Copenhagen conference—follow the money

The Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, formerly known as Global Warming, is over. The private jets have all gone, the rented limousines are sitting idle and President Obama, along with his enormous entourage of environmentalists and politicians have returned to Washington. Tons of man-made CO₂ is the only thing left from the big  two-week long powwow that was supposed to come up with a way of “saving the planet” by limiting man-made carbon dioxide.

The accord between the 192 countries involved in this conference wasn’t achieved. They only managed to pass a motion, sort of a target deal aimed at limiting temperature rises to less than 2C, which was agreed to by the US and four other large-scale “polluting” countries.  

The blame for failure to come up with a workable basis for a treaty was summed up by Ed Miliband, the British Climate Change Secretary. He said that "developing countries, including China, didn’t want to sign up to legally binding targets". The world’s biggest emitter, China has made plain from the start that it has no intention of doing anything that would negatively impact its economy. The Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister said his government would consider action “that is not intrusive and that does not infringe on China’s sovereignty.” To me that means, it will allow no inspections. With no inspections, China will do nothing to change the status quo.

It may come as a surprise to most folks who think this conference was all about climate and “Global Warming,” to learn that it was actually about money. Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez (Climatologist?)  spoke at the conference and told attendees that the agenda is not to reverse the “warming” of the planet, but rather, it is to squash the free market economy wherever it exits, and to re-distribute the world’s wealth. Perhaps he was there to collect his share. The Chicago Tribune reported on Obama’s visit to Copenhagen and his attempt to convince the delegates to come to some sort of agreement, “…Activists and diplomats in Copenhagen say Obama could nevertheless help break the negotiating impasse, particularly if he commits to a set dollar figure on a shared financial aid package from wealthy nations to developing ones, to help the poorer countries adapt to climate change. More than anything, Copenhagen participants say, Obama must tell world leaders that he will push hard for a climate bill in the spring, in time to have a law in place for a potential follow-up summit six months from now…”

The agreement the “poorer” countries came away with is a commitment from the “richer” nations to contribute to the Climate Fund. These nations expect to receive a share of up to $100 billion in foreign aid by 2020, with the U.S. contributing the lion's share. The money will be divided between the various despots, dictators and military juntas running these nations. From past experience with such arrangements, the funds mostly disappear into Swiss bank accounts or go for beefing up the military, thus keeping the dictators in power.

Apparently China will get a share of the $100 billion. We’re borrowing money from China to keep us out of bankruptcy, and then we’re paying them to clean up CO₂ in the air? It doesn’t make much sense does it? The Wall Street Journal commented on China, “We can't wait to hear Mr. Obama tell Americans that he wants them to pay higher taxes so the U.S. can pay China to become more energy efficient and thus more economically competitive.”  I expect the president to call a press conference to announce that he solved the world’s problems while in Copenhagen, and insist on interrupting our prime TV time to do it.