants to draw too much attention.”
That’s what it is. Very small steps, still pretending it’s about climate, but establishing a legally binding framework, even sucking out the money to enforce it out of the potential payers: the former wealthy industrialized world. Means the US, the EU, Australia, Japan …
And some of them are happily empowering the system that will kill their well-being.
And when their people wake up under, it will be too late.
Why is nobody taking Edenhofer’s NZZ interview serious? It’s all about redistribution of wealth under UN bodies.
The only firm agreement is that to have another party which, let’s be honest, was the important part.
From Cal65 on earlier thread: The UN plan will shift wealth from first world’s poor to third world’s rich without making any difference in climate control.
The UN is very good at agreeing to do things later.
Non-polluting cook stoves seems like a winner, though. I’m all in favor of something that let’s you do a bbq brisket indoors in the winter.
In the U.S., we call it “taking a rain check”.
My bet is that they don’t want anyone to know just how backhanded the dealing really was. They count on the mainstream media to “inform” the opiated masses. Whoops!
Nothing historic came out of Durban, but it is encouraging to see a multitude of nations trying to work together on what is becoming the most important issue of our time. Cooperative efforts on the scale necessary to take significant action on an issue of this complexity will not come easily. Those whom pessimistically work against this effort are working for economic collapse.
Open Letter to UK: This is an ever-shrinking window for you to get out of this EU nightmare – the only country of the group that ever understood economics surely doesn’t want the EU Lilliputians running (ruining) its affairs for them. You’ve tried to be nice. You’ve tried to indulge and even engage in their silliness by letting them tie you down. Very kind but you have a whole English-speaking world that you created to do business with. Get out now. Ask your citizens if they agree. Germany’s also welcome if they are interested in doing business.
I’m surprised the media are allowing the word ‘binding’ to be used in connection with China. Might recall a Chinese habit of times past, which Western feminists used to abhor until they became loyal Maoists themselves. Now everything China does is the perfect model of “gender equity.”
Of course binding feet isn’t nearly as bad as the CURRENT Chinese habit of killing girl babies before they’re born. But we aren’t supposed to mention that either.
its time the US did three things….
One: remove itself from the UN…
Two: Evict them from our soil..
Three: remove the laws that are choking us to death…
We need some serious cleanup after the crap these liars keep spewing..
It seems Durbin will be the point at which bad science is no longer used as a stealth mechanism for the far left to ride behind. No longer is this about the science of warming, but all about the revenge of the naive.
BTW, in case anyone is interested in more occurrences of hiding of contrary data, I found an email where Ray Bradly and Keith Briffa decide to pull a study in the 2002 IPCC report drafting because it showed to much MWP.
The idea of getting a real job producing enough to merely “sustain” even themselves alone would seem to be anathema to each and every one of these parasitic “Occupiers”. Ecological Overshoot strikes again!
If the Durban bash had any validity it would have agreed to
– Cut emissions, not jobs.
– Support societies in the third world, not get rich quick schemes.
– Donate ploughs and tools, not guns, bullets and airports.
– Focus on the real needs that people have, the here and now, and not the maybe and later if models are correct.
As it is, the party season rolls on and the grand hijacking of the environmentalist movement in a classic capitalist scam remains secure and our money continues to be diverted from good causes to those who have no need of it , and those who have already ruined or economies.
And so, as we leave Durban, it’s on to Qatar where, by the end of two weeks (26 November to 7 December 2012) the delegates will be wandering around bleary-eyed and exhausted. From hard work? Don’t be silly kiddies; it’s the Conference of the Parties.
Bill H says:
December 11, 2011 at 8:11 am
its time the US did three things….
One: remove itself from the UN…
Two: Evict them from our soil..
Three: remove the laws that are choking us to death…
We need some serious cleanup after the crap these liars keep spewing..
Any chance of a hand over here in the Uk Bill?
Lots and lots of crap over here to get cleared. 😉
On another note: How can you lower carbon dioxide emissions by MORE than 100%???? (scratches head).
The Washington Post runs a real puff-piece this morning (Sunday) on page 8. It’s one of the few articles they’ve run about Durban over the last 2 weeks.
It’s basically a press release and mimics the “last minute talks salvage the deal” theme of AP, Reuters, ABC, and all other mainstream leftist press. The only quoted “critics” of Durban – I guess to support the cynical illusion of press objectivity – laughably include the National Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, and the Union of Concerned [non] Scientists.
There is not one single word of criticism about global warming generally, the UNFCCC, the hypocritically luxuriant COP meetings, or even about the U.S. participation in these sham proceedings. Presumably the WashPost cannot locate a single critic in the whole of Durban or Washington DC.
They are as bad as BBC and the ABC (which I notice quotes the criticisms of the Greens for “balance”).
“… U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres acknowledged the final wording on the legal form a future deal was ambiguous: “What that means has yet to be decided.”
That’s a sentence from the Reuters team, including a quote for the ages. The meaning of the wording is undecided. You don’t say?
sceptical says:
December 11, 2011 at 7:57 am
“Nothing historic came out of Durban, but it is encouraging to see a multitude of nations trying to work together on what is becoming the most important issue of our time.”
I, probably unlike you, actually saw the end of it on a live stream and there was NOTHING encouraging about this chaotic mess. “Dear excellences… some delegations say that they don’t have a copy of the document… We have distributed enough copies of the document…” (10 minutes before they wanted to perform their silly consensus dance which is not a vote about this document.)
EXCELLENCES, that’s how they address each other, well, I guess cockroaches talk to each other like that as well.
sceptical says:
December 11, 2011 at 7:57 am
Nothing historic came out of Durban, but it is encouraging to see a multitude of nations trying to work together on what is becoming the most important issue of our time.
Oh really? Which “issue” is that now? Which nations to rob from and how much, and which nations get a pass for now, and which ones get the spoils? That issue?
Cooperative efforts on the scale necessary to take significant action on an issue of this complexity will not come easily.
Yes, I suppose that’s true. It’s complicated, trying to agree on who pays what, when, and who benefits from what amounts to a global fleecing of “rich” countries, all based on weak or non-existent science.
Those whom pessimistically work against this effort are working for economic collapse.
You seem to have it backwards, but nice try.
kMC2,
Boy did you nail it. Shifting money from the 1st world’s poor the 3rd world’s rich. That is what is has always been about. Science? The tipped their hand when they linked climate to military funding levels. Seems they have all been pushed out of leftist closet now that the science is failing them.
Here’s what is being reported in Canada:
Climate change deal struck, criticized as too weak
Climate negotiators agreed [to] a pact on Sunday that would for the first time force all the biggest polluters to take action on greenhouse gas emissions, but critics said the action plan was not aggressive enough to slow the pace of global warming.
The package of accords extended the Kyoto Protocol, the only global pact that enforces carbon cuts, agreed the format of a fund to help poor countries tackle climate change and mapped out a path to a legally binding agreement on emissions reductions.
“It’s certainly not the deal the planet needs — such a deal would have delivered much greater ambition on both emissions reductions and finance,” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Producing a new treaty by 2015 that is both ambitious and fair will take a mix tough bargaining and a more collaborative spirit than we saw in the Durban conference centre these past two weeks.”
– National Post
I’m afraid that even though the science is becoming clearer and clearer every day that catastrophic human-caused global warming is a false-premise, the money gravy train is too hard to stop. The poor nations want an open checkbook from the rich nations to use as a slush fund. The rich nations want the public to continue to shell out more and more for “research” and politically-connected “green” business subsidies.
An acceptable outcome from Durban would be to agree to the donation (no second thoughts sale) to the third world of some or all of our reject windmills for them to tinker about with. Perhaps they could get them to work properly; particularly the ones that catch fire when the wind blows.