The mad rush to deal with climate change, even if it works (it won’t), has a nasty tradeoff (more global poverty)...
The Wall Street Journal asks Will the World Bank Choose Climate Change Over Poverty?
That should not be a statement, not a question.
Well-off nations seem to have forgotten that while they’re no longer plagued by poverty-related ills such as hunger and illiteracy, most people in the world still are. Increasingly, the Biden administration and leaders of other high-income countries are putting climate policy ahead of these core development issues.
It’s easy to treat reducing carbon output as the world’s priority when your life is comfortable. Things can still be tough for people in high-income countries, but the 16% of the global population who live in those countries don’t routinely go hungry or see their children die.
Much of the rest of the world, however, is still struggling. While conditions vary, across poorer countries five million children die each year before their fifth birthdays and almost a billion people don’t get enough to eat. More than two billion have to cook and keep warm with polluting fuels such as dung and wood, which shortens their lifespans. Although most young kids are in school, education is so dismal that most children in low- and lower-middle-income countries will remain functionally illiterate.
Opportunity is restricted in particular by a lack of the cheap and plentiful energy that allowed rich nations to develop. In Africa, electricity is so rare that total monthly consumption per person is often less than what a single refrigerator uses during that time. This absence of energy access hampers industrialization and growth. Case in point: The rich world on average has 530 tractors per 10,000 acres, while the impoverished parts of Africa have fewer than one.
Efforts to divert development aid to climate policy also smack of hypocrisy. Though rich nations refuse to fund fossil-fuel-related projects abroad—either directly or through international financial institutions—high-income countries still get almost 80% of their energy from fossil fuels. This is in large part because solar and wind power remain intermittent. To make them reliable is expensive, as they require massive backup from batteries or fossil fuels.
A Step in the Right Direction
On September 21, 2023, I commented A Step in the Right Direction: UK Prime Minister Trashes Climate Change Goals
Cheers to UK PM Rishi Sunak for pushing back climate change goals from 2030 to 2035.
The reaction was swift by jet-setter hypocrites like Al Gore and John Kerry.
Gore, now one of the world’s foremost advocates for swift action to avert the climate crisis, told CNN: “I find it shocking and really disappointing … I think he’s done the wrong thing. I’ve heard from many of my friends in the UK including a lot of Conservative party members who have used the phrase, ‘utter disgust’.
Global Elites Took 150+ Private Jets to Fight Climate Change in Davos
Fox News reports Global Elites Took 150+ Private Jets to Fight Climate Change in Davos
Klara Maria Schenk, a campaigner for environmental group Greenpeace International, said in a statement ahead of the conference: “The rich and powerful flock to Davos in ultra-polluting, socially inequitable private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors.”
What About John Kerry?
I’m glad you asked. Please note John Kerry’s Family Private Jet Emitted Over 300 Metric Tons of Carbon Since Biden Took Office.
Also note John Kerry Says We Need “Money, Money, Money, Money” to Combat 1.5 Degrees of Climate Change
JUST IN — WEF2023: John Kerry Says the Only Way to Get to 1.5 Degrees of Global Warming is “Money, Money, Money, Money, Money, Money, Money” pic.twitter.com/60qCo1hVsq
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 17, 2023
CBAM Tax the Poor
To save the world from climate change, the EU Imposes the World’s Largest Carbon Tax Scheme as Inflationary Madness Sets In
An EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be set up to equalise the price of carbon paid for EU products operating under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the one for imported goods. This will be achieved by obliging companies that import into the EU to purchase so-called CBAM certificates to pay the difference between the carbon price paid in the country of production and the price of carbon allowances in the EU ETS.
CBAM will cover iron and steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizers and electricity, as proposed by the Commission, and extended to hydrogen, indirect emissions under certain conditions, certain precursors as well as to some downstream products such as screws and bolts and similar articles of iron or steel.
Spotlight Africa
Let’s tune into a Tweet Thread by Faten Aggad Senior Advisor Climate Diplomacy @AfricanClimateF.
African countries most exposed are both middle-income and low-income countries. #Mozambique, which accounts for 7% of EU's aluminium imports but for which EU exports represent 25% of its export earnings, may lose up to 1% of its GDP according to @CGDev https://t.co/CVw11UyEgb
— Faten Aggad (@fatenaggad) December 13, 2022
The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards
In case you missed it, please consider The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA did an impact assessment of 4 fuel standard proposals and compared them to the cost of doing nothing. Guess what.
The NHTSA conclude: “Net benefits [of stricter mile standards] for passenger cars remain negative across alternatives” vs doing nothing at all.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has concluded Biden’s mileage standards have “Net benefits for passenger cars remain negative across alternatives” vs doing nothing at all.
And to top it EVs don’t do a damn thing for the environment. See Biden’s Solar Push Is Destroying the Desert and Releasing Stored Carbon
It’s easy for hypocrites to trot the world in their jets preaching the world will end if nothing is done.
Meanwhile, Germany has turned to coal while getting rid of nuclear and the US is heavily subsidizing offshore wind farms that are are economically unfeasible even with subsidies. In addition, wind farms kill whales in the process.
Countries in Africa don’t stand a chance. They have no money for anything let alone subsidized wind farms that make no economic sense.
But that is what Biden, AOC, Kerry, Gore, demand.
