Fossil Fuels Winning! (COP 24’s back-door reality show)

The United Nations’ climate-change Conference of Parties (COP 24), held in Katowice, Poland last month, was another show of fossil-fuel dominance. “Many of the attendees at this year’s United Nations climate talks,” wrote Brad Plumer in the New York Times,

expressed disappointment at what they saw as half measures to deal with a mounting climate crisis. Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising around the world, and millions of people are facing increased risks from severe droughts, floods and wildfires….

Harsh political realities were acknowledged by Plumer, who tried to put the best face on things:

In some countries, political obstacles to climate action are mounting…. [I]nside the union, discussions over a more ambitious climate target have dragged on, in part because Britain is distracted by Brexit; France is struggling with “Yellow Vests” protests; and Germany is grappling with its own difficulties in phasing out coal.

“We can’t ignore that there are a lot of headwinds,” said Laurence Tubiana, France’s former climate change envoy and a key architect of the Paris agreement.

With the difficult issues punted to next year’s climate conference, the death rattle is on regarding the Paris climate accord, not unlike the fate of the still-barely-breathing Kyoto climate accord of 1997.

The mainstream media could not gloss over the fact that the climate crusade is being crushed by economic and political reality, proving the lie of the impending competitiveness of (on grid) solar power, wind power, and electric vehicles (SWEV) despite disproportionate government subsidies and utility favor. 

Some quotations from the mainstream media on the sorry. comical state of international climate negotiations follow:

“Trump Imperils the Planet” (New York Times: December 26, 2018)

“[COP 24] was a hugely dispiriting event and a fitting coda to one of the most discouraging years in recent memory for anyone who cares about the health of the planet — a year marked by President Trump’s destructive, retrograde policies, by backsliding among big nations, by fresh data showing that carbon dioxide emissions are still going up, by ever more ominous signs (devastating wildfires and floods, frightening scientific reports) of what a future of unchecked greenhouse gas emissions is likely to bring.

The conference itself showcased the very fossil fuels that scientists and most sentient people agree the world must rapidly wean itself from. Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, set the tone by declaring he had no intention of abandoning coal, which provides nearly four-fifths of Poland’s electricity. The United States and three other major oil producers — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia — refused to endorse an alarming report issued in October by the United Nations scientific panel on climate change calling for swift reductions in fossil fuel use by 2030 to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, which it said were approaching much faster than anyone had thought.”

“How Close are We to Peak Emissions” (CNN: December 3, 2018)

According to the UN Emissions Gap Report 2018, published last week, “global greenhouse gas emissions show no signs of peaking.” Total annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reached a record high in 2017.

“Playing Host to Climate Conference, Poland Promotes Coal” (New York Times: December 4, 2018)

As thousands of environmental experts from around the world arrived for a conference on climate change, hoping to find a way to stem the damage caused by burning fossil fuels, their Polish hosts arranged for a band to greet them.

The Polish Coal Miners Band, dressed in smart black uniforms and wearing traditional miners’ caps, struck up a tune as confused-looking delegates arrived at the convention center in Katowice, a city in the heart of southern Poland’s coal mining country.

Coal was proudly displayed in cases around the convention pavilions. Coal, fashioned into jewelry, was for sale. A coal-based cosmetics company even touted products that it claimed would treat both “body and soul.”

The message of the host country was not subtle. Coal, known as black gold here, is king. And while Poland was happy to host the United Nations’ 24th annual climate change conference, that was not about to change.

“There is no plan today to fully give up on coal,” President Andrzej Duda said in his opening remarks on Monday. “Experts point out that our supplies run for another 200 years, and it would be hard not to use them.” It was an inauspicious start to a conference that already faced steep challenges in trying to come up with meaningful agreements on the issue of global warming.

“UN Climate Conference Features Meat (and Emissions) Heavy Menu” (Reuters: 12/3/2018)

“Eat less meat” has become a mantra of climate change activists, but there’s plenty of meat on the menu at the COP24…. At COP24, however, attendees will be offered cheeseburgers, gnocchi with parmesan and Parma ham, and beef with smoked bacon, notes the Center for Biological Diversity, Farm Forward and Brighter Green. In their analysis, the menu from the 12-day conference could emit about the same amount of greenhouse gases as burning 500,000 gallons of gasoline, if all the attendees chose meat-based dishes at the site’s largest food court….

“The menu on offer appears to completely ignore the climate,” said Fabrice DeClerck, Science Director at EAT, in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. Reducing meat consumption, he continued, is “the single biggest food system change that can be made in support of climate.”

“The meat-laden menu at COP24 is an insult to the work of the conference,” said Stephanie Feldstein, director of the Population and Sustainability program at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a press release. “If the world leaders gathering in Poland hope to address the climate crisis, they need to tackle overconsumption of meat and dairy, starting with what’s on their own plates.”