The 13th annual global warming alarmism fiesta is well underway in Cancun, but Eric Carlson, president of carbon offset organization Carbonfund (whose corporate partners include Hyundai, Motorola, Volkswagen, Staples, JetBlue, Dell, Virgin America, Avis and Amtrak), wants the United States to just go away:
Carbonfund.org, the leading U.S. nonprofit climate change solutions organization, is calling for the U.S. to stay out of the way of international climate negotiations which began November 29 in Cancun, Mexico. The organization is encouraging participating countries to extend the Kyoto Protocol-set to expire in 2012-or agree on a new emissions reduction treaty without the United States.
“The U.S. has been the 800-pound gorilla in the room at climate negotiations,” (Carlson) said…. “As the largest global emitter per capita with enormous entourages at the meetings, all attention goes toward the U.S. Put simply, the problem is that there are not 67 votes in the U.S. Senate to ratify any climate deal the President might negotiate. It’s like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. The world needs to wise up and move the ball to a different field.”
While the conventional wisdom is that not much can happen in Cancun and beyond without the U.S., Carbonfund.org is urging parties to the treaty to move forward. “There are enough potential carbon buyers in the European Union, Japan, Australia and Canada and enough potential carbon sellers in China, India, Indonesia and Brazil to create a robust carbon reduction pact,” said Carlson. Nearly a hundred other smaller countries could also sign onto a global pact.
Carbonfund.org is calling on other countries to take action now, at a minimum by extending the term of the Kyoto Protocol, or by taking steps to build on the progress of Kyoto and the voluntary carbon markets.
No self-preservation motive there, eh? Meanwhile, Carlson encouraged a transition in strategy to focus on state-level energy rationing schemes:
The work of several U.S. states combating climate change is an example. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a mandatory, market-based effort to reduce emissions from electricity production by 10 northeast states, including New York. California begins regulating carbon in 2012. Taken together, states with active climate programs would rank among the largest five economies of the world.
“The key to solving climate change is making the market transformation from carbon-intensive fossil fuels to zero-emissions clean energy.”
Surprisingly it appears that the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which is a collaboration of some of the largest environmental groups with several large corporations (including Alcoa, Chrysler, Dow Chemical, Duke Energy, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, General Motors, Johnson and Johnson, and PepsiCo), has no interest in what’s happening in Cancun. In fact, it doesn’t look like they have updated their Website since June. No urgings for immediate action. No warnings of impending doom if an agreement is delayed. And surprise, surprise…no concern about sea level rise at the Mexican coastal resort.
It’s clear this isn’t about global temperatures (was it ever?), but instead a command-and-control economy and those who can make lots of money from it. Cap-and-trade is dead, and it appears those who followed the Enron model to the trough have moved on.
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