The UN-sponsored COP28 has broken up, and hundreds of private jets are wending their way back to civilization from Dubai. COP28 was the subject of high drama during its closing days. Some said the conference was a disaster; Al Gore, for example:
COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure. The world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but this obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word. It is even worse than many had feared. It is “Of the Petrostates, By the Petrostates…
— Al Gore (@algore) December 11, 2023
But a new draft agreement surfaced at the last possible moment, and some, at least, hailed it as the dawn of a new green day: “Cop28: second draft text of climate deal calls for ‘transitioning away’ from fossil fuels.” You can easily find more examples of green triumphalism in the press.
But what does the alleged agreement actually say? The agreement is here. You can read it for yourself (good luck) and form your own judgment as to how much difference it will make. Happily, in my opinion, it won’t change a thing. China and India are building hundreds of new coal plants, and they have no intention of stopping. Africans want to get richer, not poorer, so they aren’t going “green” unless massively bribed to do so, and that isn’t happening either.
The COP28 agreement talks about phasing out fossil fuels, the greatest benefactor of humanity in the last 500 years. But that is whistling past the graveyard. No transition to wind and solar energy is happening, or will happen. Fossil fuel consumption hit an all-time high in 2022. Less energy means more poverty, and no one is voting for that. CO2 emissions continue to rise, driven mostly by China, which for some reason gets a pass at these international confabs. If you aren’t talking about China, you aren’t serious:
This chart (both are by Robert Bryce) shows why coal consumption is at an all-time high. It isn’t us, and it isn’t the Europeans:
“Green” advocates (Al Gore is just one among many) are making money hand over fist, as are wind and solar companies whose products couldn’t begin to compete in an open market but are mandated by governments. But the world is never going to switch from reliable, affordable energy to unreliable, grotesquely expensive energy. So the pronouncements of COP28 and the like are headed for history’s dustbin.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.