It's Way Past Time To Speak Truth To Climate Arguments This Stupid

The Guardian - Lenore Taylor

It’s clearer than ever the economic interests Trump claims to defend can only be served by acting on global warming

‘To make the ridiculous case that abandoning Paris was good for the US economy, Trump didn’t just have to ignore science, but also the pleading of the US business community.’ Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

For precious decades experts have explained, over and over, that the science of climate change is incontrovertible, the consequences of blindly sticking with fossil fuels catastrophic and the costs of inaction far higher than switching to a low-emissions economy.
But these facts had no impact on the sceptics, who cling to a worldview where they find “alternative facts”, where fossil fuel power is the only path to prosperity and mounting environmental and economic evidence to the contrary is some kind of dastardly leftwing plot.
For Tony Abbott’s economic adviser Maurice Newman, global warming was a “hook” used by the United Nations to impose a new world order in opposition to “capitalism and freedom”. To Donald Trump it is a “hoax” propagated by the Chinese to undermine the US while the rest of the world rolls around laughing.
The only skerrick of positive news from sceptics’ greatest victory yet – the US president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord – is that it seems to have galvanised politicians, scientists, business leaders and economists who have grown weary from all these years talking to the hand.
Because now it is clearer than ever that the economic interests Trump claims to defend can only be served by acting on global warming. It is way past time to speak some more loud, blunt truth to arguments this stupid.
To make the ridiculous case that abandoning Paris was good for the US economy, Trump didn’t just have to ignore science, but also the pleading of the US business community he was purporting to defend – the 630 business leaders who wrote to him in January demanding that he keep Barack Obama’s climate plan and stick with the Paris deal, and the long list of businesses and business leaders who have attacked his decision, including the chief executives of Tesla, Goldman Sachs and Disney and companies including Nike, BP, IBM, Apple, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, Morgan Stanley, Unilever and Mars.
The truth is, he has clear evidence that renewable energy jobs in the US are booming and that his campaign promises on coal industry jobs will be impossible to keep. The contentious job figures he advanced to make his case for abandoning Paris came from a study which made some highly questionable assumptions to reach its conclusions, including that it would “not take into account potential benefits from avoided emissions”.
The real-world evidence is very different. As the director of Climate Analytics, Bill Hare, points out in the Conversation: “The increase in employment in solar energy alone over the past three years is more than twice the total number of jobs in the coalmining industry in the United States (which are declining).”
Meanwhile in Australia, the mind-numbing years of climate “war” have ground us to a policy paralysis.
Malcolm Turnbull dare not make a decisive move lest he startle the sceptics and fossil fuel advocates still lurking in his own party ranks (like the visionary Craig Kelly, chair of the Coalition’s environment committee, who tweeted he had “champagne on ice” in preparation for the Trump announcement, then celebrated it by declaring: “There is a more efficient way to generate energy than using fossil fuels, it’s just that mankind hasn’t yet worked it out yet”).
And so the government continues its zigzag trajectory – quietly searching for a viable policy while periodically veering back to mouth some nonsense to calm the conservatives.
It has reaffirmed its backing for the Paris agreement but still has no policy to meet its commitments and has rejected, for raw political reasons, some of the best options available to the chief scientist, Alan Finkel, who has been charged with finding something resembling a solution.
Turnbull talks with real enthusiasm about the manifold possibilities of renewable power and pumped hydro storage, but then his treasurer fondles coal in question time.
The government carefully floats the idea of a low-emissions energy target – not dissimilar to the existing renewable energy target, which could be reasonable policy but could also be risible if the emissions benchmarks allow it to cover what the minerals’ industry PR likes to refer to as “low-emissions” coal-fired power without insisting its emissions be captured and stored.
It claims to understand the maths of the climate threat confronting the world and then (like Queensland Labor) considers massive taxpayer subsidies to help the enormous new Adani coalmine that would, on its own, contribute 0.5% of all the carbon that can be emitted before the globe exceeds 2C warming when its coal is burned.


Like Trump, politicians tout the Queensland mine as a provider of regional jobs, “tens of thousands” of them, they say, again and again. But to believe that you have to ignore Adani’s own expert witness, who admitted in court the actual jobs figure was just 1,464 direct and indirect positions.
To accept the project’s commercial viability you have to ignore the assessment of the biggest Australian banks, which have concluded they would not lend to a project of this type – or, if you are the resources minister, Matt Canavan, even try to foment a consumer revolt against them for reaching that commercial conclusion.
And to argue this is the best use of a taxpayer subsidy you have to close your eyes to the many thousands of actual jobs governments are, or could be, supporting in the renewable industry in the same general region, projects such as the Whitsunday solar farm, the Longreach solar farm, the Kidston solar farm, the Collinsville solar power station or Telstra’s $100m project announced this week at Emerald.
To insist that coal will play a long-term part in Australia’s new energy generation you have to wilfully ignore the reality of the targets we’ve set ourselves, the ones we say we will stick to, and the plummeting costs of renewables such as solar and wind.
The truth is, we really cannot walk both sides of this street. We’re either on the side of Trump and his sceptics, or on the side of the facts.

Links

• 'Yes or no?' White House won't say if Trump is a climate change denier
• Trump 'believes climate is changing', says UN ambassador Nikki Haley
• Trump just cemented his legacy as America’s worst-ever president
• Trump just passed on the best deal the planet has ever seen
• Australia doesn't need Adani's Carmichael coalmine, Westpac chief says
• The Adani mine is this generation's Franklin River. People power can stop it
• Renewable energy spike led to sharp drop in emissions in Australia, study shows
• Carmichael mine jobs need '21 times the subsidies' of renewables, says lobby group
• Fossil fuel divestment is worth $7tn globally yet Australia still clings to coal
• $1bn for the Adani coalmine? Ordinary Australians understand economics better than Turnbull
• Opposition to public funding for Adani rail link outweighs support, poll finds
• Australia dubbed 'fossil of the day' after lobbying for coal mine at climate talks

Paris Agreement Remains In Australia’s Interest – Australian Climate Roundtable

Climate Institute

The Australian Climate Roundtable has welcomed continued bipartisan commitment to the Paris Agreement.
The Roundtable brings together representatives and advocates for a broad swathe of the community, including:

• Australian Aluminium Council
• Australian Conservation Foundation
• Australian Council of Social Service
• Australian Council of Trade Unions
• Australian Energy Council
• Australian Industry Group
• Business Council of Australia
• Investor Group on Climate Change
• Climate Institute and
• WWF-Australia.

The many sectors of Australia’s economy and society represented by the Australian Climate Roundtable need a climate and energy policy framework that has broad support across the political spectrum and is both scalable and durable.
Ratification of the Paris Agreement supports these shared objectives by demonstrating Australia’s clear commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over time.
The Paris Agreement is a substantial improvement on past agreements because it requires meaningful, transparent and regularly updated commitments to limit emissions from emerging economies like China, as well as from advanced economies like Australia.
The Agreement has attracted strong participation and support worldwide, and is a useful tool to spur and sustain global efforts over coming decades as the world transitions towards net zero emissions. Its success in limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees is firmly in Australia’s interests.
Consistent with the principles and articles of the Agreement the Roundtable also calls for policy that:

• recognises that most countries, including Australia, must eventually reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero;
• prevents the unnecessary loss of competitiveness by Australia’s trade exposed industries;
• delivers investment certainty and supports the efficient deployment of capital;
• provides a credible basis for planning and investment by the energy sector and energy consumers, maintains energy security and avoids sovereign risk;
• does not place unnecessary burdens on business or disadvantage vulnerable workers, households and communities; and
• assists the successful transition of communities that are especially vulnerable to climate change policy.

The 2017 Review of Australia’s Climate Change Policies and the Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market together constitute a vital opportunity to provide a credible basis for planning and investment, particularly by the energy sector and energy consumers; maintain energy security; and avoid sovereign risk.
Failure would see a less efficient transformation, continued investment uncertainty, higher electricity prices and lower international competitiveness.
The ACR urges all governments and all stakeholders not to let this opportunity pass by.
The Australian Climate Roundtable and its members look forward to working with Government and Opposition to implement the policies to achieve any short-term and long-term commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Links

• Fact-Checking President Trump’s Claims On The Paris Climate Change Deal
• French President To U.S. Scientists: Come Work With Us On Climate Change
• Trump Announces U.S. Will Exit Paris Climate Deal
• Climate Pledges Will Fall Short of Needed 2 Degree C Limit
• The World Is Racing To Stop Climate Change. But The Math Still Doesn’t Add Up
• Federal Parliament Yet To Ratify Paris Agreement Ahead Of Marrakech Meeting
• Paris Climate Agreement Enters Into Force: International Experts Respond
• Paris Climate Change Agreement Enters Into Force
• Big Changes Looming Across The World But Australians Could Be Left Behind

Macron Says France, India To Work Together On Climate Change

Bloomberg - Gregory Viscusi

Narendra Modi and Emmanuel Macron on June 3. Jacques Demarthon/AFP via Getty Images

The leaders of France and India pledged to work together to cut carbon emissions, re-affirming their commitments to the Paris accord following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the landmark climate pact.
“In the fight for our planet, we plan to work side-by-side,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday after a meeting in Paris with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While neither leader mentioned Trump by name, both stressed their commitment to the Paris accord which the U.S. president vilified Thursday as being harmful to the American economy. “We have a common responsibility to protect our mother planet,” Modi said.
“We are fully engaged on the political, economic and environmental front,” Modi said. “We are committed to the Paris accord and will continue with the Paris accord, and we will go beyond the Paris accord.”
France is the 17th largest carbon emitter and India is No. 3, according to the European Union. As a whole, the EU would be the third largest, behind the U.S., pushing India to fourth.
Macron said he’d accepted an invitation from Modi to visit India later this year to attend a meeting to promote solar energy.
The two men also pledged to fight terrorism, and to cooperate on energy, transport, industrial and educational projects. After their joint declaration, they went together to a memorial to commemorate Indian soldiers who fought in France in World War I.

Links

• France, India to cooperate in fighting climate change
• Modi says India will go beyond Cop21 after meeting Macron
• India, France to jointly work on climate change, combating
• World pledges to save 'Mother Earth' despite Trump's snub to climate pact