No Way to Reduce Emissions in Norway

Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

Pledges are nice for organizations like public television and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, but until the promises are actually fulfilled with checks, they are meaningless.

The global warming panic community is beginning to learn this lesson the hard way, as the New York Times reports that Norway's promise to be "carbon neutral" by 2030 is empty:

But as the details of the plan have emerged, environmental groups and politicians — who applaud Norway’s impulse — say the feat relies too heavily on sleight-of-hand accounting and huge donations to environmental projects abroad (rent-seeking, anyone?), rather than meaningful emissions reductions.

 

That criticism has not only set off anguished soul-searching here, but may also come as a cold slap to the many countries, companies, cities and universities that have lined up to replicate Norway’s example of becoming carbon neutral — with an environmental balance sheet showing that they absorb as much carbon dioxide as they emit.

Reminds me of a quote from Tad Aburn, director of the Air and Radiation Management Division in the Maryland Department of the Environment, after his state's climate commission announced they had similar carbon-reduction aspirations (90 percent below 1990 levels by 2050): "“If you asked me right now, how are you going to do it? What exactly are you going to do? The answer is, I don’t know.”