[let the bullying commence-cr]
Wesley Morgan, Griffith University
Germany has announced plans for a new climate alliance between the world’s advanced economies, in a move that promises to transform international climate action.
This year, Germany is the president of the G7 – a key forum for wealthy democracies to discuss solutions to global challenges.
New German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who replaced long-time leader Angela Merkel in December last year, wants the G7 nations to become founding members of an international “carbon club”. This alliance of countries would coordinate shared climate policy standards and impose costs on countries that don’t meet them.
The proposal should ring alarm bells in Canberra. It is likely to mean economic and diplomatic costs for Australia, and further isolate this nation as a climate laggard on the world stage. To avoid this, Australia should at least match the climate ambition of G7 countries, by pledging to halve greenhouse gas emissions this decade.
What is a climate club?
The “climate club” concept was developed by Nobel-prize winning economist William Nordhaus in 2015, and has since gained ground in international policy circles.
United Nations climate agreements – such as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement – are voluntary. Nordhaus argues this provides an incentive for some nations, overly focused on their own national interests, to seek to minimise their share of the global costs of climate action.
So while responsible nations bear the cost of switching to new, cleaner technologies, the “free-riding” nations benefit from those technologies and a potentially safer climate while failing to make adequate cuts to their own domestic emissions.
To address this problem, Nordhaus proposes a “club” model for climate cooperation. Club members – those countries who move first to take climate action – would be rewarded and protected from competitive disadvantage.
Members would harmonise their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work toward a shared goal. And nations that do not meet their global obligations would incur penalties, such as a levy on exports to club member nations.
How the G7 could become a climate club
In addition to Germany, the G7 comprises the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan and Canada.
Just a month after being elected German chancellor, Olaf Scholz announced at the World Economic Forum in January that Germany intends to turn the G7 into the nucleus of an international climate club.
Scholz has been keen on the climate club idea for some time. Last August, as Germany’s finance minister, he proposed an “A-B-C” model that would be:
- ambitious: all members would commit to climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest, and set strong interim targets
- bold: member states would determine a shared minimum carbon price and coordinate measures to prevent production being moved to countries with weaker emissions rules
- cooperative: club membership would be open to all countries that introduce adequate climate action targets and measures.
A G7 climate club could build on the experience of the European Union. The EU already has an internal carbon market and will next year start imposing border levies on imported goods, based on the emissions generated in their production. The highest costs will be borne by exporters from countries that don’t have a carbon price or meaningful climate policy.
Scholz suggests G7 countries could negotiate similar arrangements to those of the EU. The G7 countries will consider Germany’s proposal at ministerial meetings this year.
Climate policy is a key priority for the Biden administration in the US, providing a window of opportunity for positive negotiations.
And there are already moves to set shared standards across the Atlantic. In October last year, the EU and the US announced they were working towards a world-first deal to restrict access to their markets for high-carbon steel.
What this means for Australia
Australia is widely seen as a free-rider in global climate efforts. While G7 member states have promised to cut their emissions by about 50% this decade, Australia has pledged only to cut emissions by 26-28% from 2005 levels.
At last year’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Australia was the only major developed country that refused to set a stronger 2030 emissions target. It’s also the only country in the world to have repealed a carbon price.
What’s more, the Morrison government is promoting a “gas-fired” economic recovery from the COVID pandemic. It continues to promote coal and gas exports, and derides the EU’s carbon border levies as protectionism.
Safe to say, if a G7-led climate club formed in the near future, Australia would not be invited to join.
Australia should take Germany’s climate club proposal seriously, and move quickly to implement climate policies that bring us in line with G7 nations.
Otherwise, Australia faces the prospect of economic harm. This would not just come in the form of potential carbon border levies, but also a loss of both investment capital and the economic gains that come from being a first mover in clean industries.
Staying in the race
The climate club concept is not without its detractors. Some academics and climate negotiators caution that it could undermine multilateral cooperation in UN climate talks, while others warn such agreements can exacerbate equity issues between richer and poorer nations.
For its part, Germany has suggested climate finance could be provided to help developing countries become club members, and club members could make a phased policy transition.
The proposed G7 climate club marks a major shift in global efforts on climate change. Major powers now view climate action as a race for competitive advantage. The first movers in the new industrial revolution will take first, second and third prize.
If Australia wants to stay in the race, much more ambitious federal climate policy is urgently needed.
Wesley Morgan, Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Oh really!
Yes. If it thoroughly analyses it, scrub it out until sound science is reached, and then starts to build.
Germany and Denmark have high levels of wind and solar
Germany household rates are 31 eurocent/kWh, and Denmark at 30 Eurocentric/kWh, the two highest in Europe, by far
Russia, India and China, Australia, and others will form their own club
In the SH the warming is not a big issue….
https://breadonthewater.co.za/2021/11/25/an-inconvenient-truth/
In the NH the warming is not a big issue either
I like the idea of Russia, India, China, and Australia forming their own Coal Climate Club. Membership would outnumber the Euro Air Club about nine to one.
That is the retards in the EU problem and what will happen. Australia’s trade to the EU is minor and runs surplus in the EU favour. If the EU wants to start a trade war knock yourself out idiots.
If warming Alaska and warming Siberia have problems, have the local people and governments deal with it, instead of turning the entire world economy upside down
It is absolutely imperative to vote these incompetent, socialistic, communistic, imposters out of office. They will ruin the world, using their slogans as foils
Correction from Germany: 33 eurocent/kWh, however further price increases are expected soon. What if other countries will introduce penalties for the import from club countries? Most of the G7 countries live from export… “There is no vaccine against stupidity.” ~ Albert Einstein
There is no vaccine against covid either, but that hasn’t stopped us.
Have Faucci roll out a vaccine against stupidity, focus on the most at risk … those first time registered, within the last three years, as democrats (see if the teachers union try to cut in line), and pharma can keep the snowball rolling down hill.
“New German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who replaced long-time leader Angela Merkel in December last year, wants the G7 nations to become founding members of an international “carbon club”. This alliance of countries would coordinate shared climate policy standards and impose costs on countries that don’t meet them.”
There is no real CO2 (aka “carbon”) crisis – it is a fiction.
As my gigantic Polish friend Dr Tadeuz used to say:
“Ver do zey get zes IDIOTS?”
So the Germans are going to isolate, penalize, and control China? China is far ahead in the carbon “pollution” ranking, and the article does not even mention China. Australia? My experience with Ozzies is they don’t like to be pushed around and don’t care much for a lot of rules.
That’s different. China can’t be easily bullied.
Yes. A lot of EU is in the hands of Chinese companies. In each country, bullying China can have rather ugly financial consequences.
Little Lithuania tried that recently, recognizing Taiwan. And little Estonia tried to fly German weapons to Ukraine, absolutely opposed by Germany.
The EU looks like a kindergarten!
All without an adult teacher in the room
Bonbon spouting more pro russian bollox
It would have been nice if you had joined the 350 000 Estonians deported to Gulag and died either there or on the way!
Your crap is enough to make any decent person throw up, quite apart from my friends in EST, who would boot you out the door if you ever showed up.
Now, now, there at the back of the class – extra homework for you!
Except they did seem to accept some heavy covid lockdown restrictions by and large. I suspect people will start to work out that the climate agenda is about making them cold, hungry and poor. Not to mention subservient to China, from whom so many essentials flow and to whom so much manufacturing and control over resources has been given.
Germany also has the problem of the EU which now lists natural gas and nuclear as ‘green’.
China can make the excuse that it is a developing country because of the proportion of its country that lives in third world conditions. Would it get away with that? Of course it would. The world depends on China for manufactured goods. It would take decades to unravel the supply chain. Also, China can point to many renewable power efforts. So, China can continue to consume more coal than the rest of the world combined. Yep, China uses 50.5% of the world’s coal. link
The EU was proposing carbon tariffs on goods from countries which spew too much CO2. That would, of course, include China. But somehow China will get a bye. And, anyway, the EU will probably have difficulty getting a majority of its members to go along.
It’s easy to bully countries like Australia and Canada, but that might push them into a closer relationship with China. That seems unthinkable now but there are rumors that Xi could be ousted at the next party congress. China could patch up its relations with Australia and Canada and they could take refuge under its umbrella.
I’m not saying Germany can’t do what its leader proposes, but the problems in doing so would wreck a lot of things.
Well observed, Bob.
The current EU politics seems to be driven by yesterday’s papers front pages, not by strategic analyses. Economic idiotic “ambitious” decisions of “greening” and “decarbonizing” everything are easy to be adopted by the EU institutions (each member or representative eyeing what the press and TVs will report from his words or votes and what impact those news will have on his political future). Then these decisions are more or less comically implemented, leading to dead-ends like this one some months later.
Sounds like a Pekingese barkig at a Saint Bernard (well… ironically reversed geography…)
actually seeing the piss poor performance of Australia in resisting the never ending infringement of freedom of movement and individual rights I am pretty sure that the Australians will roll over, show their bellies and behave as they are told to. Never thought they would but OMG they have shown they can just be pushed around.
I thought that about Australians too. Until I followed their covid response. Locking people into their apartment buildings for weeks, drone surveillance in neighborhoods, police roadblocks to check if you were authorized to leave your neighborhood, military patrols in cities, quarantine camps incarcerating people. And not allowing people to leave Australia to escape. Australians just tolerated it all “to be safe”. So my opinion of the feistiness of Australians has been drastically revised downwards.
Australia’s Covid stance is misunderstood. Australians chose to save their vulnerable citizens by allowing vaccine and lockdowns.
Florida has almost the same population as Australia but had 40x the death rate. Australians behaved responsibly.
Do your homework.
Australians stopped dying? No death at all? Like infinite life expectancy?
Don’t forget that they would need to punish Russia as well. Mebbe they would buy 10% less gas from them.
Unfortunately COVID has shown that we Aussies are absolutely willing to succumb to a terror campaign run by our own government and senior health officials with facts and truth being totally irrelevant.
Germans eh? Time to spank them, again.
Germans…they just can’t help themselves.
Please, you should differentiate: Not all Germans follow the stupidity course of the greenies. Look at Canada: Similar demonstrations against COVID are ongoing in Germany, and these demonstrations are stronger from week to week. This is completely new in Germany. I have the feeling, that the current coalition including the green party will not remain 4 years long.
You make a good valid point Hari, but my comment was I hoped to be taken in context of the article, it’s a throwaway comment and sticking a “(not all Germans)” tag on it would kinda kill the shtik.
I don’t have a very politically correct mindset anyway and generally, naively probably, assume that the reader would take the joke in good faith. One of the reasons I’m not on twitter.
I support all anti watermelon™ activity though 😉
Germany talks the talk but opencast mine lignite and has built new power stations to burn it. So does not walk the walk, first on the naughty step !!!
Scholz Heil, shout the greenies.
Sergeant Scholz
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HblPucwN-m0
Humanity has a penchant for building narratives on fantasy, then grasping for wealth and power, from within the edifice of the narrative.
I assume they’re intending to declare war on China then.
Yes, but first they have to get there across Russia. This time they have a plan ; keep Nord2 pipeline empty, sneak through it all the way to Siberia, and from there use another one recently completed, all the way to Peking. Chinese will have no alternative but to surrender. There you go, Bob is your uncle. Peking duck for lunch, ‘bitte Kellner !’
I seem to remember a Bond or Mission Impossible using pipelines to ferry people, or did that actually happen during the Cold War?
Pigs are frequently sent through pipelines.
There is an entire mini- industry which sends pigs through pipelines.
With those “pigs”, I don’t think the end result is bacon.
Like water pigs and a pipe
Elon Musk will be near supersonicaly shuttling people through one in Ca.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-23677205
Are you sure it wasn’t the “Billion Dollar Brain” film that used oil tanker trucks to ferry troops?
Bond! see link above. Now we know why all the fuss about Yamal and NordStream2!
Found it! Hilarious! Essential viewing for experts! 3min…
Pipeline to the west [James Bond Semi Essentials]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCm3ZZBae6I
Looks like Elon Musk’s Hyperloop – is Musk a Bond fan?
I believe quotes around ‘free rider’ are called for in the title. I haven’t attended a journalism class for about 50 years, but if Australia is not a free rider…
“Renewables are the cheapest form of electricity, but we need a carbon wall, or whatever we’re calling it these days, so that those countries using more expensive dirty energy can’t undercut us, whatever.”
Exactly
Germany’s first problem is that it can’t act independently while it is a member of the EU and so the EU Customs Union which sets out tariffs for all member nations. It also can’t develop it’s own product standards as Germany is a member of the Common Regulatory Area covering all EU nations and EEA nations. Less than 1% of UK politicians understood anything about our membership of the EU and EEA so perhaps it is similar in Germany.
Germany should focus on fixing its internal problems before trying to fix the rest of the world.
This new German leader sounds like a real dandy. Another ignorant politician running Germany.
I’m beginning to think that all one can get out of Europe are ignorant, leftwing politicians. What happened to common sense?
Yeah, I know, the U.S. has its own leadership problems, but our idiot’s election may not be due to stupidity on the part of the voters.
It is likely actually due to Pence – as Trump just charged. Pence could have overturned the election because of irregularities, legally.
Right now the Dems are feverishly trying to change the VP Electoral law that they and Pence said did not exist. This is dynamite!
Under the 1877 law concerning how Congress certifies the electors sent by the states, Pence could not overturn the election all by himself thus making Trump the winner.
What he could have done and should have done under that 1877 law was to act on the letters he got from members of the state legislatures of the swing states claiming that there were strong doubts about the legitimacy of the election processes held in those states.
Pence had the authority under the 1877 law to send the question of election irregularities back to the swing states for review. Had Pence done this, then it is likely that the ultimate outcome of the review process would have been that the 2020 election went in to the House of Representatives.
Pence was, and still is, the worst kind of political back-stabbing turncoat. If Trump or DeSantis is elected president in 2024, the same kind of mistake in choosing a VP will not happen again. In any case, all of this depends on the Republicans getting serious about fighting vote fraud in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.
You are correct, Pence could not overturn the election by himself.
What we have here is two different claims by the pundits: That Pence could overturn the election by himself: and that Pence could send some of the votes back to the States for further review.
If Pence could overturn the 2020 presidential election all by himself, then Biden could have overturned the 2016 election. That didn’t happen because Biden didn’t have the authority to overturn the election and Pence is in the same boat.
I would have liked to see some of the States review their votes before certification but that did not take place.
I would like to hear Pence expound on that part of the issue. He said he could not overturn the election by himself, and that is true, but he said nothing about his ability to send some votes back to the various States for further review.
That 1877 Law is probably the only way to deal with Lord Malloch-Browns Smartmatic. No idea if this tech is still to be used. It is incredible, but the US got the same treatment as the Philippians, the good Lord’s practice run.
Given China and India, this is pure virtue signaling.
And would backfire the EU is not an important trade partner to Australia.
Total EU trade in 2020 was $58B and $38B in EU favour
Australia income from FF was $300B in 2020
Given those numbers if pushed which would choose?
This is the NGFS – Network for Greening the Financial System – in action. Their ‘club of the willing’ already
https://www.ngfs.net/sites/default/files/ngfs_contribution_to_cop26_contributing_members.pdf
includes Australia. So this has willingly developed since 2017. And of course the Bundesbank is there.
Basically Scholz is making public what is already there. After all he was finance Minister.
Just pathetic. Germany at it’s best, not matched since the 1930/40s.
It is all about virtue signaling and othering, on an international scale. I would call it a “Climate Cartel”.
Oh well there goes that new German SUV I looked at, and the new dishwasher and oven, looks like Korea might win again
Exactly if EU wants to start a trade war it shoots it’s own foot off.
Penalizing Australia will only INCREASE global CO2 emissions and pollution.
Going after Australia for supplying coal won’t have any impact on China and India’s demand for coal. If they can’t get it from Australia or other ‘developed’ countries, they’ll get it ‘undeveloped’ countries that aren’t held to the same standard (Indonesia for example). And those countries are far less likely to have a stringent environmental regulatory environment to reduce environmental harms of mining, and will likely produce a far lower grade of coal that burns dirtier than Australian coal, leading to the aforementioned increase in CO2 emissions and particulates.
The good news is, attacking the Australian coal industry will impoverish Australia, leading to greater compliance with the WEF agenda once their spirit has been broken. Australia will serve as an example to all of what happens when you defy Davos.
Not to mention many of these developing countries are further away from China and India than Australia is, so the coal will have to be transported further.
Apparently, while China had a ban (or go-slow, or whatever they called it) on Australian coal, they increased their coal imports from Indonesia. Indonesia, just coincidentally, increased coal imports from Australia by an almost equal amount.
Clearly, we did not thoroughly enough defeat the Third Reich.
Germany doesn’t meet the criteria for their own club – they burn far too much coal to keep the lights on.
https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/DE
So will the UK ostracize us in Australia before or after we deliver their emergency gas supplies? Asking for a friend.
And just did a cursory search on Nordhaus. The man has never had a job in his entire life. Never owned and built a successful or failing business. Never met a payroll. Never done anything of actual value to society. All he has done is sit in academia and steal my tax dollars. He is the personification of what is wrong in our society.
“finance could be provided”. Same song, second verse.
What about free riders like China?
Deserves a repeat
Although it needs update as Herr Merkle got out before the collapse
Australië is one of the countries with a very low co2 emission per km2
Six of the G7 countries are members of the NATO club. The dues for the club is to have a 2% of GDP defense spend. Three of the G7 countries in NATO are paying their club dues. Canada, Gemany and Italy are not among those meeting their obligation. It is apparent that these three countries know all about “free-riding”. Can you say duplicitous? I knew you could.
Canada, Germany, and Italy aren’t planning on using their military to intervene anywhere or even defend themselves….their economies highly dependent on tourism and immigration, they are basically constantly under invasion by foreigners and apparently OK with it….but like to be members of the NATO gun club for the social occasions.
Four of those countries. USA, Greece and the UK have exceeded the 2% threshold (by a small amount for the UK, larger for Greece and USA) whilst Poland is spending exactly 2% of GDP. All of the other countries are spending far less.
I’m sure OZ is in full panic …Chicken little is a threatening little foul
He’s a foul fowl.
I would suggest a boot camp for politicians (lock them up three weeks in a classroom) to learn the real science behind all this, and detoxify them from all this CAGW nonsense…
although probably some of them know about it, but the narrative is more attractive.
Germans are getting into their heads again that they’re the Master Race and know what’s good for the rest of the world.
Stop talking bullshit. Germans, as all European nations are not free people whose opinions matter. They are subjects of the Union of European Socialist Republics. They are ruled by pan-European beurocratic elite, who has no nationality. This is miles away from 30s.
The Germans. There is a reason they love Wagner’s music and Gotterdammerung/Ragnarök.
Ahh….Threats.
And the level of carbon (dioxide) in the atmosphere is unimportant.
Jim Jones founded a club just like this. Didn’t end well.
Will the club members ride motorcycles and wear matching leather jackets?
Given that the UK and Germany are already destroying their economies and impoverishing their citizens with tyrannical green laws, I can’t see this idea making much headway in reality.
Isn’t Germany becoming less green itself? More coal and gas as they shut down nuclear?
Is this delusion, like in the past where the villain with the mustache looked at a map and figured he could easily control the whole work, because of innate superiority?
Is this just a case of misdirection, distract people from looking at them?
The climate club, join the climate club or get clubbed. Or is it a clique that dominates with personal interests. What ever they call themselves they are exerting power in support of a fraud without asking the people.
Given the existing tensions within the bloc, this might rip the whole thing apart. Going too far, too quickly is likely to cause many member states to look to an exit strategy rather than closer ties.
German leaders talking about punishing other countries should raise alarm bells. They have a spotty record in that regard.
Australia stood up to China, one of their biggest trading partners, about human rights and aggression against its nearest neighbors. What makes Germany think being a member of the climate club will have any influence over Australia’s domestic policies?
Bing. We also didn’t mind upsetting the French over $90B worth of subs but Germany thinks we will give a toss what some third rate trade partner wants?
Good point.
Australia should tell the German politicians to go pound sand.
Austrailia does not need advice from German politicians who are in the process of ruining their own country over CO2. Australians should refuse to be as stupid as German politicians.
It seems a little odd to claim Australia is a free rider, considering that Australia was one of the few nations to meet or exceed its Kyoto and Paris reductions.
As Inigo Montoya said in “The Princess Bride”, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”
Will Germany be on a list of leading economies in another decade?
If they keep going the way they’re going, no.
I am, I have to say, highly suspicious of plans bruited by Germany to make people march in lockstep with their thinking. This whole Climate Change swindle brings out the fascists in a lot of governments.
sounds like this climate club has a nail in the end.
The carbon club will be the end of the western empire. While we are preoccupied with virtue signalling, the cost of production will skyrocket. Nations outside the club will produce goods for a fraction of the cost and price out whatever industry is left in the west. If we’re looking at a strategy of promoting growth in low income countries, this is a wonderful way to achieve that.
How would he feel about a Medicine Club, where countries like Germany pay for the advances in medical techniques and pharmaceuticals developed in the U.S.?
Australia is irrelevant. There won’t be a carbon club, because Biden won’t have the authority to order out for pizza after this fall’s elections.
Besides, the real issue is China, and we know that Germany will roll over and stick its paws up in the air to keep China happy.
Now all people, including academics, need to know what exactly is “net zero”. Net zero includes all emissions and sequestrations, including native forest, mangroves etc, not just forest plantings. 🙄
Sounds more Ike a race to the bottom club..
This is the sort of thing I have been worried about – co-ordinated action by the wealthy club to bully, intimidate and sanction non members into climate austerity. Fortunately, the wealthy club soon won’t be wealthy, and will cease to have any real impact on the rest of the world, who will carry on with whatever they deem best for their countries.
We will get plenty of investment capital from China. They take plenty of our high quality coal and get cheap reliable energy which will be the basis of their becoming the worlds leading economy and military power. They don’t fall for pseudo science backed by unvalidated, proven wrong computer models.
Given that the Labour Party in Australia currently has a 12 point lead on the two-party preferred vote, are things about to change, anyway? The Australian Labour Party seems to have a policy on climate change which is very different than the current government’s policy
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/labor-s-climate-policy-puts-australia-in-the-race
I note that the article states that the Labour Party are promising lower electricity bills. Good luck on that one.
Is this the same Germany that is planning to destroy a huge area of 1,000 year old pristine forest to build wind turbines? Not easy to reconcile that with the lignite coal mines and buying all that gas from Russia, plus closing down safe and carbon neutral nuclear power stations. Strange country…
Wait! I thought renewables had overtaken fossil fuels in terms of price. Why then should Germany be so concerned with Australia’s reticence to embrace the technology?
Oh! I get it. Renewable energies make their economy uncompetitive so economic penalties have to be applied. Australia is an easy target and a pushover on the diplomatic front. Should be relatively easy to establish a European consortium against Australia, then go after Japan and the USA.
The Climate Club gives me an image of a Cricket bat with nails in it.
70 years after WWII and the Germans are still looking for people to punish. Some things never change. Cheers –
Australia has actually met its Kyoto and Paris agreements unlike the grubby Europeans who live in a fairy universe where intentions mean real outcomes and actual facts don’t matter. Australia should link up with India and south east Asian nations to help each other. Let Europe sort itself out and explain to its people why they cannot afford heating and fuel and see what happens to their forests as people go and get their own fuel.