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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Thank YOU China and India for saving OUR butts. Without YOU TWO great nations EVERY SINGLE ONE of our western nations would have sold the entire west into third world slavery for decades yet to come. THANK YOU for looking after us – WE, the west, have NO ONE to look after OUR interests anymore. THANK YOU China and India from saving the west from the UN and their taxation with out representation power grab EVER SINGLE ONE of our western nations were more than willing to sell all of us out FOR! We own you guys big time!
My modest proposal for Durban would have been to mince all the attendees, can them, and distribute the result to the Third World poor as food aid. There’s a lot of protein in those NGOs.
(apologies to Jonathan Swift.)
In the US, at least, we’ve got a little protection; even though our present executive would probably like nothing better than to sign us on, as a ‘treaty’ none of this would get through even our present Senate, and I’d like to think that none of it could get funded through our House.
The UN is playing the EU game…you’ve got a wholly undemocratic and unelected permanent bureaucracy, pushing around the edges to get what they want, looking for opportune changes of government here, policy weakness there, a little bribery here, a little arm-twisting there.
@ur momisugly sceptical says:
December 11, 2011 at 7:57 am
“what is becoming the most important issue of our time”
This sounds like a couple of steps backward for you, assuming you are referring to AGW. I thought it had been the most serious threat facing humanity for quite some time.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2006/2006-11-06-04.asp
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/climate-change-mans-most-serious-issue-flannery/2005/09/26/1127586787536.html
http://ebook30.com/study/law/36962/hell-and-high-water-global-warming-the-solution-and-the-politics-and-what-we-should-do.html
We don’t have to fund this nonsense! Thirty years ago some people said global warming is bad, CO2 is to blame, the climate is unstable and away we went with our imaginations and fear of the unknown. Just stop it.
“what the former head of its documentation center used to call “transparent impenetrability”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/09/durban-what-the-media-are-not-telling-you/
It’s time the US citizens stood up and said “NO” loud and clear. Our weak-kneed politicians need to understand there is something scarier in the closet than shrieking greenies. It’s called disgusted Americans with guns. I live in rural PA and the politicians have no idea how close we are to ugliness.
As the French philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, may (or may not have) said, “The world belongs to those who offer it hope”. All the AGW lot and other sundry watermelons offer is doom, it is only those who can see through the charade that are offering hope. Any result that would ever come out of COPxx will never offer hope no matter how they try and spin it. (Unless you are third world despot and you ‘hope’ it ends in your Swiss bank account). Keep on being positive.
“Transparent impenetrability” has to rank up there with some of the great oxymorons, such as “Absolutely unsure,” “government worker,” “authentic replica,” “Senate intelligence,” “jumbo shrimp,” and “boneless ribs.”
Feeling bored on a cold, wet, windy day I decided to idle away the time by posting “Anthony Watts” in a comment on Richard Black’s BBC report on the Durban result. The fun is to see how long it stays there. After 2 hours it was rated +3, closed to comments but still there. If you are a BBC censor, please delete reply #372. You zapped #380 for mentioning him, play the game!
JEM says:
‘In the US, at least, we’ve got a little protection; even though our present executive would probably like nothing better than to sign us on, as a ‘treaty’ none of this would get through even our present Senate, and I’d like to think that none of it could get funded through our House’.
You’re lucky, our stupid government has signed up to giving the third world £6 billion pa. I’m not sure who is going to lend us the money to give away.
No prob, bro. Done, and done. Check out the JAXA IBUKI sat pix. The industrialized West already absorbs more CO2 than it emits. And a study measuring CO2 blowing onshore from the West and offshore from the East of the US concluded the same.
JEM says:
December 11, 2011 at 9:39 am
My modest proposal for Durban would have been to mince all the attendees, can them, and distribute the result to the Third World poor as food aid…
Hey watch it Jem, one of Britain’s biggest unions has demanded that the BBC sack popular “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson for saying public sector workers on strike should be executed in front of their families:
He was also censored for describing people that commit suicide by jumping under trains as selfish for causing the immense disruption to commuters.
As a result of these remarks Jeremy’s appearance on Stephen Fry’s show QI has been canned by the BBC. Clarkson, an atypical BBC star performer and long time critic of political correctness and environmentalism may not be everybody’s cup of tea but what has happened to him does herald a warning to you if you start criticising the Left Holy Mantra.
So perhaps JEM you should change your “mincing” line and change it to “shot into space with emergency rations” or “sent to the Maldives to help build the new airports” or something else less drastic before you start getting custard pies thrown in your face or there are calls for WUWT to be banned from the internet.
So, the next party is at Qatar, eh? I’m going. I’ll book that week as a holiday.
I’ll take some face paint and get some body piercing – deep cover – and pretend to be a greenshirt. With any luck these scoundrels will let slip some juicy confessions of how the gravy train operates. I’ll try to persuade WWF, Oxfam, FoE or Greenpeace to pay my costs. First class air travel, please, and five-star accommodation!
Shouldn’t it have been called COP-OUT 17?
These oral contracts aren’t worth the paper they are written on.
Lot of things could happen in the next 8 years. The AGW is basically an EU initiative and with the current euro accord, the poorer EU members could be much more poorer as they cap their budgetary deficit while forced to maintain a currency that is overvalued with respect to their economy while the richer EU countries like Germany enjoys an undervalued currency with respect to its economy without the hassle of a being branded a currency manipulator. When the funds under the Durban agreement starts to flow outside the EU while some of its member countries are undergoing serious cuts in social and essential services that would be a recipe for a internal re-examination of its policies including the AGW.
Can’t wait for Qatar and the usual alarmist quotes -“This is the last chance to save mother earth”.
“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.”
————————- ———————————————–
Sorry, I am not going to give this comment any credibility until K. Watts of the UCS has shared his views with us.
Hopefully, someone gave Alden Myer a biscuit after he did his spiel. Woof! Woof!
Must see: Fall if The Republic
@ur momisugly sceptical on December 11, 2011 at 7:57 am:
Why didn’t you sign that comment “Hugh Pepper”? I can see the style, with the wording, opposite-of-reality quality, and grouping of somewhat-related statements, matches “Hugh’s” comments just fine. Or is “Hugh” reserved for when the heretics speak out against the High Priests of the Climate Change Cult?
😉
COP18 should be in the Maldives who will be able to handle it with all these airports and hotels being built
They just kicked any real decisions about “global warming” down the road . . . but they are running out of road.
Too bad, so sad.
Re “mincing”; bad idea. The medium term effect of food aid is the ruination of local farming and food distribution commerce.
THE TRUTH ABOUT DURBAN
The real story out of Durban is that there is now little prospect of a global agreement coming into force before 2020. Both developing and emerging nations cannot afford to slow, let alone reduce their dependence on cheap energy and economic development, as any significant curtailment would undermine their social contract and risk political stability. In any case, the West would have to extract $100bn per year from its taxpayers and hand it over to the leaders of poorer countries before anyone would sign up to anything. Unless a manifest and continuous warming trend reappears by 2020, the so-called “green agenda” will remain firmly on ice for the rest of this decade, so as far as I am concerned, the whole “global warming” scam is melting away drip, drip, drip
With the enduring standoff in international climate diplomacy almost certain to continue, even environmentalists agree that the Kyoto Protocol will continue only as an empty shell. Europe’s political isolation on CO2 emissions has deepened, with Canada dropping out of the Kyoto Protocol and Japan and Russia considering abandoning the sinking ship.
Even before the start of the Durban talks, the Basic countries – China, India, South Africa and Brazil – had announced that any future agreement must be based on the next report by the IPCC, which won’t be published until 2014, and a review of the UN climate convention – not due to happen before 2015.
In truth, a global agreement on binding emissions caps is unlikely to ever materialise.
By demanding an annual climate fund of $100bn (£64.2bn), and billions worth of technology transfers, the Basic nations and their allies have kicked the ball into the West’s court, knowing full well that their key condition is never going to be met.
Behind closed doors, similar delaying tactics were surreptitiously entertained by other major nations such as Canada, Russia and the US. In any case, the Obama administration – struggling with an astronomical debt burden and economic sluggishness – is refusing to sign up to any significant wealth transfer to its up-and-coming competitors in the emerging and developing world.
Caroline;
Agreed, though I think the posturing might continue for a bit longer.
BTW, is “Basic” your modification of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China)?