CFACT has been to 25 of the 28 UN COP conferences.
COP 28 was “a smorgasbord of far Left groups and people who are in the renewable energy industry who have a vested financial interest. Also people with an ideological interest in advancing the climate agenda.”
The post REAL AMERICA — Stella Escobedo W/ Craig Rucker, Analysis Of The COP28 Climate Summit appeared first on CFACT.
From CFACT
From Duggan Flanakin
On their way to sunny Dubai, the private jets of those pretending to care about planetary warming were frozen on glaciated runways.
The planet had to be laughing. It seems the Earth knows it is being used as a fall guy. Just to prove a point – that they are NOT in charge – Mama Gaia threw down the heaviest snowfall in Munich’s memory to show them who’s really boss.
Maybe she has finally grown weary of the luxury liner class who disguise their schemes for world domination with scary scenarios implying that they can “save the planet” if we just give them more power to diminish our lives.
Mind you, this was hardly the first time Mama G has brought the white stuff to embarrass the pseudo-warmists whose every dire climate prediction to date has failed to come true. Frigid weather has greeted climate meetings so often that pundits coined the term “the Gore Effect.”
Politico in 2008 described the Gore Effect as “a global warming-related event or appearance by … Al Gore … [that is] marked by exceedingly cold weather or unseasonably winter weather.”
The article cites as examples the March 2007 Capitol Hill media briefing on a Senate climate bill that was canceled due to a snowstorm; the October 22 (2008) global warming speech by Gore at Harvard University that coincided with near-125-year record-breaking low temperatures; and the marathon British House of Commons debate on global warming a week later during London’s first October snowfall since 1922.
But those three events are, shall we say, just the tip of the iceberg.
Climate Depot has chronicled a much longer list, beginning with a Gore speech decrying global warming during a bitterly cold day in New York City (December 2006). In December 2008, Gore ranted about global warming during a “rare” snowy, cold day in Italy.
Then, on March 1, 2009, the (then) “largest public protest of global warming ever in the U.S.” was literally snowed under in Washington, DC. The snow was so bad that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane (she was to be a speaker) could not land at any local airport. Again, in 2014, yet another global warming hearing in the nation’s capital was stifled by a heavy snowfall.
The Glasgow Climate Summit in 2021 provided the most recent (until now) demonstration of the Gore Effect. The October arrival of Arctic air froze the outdoor climate protestors, while inside, the caviar crowd accomplished literally nothing – but they all ate well, slept in comfort, and re-boarded their private jets.
No wonder, then, that the jet-setters chose the UAE – where it does not snow – to host this year’s charade. But once again, Mama G got the last laugh, though those who know their real agenda are not laughing.
The 2019 report, “The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5 C World,” asserts that to avoid worldwide climate breakdown (more honestly, “to ensure our total dominance over the rest of humanity”), major industries — energy generation, transportation, agriculture, construction, electronics, and clothing and textiles — will have to undergo significant structural changes.
First on the list, brought to us by C40 Cities, is limiting the number of new clothing items we can buy each year — in the name of reducing supply chain waste. A favored remedy involves returning to the “pre-industrial civilization practice of taking 760 hours to make clothing. Only the rich could afford new clothes. Also, say “Goodbye” to clothes dryers – remember those stiff, wind-dried jeans?
C40 Cities also demands we reduce car ownership (easily accomplished by mandating electric vehicles that most cannot afford or do not want) and limiting airplane flights — that can only use biofuels. Worse, biofuel production must be limited to avoid land use conflicts.
The barons also call for barring ordinary people from eating meat and dairy (except laboratory “meat”). Because they believe when people own property they create a multiplier effect on consumption, so only the “wise” elites will be allowed to own anything.
When the climate lords finally arrived in Dubai, to their dismay, they ran into a buzzsaw of opposition, led (to hardly anyone’s surprise) by the host (and Summit president) himself. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber told attendees that there is “no science” behind the global warming campaign.
The UAE’s minister of industry and advanced technology (who later backtracked from his bold statement) added that eliminating fossil fuels would not allow for sustainable growth “unless you want to take the world back into caves.”
Well, that’s pretty close to taking 760 hours to make a suit of clothing. And three billion still live in a pre-industrial world.
A coterie of “scientists and students” demanded that African leaders forego their nations’ bountiful natural resources and rely solely on the long-awaited influx of Western cash to finance wind and solar projects that, at best, would generate intermittent power to the select few.
NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, called this proposed surrender of African sovereignty “a horrible idea.” He took offense at the idea that Western aid gives the West the right to influence domestic African policy decisions. Worse, Western “aid” has all too often made things worse for ordinary Africans.
Another quick response came from the newest developing world spokesperson, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, half-brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Responding to the demand by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a total phaseout of fossil fuels, Prince Abdulaziz said, “Absolutely not.”
To emphasize his point, he said, “I would like to put that challenge for all of those who come out publicly saying we have to (phase down). I’ll give you their name and number. Call them and ask them how they are gonna do that. If they believe that this is the highest moral ground issue, fantastic. Let them do that themselves. And we will see how much they can deliver.”
Prince Abdulaziz, like many in the developing world, has learned the lessons lost on the British and French diplomats who at Munich in 1938 callously allowed Hitler to seize Czechoslovakia without a fight. Their pitiful appeasement gesture at the Munich Conference failed to prevent World War II and led to the genocide of 12 million people (half of them Jews), “Munich” now symbolizes surrender to tyrants.
If these pontificating world leaders and billionaire dilettantes actually believed “global warming” was going to destroy all life on Earth, they would not fly private jets into the desert.
More and more people now realize that the true purpose of restrictions on human freedom has nothing to do with “climate change” and everything to do with depopulation, de-industrialization, and dehumanization.
To truly “save the world,” the Brussels sprouters and their mega-billionaire buddies must be stopped dead in their tracks.
A version of this article originally appeared at Town Hall
In episode #90 of “Climate Change Roundtable,” host Anthony Watts leads a thought-provoking discussion with Heartland experts H. Sterling Burnett and Linnea Lueken on the latest developments from week three of the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Our panel delves into the claim by the COP28 President, who said there is ‘no science’ behind demands for the phase-out of fossil fuels and that doing so would take the world “back into caves.”
The episode also aims to debunk common climate change myths presented at COP28, focusing on a comprehensive understanding of the conference’s implications and strategies. We will compare the fantasy of claims and goals with the reality of the hard data.
Plus, we’ll have Crazy Climate News of the week.
COP28 President and Chief Executive of the UAE state oil company Adnoc, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber let the cat out of the bag this week when he said there was “no science” that says phasing out fossil fuels will achieve a cap on global warming of 1.5°C.
In an interview with the impressively self-important Irish politician Mary Robinson, he demanded to be shown a roadmap for sustainable socioeconomic development “unless you want to take the world back to caves”. You would have had a heart of stone not to enjoy the antics of the BBC green activist-in-chief Justin Rowlatt as he tried to finesse Al-Jaber’s remarks. What a creative chap to write a BBC story about it headed, ‘Is the world about to promise to ditch fossil fuels?‘
Rowlatt claims that the UAE has recognised the world has to kick its addiction to unabated fossil fuels and has decided to put itself decisively on the right side of history by trying to own the decision. “But yes, at the same time it is planning to increase capacity and sell even more oil,” he helpfully added.
Other more realistic interpretations are available. The world will need as much, if not more, fossil fuel in 2050 as it consumes today, and its biggest customers will be those who are too virtuous to drill and frack the hydrocarbons for themselves. As is usually the case, the meek are unlikely to inherit the Earth.
Al-Jaber might have slightly underestimated the type of housing stock available in future ‘Net Zero’ countries – mud and grass huts are suggested in a recent United Nations report, although sustainable caves could occupy a premium niche. With money comes power and all the trophy assets vast wealth can buy.
For instance, by 2050 the Gulf Arabs, along with Saudi Arabia, will be able to buy all the football clubs they want. In the end it might just be easier to relocate the entire English Premier League into state-of-the art, air conditioned local stadiums.
Al-Jaber’s remarks blew holes in a ‘settled’ science narrative that has been carefully curated over decades by collectivists aiming to transform global societies with a Net Zero project.
A bewildered John Kerry, the U.S. presidential climate envoy, suggested the comments may need “clarification” and “maybe just came out wrong”. Kerry’s irritation showed clearly that Al-Jaber had undermined the fixed idea that reducing human-caused carbon dioxide will somehow stop temperature moving around in a chaotic atmosphere.
Despite 50 years of trying, scientists have yet to produce conclusive proof that humans control the climate thermostat. A rival hypothesis that trace gases such as CO2 ‘saturate’ past certain levels and lose much of their warming abilities has the advantage of offering an explanation for the absence of an obvious temperature-CO2 link over the last 600 million years.
For alarmists, Al-Jaber’s linking of his remarks with the 1.5°C limit was very unfortunate. The idea that humans need to cap a rise in global temperature to 1.5°C is an invented number designed to invoke panic and concentrate the political mind. The setting of an arbitrary target is credited to IPCC lead author and former climate adviser to Angela Merkel, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. At first he set the limit at 2°C, and in 2010 he was asked by Der Speigel why he had imposed the “magical limit” to which all countries must adhere. In reply, Schellnhuber said: “Politicians like to have clear targets and a simple number is easier to handle.” The ploy was so successful that it was ratcheted down to a scarier 1.5°C to persuade politicians to sign the Paris climate agreement in 2015.
Again, none of this is based on science. The rise of 1.1°C since the lifting of the Little Ice Age is tiny in climatic terms and to be expected after hundreds of years of slowly declining temperatures. In the cyclical historical record of the last few thousand years, temperatures were similar in Medieval and Roman times, while observational evidence from the mid Holocene suggests large rises of around 3-4°C.
Rowlatt’s copy is of interest since it hints at the dawning realisation that a world without the power provided by hydrocarbons is impossible to achieve. He quotes the new head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Professor Jim Skea who explains that stopping the temperature rise will mean getting rid of unabated coal completely. But, in Skea’s view, the world of Net Zero will still need 40% and 55% of its current oil and gas supplies respectively. Rowlatt picks up on the word ‘abated’, noting that the technology to do that “does not exist at anywhere near the scale needed”. This is the guiding “science” that Al-Jaber is talking about, concludes Rowlatt, at a time when the Gulf States sell huge quantities of oil and gas to power-starved Western countries leading the way to Net Zero.
For some inexplicable reason, Rowlatt fails to channel similar understanding when campaigning to ban fossil fuel exploration in the U.K. And to think of all the jobs and wealth that might have been created if frackers had got on with fracking, while an understanding press praised their scientific credentials and were happy to waffle on about unworkable abatement technologies.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
Global Elites Take Climate Propaganda To A Whole New Level
From The Daily Caller
CONTRIBUTOR
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry is playing defense for the president of this year’s United Nations (UN) climate confab after he contended that there is “no science” behind calls for a fossil fuel phase-out, Politico reported Monday.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the president of the summit, known as COP28, made the remarks in question during a teleconference on Nov. 21, saying that there is “no science” to justify a global fossil fuel phase-out, and that there is no way to eliminate fossil fuels globally while advancing economic development “unless you want to take the world back into caves.” Kerry asserted that Al Jaber’s comments may need “clarification,” or that “maybe it just came out wrong,” according to Politico.
“Look, he’s gotta decide how he wants to phrase it, but the bottom line is this COP needs to be committed to phasing out all unabated fossil fuel,” Kerry told Politico. (RELATED: White House Deploys Kamala Harris To Represent US At Elite Climate Summit: ‘It’s Only Fitting’)
Al Jaber, for his part, has asserted that his remarks were “misrepresented,” according to The Guardian. Regarding the original story reporting Al Jaber’s comments, a representative for COP28 told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Sunday that “we are not sure what this story was supposedly revealing” and that “nothing in it is new or breaking news” while suggesting that media coverage of the comments intends to undermine the conference’s goals.
“I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5 (degrees Celsius)” or less of global warming, Al Jaber said in the Nov. 21 virtual event, according to The Guardian. “Please help me, show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves,” he said to Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during the event.
Prior to the disclosure of his comments, Al Jaber’s presidency had already generated controversy, as he runs the Emirati state-owned renewable firm and the state-owned oil and gas giant. Leaked documents showed that Emirati officials planned to use COP28-related meetings to discuss business related to the two firms with foreign diplomats, and separate documents revealed how the companies considered Kerry as a key reputation-builder in efforts to secure their future financial success.
Despite Al Jaber’s comments and the appearances of potential conflicts of interest, the conference he is overseeing has resulted in several major developments. For example, many of the world’s developed countries, including the U.S., pledged hundreds of millions of dollars combined to a de facto global “climate reparations” fund, and American officials approved a new set of methane regulations that could severely impact the domestic oil and gas industry.
Neither Kerry’s office nor representatives of the UN responded immediately to requests for comment.
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By Peter Murphy
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The biggest UN climate conference of the year did not start off as planned. Prominent figures, conference chairman Sultan Al Jaber, and two well-known U.S. climate leaders spoke way, way past each other.
The Sultan spoke an unvarnished truth (video) that went way beyond the usual group-think so pervasive at these mass climate gatherings when he said:
There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5°C” above preindustrial levels … Show me a roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuels that will allow for sustainable socio-economic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.
That wasn’t in the UN climate script!
Such a high-level proclamation couldn’t be left unchallenged. First up was U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, who pledged to lead all Americans, if not the world, headlong back to the proverbial caves. Kerry announced America would be joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a pact of nearly 60 countries that have promised to accelerate the phasing out of coal-fired power stations. “We will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient communities,” he boasted.
Then Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President and climate pooh-bah emeritus, chimed in. He slammed Sultan Al Jaber, saying his, and the UAE’s, position as overseer of international negotiations on global warming this year was an abuse of public trust. “They are abusing the public’s trust by naming the CEO of one of the largest and least responsible oil companies in the world as head of the COP,” Gore said.
One has to feel for the Sultan, who probably thought chairing the COP meant dealing with business people and reasonable policy experts, not unhinged climate fanatics. He should have known better. CFACT could have told him.
With that backdrop, the conference resumed Monday, and CFACT’s team went straight to work. One UN panel CFACT attended was to “create feasible and just transitions” to achieve carbon “net-zero” by 2050 (or whenever).
It’s all technologically “feasible” to get there, panelists insisted, if only enough countries would do what they are supposed to. The big impediment to net zero, they explained, is “institutional.” Nations just won’t play ball. Among them was the People’s Republic of China, one panelist acknowledged. That was a refreshing change from the usual blind eye climate campaigners point toward China.
One panelist was Isabela Tagomori, who works on integrated assessment of carbon dioxide Removal (CDR) at Utrecht University. Tagomori presented on “just transition scenarios,” which is all about infusing climate “justice” into determining the redistribution of “global carbon budget investments” among nations and communities.
Tagomori outlined multiple scenarios, which she called global “fairness principles” for “distributional justice.” She wants to ensure “well-being among justice communities,” in contrast to economic growth to increase prosperity for people at all income levels. The scenario she leaned toward most was the “egalitarian” approach, that is, wealthy and non-wealthy societies are to be made equal in resources.
During the question-and-answer period, I challenged her on this preferred egalitarian principle and pointed out that conflating redistributing resources among people and nations based on the weather smacked of Marxism.
She countered by saying her organization’s effort was merely to collect “many different (justice) dimensions.” When exposed, climate campaigners retreat to vague, opaque language.
Despite her nimble backpedaling from her egalitarian (i.e. Marxist) principle, it is clear that this panel well illustrated the overall UN climate agenda. Extracting billions, indeed trillions, of dollars from the U.S. and other “wealthy” Western nations (which are drowning in their own debt) to redistribute under the guise of “climate justice” is a central element of the COP28, and past summits. They are counting on politicians to glibly print and spend dollars, and pile more debt on to future generations.
The post UN COP 28 Climate Conference off to bipolar start appeared first on CFACT.
UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’
The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.
Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”. The Guardian has the story.
The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a live online event on 21 November. As well as running Cop28 in Dubai, Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest.
More than 100 countries already support a phase-out of fossil fuels and whether the final Cop28 agreement calls for this or uses weaker language such as “phase-down” is one of the most fiercely fought issues at the summit and may be the key determinant of its success. Deep and rapid cuts are needed to bring fossil fuel emissions to zero and limit fast-worsening climate impacts.
Al Jaber spoke with Robinson at a She Changes Climate event. Robinson said: “We’re in an absolute crisis that is hurting women and children more than anyone … and it’s because we have not yet committed to phasing out fossil fuel. That is the one decision that Cop28 can take and in many ways, because you’re head of Adnoc, you could actually take it with more credibility.”
Al Jaber said: “I accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.”
Robinson challenged him further, saying: “I read that your company is investing in a lot more fossil fuel in the future.” Al Jaber responded: “You’re reading your own media, which is biased and wrong. I am telling you I am the man in charge.”
Al Jaber then said: “Please help me, show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.”
“I don’t think [you] will be able to help solve the climate problem by pointing fingers or contributing to the polarisation and the divide that is already happening in the world. Show me the solutions. Stop the pointing of fingers. Stop it,” Al Jaber said.
Guterres told Cop28 delegates on Friday: “The science is clear: The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe.”
Bill Hare, the chief executive of Climate Analytics, said: “This is an extraordinary, revealing, worrying and belligerent exchange. ‘Sending us back to caves’ is the oldest of fossil fuel industry tropes: it’s verging on climate denial.”
“Al Jaber is asking for a 1.5C roadmap – anyone who cares can find that in the International Energy Agency’s latest net zero emissions scenario, which says there cannot be any new fossil fuel development. The science is absolutely clear [and] that absolutely means a phase-out by mid-century, which will enhance the lives of all of humanity.”
Prof Sir David King, the chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group and a former UK chief scientific adviser, said: “It is incredibly concerning and surprising to hear the Cop28 president defend the use of fossil fuels. It is undeniable that to limit global warming to 1.5C we must all rapidly reduce carbon emissions and phase-out the use of fossil fuels by 2035 at the latest. The alternative is an unmanageable future for humanity.”
Read the full story here.
