Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Mother Jones is celebrating that China has just committed $3.1 billion to help poor countries fight climate change. Mother Jones cautiously states they don’t know what China means by this statement. My guess is they know very well what China probably means – but they don’t want to detract from their climate story.
According to Mother Jones;
China followed up its promise Friday to create the world’s largest cap-and-trade program with yet another significant climate policy announcement: It will commit to spending $3.1 billion to help developing countries slash their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change. China’s financial commitment, along with its new carbon market, are part of a comprehensive package of climate measures to be announced at a joint press conference featuring US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday in Washington, DC.
The new pledge, emerging from high-profile bilateral talks between the two countries, “is a game changer in international climate politics,” says Li Shuo, a climate policy analyst for Greenpeace. “It is a drastic increase from China’s previous finance commitments.”
…
Of course, there is much we still don’t know about China’s plans, including which projects the new multi-billion dollar pledge will end up financing, says Billy Pizer, a fellow at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University, who recently returned from a climate conference in China.
As WUWT previously reported, there is currently a coal energy rush occurring in Asia – both China and Japan are competing to finance massive industrialisation and increased coal generator capacity in poor countries.
How can financing coal capacity be reconciled with public statements about reducing CO2 emissions? As Japan helpfully explained, they consider building coal plants in poor countries to be “climate finance”, when the coal plants in question are high efficiency supercritical coal generators.
The argument appears to be, the coal plants will be built anyway – so when Japan finances the construction of high efficiency supercritical coal generators, rather than the smoky low efficiency units which would have been constructed without their financial help, they should be allowed to count the difference in emissions between the high efficiency units which are built, and low efficiency units which could have been built (up to a 50% reduction per plant according to the IGCC) as a contribution to reducing CO2 emissions – even though as the new plants come online, it seems likely that overall global CO2 emissions will actually surge.
The net outcome of this charade, in my opinion, is Western politicians are committing to skyrocketing energy prices and unworkable renewables schemes, inanely celebrating that everyone is onboard with their lunacy, while at the same time, China and Japan are busy helping their Asian neighbours make coal power even cheaper.
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This is politics, nothing else. The World Bank has been pressured into not funding coal power plants in developing countries (by the US and EU donors) and China has created a separate development bank which is making these loans available. China is already a very large player in dveloping country finance and this is just another step in becoming the go-to country for development loans.
I am not one of those people who thinks that China is taking over the world, but they are growing in influence in Africa and – in this case – the people of Africa are probably going to get something useful out of it.
Rob Potter:
20 years ago when I was working in Africa, the Chinese had over 2,000 people working on development projects in Tanzania. I would imagine that today that number may be 10 to 100 times that for Africa and South East Asia. Historically, the Chinese take a long term view of things.
The world bank was seemingly also pressured into not funding the Three Gorges Hydropower Project.
The single largest source of renewable energy in the world.
Thankfully, the Chinese just cracked on with it and funded it using loans issued by the Chinese Development Bank and Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays Capital.
Pressure groups and NGO’s across the world are noisily furious.
Primarily, one suspects, because they did not get their way and did not get to control every aspect of everything that anybody ever does.
Having succeeded in building one big highly profitable hydropower dam – the Three Gorges Consortium appears to now be directing it’s attention to other possible locations for effective renewable electricity generation.
The world bank has recently banned the consortium from involvement in any of its projects.
I’m not an expert in this topic, but it looks to me as though quite a lot of very important people are getting very pissed off about the Three Gorges and the parties involved.
It does seem ironic that in this case the grandiose obsessions of Friends of the Earth, WWF, Greenpeace and now the world bank seem to be aimed primarily at putting a halt to the world’s largest and cheapest source of renewable energy.
The problem appears to be that big hydropower is cheap, effective and not something which they can control.
Which may lead a person to suspect that their anti-coal agenda really has bugger-all to do with carbon emissions.
3.1 Bills is less than a tenth of the interest we pay China in the debt it hold. So M.Jones should be more up front and tell China “they didn’t build that” Obama did.
If China is successful in keeping developing countries from producing enough power to run their own manufacturing plants then these countries will have to buy their material things from China. Clever way to open up new markets while looking like you really care about the world.
And in the latest news:
World expresses surprise as the Communist Party of China creates a centralized state-controlled plan to issue credits for the burning of fossil fuels.
“We never would have dreamed that communists would take to a scheme that seems to be an excuse to extend the reach and power of centralized state control of industry and energy production. We imagined that they were keen to grant power to individuals and the free-market” – said one deluded commentator.
And in further news:
Pope agrees with proposition that poor Catholic nations should be handed big wads of cash by rich Protestant western nations, in order to mitigate the effects of imaginary weather crisis.
The leftist U.S. President proposes that all world’s problems, even imaginary ones, can be solved by more government borrowing and spending.
New study by moronic ecologists proves that bears occasionally defecate in wooded areas.
“Yes, it’s the same old shit, on a different day” – said a random person when asked in the street.
A list of ‘left wing radicals’ supporting action on Climate Change:
The US Dept of Defense. Every Science Academy and Scientific Professional Society in the World (197 of them). NASA. NOAA. All Major Universities. 99.9% of Peer-reviewed Research Papers. 97% of Climate Scientists actively engaged in research.
Republicans:
George P Schultz, Hank Paulson, Lindsay Graham, John McCain, Bob Inglis (President of Energy and Enterprise Org), Eli Lehrer (President of Free Enterprise R Street Org), Jerry Taylor (President of the Niskanen Institute), Steve LaTourette, Mike Castle, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Olympia Snow, Sherwood Boehlert, Chris Collins, Mike Kirk, Bob Corker, Mike Bloomberg, Katherine Hayhoe (evangelical Christian and Climate Scientist)
According to a Yale Study, 52% of Republicans nationwide.
ConservAmerica.org. CitizensClimateLobby.Org, The US Episcopal Church. The Catholic Church. Republicen.Org.
Nearly all world leaders.
Are all these the ‘bears’ in your anecdote?
warrenlb can’t help himself, his mind is controlled by the ‘appeal to authority’ logical fallacy.
All he has done is to confirm that the ‘dangerous man-made global warming’ scare is 97% politics; 0% real science.
The one thing that warrenlb never discusses is the complete lack of any measurements quantifying the MMGW scare. That means that everyone sounding that false alarm is disregarding basic science. In science, data is more important than anything. Measurements are data. But warrenlb has no such data.
It must cause alarmist heads to explode when it’s pointed out that satellite measurements — the most accurate measurements we have — show that global warming stopped many years ago.
But folks like warrenlb and his ilk have never let something like Planet Earth’s debunking their belief system change their minds. That’s one thing that’s beyond their mental capability. They’re worse than Jehovah’s Witnesses in their beliefs.
Warren#
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
Albert Einstein”
Thing is, there is NO conclusive proof that CO2 is an issue. So what action is appropriate??? I don’t think anyone really knows. Why CO2? Well, you can’t tax the sun, you can’t tax variations in the earth’s orbit, you can’t tax clouds, you can’t tax cosmic rays, you can’t tax volcanoes or weather, you can’t tax ENSO, PDO, AMO, AO, ad infinitum.
But, Warren, if you take the C out of CO2 and call it “CARBON” raising the spectre of black soot falling out of the air, then maybe you can scare people into going with a “CARBON TAX”.
Paraphrasing the UN – IPCC – It was never about the environment but transfer of wealth.
Enjoy the eclipse tomorrow all. Only a few years ago, a Harvest Moon Eclipse was considered a portent of bad happenings. Given CAGW, not sure we have gotten very far.
Decades ago my Asian geography professor pointed out the difference between the oriental and occidental world view with a simple thought problem.
He asked, What are the qualities of a good father?
Have you gotten a long list? An occidental would likely have a dozen or more personal traits come to mind.
An oriental would likely say ‘the right spouse, and the right children’.
He wanted to illustrate that these are two different cultures with fundamentally different philosophies. Both have deep roots and both serve well in the context of their societies, but may not translate easily from one to the other.
Maybe someone who knows better than me can correct me. I live in in Pennsylvania, we create about 30% of our electricity with coal. We are downwind of other big coal generating states. Yet we have NO AIR POLLUTION, except in the large cities. The coal plants are not really located in the large cities. The pollution in the large cities is caused by something other than coal. Coal used to be a very dirty way to produce electricity, but with modern technology it is clean.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/aq/aqm/psine.htm
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/aq/aqm/aqi.htm
Not clean wrt CO2 emissions, which are inherent to the burning of coal.
Please explain how CO₂ is “not clean”.
@Steve P
Re-read my post: ‘Not clean wrt CO2 emissions’.
Steve P, you won’t get a straight answer from warrenlb. We know that at current concentrations, CO2 is not only completely harmless; it is beneficial to the biosphere. More is better.
The planet is measurably greening as a direct result of the added CO2. There has never been any global harm identified from rising CO2; thus, CO2 can be classified as “harmless”.
Take that one small step further: CO2 is ‘clean’. Neither humans nor the biosphere could live without CO2; it’s as clean as pure H2O. Just like global warmth, we need more of it.
“Not clean wrt CO2 emissions, which are inherent to the burning of coal.”
My dear fellow; are you aware that you are producing CO2 right now and do so with every breath you take? I suggest you attend to your nasty habit right now.
I totally agree that coal is not “clean” regarding CO2. But the point I was trying to make is that many people think getting rid of coal is the right thing to do because it will get rid of pollution. If you look at the DATA across this country there is very little air pollution caused by electricity production. Countries like China, instead of worrying about getting rid of coal plants need to get modern technology to clean the air up. Countries like India and Africa nations s need to use modern coal technology to raise their people out of poverty. But the alarmist are quite content to have their “useful idiots” spread their ignorance that modern coal creates Dirty Air.
I recognize this. This is how the government of the United States ‘saves’ money, by cutting spending increase down. Now our ‘accounting’ has spread to climate change in Asia. *face on desk*
The countries that china plans to finance coal for will gain benefits from fly ash removal in the form of increased concrete supplies to build their emerging infrastructures. The asphalt industry is also helped by coal ash.
http://flyash.sustainablesources.com/
I suspect that a large portion of wind turbines are sitting on concrete which contains fly ash.
Oops; I was wrong about wind turbine foundations. from the flyash report: “Flyash used in concrete is a mature technology. Thirty percent of the flyash in the US is recycled into making concrete. The use of flyash concrete in structural applications such as wall-forms is standard technology. The use of recycled-content block, in particular fiber-cement, as part of a structural foundation system using flyash concrete is still early in development.”
But… but… concrete production emits lots of CO2!
We’re DOOMED!!
Is $3.1 billion China is providing to developing countries the equivalent of me giving $1 to local soccer team for a candy bar? Seems trivial.
Nonetheless must be confusing to Mother Jones and Rachel Maddow, the $3.1 billion is an insignificant amount of money on a national level and leads to an insignificant increase in CO2, even though they are acting like it is an significant reduction in CO2. Much a do about nothing never had more meaning.
I’ve tried to recreate the above mentioned experiment but followed the cautious path by installing a GFCI. Can anyone telll me how to determine l “line” and “load”?
It sounds like an “oil for food” program to pay off partners and purchase influence. If anything, China’s colonization of second and third-world nations through export of their excess males will pay greater dividends to their development. Unlike welfare programs, colonization through intermarriage will ensure that the Chinese have a stake in those nations’ future.
People in Japan, China, Korea and India are more intelligent than those in Europe and America and have not placed their heads in a CAGW bag. Africa and Asia will benefit from this.
I guess this has sumtin to do with world bank not giving any money to developing nations anymore for building coal energy plants. Last year a bunch of B-class countries has launch their own BRICS Development Bank, ready to provide the finances for building new coal plants.
Looks like they take own direction instead of our rich Western climate madness…
Reblogged this on Public Secrets and commented:
Obama wants to destroy the coal industry here, while California thinks it can heal the world on its own by forsaking the Demon Carbon. Meanwhile in Asia, they merely pay lip service to global warming while pressing on with building coal plants — and laughing at us behind our backs. And sometimes in front of them.
You are so right on – Chinese are not fooled by global warming forecasts that are falling flat.
“Japan is now the world’s largest supporter of coal-fired power plants in developing countries, using its advanced Ultra-Supercritical design. This clashes with the stance of the Obama administration, which has opposed the financing of coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world. (With pressure from environmental groups and the governments of Europe and the United States, the World Bank has stopped funding coal-fired power plants in developing countries.)
“Japan has undertaken to finance coal-fired power plants in the countries that the World Bank won’t. Construction of Ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plants around the world would help bring people out of poverty, while improving air quality where older, less efficient coal-fired power plants have been in use. It would put people ahead of climate change hysteria.”
https://www.masterresource.org/japan-energy-policy/japan-smart-coal/
“The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (known as the BRICS) recently met to launch a newly-created international fund called the New Development Bank (NDB). The BRICS represent roughly a fifth of the world economy and 40 percent of the global population. The NDB will have an initial capital pool of $50 billion and maintain a currency reserve of $100 billion. The Shanghai-based NDB aims to challenge the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the two dominant Western international institutions.
“The first deviation that the NDB will take from the IMF and World Bank is funding coal-fired power plants. In June 2013, President Obama announced the Treasury Department will no longer approve financing for traditional coal plants abroad, except in “very rare” cases. That same month, the World Bank agreed to a new energy strategy that limited the financing of coal-fired power plants to “rare circumstances” in order to address the impact of climate change. Following this policy shift, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands also stopped funding.”
http://breakingenergy.com/2014/07/31/new-financing-options-for-coal-power-plants-through-the-brics-new-development-bank/
Excellent link and clip. The battle has shifted away from confirming/rejecting agw and moved on to the “how” of wealth shifting.
What the climate does is irrelevant for the next decade as the meaningful shift (follow the money) occurs in identifying where the best ROR is for higher echelon investors.
Check but not mate.