We pay to reduce our emissions, other nations hide theirs
By Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, August 12, 2017 02:04 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, August 12, 2017 02:06 PM EDT
One thing you learn on the climate change beat is that the best journalism is done overseas.
In Canada, too many in the media, not knowing the issues, are empty vessels waiting to be filled by Trudeau government propaganda, which they uncritically regurgitate to their audiences.
By contrast, in the UK, one of many examples of serious reporting is a new radio documentary by the BBC’s environment correspondent, Matt McGrath.
Called “Carbon Counting,” McGrath reveals how many nations that signed the Paris accord are inaccurately reporting and/or hiding their greenhouse gas emissions from the United Nations.
Reporting is done once every two years, but the accord doesn’t require independent verification of the numbers.
This “Cinderella world of carbon accounting”, McGrath warns, is a greater threat to the credibility of the Paris agreement – which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed in Dec. 2015, along with the leaders of 194 other countries – than the U.S. withdrawal from the accord by Donald Trump.
Why should Canadians care? Because if global emissions are being under-reported and hidden, then the Paris accord is a fraud and carbon pricing in Canada, which raises our cost of living to reduce our emissions, is just a cynical government cash grab.
McGrath found “serious flaws in the way that countries measure and report their emissions…Potent greenhouse gases that are supposed to be banned are still appearing in the atmosphere and there’s evidence of blatant cheating in some national greenhouse gas reporting.”
Some countries, he said, are “simply ignoring the realities and making stuff up…leaving…gaping holes in national greenhouse gas inventories. There’s an awful lot of dodgy data…”
The last time China reported its emissions to the UN was 2012. It was 30 pages long. By contrast, the UK’s submission runs to several hundred pages, the size of an old-style telephone book.
This isn’t surprising. In China, environmental information is a state secret. China is also notorious for dramatically revising its emission levels after the fact by an order of magnitude as much as the size of Germany’s annual emissions, impacting global measurements.
In 2007, the Chinese government refused to recognize scientific documentation China had become the world’s largest emitter.
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Now talking about dirty little secrets lets talk about Germany. Supposedly they are decommissioning all there lignite burning coal plants only that isn’t what is happening. They are being sold to other close countries
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2016-04-18/vattenfall-agrees-to-sell-german-lignite-assets-to-czech-eph
http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2016/11/coal-news-today-s-energy-system-could-blow-paris-climate-goals.html
Who are continuing to run the operations and export the electricity but the emissions don’t count as German because of that 🙂
German exports of electricity have hit massive all time highs and the old lignite power stations continue operation as they always did. So it’s pretty funny when Germany says it doesn’t have any lignite power stations anymore.
” I am shocked- shocked- to find that gambling is going on in here!”
If it’s warmer today then 218BC try and take 38 elephants and 100,000 men across the Alps and see if even make it
let me try that again 😀
If it’s warmer today than 218BC then try and take 38 elephants and 100,000 men across the Alps and see if you can make it
It’s all fake news – but Donald Trump and Fox are of course exceptions.
Actually that’s not true – fake news is any news with which you happen to disagree or have an alternative unquantified but sincerely held belief
Fake news is any news that depends on advertising bucks.
Adversitising destroyed journalism
Journalism has to be funded somehow. Subscriber dollars don’t even come close. I’d rather have a multitude of advertisers pay for it than a single government with a political agenda.
Journalism, like most things, is an imperfect institution. The NY Times is very liberal because that’s the way its owners want it. Fox News is very conservative for similar reasons. Their advertisers are looking for the exposure, not a way to influence opinion.
Fake news, at least in the U.S., has nothing to do with advertising.
Here in Canada we are lead by a bunch of left wing nut jobs. In British Columbia the home of the lefty nut jobs and the leaders of the environmental movement in Canada. (BC was the first province in Canada to subject their populous to a forced feel good carbon tax). BC is suffering from the worst forest fire season in 50 years and has been since the start of summer. So how are they addressing this burning calamity and disaster to the forestry industry, not to mention the people whose lives are in danger and the massive property damage. They are fighting the fires in an environmental way. The use of fire retardant chemicals is frowned on and reduced to the point of useless. The biggest water bomber in the world the Martin Mars is sitting idle on Sprout lake on Vancouver Island because the government refuses to use it. Even if the Mars was to be used over the last 20 years the BC environmentalists have restricted the number of lakes it can actually use to pick up water or land on. I have heard and read a number of statements that modern coal plants must be banned for their emissions and the heavy particulate discharge from their stacks, Well if you want to see heavy emissions come to western Canada and see the smoke from these fires two provinces away. Some days there air quality warnings for people to stay indoors two provinces away. Meanwhile the mayor of Vancouver BC is trying to run the city without fossil fuels by 2030.
The only thing that stuns me about this article is that Matt McGrath is being held up as an example of a good journalist. He is so steeped in bias that even Roger Harrabin and George Monbiot have trouble keeping up.
“Reporting is done once every two years, but the accord doesn’t require independent verification of the numbers.” The fact that countries would sign on to an agreement that would not require verification indicates they know the whole idea is a scam. It can’t be a serious effort if there are no teeth in it. How they can try to sell this to the world is beyond me.
Agreed, I stopped reading the BBC and Guardian years ago, their bias is ridiculous.
About the BBC…I watched an “expert panel” debate the Trump effect and later Brexit. One panel member referred to Trump as “he who shall not be named” and that stuck with the rest of the panel members who went on to reject Brexit unanimously. So much for an expert panel debate.
Even then, nature takes very well care of CO2. Natural CO2 sinks are scaling extremely well with elevated atmospheric CO2 levels. With current emissions it seems unlikely we could ever get beyong 520ppm.
http://i736.photobucket.com/albums/xx10/Oliver25/Keeling%20vs.%20CO2%20sinks_2.png
Note: if CO2 emissions were underreported, that would only underestimate the effect of CO2 sinks.
Will someone wake up Griff.
There is a question to be answered:
Griff:
**fossil fuel produced CO2 is isotopically different.
you just measure the proportion of CO2 with the fossil fuel isotope**
So, Griff, here is one you nor anyone else has answered?
How do you MEASURE the amount of warming caused by any CO2?
This is where the lies come in. And take note that you have been asked this question many times including at Realclimatescience. And predictably you have not replied. So I expect the same today.
What the hell is going on in Australia ? Well at least they won’t freeze there like the 30,000 fuel poverty deaths per year in Europe . Despicable terrorists kill and maim people deserve to be wiped out yet
politicians impose absurd energy costs based on a massive fraud and no one even goes to jail .
Something ain’t right .
Really surprised Australians would stand for this crap .