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…Obama administration pondering new carbon emission pledge in wake of Warsaw climate change conference
…Warsaw Climate Talks Likely to End with Disappointment for Warmists
…Dem Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: Climate Change Will Ruin Our Family Ski Trips, Stadiums Will Flood, Hockey Ponds Will Melt
…Major setback for Germany’s global warming lobby: Merkel’s new government set to scrap the flight tax
Major setback for Germany’s global warming lobby: Merkel’s new government set to scrap the flight tax
http://newnostradamusofthenorth.blogspot.com/2013/11/major-setback-for-germanys-global.html
Another major setback for Germany’s global warming establishment: The soon to be formed new CDU-SDP government is set to scrap the useless and costly air passenger duty: Members of the transport group decided on Thursday during coalition talks between Chancellor Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) to abolish air passenger duty, which applies to departures from German airports, the Bild newspaper reported. But the final decision on whether or not the duty is scrapped will fall to party leaders and depend on the SPD and Merkel’s conservative bloc forming a coalition government. Negotiations are still ongoing. The tax was introduced in Germany two years ago but the parties believe that it is costing the country more money than it brings in as passengers are put off flying from German airports by the high cost of travel. If the duty is abolished, ticket prices would be reduced by €7.50 on short-haul journeys, €23.43 on medium-haul and slashed on long-haul flights by €42.18, the Bild said. — The tax was also seen as an important move by environmental groups to make flying more expensive. When the German parliament took the decision to introduce the tax in November 2010, a statement from Bund, Germany’s branch of Friends of the Earth, called it “one of the few measures for more climate protection in the transport industry.”
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Walter Russell Mead: Climate Talks Hit A New Low
Walter Russell Mead: Climate Talks Hit A New Low
http://www.thegwpf.org/walter-russell-mead-climate-talks-hit/
This year’s global climate summit talks in Warsaw are set to come to a close later this week, and yet again it looks like nothing lasting will come of them. But even by the annual UN summit’s own dismal standard, this round has been particularly dysfunctional.
First, Poland set the tone by scheduling a coal conference in town at the same time as the climate conference proceedings were set to happen. Then, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk sent an unmistakeable message to the greens: he replaced his environmental minister, Marin Korolec, who was chairing the talks, with Maciej Grabowski, a former deputy finance minister who has been an outspoken proponent of shale gas in Poland . The newly powerless Mr. Korolec, however, was still tasked with presiding over the climate talks.
But the fun didn’t end there. Green groups, fed up with the lack of progress in negotiating a Global Climate Treaty, walked outin protest for the first time in the UN climate talks’ nearly two-decade history. And it wasn’t just greens stamping their feet in frustration. A bloc of developing nations known as the Group of 77 walked out with China early yesterday morning over a lack of progress on negotiating so-called “loss and damage” provisions—compensations for damages from bigger storms, higher seas, and longer droughts.
Greens are going to walk (or fly, as the case may be) away from Warsaw bitterly disappointed. But this summit, like the ones before it, was doomed from the beginning. Divvying up responsibility for climate change is an impossibly difficult task, and even if the world could agree on who owed what to whom, without some kind of binding enforcement mechanism, the agreement would be about as effective as the Kellogg-Briand pact.
Some parts of the world—America being one example—are figuring out ways to keep growing while limiting the environmental fallout. The Poles, for their part, are on the right track with their desire to develop their shale gas resources—something sullen greens ought to be applauding rather than scorning. Environmental ministers would do better encouraging efficiency and talking up technological progress in their own countries rather than wasting everyone’s time at these increasingly irrelevant summits.
Via Meadia, 21 November 2013
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