Huge change in Biden’s April 28 speech – U.S. emission reductions “don’t matter.”

Guest essay by Larry Hamlin

An article at Fox News by Liz Peek addresses a huge change in Biden’s April 28, 2021 Presidential Address to the Joint Session of Congress that was not contained in the speech distributed to the press before the speech. The speech transcript contains an additional phrase used by Biden acknowledging that U.S. emission reductions “don’t matter” as noted in the headline of the article. 

The Fox article notes:

“This is what he said, according to a New York Times transcript of the president’s remarks: “The United States accounts, as all of you know, for less than 15 percent of carbon emissions. The rest of the world accounts for 85 percent. That’s why I kept my commitment to rejoin the Paris Accord, because if we do everything perfectly, it’s not going to matter.”

“It was a whopper that went unnoticed on Wednesday night; with just a few ill-chosen words Biden utterly toppled any justification for the Green New Deal, which plays a central role in his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan and which, without a doubt, puts our economy at risk.” 

“And, for once in his life, Joe Biden was completely correct. Even if the Biden White House clobbers our economy, puts every last coal miner and oil driller out of work and drives down U.S. fossil fuel production and consumption, it will barely bend the curve on rising global emissions.”

“It is the rest of the world we must be concerned about. The EIA projects that between 2018 and 2050 emissions from non-OECD countries will grow 1% per year. China today accounts for 28% of global carbon output; India produces 7%. The U.S., as Biden accurately noted, contributes only 15%.”

China leads the world’s developing nations that control 65% of total global emissions (shown below at about 22 billion metric tons of CO2) with these nations having no interest or desire to follow the emission reduction economic suicide schemes being undertaken by the world’s developed nations including the U.S. Democratic Party proposal to reduce the country’s emissions by 50% below year 2005 levels by year 2030.

Regardless of what the U.S. and EU propose (the EU is proposing a 55% reduction in emissions by year 2030 from year 1990 levels) in emissions reductions the upward climb of global emissions will continue unabated. It should be noted that Germany by far the largest emissions entity of the EU by over a factor of two failed to achieve its year 2020 emissions reduction target.  

The present world total emissions (shown below at about 34 billion metric tons of CO2) will increase by additional billions of metric tons by year 2030 even if the U.S. and EU spend many trillions of dollars and euros in economically destructive efforts pretending that they are saving the world from “climate change.”

During the period from 2007 to 2019 the U.S. has reduced emissions by over 900 million metric tons of CO2 primarily by using increased natural gas fuel to replace use of coal fuel with that change lowering energy costs and increasing energy efficiency. The EU has reduced emissions also by about 900 million metric tons of CO2 during this period primarily by mandated use of higher cost renewables that have left its electric rates as the highest in the world. 

It was most appropriate of Biden to inject some “truth” into his speech by acknowledging the complete futility of his scheme mandating the U.S. to undertake costly and ineffective efforts regarding his year 2030 ridiculous emissions reduction proposal.