A Competitive Enterprise Institute update on the international climate conference in Glasgow.
A Competitive Enterprise Institute update on the international climate conference in Glasgow
For the next two weeks, my Competitive Enterprise Institute colleagues and I will be filing brief cables on COP26, the international climate conference being held in Glasgow, Scotland. Below is our first dispatch.
F or the next two weeks, the United Nations will host the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland. My Competitive Enterprise Institute colleagues and I are traveling to Glasgow to attend the second week of the conference and will be filing daily cables to cut through the bureaucratese and give you, gentle reader, a sense of what world leaders are agreeing to in the negotiations and what it’s like to attend an international diplomatic conference. In a normal year, world leaders would join NGO delegates in Glasgow next week in order to wrap up negotiations conducted in this first week, usually dedicated to technical issues. Thanks to COVID concerns, this year world leaders will depart after the first two days, leaving diplomats to haggle about a final agreement. Protests and street theater will continue throughout both weeks. Let’s jump right to the latest from Glasgow.
TL;DR: Lots of talk, no action.
Opening Scenes
Short speeches are the bread and butter of every sophisticated practitioner of political theater. As a result, the first two days of COP26 featured speeches from upward of 120 world leaders. In short, they seem to agree that the time is now for big, decisive, bold action. That is, big, decisive, bold action that won’t hurt them with their local constituencies. Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping skipped the meeting entirely, French president Emmanuel Macron left early, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi arrived a day late, while Japanese prime minister Kishida pledged tribute of $10 billion over five years, and in a COP farewell, German chancellor Angela Merkel pleaded for an international carbon-tax regime. Meanwhile, President Biden — in a strangely relatable moment — was caught napping during the speeches, and host and United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson — the most articulate of the bunch — exhorted that merely talking about this issue would not be enough. He is certainly taken with the role of climate savior. It’s clear that other would-be climate saviors are not impressed.
Today’s Headline
Whether climate is discussed as a matter of domestic or international policy, it is fraught with internal contradictions and tension. The New York Times headlines captures it well — take this, from the front page on November 2: “Even as Biden Pushes Clean Energy, He Seeks More Oil Production.”
What You Won’t Read in the Next Day’s Papers
Despite heavily touting a new pledge by world leaders to end global deforestation by 2030, few papers are likely to note that leaders also pledged in 2014 to end global deforestation by 2020. Meanwhile, studies based on NASA satellite photography show that much of the earth has been greening naturally as a result of higher CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
Headlines also are touting U.S. and European Union pledges to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 from the baseline of 2020 emissions. U.S. special presidential climate envoy John Kerry crowed that more than 100 countries have pledged to the nonbinding agreement. The Environmental Protection Agency simultaneously announced a new rulemaking process to curb methane emissions from natural-gas production and transmission that will raise domestic production costs and thereby add to home heating bills and electric rates.
Today’s Takeaways for Free-Marketers
Despite the endless pledges to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the 400-plus corporate and private jets flying into Glasgow for COP26 suggest that buying shares in Gulfstream, Bombardier, and Cessna may still be a good long-term investment.
Video of the Day
The queen addressed COP26, making an appeal to statesmanship. As the head of state, she, like President Biden, cannot force lawmakers to adopt self-destructive policies. Given the track record of these meetings, let’s not hold our breath.
Recommended Reading
The Wall Street Journal: COP26 Summit: Climate Change’s Real Risks
The UK Daily Telegraph: Revealed: Ursula von der Leyen used private jet to travel just 31 miles
The New York Times: As Demand for Green Energy Grows, Solar Farms Face Local Resistance