Burying lousy climate policies in Warsaw – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 22, 2013)

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Gore in Toronto, chaos in Warsaw, and carbon capture on the ropes

The Al Gore climate parade rolled into Toronto Thursday, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was coming to praise the Ontario Liberal government for its successful relaunch of the province’s giant fleet of nuclear reactors, 4,250-megawatts of carbon-free electricity production. Premier Kathleen Wynne, in comments at an event with the Goracle, also neglected to mention that it is thanks to nuclear power that her government can now go through the charade of proposing a complete ban on the burning of coal. Oh oh. Time for Ontarians to start hoarding charcoal briquettes?

The Gore-Wynne Toronto love-in looked distinctly at odds with the intergovernmental hate-in that is now winding down in Warsaw. In the Polish capital, where the official IPCC gathering of the NGO tribes and state climate negotiators has been underway for two weeks, the climate circus has been reduced to its ugly core, which has little to do with science and everything to do with money and power, with the UN as the ringmaster.

After the abject failure of the Copenhagen conference in 2009, rich countries hypocritically signed on to provide $100-billion annually to “poor” countries by 2020. Now poor countries want their hand outs, and it’s not about mitigation any more, it’s about “compensation” for climate crime.

Rich countries, however, who are still suffering the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis, are refusing to cough up and are ditching the command-and-control plans that were the other pincer of the UN’s planned climate coup.

Canada has been roundly denounced since the Harper government acknowledged that it could not meet its Copenhagen emission targets, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to demonize Canada as a “climate villain.” Japan too has abandoned its commitments. Australia has deep sixed its carbon tax and, along with the U.K., is refusing to pay guilty greengeld. Prime Minister David Cameron, according to recent reports, has privately declared that he wants to “get rid of all the green crap” that is hurting energy consumers and damaging British industry.

Warsaw meanwhile isn’t merely the scene of NGO theatre and Third World negotiators banging shoes on tables or going on hunger strike. It’s also a focus for desperate corporate rent seekers and lobbying organizations who are demanding more hand-outs to support dead-end technologies.

One of the most significant for Canada is carbon capture and storage, CCS. That’s because it was to be the heart of Alberta’s efforts to address the rising emissions from oil sands production.

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