By Paul Homewood
Well worth reading this by Rupert Darwell:
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine marked the end of the Western Era of Illusion. It was an era when Western elites were obsessed with tackling climate change because the climate crisis was far more dangerous than the problems of war, peace, and system stability. international. They even convince themselves that climate change causes war, so climate change policy can double as national security policy; and for many years, the United Nations annual round of climate talks in kumbaya was an opportunity for international relations.
In a BBC World Service interviewPresidential climate envoy John Kerry expressed concern about greenhouse gas emissions from the war in Ukraine. Kerry is just warming up to a string of perfections that show him as a climactic relic, unable to face the reality that Putin has imposed on the world. “Equally important,” complained Kerry, “you lose focus,” as if the first invasion of a sovereign European nation since World War II was an annoying distraction. Hopefully, Kerry continued, Putin will realize that Russia’s land is thawing, and the Russian people are at risk.
Kerry concluded with an expression of self-deception, saying he hoped Putin “will get us on track on what we need to do for the climate.” Going in the right direction? Russia has never hidden its intention to avoid cutting emissions. Russian Monday Contribution is determined by the country, filed in November 2020 under the Paris climate agreement, which aims to limit emissions in 2030 to “no more than 70% of 1990 levels”. Document carefully to avoid committing to cutting or reducing emissions. The base year 1990 was the last year before the collapse of the centrally planned economy in the inefficient and heavily polluting Soviet Union. Thus, the 70% cap actually allows Russia to increase its emissions by 34% – and that is before accounting for any changes in land use and forestry that could allow Russia to claim credit for negative emissions.
Despite Kerry’s claims about the thaw of their frozen north, the Russians’ indifference to climate change before Putin came to power. During the preparation of the first assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1990, Soviet scientists argued that warming could be beneficial in northern latitudes North. Yuri Izrael, Soviet academician and chair of the IPCC working group examining the potential effects of global warming, emphasized the doubt and uncertainty of climate change and countered that it will be harmful.
At a 2005 conference on avoiding dangerous climate change hosted by Britain during the G-8 presidency, Putin’s former economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, challenged the conference’s premise. Illarionov told a journalist: “Anyone who fears the prospect of global warming is welcome to come and live in Siberia.
Full story this.
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