Things are worse than we thought. According to United Nations Executive Climate Secretary Simon Stiell, humanity has only two years left “to save the world” and even less time to raise the trillions in funds to head off climate Armageddon.
Stiell says he doesn't want to sound melodramatic.
“We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans now,” Stiell said in a speech in London.
No, we don't have "a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble." That would require forcing China and India — two of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters on the planet — to drastically cut their emissions in line with the United States. That's not going to happen, so Stiell is just blowing smoke.
What he wants is more money. Specifically, he wants money for the Third World slush fund to pay off dictators and tyrants in Africa. The money is supposed to go to "mitigating" the effects of climate change. Good luck with that.
“Every day, finance ministers, CEOs, investors, and development bankers direct trillions of dollars. It’s time to shift those dollars from the energy and infrastructure of the past, towards that of a cleaner, more resilient future,” Stiell said. “And to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable countries benefit.”
Stiell’s speech comes just ahead of meetings of The World Bank and other big multinational development institutions, where poorer nations, led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Kenyan President William Ruto, are pushing for major reforms in the systems that loan money to poor nations, especially those hit by climate-related disasters.
In conjunction with that push, Stiell called for “a quantum leap this year in climate finance.” He called for debt relief for the countries that need it the most, saying they are spending $400 billion on debt financing instead of preparing for and preventing future climate change.
“G20 leadership must be at the core of the solution, as it was during the great financial crisis,” Stiell said.
The real issue is how much the kleptocracies of the world can get by laying a massive guilt trip on the West. The new game is blaming every natural disaster on climate change and getting the rich nations to ante up.
Aside from it being impossible to point to any specific storm or drought as being the result of too much CO2 in the atmosphere, what's not to like?
“Every day, finance ministers, CEOs, investors, and development bankers direct trillions of dollars. It’s time to shift those dollars from the energy and infrastructure of the past, towards that of a cleaner, more resilient future,” Stiell said. “And to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable countries benefit.”
Why should they benefit? They don't produce anything or save anything energy-wise. The only "benefit" they should receive is living in a world made safe from climate change thanks to the West.
Stiell is “absolutely right” that timing and finance are the heart of the matter, said longtime climate analyst Alden Meyer of European think tank E3G. The carbon action plans submitted by next year will “determine whether we can get on the trajectory of sharp emissions reductions needed to avoid much worse climate impacts than those we are already suffering today,” he said.
With so many elections and places where democracies on the brink, “climate finance related to carbon policy is on the line,” said Nancy Lindborg, president of the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, at the Skoll World Forum, an ideas conference in Oxford, England.
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Whenever scientists or politicians start getting super-specific about the number of years we have left to act or we're all dead, I turn over and go back to sleep. No one can know that even if their theories are correct.
In fact, if science can get that specific about the amount of time we have left, it's probably already too late to save humanity and we might as well light the burners, fire up the coal plants, and drill baby drill because there's nothing we can do to save ourselves.
