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.
What Ban Ki-moon actually i saying: “… action on corruption is unstoppable …“
Undoubtedly many companies install renewables, energy savings and take sustainability measures due to cost savings, fixing costs and general commercial benefit, without regard to government subsidy.
Ford saved millions of dollars switching to LED lighting in its plants, for example… Las Vegas conference centres put solar on their roofs, Walmart, google, Microsoft all have their own renewables…
7 UK car plants have solar panels…
Diageo has a world wide water saving programme, as does Pepsi
worth remembering also that climate scepticism is not a universal viewpoint any many customers still want to buy products from responsible companies.
Yes Griff here;
http://www.itv.com/news/west/update/2014-09-03/solar-farm-will-power-honda-car-plant-in-swindon/
Supplies up to half the power needs for the factory. Is that nameplate capacity, or actual supply? It’s not clear, but they have 40,000 panels to maintain now.
BTW Griff, that is the site of the old WW2 Spitfire factory, Honda test drive the odd car on what is left of the old runway. I can tell you with certainty, if the power fluctuates too much, and it will, they will disconnect. Honda is in the business of making cars and, when I worked there from 1994, one Honda Civic or Accord drove off the line every 2 minutes, for 2 shifts every day, 7 days a week except the 2 weeks the plant was shut. I used to watch from my workstation triple decker car transporters leaving the factory. Assuming there has been no change in production, how many cars is that since 1994? And the world was supposed to end in 2013, according to Gore, but we are still here! Now extrapolate that production across the other 6 plants.
And Jaguar get ‘only’ 7% of their electricity from solar too… the point is these factories have installed solar, for good commercial reasons…
your point about disconnection makes no sense.
Mmmm. No. For PC reasons.
And when the sun don’t shine for a two shift production line. I am sure Sato San, if he is still there, won’t be too impressed when 50% of the power goes off.
The article does not mention suppliers. Honda assembles the car, makes the engines (I have seen the engine plant) and presses the body panels (I know this because Honda used to get panels from Rover, across the road, and rejected ~80% of them as not meeting Honda quality standards) so, in 1994, installed their own CNC pressing plant.
So are Honda suppliers installed/installing solar?
Remove the subsidies, tax incentives, and LEED construction BS that the taxpayers are paying the bill for and this stuff doesn’t happen at all. Blinded by the plight. LOL
Go ahead, France, Germany, Australia, Britain, etc, waste (steal) your citizens money, see if Trump cares !
My mate, Trumpy, reckons the UN is pretty well on the way out. The USA even owes them a billion dollars, so if my mate reckons he can save a few more quid by telling them to ffffff…fly away he might just do it. Re-distributing the wealth of others under the guise of climate change will not wash with my mate.
Apparently we don’t need a whatever moon we need a planet and there’s no time to lose folks-
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/technology/science/professor-stephen-hawking-says-humanity-has-less-than-1000-years-left-until-extinction/news-story/94cee9901615e1f6501fa368220ac054
I had a lot of respect for him, but now, forgiving his condition, he seems to be jumping off of the deep end. Two of the three risks he mentions are very real, global warming, pale in comparison.
On SBS news here in Australia, the event is being hyped out of all proportion, as usual. Poorer nations are praying they can get access to the climate fund, while the speaker from France claimed the US was the largest emitter of the planet destroying gas and was…wait for it…legally bound by law to implement policy to reduce emissions. I think they are all deluded.
They think if they repeat it enough it will come true. Trouble is that reality is reality. A is A (to quote Ayn Rand). It does not matter what the looters say. Trump is not one to be bullied, so I do not believe that their attempts will be met with much success.
These US firms want Trump to back the Paris agreement
http://www.lowcarbonusa.org/
The Trump just loves being dictated to and being told what he cannot do. I’m sure he will comply… NOT. GK
If Obama and his advisers realized they made a mistake they couldn’t admit they were wrong, so they would use Trump to do their work. Notice how Obama spoke to Trump about NATO but no big hullabaloo about climate change.
DNC took Sanders out, then Obama let Comey take HRC out 6 days before the election. Obama is delighted to see Trump in, check out his body language in the WH.
Canada’s Environmental Minister has gotten on the “unstoppable” bandwagon now. This is obviously a talking point that everyone at COP22 were told to repeat. They feel that if we all hear it enough, we will believe it.
zee hunt for manbearpig vill not cease! Vee vill track manbearpig to dee ends of zee earth! Trump vill not stop zee manbearpig hunt!
Boy these little tyrants are going to get a very rude surprise when 100% of non-ratified treaties are rendered null and void. What the rest of the tyrannical world does not understand is that Obama was not a dictator… he needed to get approval for any treaties from the Senate… and none has been given. So he could only agree to them until the next President upheld or got rid of them. Trump will abandon them all.
If the warmers were serious, they would be pumping carbon retention through building of topsoil which has the additional benefits of retaining rainwater which could otherwise cause flooding and would reduce the amount of irrigation of crops and turf. (No birds killed in the construction and operation of this topsoil!)