Essay by Eric Worrall
“… We need a global financial architecture that helps address the existential threat of climate change …”
The climate crisis is this century’s biggest threat. We need a global finance pact that reflects the task ahead
Chris Bowen, Steven Guilbeault and James Shaw
As climate change ministers, we urge multilateral banks to come together to help vulnerable nations, who face cascading challenges
The science is clear. The climate crisis is the biggest single threat we face as a global community. In turn, meeting the goals of the Paris agreement and realising the opportunities of climate action is the task of the 21st century.
No single government can address this alone. Together, we can rise to the challenge.
When leaders gathered in Bretton Woods in 1944 as the second world war was winding to its close, they set themselves a formidable task.
Their job was to design an international financial system that would reduce global recessions and instability, and lead to a steadier international political environment than the one which bedevilled the first half of the 20th century.
The result was imperfect, but nonetheless astounding. The creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund was played an important role in supporting a more stable period through the second half of the 20th century.
If a new Bretton Woods system was being thrashed out today, there would no doubt be agreement that the present task is even greater than that of the 20th century – building a global financial architecture that helps the world stay as close as possible to 1.5C of warming.
…
The reality is that climate finance from these multilateral institutions continues to be patchy and at times inaccessible to the nations that need it most – particularly those in the Pacific, and small island states around the world.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2023/jun/22/the-climate-crisis-is-this-centurys-biggest-threat-we-need-a-global-finance-pact-that-reflects-the-task-ahead
Low interest loans or other financial support = a hidden tax on everyone’s pensions and savings.
If addressing the climate crisis requires a complete redesign of the global financial system and massive subsidies from financial institutions, presumably underwritten by US taxpayers, as Bretton Woods was, then claims green energy is cheaper than fossil fuels are trash.
No redesign of the global financial system was required to deliver today’s fossil fuel powered economy. The fossil fuel economy doesn’t need hidden subsidies to function, fossil fuels are heavily taxed. At least 18c of the pump price of every gallon pumped in the USA is taken as tax revenue, more in other parts of the Western world.
The reality is there is not enough money in the world to create a maintain the green energy systems which would be required to replace today’s use of fossil fuels.
Even if they bleed America’s pension funds and financial institutions dry with their green “Bretton Woods” scheme, they will still end up with nothing to show for all that money.
In my opinion, the demand for a restructuring of the global financial system is the mission statement of people who on some level are aware they have already failed.
Hey Eric,
Inform the Aussie and NZ PMs that I have their much needed Climate Funding on the way from the US… And that’s our 2¢ worth!
Joey Biden will send it over his Pacific Railroad….the rail road may be electric…we don’t know becuz Joey will get in trouble if he talks about it….of course Joey talks a lotta malarkey.
In the end it would be the taxpayer/consumer that would get the shaft here, while the money would wind up being wasted on unproven green technologies that would have no effect on emissions reductions. Hasn’t Bloomberg just shown that despite billions that have been spent to promote non-hydro renewables between 2004 and 2022, they account for a mere 6.7% of global primary energy supplies, Meanwhile, hydrocarbons still provide over 80% of the power. Yet these climate ministers want us to keep throwing good money after bad.
That’s trillions, Ed.
If the banks are ‘buying’ this bull-pucky, depositors should be fleeing in droves.
This overt effort is to me quite stunning. They want to end national sovereignty, and initiate a pseudo global currency ‘they’ control. They expose again the true ‘climate’ goals having nothing to do with climate. Edenhofer redux.
Not gonna happen. Biden in his dotage might agree without required Senate consent (A2, §2.2) but China and India never will.
Wealth distribution schemes always have backers, not because they accomplish the goals that are publicized, but because the cream always vanishes somewhere between the separator and the recepient.
The gallery pic is a portrait of 3 useful idiots, if ever there was one.
As an aside (but topical) I hear that Jessica Ardern is writing a book on successful leadership, based on her 5 years ruining, sorry running, New Zealand.
” … useful idiots ….”
Oxymoron.
No, not in this context. Idiots are useful to those who benefit from their idiocy
Lenin apparently coined the phrase and has since been used to describe a credulous person who can be exploited to advance a cause.
A perfect “pointed stupidity”.
Average IQ of those three?
Each one drags the average down further and further !
You could combine their brain power into one and they still wouldn’t have the IQ of an amoeba.
They all failed their IQ tests
I’m getting totally pi**ed off with this Climate Change catastrophe rubbish. The climate is chaotic. How do these morons know whether the increased temperature will not mean more accumulation of ice on Antarctica and Greenland and a reduction of sealevel… they can’t. It certainly means more evaporation of water from the seas. How can they possibly predict climate for a particular region in the future? They can’t, whether CO2 increases or not.
So they say we must apply the precautionary principle. Well that went well during the Covid pandemic, didn’t it? Consider Sweden where they left it to the people to decide what to do.
Mankind is resourceful and can adapt to real change….why adapt in advance to imaginary change?
Coz computa gamz sez, init bro
The “response” to the non-existent “climate” threat…
That is BY FAR the greatest threat to modern society, globally.
Putting the future of global economy in the hands of a Bachelor of Economics from Sydney University on the Australian Labor-Left, a Green Party leader from New Zealand and a campaign manager for Greenpeace from Canada, what could possibly go wrong⸮
Everything.
Aussie, Canada, and NZ Climate Ministers: Larry, Curly, and Moe.
At least the Three Stooges were funny. Their comedy is still being shown.
Definitive proof that Clown truly is More than just a Gender…it’s a way of life
I think of it as even in a CGI world there are many who long for black and white entertainment.
Dumb and Dumber and Dumbest?
Choosing the order…
… a very difficult task !
That’s a bit harsh on Larry, Curly and Moe!
There is no climate crisis, CO2 is not the control knob for earth’s climate and we are not going to reach a tipping point and experience irreversible over heating. Remove all wind and solar from the grid and build new fossil fuel and nuclear generators.
China started a thorium test reactor nearly 2 years ago…Thorcon Power is working with Indonesia and a test site has been selected. https://www.thorconpower.com Sloooooowly it’s coming.
News tip
and this crap Georgia peaches now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY2Lrv3UTlE
It is not a matter of money. Money is created from nothing and USA will never incur any real obligation for the money it has created so far and other nations hold. NetZero in the developed world demands a lot from China. The limiting factor is that China could never access enough coal to achieve NetZero in the current developed countries to support their existing lifestyle.
If the policy continues, developed economies will entirely de-industrialise on their current trajectories and depend entirely on China and possibly India for heavy industry.
In 2021 China produced 1032Mt of steel. Germany Produced 40Mt and USA 85Mt. China already produces 53% of the world steel and the proportion continues to grow as the current developed countries introduce NetZero. Steel making is coal intensive and incompatible with NetZero policy.
The CNY is gaining rapidly as the currency of international trade because China is so dominant in international trade. In April this year more than 50% of Chinese trade was settled in CNY. This is a big shift in global currency.
China has their own demons, their crazy Covid lockdown uncovered a public sector Ponzi scheme which is threatening to bring down the Chinese state. So despite the abuse, the US dollar is safe for now IMO.
China is not independent in food or energy….they have exported cheap junk produced by cheap labor. Free enterprise…capitalism….is not compatible with communism….there was hope that China would move towards democracy but Xi is movin’ in the opposite direction….over 10,000 people were massacred at Tieanemen Square….over a million Uyhurs are in concentration camps….don’t trade with a dictaor
Steven Guilbeault
That a**hole Is just an ex-Green-piss terrorist and he knows that the gig is up for the climate fear-mongers. They are on the verge of doing a titanic submarine simulation.
These guys have a FAR greater combined intelligence.
“The climate
crisisreligious cult is this century’s biggest threat.”fixed it
Meanwhile, China, India, Russia, the biggest CO2 emitters are giving the middle finger to all the climatistas – and here we are told that the Western civilizations are the smart
I remember adding up the CA taxes (where I used to live) a few years ago and getting more than $1.00/gallon. According to yesterdays news, Washington state’s gasoline tax is now more than California’s.
That 18¢ is the Federal Excise Tax, applicable in every state.
California state then adds an additional $1 in taxes and fees to every gallon
Taxes:
Federal Excise Tax: 18 cents per gallon
State Excise Tax: 51 cents per gallon
Sales Tax (estimated): 10 cents per gallon
Fees:
Low Carbon Gas Programs: 22 cents per gallon
Greenhouse Gas Programs: 15 cents per gallon
Underground Tank Storage: 2 cents per gallon
Sales tax will vary depending on various local tax rates
Then there is the additives that increase the price like
Charging to add MTBE
Charging to remove MTBE since it wreaked havoc on lakes and rivers
Charging to add Ethanol
Etc…
Right.
18¢ is the Federal Excise Tax, paid at the refinery, not at the pump.
Washington State tax is $0.678 and a hidden fee via a new tax on CO2 emissions is projected to add 46 cents per gallon to 2023 gas prices.
It may be Paid at the refinery but it’s gathered at the pump.
Passed on to the stations in wholesale gas pricing 50,000 gallons at a time
Passed on to the consumer at the pump
It certainly isn’t coming from Corporates’ pocket
That guy with the glasses really looks like money hungry bureaucrat – pay me to make the weather better, the sky is falling.
Climate change ministers lack credibility when they’re not in the same photograph with John Forbes Kerry.
Well – I still think everything after ‘credibility’ is redundant.
From what I understand, none of the participants at Bretton Woods were left wing fanatics that climbed towers in order to express their views, a la Steven Guilbeault. This group is more aligned with the Jonestown Kool-Aid drinking crowd although theirs is laced with a serious potion of man made climate change which is also extremely toxic.
What a trio of twerps.
I’m surprised they haven’t included the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Grant Shapps in their little club.
A better name for Shapps’ Ministry would of course be ‘Secretary of State for Net Zero Energy Security’. That’s just where all this childish nonsense is heading.
In August 1976, when the UK had enjoyed a REAL Summer, for once, the Labour Government passed a Drought Act and appointed Dennis Howell as Minister for Droughts.
The most successful Minister ever. Within a fortnight it pissed it down for weeks and he was nicknamed the Minister for Rain.
Somehow I doubt that the three pictured buffoons, and Shapps, will be able to point to any success in promoting (or preventing) Climate Change. The Climate will carry on changing as it always has and luckily all the change in the last hundred years, and the trivial increase in a trace gas essential to all life on Earth have all been entirely beneficial.
What the four of them will achieve, if allowed to do so, is to destroy four English speaking countries whose CO2 emissions, together, are a rounding error.
Why isn’t Canada’s Climate Change minister promoting global warming of about 5-10 degrees? It would make vast swathes of our frozen tundra productive, green and habitable. Most of Canadian land is about as populated as antarctica (for the same reason – it’s a frozen wasteland).
It would make Canada the #1 destination for immigration (the other option is Russia…) and probably the wealthiest and most productive country in the world.
Do we elect our officials to save the tourism industry of barely-inhabited tiny Pacific Islands (even if anything we did made a difference other than lining their pocketbooks) or to promote Canadian interests?
“At least 18c of the pump price of every gallon pumped in the USA is taken as tax revenue, more in other parts of the Western world.”
Not certain that stacks up against this afa the UK is concerned:
https://www.racfoundation.org/data/percentage-uk-pump-price-which-is-tax-page
“The science is clear”
Yes it is. There are no adverse trends in any important climate indicators. Mild global warming since the little ice age and increases in life-giving atmospheric CO2 have only positive measurable outcomes we can observe. These include dramatic increases in life in the biosphere, lowering climate related mortality, improving global nutrition, sparing natural lands as industrial agriculture and aquaculture allow much more food to be raised on a shrinking geography, raising standards of living and improving health and longevity while the human population blossomed to over 8 billion.
THERE IS NO CLIMATE EMERGENCY. But there is a CRISIS IN ACADEMIC, POLITICAL AND JOURNALISM INTEGRITY.
When the current interglacial comes to its inevitable end, then there we will face a CLIMATE EMERGENCY, but hopefully will will not have squandered all the abilities given us in an advanced industrial society that would allow us to navigate a return to glacial Earth.
Send money…. during a recession. Got for it so we can watch.
Enough!
If you push something hard enough it will fall over.
Fud’s First Principle
Canada is firmly in the grips of the Schwabian cult. Our dim bulb Primeminister is a true believer in the WEF manifesto but Guilbeault has a long history of environmental terrorism. Unlike the cynical Schwabians, he does really appear to believe in the dangers of the falling sky. A useful idiot indeed.