Tony Blair is to lead a new international team to tackle the intractable problem of securing a global deal on climate change which would have the backing of China and America.
March 2008
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso vowed on Thursday to defend industry threatened by competition from countries with lower environmental standards if international climate change talks fail.
Brussels EU leaders clashed last night over how to cut greenhouse gases a year after making climate change their top priority with a series of tough targets.
Do cold and snowy winters lead to “snow rage”? So says the police spokesperson in Quebec, where winter has been bad this year, leading to more violence:
Quebec City police said they had been called to a dozen violent disputes about snow from one property ending up on someone else’s. The drifts outside some houses are 12 feet and higher.
. . .
Police in the French-speaking province of Quebec said on Wednesday that people were fighting over snow clearing and even parking spaces.
Recent Canadian winters have been mild but this one looks set to break all-time records for snow. One storm last weekend dumped 23 inches on the capital Ottawa and 19 inches on Quebec City, which has already received 210 inches this year.
Global warming catastrophists constantly point to the dire effects of a warmer planet and push for carbon taxes or other schemes to raise the costs of fuel. But, tragically, bitter cold, blizzards, snow, ice, and sleet usually take a higher toll. And the elderly, who may not be able to afford fuel, often suffer the most.
The Europeans are threatening to impose tariffs on the U.S. if it fails to knuckle under and accept some international climate regulatory system–undoubtedly drafted to favor the Europeans. Reports the Times of London:
America and China face trade protection measures from Europe if they fail to join a global climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, EU leaders will caution at their summit in Brussels today.
Nations that refuse to curb greenhouse gases will be told that they face “appropriate measures” — code for trade sanctions — if they try to gain a competitive advantage by continuing to allow cheap, high-pollution production.
EU leaders are particularly concerned to try to stop big companies relocating from Europe to countries that refuse to join a post-2012 climate change agreement in order to avoid the EU’s tough CO2 targets.
I don’t normally advocate threatening trade retaliation, but Washington needs to make clear that the U.S. won’t accept trade protectionism under the guise of climate protection.
Somebody, somewhere will have to pay for California's landmark law that would force dramatic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020. Two years on, it's not much clearer who.
State lawmakers last week expressed frustration with a proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would further defer that decision.
The chief executive of General Electric has emerged as one of the most outspoken advocates of government caps on carbon emissions. But it’s not that visions of saving the planet are filling his “Ecomagination,” nor has he given up on Hayek. In transforming one of the world’s biggest companies into a clean-tech juggernaut, he just smells the chance to make a lot of money—if the U.S. doesn’t miss the train altogether.
Despite next year’s projected $8 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is so intent on implementing costly regulations and mandates to “fight global warming” that he now wants to borrow money to pay for the crusade. This is bad policy on at least two fronts.
Even Sacramento Democrats see the danger in resorting to another ill-conceived fiscal fix by borrowing $67 million over two years from the state’s beverage container recycling fund, which is supposed to repay consumers who recycle bottles and cans. The loan would be repaid with interest.
“What if consumers could reduce carbon emissions by simply choosing one product over another at their local store? With a carbon label – similar to a nutrition label for the environment – we could all be armed with enough information to make a difference, not through regulation or taxation, but through the power of consumer choice.”
I have introduced a bill that will provide Californians with the information necessary to voluntarily reduce global warming pollution through consumer purchasing power.
A new study has found that California wildfires emit more greenhouse gases than previously believed largely through the post-fire decay of dead wood, a finding that is raising questions about how effective the state's forests are at storing carbon and slowing global warming. "No matter what anybody does in California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as long as these forests are burning, they are wasting their time," Bonnicksen said.
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