While reps from European countries are in Durban demanding we go green, CO2 Handel here reports that the very same governments are cutting back on “climate protection” investments. That makes Durban a farce.
According to a report called Durban Dynamics: Navigating for progress on climate change“, by consultancy Ernst & Young, governments around the world are drastically cutting back their investments in climate protection. In the worst case up to $45 billion are planned to be cut from environmental protection measures. The reason they say is the global financial mess.
Now if these investments were truly as lucrative as many like to claim they are, why on Earth would they cut back on them? The answer is obvious: That green energy is lucrative is a lie. It’s been a scam from the first day.
CO2 Handel writes:
If one sums up the already decided savings measures, then a you get a cut of $22.5 billion. ‘If the debt crisis continues to escalate and countries should then become forced to pass additional comprehensive savings measures, then in the worst case that number may double.’ said Peter Nolden, Partner at Ernst & Young.
Strangely, the lion’s share of these cuts is taking place in Europe, the very continent that constantly preaches the global warming doctrine and insists the rest of the world do as it says. Germany already plans $2 billion less investment in “climate change fighting” projects by 2015. Bankrupt Spain, once a champion in solar energy, is cutting back a whopping $5.1 billion and Great Britain will cut back $4.2.
If push comes to shove (and with the financial situation progressing as it is, that’s very likely) then “the German government in the worst case will cut $8.3 billion in climate costs,” writes CO2 Handel. Other countries to make cuts: USA $6.4 billion and Japan $6.1 billion.
I financial crisis means that fiscal discipline needs to be exercised. Of course you cut out what is wasteful. Do you think the greens have ever wondered why Europe and the US find themselves flat broke? Refusing to heed reality has something to do with that.
“Do you think the greens have ever wondered why Europe and the US finds itself in broke?”
I recently found an interview with top Green Trittin, the shadow finance minister (God help us)… he said that debt is immoral because it forces future generations to pay it back (think of the children!), and that having no debt is therefore an arch-green principle. He wants to raise the taxes for the wealthy (no surprise there) and pay back the debt.
So, the answer from the Greens is: US and Europe are broke because the wealthy didn’t pay enough taxes. Uneconomic green projects are of course not to blame.
Pierre, you can’t reach them with economics; the Greens are even more disconnected from economic reality than communists; communists at least understood the importance of industry. The Greens are kind of the return of communism without an economic theory. The communist theory is false, but at least it was an attempt at a theory. The Greens have none, only wishful thinking.
But it gets even worse. The new protest party, the Pirates, don’t even want to talk about the economy – they say it is not necessary to have a suggestion for every area that a government has to cover to be a political movement…
Somehow, the spectrum of leftist parties in Germany goes from bad to worse.
“Flat broke” usually means not having any money. I believe the US is now borrowing about 37 cents of each dollar spent just to pay interest on its existing debt. The deficits are accumulating so rapidly that the amount sought in reductions by the “failed” super committee were nothing more than smoke and mirrors or spitting in the ocean. Getting back to just “flat broke” would be a major achievement worth celebrating.
“Strangely, the lion’s share of these cuts is taking place in Europe, the very continent that constantly preaches the global warming doctrine and insists the rest of the world do as it says”
I liken the EU funding withdrawal to a swan gliding serenely and photogenically across a pond; but with the webbed feet below the surface paddling furiously in the opposite direction.
The Pirates, of course, are the 19th century’s “No Nothing” Americans redux, in a funny outfit – they derive from Peter Pan’s Lost Boys and Gilbert & Sulliven (and, given their Swedish origins, Pippi Longstocking too), proudly flouncing their ignorance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHwH9MUjvOQ&feature=related
(Then again, maybe their real inspiration comes from Johnny Depp, based on a certain fun ride in Florida – built by a Large Corporation That Famously Does Not Care About Copyright Infringements Or Filthy Lucre.) (The real pirates – the Spanish Main & all that – knew at least were the wealth they plundered came from.)
Most of the communist supporters (and their brown counterparts) were always just as ignorant about economics: they were content to parrot the current party line about exploitation, oligarchy & the inevitable downfall of capitalism and leave the fabrication of the appropriate sound bites to a few privileged (and equally clueless) party lickspittles like Jürgen Kuczynski – or just quote Holy Writ from Marx to Mao at random.
Dear Pierre, could you please translate for us the essential points of the fascinating story in Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,796623,00.html
http://www.klimastorch.de/klimastorch/urteil.rahmstorf-vs.meichsner.pdf
about Stefan Rahmstorf of RealClimate who is a convicted liar now? If you do, will you let me know on my blog? You may also guest blog on TRF, to say the least.
Best wishes
Lubos
This is – basically – the NoTricksZone story about a journalist daring to defend herself against Rahmstorf:
German State Court Orders Stefan Rahmstorf To Cease And Desist “Violating Journalist’s Personal Rights”
By P Gosselin on 7. November 2011
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,796623,00.html
“01.12.2011 Verurteilter Forscher – Eklat um Klimaberater der Bundesregierung
Von Jana Hauschild”
But now it has got to Spiegel online. Does anyone else get the feeling that the scare and the tale-spinning is over?
Hi Lubos, Will take a look – stay tuned!
Vestas wind turbine tube stuck on the Autobahn. Photo.
http://regionales.t-online.de/schwertransporter-steckt-in-autobahnkreuz-fest/id_51976810/index
A Chevy Volt caught fire on a parking lot three weeks after being subjected to side impact crash test. Sort of like a rolling time bomb after you had an accident. All hail electromobility. Give me internal combustion engines or give me Death. Sure will! 😉
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/chevy-volt-fire-prompts-federal-investigation-into-lithium-ion-batteries/