Climate skeptics and prominent Greenies are in agreement for once: COP 26 is a farce
Climate Depot’s Marc Morano and a contingent of climate skeptics will descend upon the UN climate summit in Glasgow Scotland next week. The climate skeptics will be joining a growing coalition of climate activists who realize that UN summits are meaningless and will support the accurate claims of Schwarzenegger, Greta, Kerry, Hansen and others.
’30 years of blah blah blah’: Thunberg (correctly) questions value of climate talks – Greta: “There is no Planet Blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” … “Net zero, blah, blah, blah. Climate neutral, blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders — words, words that sound great but so far, has led to no action or hopes and dreams. Empty words and promises.”
Schwarzenegger gets it right: ‘Nothing is getting done’ at UN climate summits – Echoes Greta’s ‘Blah Blah Blah’ analysis
Shock graph of rising CO2 emissions despite ‘planet-saving’ UN climate pacts shows ‘farce’ of ‘climate action’
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In Glasgow, the world moves to halt deforestation
I can get with that
Glasgow: Global deforestation would be halted by the end of the decade under a plan to be endorsed by over 100 world leaders on the second day of United Nations climate talks.
Leaders representing land which is home to over 85 per cent of the world’s forests are expected to commit to halting and reversing deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
Among the signers, countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have seen struggled with deforestation for decades. The nonprofit World Resources Institute calculates forests absorb roughly 30 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions.
The deforestation announcement is not part of the formal COP26 negotiations, but reflects the efforts of the UK hosts of the climate talks to use the moment to drive forward a range of initiatives to help tackle climate change through side deals to the talks. Other signers of the pact are expected to be Australia, Canada, Colombia, Russia, and Norway.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made his mantra for action on “coal, cars, cash and trees” central to the Glasgow talks.
The British government’s determination to secure significant side deals is widely seen as part of an effort to ensure that COP26 can succeed in advancing efforts to control climate change even if world leaders gathered here do not commit to the headline emission reductions.
Those reductions are part of the 2015 Paris agreement targets of keeping warming to well below two degrees.
The plan to reverse deforestation is expected to include a commitment of US$12 billion ($16 billion) in public funds from 12 countries between 2021 and 2025 to protect and restore forests, as well as US$7.2 billion of newly-mobilised private investment.
This would include a new US$1.5 billion fund to protect the Congo Basin, which is home to the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world.
Although forests take the emissions out of the atmosphere, this natural climate buffer is rapidly disappearing.
Wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest have hit a record number this year, with 72,843 fires detected so far by Brazil's space research centre INPE, as concerns grow over right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro's environmental policy.
The world lost 258,000 square kilometres of forest in 2020, according to WRI’s deforestation tracking initiative Global Forest Watch, an area larger than the United Kingdom. The Geneva-based World Meteorological Organisation said that parts of the Amazon rainforest have gone from being a carbon “sink” that sucks carbon dioxide from the air to a source of CO2 due to deforestation and reduced humidity in the region.
Monday’s agreement vastly expands a similar commitment made by 40 countries as part of the 2014 New York Declaration of Forests and goes further than ever before in laying out the resources to reach that goal.
Alongside this more than 30 financial institutions with over US$8.7 trillion of global assets – including Aviva, Schroders and Axa – are expected to commit to eliminate investment in activities linked to deforestation.
“Today we celebrate - tomorrow we will start pressing for the deal to be delivered,” said Roberto Waack, a Brazilian business leader and biologist and Chatham House visiting fellow.
“The deal is a significant milestone on the road to protecting our precious forests and tackling the climate crisis.
Executive director of Trillion Trees, a joint venture between BirdLife International, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF, John Lotspeich, said it was “fantastic” that leaders were “finally” addressing deforestation.
“Yes, we must restore forests and plant trees to achieve the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. “But at the same time, if forests continue to disappear at the current catastrophic rate, all this work will be to no avail. And frankly, the silence around the value of intact forests has been deafening.”
The United Nations climate office warned this week that the world remains off target for meeting its goal of cutting emissions as part of international efforts to curb global warming.
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Big business 'sniffs' the green dollar at COP26
Climate change conferences, such as today's COP26, were once the domain of scientists and bureaucrats.
Now, they are increasingly attended by big business delegations eyeing off the "green dollar" — former climate negotiator for Australia, Richie Merzian, calls it a "trade show" for climate change.
It's a sign that climate change is as much an economic challenge as it is a scientific one.
In fact, one of the four goals of Glasgow is "mobilising finance"; $90 trillion is needed for infrastructure to assist the economy to decarbonise by 2030, according to the World Bank.
One of Australia's biggest investors in renewables, Mike Cannon-Brookes, said "$90 trillion is probably an understatement".
"The challenge with Australia's commitments and the promises we are taking to COP26 in Glasgow is that they don't give our economy any stability," he told 7.30.
"There's no legislation, there's no planned interim targets, which means as an investor, you can't be sure what environment you're investing in, which means you're going to need a higher return because the risk is higher, which means the cost of doing business in Australia is going to go up."
COP26 will see an unprecedented showing of corporations, bringing the quality of their commitments — and motives — into sharp focus.
Polluters tackling emissions
Australia's largest independent fossil fuel supplier, Ampol, is switching some of their petrol stations to fast-charging electric vehicle stations, according to CEO Matt Halliday.
"We do view ourselves as a distributor of energy. Over time, we'll be distributing different forms of energy," Mr Halliday told 7.30.
"We're rolling out 121 stations across our network initially, in partnership with ARENA."
Despite Ampol's 1 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year, it is part of a business delegation called the Climate Leaders Coalition — which includes BHP, CBA and Coles — and has sent representatives to Glasgow.
"I don't think it's appropriate to rely on any one group, government or organisation. It's about a coalition working across value chains, working together on policy settings," he said.
The rise of 'greenwashing'
Increasingly, carbon-intensive businesses like Ampol — who pledge to deliver net zero on emissions by 2040 — will come under the microscope.
Critically, Ampol's plan will not deal with "scope 3" emissions — the emissions from customers burning their fuels — according to Richie Merzian.
"Companies will try and greenwash their way into only offsetting the emissions from scope 1 and 2, their domestic emissions," Mr Merzian told 7.30.
"And if you're a major fossil fuel producer, the majority of your emissions are when your goods are burnt.
"We're seeing a rise of greenwashing. We're seeing more junk credits being put on the market and purchased up by big polluters. We're seeing a lot more marketing, and not a lot of action. And that's the real risk."
In Australia, one in five carbon credits generated here could very well be hot air, according to new research by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
However, COP26 will see new commitments from some of the industries hardest to abate.
World's largest cement maker tackles scope 3
Holcim is the world's largest cement and building material producer. It's also a member of US climate envoy John Kerry's First Movers Coalition, a group of emissions intensive industries attending COP26.
Holcim's chief sustainability and innovation officer, Magali Anderson, told 7.30 that the new targets they were taking to COP26 meant they would now reduce their scope 3 emissions — emissions created down their supply chain by customers using their building products — by 90 per cent, a goal endorsed by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).
"Scope 3 emissions represent 20 per cent of our total footprint," Ms Anderson said.
"[For] some companies, it represents 80 to 90 per cent.
"Which means 80 per cent of our emissions are actually under our control.
"Steel and cement are part of this famous 'hard to abate' sector. Myself, I hate this nomination; I love to call it [a] 'full of opportunities' sector, because whenever we reduce, the type of reduction we're going to make will have an enormous impact."
Mr Cannon-Brookes, whose software firm Atlassian also has endorsement from SBTi, said COP26 would bring new promises from the corporate sector, but transparency and governance was required.
"We need to call out and be clear about what people are actually committing to, whether it's an individual, whether it's a business or whether it's a government," he told 7.30.
"When people are making a net zero pledge, we should ask things like, is it legislated? As a government, that's laws, as a business, that's in some sort of actual policies, penalties, incentives, that sort of thing.
"We should ask, does it involve scope 3 emissions?
"None of Australia's policies involve scope 3. Very few of those large, generally fossil fuel-based businesses involves scope 3. That's a really important point."
Attempting to address the authenticity of green investments, the Climate Bonds Initiative is a not-for-profit that developed an accreditation system now adopted by the EU and China — and investors are hungry for ways to 'green up' their portfolios, according to CEO Sean Kidney.
"There is money pouring out of our ears looking for green," he told 7.30.
"In the recent auction, when the European Commission went to market seeking money for its green bond, they were 11 times oversubscribed.
"That means that they placed 12 billion euros a bond. They got 11 times the orders.
"This COP26 will be replete with corporations, with investors, with ministries of finance, not just ministers of climate change.
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South Australia adopts electric vehicle tax, joining New South Wales and Victoria
Many unhappy Greenies
Electric car buyers in South Australia will soon be charged for every kilometre they drive, with the state joining New South Wales and Victoria in adopting electric vehicle taxes.
The new tax will come into effect in July 2027, or when electric vehicles make up 30 per cent of the market, whichever is earliest
South Australia was the first Australian state to propose an electric vehicle (EV) tax in November last year, but delayed the introduction of legislation amid debate and community opposition.
A bill to allow the tax passed South Australia's Legislative Council on Thursday, with SA Best's MLCs Connie Bonaros and Frank Pangallo as well as independent MLC John Darley voting with the government to approve it.
In order to secure its passage, the government offered some short-term sweeteners, including a three-year registration fee exemption for new electric vehicles, and a $3,000 subsidy for the first 7,000 electric vehicles sold.
Those subsidies will not apply for hybrid vehicles, or those priced at more than $68,750.
The bill will also establish a parliamentary committee to examine the rollout of electric vehicles.
The new tax will come into effect in July 2027, or when electric vehicles make up 30 per cent of the market, whichever is earliest.
Owners of plug-in hybrid vehicles will be charged an indexed fee of 2 cents per kilometre, while the owners of any other electric vehicles will be charged an indexed fee of 2.5 cents per kilometre.
The charge will be levied in arrears as part of the vehicle registration process, with the final cost calculated on the distance travelled since the previous registration renewal.
Treasurer Rob Lucas said that, while South Australia was the first to propose the tax, it would not be the last state to enact it.
"Look, I think it's a recognition that this is inevitable," he said. "Sooner rather than later, we're going to be almost 100 per cent electric vehicles on our roads.
"And we're going to have to have a mechanism which funds the maintenance and replacement of our road network, because fuel excise will completely disappear."
Fuel excise is currently charged by the federal government.
Opponents of the new tax said its passage would slow the state's ambition to be a national leader of electric vehicle uptake.
"While statements and goals are good, adequate policy commitments to support the EV sector are now needed," said the Australia Institute's South Australian director, Noah Schultz-Byard.
"Our research shows the EV package in South Australia falls well short of what is being offered by the SA government's Coalition counterparts in New South Wales."
The Labor opposition said the passage of the bill days before the Glasgow Climate Change Conference sent the wrong message.
"This is a state government trying to fix a federal government revenue issue while the planet is literally on the verge of climate catastrophe," Deputy Labor Leader Susan Close said.
"While most of the rest of the world is trying to incentivise take-up of electric cars, Steven Marshall's government has just brought in a big new tax to act as a disincentive.
"Sadly, it seems the reckless climate policies of the Liberals at a federal level are now infecting the Liberals here in SA.
Greens MLC Robert Simms said the vote on the bill was an "embarrassing day for South Australia".
"Much like the Morrison federal government, the Liberals here in South Australia just aren't taking the threat of climate change seriously," Mr Simms said.
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My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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