Time to Stop Endangerment of Developing Economies With CO2 Regulation

By Vijay Jayaraj

Imagine the irony of labeling a substance as “hazardous” only to discover that the true peril lies not in the substance but in the act of its vilification. That is the case with carbon dioxide (CO₂) and how it has been mischaracterized to establish globally suicidal energy policies.

In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its Endangerment Finding that declared as a pollutant CO₂ – two pounds of which each of us exhales daily. It laid the bureaucratic groundwork for far-reaching regulations aimed at eliminating the use of fossil fuels, an objective contrary to the societal goods of reliable energy supplies and prosperity.

Holding CO₂ as the dominant factor in a “dangerous” rise in global temperatures in recent decades, the Endangerment Finding transformed without a scientific basis a trace atmospheric gas – essential for photosynthesis and agricultural productivity – into an object of state-sanctioned hostility.

This regulatory corruption marked the beginning of what can only be described as the weaponization of environmental governance against energy systems based on coal, oil and natural gas, which have lifted billions out of poverty since the 19^th century.

However, a July U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) study titled “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” countered this nonsense. Written by a team of independent scientists with diverse backgrounds, the document states that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed, and excessively aggressive mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial.”

Following this comprehensive analysis, EPA Secretary Lee Zeldin proposed that his agency rescind the Endangerment Finding. For anyone following the news, it is already evident that the current U.S. administration has changed the trajectory of energy policy by ditching the destructive anti-fossil fuel stance of the preceding Biden regime. Repeal of the Endangerment Finding could be the death blow for a “green” mania that has cost the world trillions of dollars for no benefit.

The question for developing nations is whether their governments will keep tolerating the CO₂ hysteria that’s choking domestic economies like a boa constrictor. How much longer will poorer countries suffer under climate policies crafted in U.N. offices and imposed on villages without electricity?

Green energy vehicles – like the Paris Agreement and net zero targets – have been promoted in the name of climate virtue but have sabotaged growth, stalled industrial progress and punished the poor. From the reckless scuttling of projects for developing fossil fuel supplies to the puppet-like behavior of lawmakers reciting policies scripted by the United Nations and World Economic Forum, the fingerprints of the green agenda are everywhere.

Among projects that have suffered at the hands of anti-hydrocarbon crusaders are a 1,445-kilometer pipeline to transport crude oil from Uganda to Tanzania, two South African offshore natural gas exploration blocks, a 700-megawatt coal plant in Kenya and a $20 billion liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique.

The price of climate regulations is ruinous. As the DOE report says, the exorbitant costs associated with policies like electric vehicle mandates, renewable energy targets and rules for home appliances drastically exceed even the bogusly inflated “Social Cost of Carbon,” which is promoted by the climate industrial complex as part of its pseudoscience. Green programs are an embarrassing failure of any rational cost-benefit analysis.

With regard to actual pollution in the Third World, the DOE’s latest climate assessment makes a long-overdue distinction that mainstream media and bureaucrats have ignored for years. It rightly points out that CO₂ is not a pollutant in the traditional, legally defined sense: “CO₂ differs in many ways from the so-called Criteria Air Pollutants. It does not affect local air quality and has no human toxicological implications at ambient levels.”

Now is the time for policymakers in developing economies to stop treating plant food as public enemy number one so that their societies can take advantage of energy resources that make economic – and environmental – sense.

Their economies can wait no longer to rescind CO₂-driven restrictions on energy production and use, for they do not have the buffer of affluence enjoyed by wealthier nations. The negative effects of anti-fossil fuel policies are already obvious, and change is required to avoid more damage.

This commentary was first published by Townhall on August 16, 2025.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO₂ Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India.