Guest post by David Middleton
Science & Environment
Juncker rejects US climate deal re-negotiation
By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent
14 June 2017
The European Commission President said: “We have spent 20 years negotiating”, and now was the time for implementation.
US President Trump has claimed that the accord could be amended and made more palatable to his country.
[…]
“The European Union will not renegotiate the Paris Agreement,” Mr Juncker said.
“The 29 articles of the agreement must be implemented and not renegotiated. Climate action does not need more distractions. We have spent 20 years negotiating. Now it is the time for action. Now it is the time for implementation.”
The president of the Marshall Island, Hilda Heine, also addressed the parliamentarians, meeting in Strasbourg. She re-iterated her view that the Paris agreement was set in stone.
“We cannot do better (than Paris), and we don’t have the luxury of more time,” she said.
She urged the EU member states and other countries to use the three years before the US pulls out of Paris to try to convince President Trump of the importance of climate action.
She also called on Europe to adopt harder goals when it comes to cutting emissions of carbon dioxide.
“We will not stay within 1.5C unless Europe and others move before 2020 to raise ambition.” The bloc should adopt five-year climate targets instead of the current 10-year plans, she said.
By a huge majority the EU Parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of binding national targets for cutting emissions from areas including transport, agriculture and waste management. These areas are not covered by Europe’s emissions trading scheme.
[…]
So much material in such a short article.
An agreement that has no enforcement mechanism and allows its participants to set and revise their own emissions targets is “set in stone”… Riiight.
“We cannot do better than Paris”… But we must do better than Paris… Even though it’s “set in stone”… Riiight.
At least there’s a bright side. After President Trump wisely withdrew these United States from the Paris agreement, “by a huge majority the EU Parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of binding national targets for cutting emissions from areas including transport, agriculture and waste management.”
Talk about a win-win deal! President Trump decides to not shoot our economy in the foot… And the EU volunteers to shoot their economy in both feet!
“The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead.”
—Donald J. Trump, The Art of the Deal
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Mark Steyn is doing an audio book reading of The Time Machine. He sees the story as a cautionary tale, warning us how dangerous degeneracy is. The European degeneracy is manifested in their obsessions over climate “risks” in the distant future while ignoring the consequences of their self destructive immigration policy today. They are so degenerate they cannot distinguish real from unreal, wasting precious time and treasure on the unreal climate crisis while their culture is expropriated away as they speak.
It’s the human condition, isn’t it? There are actually very few people who have any sort of critical sense and vision. When I taught engineering econ an interesting exercise was to take a hundred dollars in Roman times and watch its compound growth at 3% reach many billions of times the present wealth of the entire world population. Then we would discuss why it is that the world is not more wealthy than it is. Much of the problem is the lack of reasonable investments, of course, but much comes from the accumulated economic damage of stupid ideas.
hunter June 15, 2017 at 8:24 am
“Mark Steyn is doing an audio book reading of The Time Machine.”
Reading H.G. wells The Time Machine always makes me hungry
michael
hunter,
The European degeneracy is Germany concluding outstanding WW2 business.
France is, as usual, is a German puppet and Macron will soon find Merkle’s hand firmly embedded in his arse, operating his mouth.
If it’s not already.
“And the EU volunteers to shoot their economy in both feet!”
Actually, I’d say the E.U. just shot itself in the @ss !!
91e51-excellent-4689_preview
Everyone needs to read Varoufakis’ book “Adults in the Room’. What you find in it is time after time, well documented occasions, on which the unelected officials of various Euro institutions, meeting in secret and without minutes, make decisions which they themselves admit to be unjustifiable and irrational. Over and over again. The particular subject Varoufakis demonstrates this happening on is Greece and the Greek debt and bailout plans.
But it is pretty much universal. It is not that the decision makers are elected officials with unelected advisers. This is common in contemporary democracies, and its reasonable to wonder whether such advisers are wielding excessive influence. As they appear to have done in the last UK government.
No, this is people who have never gone near an election or popular mandate simply dictating to the elected representatives what they will do. They are a sort of self perpetuating oligarchy at the heart of Europe.
Read Varoufakis on the Eurogroup. Its a body you have never heard of, with no legal existence as a thing in the various treaties that have constituted the EU. And yet it is basically dictating what the elected and accountable heads of state shall do in very important policy areas.
The EU madness on climate, with its shining achievement being the promotion of diesel engined cars, is down to this kind of idiocy. People with no democratic mandate who say one thing in public and quite another in private, and have complete contempt for democracy.
There will be no negotiation on Paris, just as there was no negotiation on the Greek debt, and there will be no negotiation on Brexit. Someplace in a room that in the old days would have been smoke filled a bunch of people will decide what their decision is, and give the Commission and the Council of Ministers their marching orders. They will be doing whatever the German Chancellor tells them.
Meanwhile in another part of the wood the EU Parliament, a unique world leading institution, the first Parliament in the world to have no power to initiate legislation, what will it be doing? It will roll over and put its paws in the air, and hope to be given a bone.
Another example of unelected madness: Allowing Greece into the EU.
Here’s an open message to those trying to bluff Trump – you can’t. Because he’s not bluffing.
The problem with the EU setting targets and caps is that the EU isn’t satisfied with hamstringing only themselves. They want to bring everyone down with them. They will attempt to extend their crippling decisions outward via coercive laws that require any business wishing to do business in any way with the EU to agree to the suicide pact as well and force its suppliers to comply and on and on down the supply chain.
See, that is how fake news is created. “No new renegotiation” means there had to be a negotiation. There was not. There was a dictate that Obama swallowed, but even his party members in the Senate would not vote for.
Part of “The Art of the Deal” is to know when to walk away from the table. Trump did. The EU does not or they would not still be whining about it.
You got to know when to hold ’em.
Bruce, this is better represented by the rest of the chorus.
“Know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run”
The EU may be taking a gamble on President Trump’s impeachment.
To impeach the president, if I understand correctly, a lot of Republicans would have to vote for it. That’s a problem. Even the Democrats are wary of impeaching the president. link On the other hand, if the public perceives that he is a traitor who cheated his way into the Oval Office, they might demand it.
My prediction: popcorn sales through the roof. Much depends on how the Republicans are feeling about 2018.
There have been exactly 0 US presidents impeached in history. Take the closest historic attempt on Bill Clinton and he was facing strikingly similar charges ( one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice) and most would say he was guilty. The problem is you need 67 senators to vote for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton
The cost was $70 million they had a simple clear cut case and they got 50 of the required 67 votes.
You have snowballs chance in hell of impeaching Trump even if you could prove the charge. All the rubbish does is sell papers and give news a filler.
Johnson and Clinton were impeached. Impeachment only requires a simple majority of the House.
Removal from office after impeachment requires a 2/3 super majority in the Senate.
“….All the rubbish does is sell papers and give news a filler…..” That’s the naive answer. The purpose of it is to provide ammunition for the smear campaign and incite people to anarchy.
WHAT? … oh yeah, right, the other Johnson
You confuse impeachment with conviction.
I thought it was the individual states that entered into the agreement not the EU.
The Global Warming Green fraud kills.
Celotex RS5000 comprises rigid polyisocyanurate foam core (PIR) using a blowing agent that has low global warming potential (GWP) and zero ozone depletion potential (ODP).
•Has been tested to BS 8414-2:2005, meets the requirements in BR 135 and the first PIR insulation suitable for rainscreen cladding applications above 18 metres in height
•Achieves an ‘A+’ rating when compared to the BRE Green Guide
https://www.celotex.co.uk/products/rs5000
The insulation material used in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower “will burn if exposed to a fire of sufficient heat and intensity”, according to its manufacturer.
Celotex confirmed that it supplied its RS5000 insulation for the £8.6 million renovation of the London tower block, where at least 12 people died and scores were injured.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15347983.Tower_insulation_firm__Material_will_burn_if_exposed_to_fire_of_sufficient
They built what is effectively a chimney. The builders/renovators filled and wrapped it with plastic and the occupants filled it even more with plastic tat (mostly) imported from China.
Surprise sur-fooking-prise – it went off like a firework on Bonfire night.
Were the victims killed by Global Warming. They most certainly died because of it.
What was wrong with using white asbestos as insulation. It doesn’t burn, it doesn’t hurt anyone, it simply dissolves if you breathe it in. Brown and blue asbestos are the menaces but quite rarely ever used anywhere.
Another blind panic that has created a gold-mine for the cronies who ‘volunteer’ to remove the stuff wherever they think they find it
And what sparkling witticism will we get from Michael Mann about this?
I ain’t holding any breath.
And that Junker – there goes a childish tantrum if ever there was. Somebody give him his soother back before he busts a blood-vessel.
I echo HotScot – wtf has gone (and is going) wrong around here?
I always fancied Arizona. Dunno why. Somewhere big though. I like big country/space/sky/horizons…..
Cumbria had those but the climate was sh1t.
OK, maybe not The Climate. The weather has totally cr4p though.
Good! Now exit the entire UN Climate Framework. They just told the US to drop dead.
So much for half measures of the legalistic Paris only exit. Worried about Russian election interference? Here’s the whole globalist UN actively seeking to unseat Trump. Where’s the outrage?
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5472414772001/?#sp=watch-live
Live….
Scott Pruitt testifies at House hearing on EPA budget
Great, I guess we’re done here.
We have no time to reconsider action to prevent an immeasurably small change in temperature 100 years from now.
Just when you think they can’t get any more ridiculous, they raise the bar.
No doubt the world is relieved to note that the UN, FCCC and IPCC are administered by the Office of Mr. Junker (surrogate of Mrs. Merkel and the GDR) and the EU (NOT).
Jajajajajajajaja
Out in the private sector, there are these “deal makers” who can’t do much more than make deals.
There are nothing like the average businessman you may have seen on TV or the movies.
They live to deal. Whether it is a good deal or bad deal is irrelevant, but they will deal.
The mess they leave behind themselves is awful.
Trump must be heartbroken with this news.
The tears are rusting his 9-iron on the fairway, I’m sure.
The reality is that the climate change we are experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. There is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rational to support the idea that the climate sensivity of CO2 is zero. So the Paris Climate Agreement will do nothing to affect climate change and hence is of no benefit. But even is we could somehow stop the climate from changing, extreme weather events and sea level rise are part of our current climate so there is still no benefit to be gained.
So much of the Paris Climate Agreement is voluntary so our federal government is voluntarily not going to abide by it. But that does not stop local governments and individuals from lowering their carbon footprints. If you feel that the use of fossil fuels is bad then stop making use of all goods and services that make use of fossil fuels. After all it is your money that keeps the fossil fuel companies in business.
In the town where I live the transportation is based on fossil fuel based equipment.. The city can always pass new laws to ban such equipment in favor of horse powered equipment. The city can also ban the use of electricity derived from fossil fueled powered plants. Such laws would help to lower our cities human population which would further serve to reduce CO2 emisions within the city limits.
Thank you, for EU regulations
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/817651/london-fire-grenfell-tower-block-cladding-latest-updates-european-union-regulations
17 dead and rising from ‘climate change: the legislation”.
There should be a thread here on that topic (inflammable cladding). We already have some good comments on it in various threads that could be re-posted into it.
“17 dead and rising from ‘climate change: the legislation’.”
Black is the new green.
You won’t find any building in Brussels installed with this cladding.
“>>> There Will Be No Renegotiation of Paris! <<<"
Then, there'll be no American membership of it.
Exactly as planned. – Brilliant, he left the door open and it was them that walked away.
SteveT
“There Will Be No Renegotiation of Paris! ”
Then you’re on your own.
I’m not a scientist, i just take care of their equipment. Can one of you Ph.D’s explain why if this is inevitable, we spend 100’s of billions on research for science that is settled, but nothing to prepare us for it?
Juncker’s speech http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-17-1647_en.htm is enough for me:
I’m the first EU climate refugee – seeking for a safe place in the US.
“The Paris Climate Agreement Won’t Change the Climate”
https://www.prageru.com/courses/environmental-science/paris-climate-agreement-wont-change-climate
The Paris agreement was between nations. The EU is not a nation and Juncker is not the leader of any nation.
Therefore I do not see what the hell it has to do with him.
…The E.U. BELIEVES it is a nation, just like the leftist loons that BELIEVE in Anthropological Catastrophic Global Warming….NUTS !
Ivor, somebody pays him. Without the US exporting its Green, those checks may begin to bounce.
Nations, states, parties, etc., etc, — does everybody even have the same definition of all these, let alone the common comprehension about them to determine if there are any legally binding terms applicable to them?
I’ve been reading some pretty intense legal-type articles about the Paris agreement, and even they seem wishy washy. If it came down to some sort of litigation, I think it would just be a matter of who was judging or mediating the legal drama that day.
I still get the overall feeling that the Paris Agreement is a puny legal obligation, as in no legal obligation whatsoever . Obama agreed for HIS administration, under HIS executive order, … he did NOT agree for the whole UNITED STATES, under all future executives, by disabling all future executive orders concerning it.
Is “circumventing” the law the latest positive spin on “breaking” the law? How about I … “circumvent” … the law, as I place a demanding note in front of a bank teller, instructing her to hand over all the bank’s money. Gee, all I have to do is modify my descriptive vocabulary, and maybe I could get away with it.
Your honor, I did not break the law – I circumvented the law, and, therefore, plead not guilty. Yeah, that would go over real well.