Guest essay by Eric Worrall
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has warned President-elect Trump that he will not have the power to derail climate programmes, even climate programmes in the USA.
France, U.N. tell Trump action on climate change unstoppable
France and the United Nations on Tuesday stepped up warnings to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about the risks of quitting a 2015 global plan to combat climate change, saying a historic shift from fossil fuels is unstoppable.
French President Francois Hollande, addressing almost 200 nations meeting in Morocco on ways to slow global warming, said that inaction would be “disastrous for future generations and it would be dangerous for peace”.
Both he and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Trump, who has called man-made global warming a hoax, to drop a campaign pledge to cancel the global 2015 Paris Agreement that aims to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energies.
“The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the commitments it has undertaken,” Hollande said to applause. The agreement was “irreversible”, he said.
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“What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable,” Ban said at a news conference of the landmark Paris deal, agreed by almost 200 governments last year after two decades of tortuous negotiations. The accord formally entered into force on Nov. 4 after a record swift ratification.
Ban said Trump, as a “very successful business person”, would understand that market forces were driving the world economy towards cleaner energies such as wind and solar power, which are becoming cheaper, away from fossil fuels.
“I am sure he (Trump) will make a fast and wise decision” on the Paris Agreement, Ban said, saying he had spoken to Trump by telephone after his victory and planned to meet him in person.
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Ban said that companies including General Mills and Kellogg, states such as California and cities such as Nashville and Las Vegas were working to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-accord-idUSKBN13A12Z
I suspect Ban Ki-moon is overestimating American support for climate measures. Climate barely registers as an issue to the general public. Climate didn’t receive airtime in the Presidential debates. As a public priority climate action consistently comes dead last, even when the UN conducts the poll.
But wasteful climate spending is an expensive thorn in the side of an incoming US administration which has prioritised trying to contain spiralling debt, and freeing up cash for programmes people actually care about, such as fixing America’s dilapidated roads and bridges.
It is also worth remembering that under President Obama, some atrocious abuses of power occurred, such as the IRS deliberately targeting and harassing political groups opposed to Obama policies.
Video of President Obama admitting groups were targeted by the IRS for political reasons.
I’m not suggesting all US businesses which advocated climate action did so out of fear, quite obviously some companies are managed by people who are as nuts about climate change as the outgoing President. But in my opinion there is a real possibility that many US businesses went with the flow, because they were frightened of appearing to be on the wrong side of the climate issue, and of course because they wanted access to generous tax credits available for climate programmes.
It will be interesting to see whether this alleged commitment to climate action continues, under an administration which does not care whether you are a climate champion.
The UN has failed to live up to its core mandate. To keep the world peace. It has no business doing anything else.
Just like the League of Nations before it, it’s time to tear up the UN Charter and start from scratch.
+10
+ A lot
Ban KI Moon,
If you like the UN leadership role on “climate action” … you can keep the UN leadership role.
If you like your climate programs … you can keep your climate programs.
Obama (and his helpers) made a lot of promises that they never intended to keep. So keep in mind that the USA climate programs will soon be non-existent, but you can certainly keep ’em as long as you want to.
Ban obviously has no clue about Trump, or the US for that matter. But, he needs to put on a brave face in order to keep the entire charade from unraveling.
[snip . . . seriously OT . . . mod]
This statement is not a message to Trump at all.
It is a message to all the deep left advocates in Climate Politics around the world. He’s attempting to gather them together into a forceful resistance to what ought to be coming next.
Yeah, it was not a message to Trump but the usual “gather around the symbol” us lefties. The thing that unites all of us overly-politically-correct lefties is climate change and saving mother Earth and the science is settled and you non-believers are all “anti-science”.
This is getting so old. That is exactly what got Trump elected in the first place.
And Banki Moony is also saying “Americans, burn every police car you can find” because I must protect my phony baloney job as leader of the world-wide leftist climate change is unstoppable police care burners, spending other people’s money on fake cr_p movement.
There is one thing that tends to unite most of the country – foreigners telling us what we can and cannot do. Way to go Ban ki! Why don’t you just hold up a white flag next time?
Isn’t it about time the US got out of that corrupt organization? Save the money. Rent out the palacial HQ bldg. to a useful organization. Like the Met opera.
“Make your own guess but the support it was getting from the previous president, Obama, who was one of the biggest driving forces is going away……maybe entirely going away.”
That was intended to mean, “maybe entirely going away from the US”
I expect the response from Trump will be something like, good, then you don’t need you money.
That is ‘our money.’
Global Warming [GW]/Climate Change [CC] is driven by Mother Nature, NOT by humans.
Money should be spent on ADAPTING to GW/CC and to REDUCING the SEVERITY of GW/CC.
Mother Nature is MUCH, MUCH MORE POWERFUL than humans when she decides to be powerful; we need to find ways to be keep ourselves safe during her rages.
If anyone has the foresight to creating a safe haven in a storm, please share what you have reasoned out and help those who will read your suggestions to do what they can to follow those steps.
* where is the “safest” topographical location?
* is the 3rd little pig’s house of brick or stone the best construction for shelter?
* please suggest a list of tools to store in as safe a place as possible.
* what is the best way to have access to water?
* how should water be purified if it becomes contaminated?
* how big, per person [p/p], should our veg garden be?
* p/p, how many chickens, rabbits, goats, and other domestic animals should we have?
* what provision should be made for clothing?
* what else should be done to help one’s family survive?
I hope that we won’t need to face this challenge but thank you for reading this and possibly taking the time to offer your point of view.
Unfortunately a lot of useful work towards creating safe havens in the past 40 years has been ruined by the GW/CC brigade. My expertise in climate responsive design was hijacked early. Then they made a mess of sustainability, so I started using the term resilience, but I think they have mucked that up now. As with everything else promoted by the GW/CCers, their advice will be wrong. Talk to engineers, long-term locals etc.
Topography can be tricky. 5m above sea level might be ok in most places where there is low risk of seismic storm surge and the coastal topography is stable. Up-slopes and reentrant valleys (google it) adjacent to coastlines subject to cyclones and hurricanes can be risky. Also locations that are up-slope from dense vegetation that is protected by greenie rules. Eventually there will be a catastrophic fire.
Around here the 3rd little pig’s house would need the bricks anchored down by timber or steel framing.
Make sure there is enough secure under-cover space for larger animals. Smaller ones in the house. Root vegetables might be ok if you have the right soil. Expect the rest to be trashed.
Ban-Ki-Moon, the greatest alarmist, is dreaming. The end of alarmism has began….
” action on climate change unstoppable”
so is climate change
Ban-Ki-Moon, the greatest alarmist, is dreaming. And our President François Hollande too…
In fact, it is stupid to say that inaction would be disastrous for future generations and it would be dangerous for peace. Reality is « action would be disastrous for world’s citizen and very dangerous for economy and our money ».
aahhhhh the UN and the greenies howl at the moon or maybe it is the moon howling at the wind in this case though they are blatantly ignoring “what one president does with a pen and a phone does not obligate the next president with a pen and a phone.” Fingers are crossed that the President Elect keeps to his posted plan of action and to his words, cut off all funding to the UN. Hopefully he will also kick the UN out of the US of A, a nation that kowtows to the un-elected UN bureaucrats is no sovereign nation and is not a nation at all but merely a state to be governed by the UN.
Cheers!
Joe
The Europeans will go all out on their climate dwindle. The energy revolution driven by scarcity of oil, gas, and coal simply will not work economically unless China and the US follow suit. America has lots if all three natural resources and we plan to exploit them.
Obama was a fool in this respect although bright enough to know that he reaped the rewards of cheap oil and gas. Simple economics will begger the economies of those that continue alone. That is known in Europe and that has them shaking in their boots.
I don’t think so… the Germans just put out their new climate action plan, increasing the level of renewable electricity by 2030
Griff–one of several things will amost certainly happen in Europe. First, the electric grid will do a South Australia, and go down. Second, Hollande and Merkel will lose their upcoming elections to someone not tied to the green blob.
A curious thought. Through “eminent domain” could the USA takes back the UN building and lands?
Eugene WR Gallun
With the swipe of his pen and signature, President-Elect Trump can certainly undo the Paris Climate EXECUTIVE ORDER, signed by Obama that ILLEGALLY ratified this agreement with the rest of the world and under a fraudulent order from Obama that required approval by the Congress which he never got for a legal ratification.
In addition, with the help of the Congress, he can cut off the billions of dollars being wasted on failed climate modeling along with a lot of the fraudulent and bogus research that includes the fraudulent manipulation of the climate record that is masking the true performance of these failed climate models that are being used to mislead the public about the effect of atmospheric CO2 on the climate to try and force these outrageous agreements, regulations and taxes upon the citizens and businesses of this country.
He should do both in addition to prosecuting those in academia and government that have helped with the fraud involving manipulating US and global temperature data that being used to sustain and force this racket upon the taxpaying public.
+1
Arrogant, potentially terminal cluelessness at its most piquant. Not only does nearly everyone who would oppose ‘get the US out of the UN, and the UN out of the US’ loathe Trump already anyway, if he did so many presently ambivalent about him would become staunch supporters.
Moon frets about CO2 which has no significant effect on climate but its increase is raising food production while he ignores the 800 lb gorilla which is the increasing water vapor (which counters planet cooling) and declining water tables (which has humanity heading for a ‘train wreck’).
Unstoppable? How absurd. Any notion of binding international commitments died, frozen to death, in the snows of Copenhagen, 2009. It’s gone nowhere since. People forget too easily that Paris 2015 binds no one to nothing except platitudes and ‘targets’.
Given that Moon’s last term ends this December, he’s as much a lame duck as the current POTUS. His statements now mean nothing.
Stupid wording on my part. Should be “binds no one to anything”.
Of course, we could also just build a fifteen foot high wall around the UN with no openings. That would work also. And it would be cheaper.
Eugene WR Gallun
and then fill it with water.
It’s going to be hard for BKM to enforce an agreement that wasn’t legally made in the first place. This pile of steaming … was never ratified or even presented as a treaty. It’s a personal agreement between Dear Leader Obama and a group of money grabbers. Let it all come out of Obama’s pocket. I hope President Trump flushes this thing down so deep that it never sees the light of day again.
The popular vote 2016.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/countymaprb1024.png
By county.
There’s my state. Right in the middle. Not a blue spot on it.
“Home sweet Oklahoma on my mind…“- Leon Russell (R.I.P.)
Alan Robertson,
First, my state is on the east coast and went mostly blue :<(, but at least not all blue. Second, Loved Leon Russell. Got to see him live twice.
In my home state of Oklahoma, not one county went blue. Even our two main urban centers (OKC and Tulsa) went for Trump. I couldn’t even tell you the last time a Democrat candidate for a federal office stumped here. And that’s all right with me.
You must be a “deplorable”!! Congratulations!!
By the Human Rights United Nation should respect the will of the people of Unites States of America:
“Article 21.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections … “.
The constitution is by definition the will of the people and Trump has been elected by the people
More than that, United Nations should strive to promote respect for the human rights.
“Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”
Ban Ki-Moon and United Nations bureaucrats are Hypocrites!