Is it too late to nominate someone for the once great Time magazine’s “person of the year” for 2023? Probably.
My own nominee would be Sultan Al Jaber of the United Arab Emirates. For his contribution to climate realism and the utter dissing of the recent COP 28 – we’ve only had twenty-eight? – that he was hosting. To give COP 28 its full and more grandiose title, “the conference of the parties to the UNFCCC”. And boy, what a party they have each and every year, this global caravanserai of the climate gliterati.
Two (for The Guardian, sad) quotes from the great man will suffice:
UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’.
Too true, but decidedly not on-message. And this to complete the entire case against Net Zero rubbish in two short sentences:
… there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C.
No scientific basis for the fear, then, and no joy for anyone in attempting to address it. Better than anyone else this year, the good Sultan has nailed the utter fraud of the climate grifters, over one hundred thousand of whom were gathered in the Emirate for their pre-Christmas, pre-Hanukkah and pre-Festivus pagan weather-festival. Yes, one hundred thousand; this isn’t a misprint.
It gets even better:
Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a live online event on 21 November. As well as running Cop28 in Dubai, Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest.
See what happens when you let an Emirate run a climate conference. At least, unlike the (now former) unspellable Premier of Queensland, he didn’t knock down any iconic sporting stadia to host the thing. I just hope Adnoc shares are doing okay.
And all this from a man whose hosting web site gaily proclaims:
COP28 is where urgency meets hope. Where the gap between ambition and action may be closed - with meaningful, practical and pragmatic solutions. COP28 brings the world together at a pivotal, consequential moment - to shape our collective commitment to climate action and to meet the globally agreed warming limit of 1.5°C. With tangible actions and credible solutions, COP28 can serve as a springboard to fast track the energy transition, fix climate finance, focus on nature, lives and livelihoods and foster a more inclusive process. It’s time to unite, act and deliver.
https://www.cop28.com/en/cop28-presidency
Oops.
The Sultan’s eminently sensible remarks naturally had the climate summiteers wetting their pants. And not in a good way.
The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Verging on climate denial! Gosh. Like Louis in Casablanca, I am shocked! There is a bit of denial going around right about now. 7 October denial, for example. Scientists said? Not real scientists. Just Summit rent-a-crowds who must know in their hearts that they are just there for the business deals, not the “science”. And I won’t even mention the private jets and limos. Hypocrisy is the least of their troubles.
Speaking of Guterres, the former Portuguese politician and career-globalist who has seamlessly moved from refugees to climate lies, he hasn’t had a good few months. Here is just one Wall Street Journal headline:
The Disgrace of the United Nations on Israel.
The Secretary-General abandons Israel, a state the U.N. helped to create.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/antonio-guterres-united-nations-israel-palestine-hamas-gaza-c4adf77a
Yes, Israel is the work of the UN, notwithstanding Lord Balfour’s early twentieth century advocacy and thousands of years of history. It is tempting to say, stick to climate, Antonio. Better still, retire from international jet-set politicking, buy a property in the Algarve and tend your Lavendula.
WSJ continues:
In the ever-expanding hall of shame for propagators of global disorder, prepare a special pedestal for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. His disgraceful remarks Tuesday to the Security Council are an example of why the U.N. can’t be counted on to keep the peace anywhere.
Mr. Guterres’s comments amount to nothing less than an apologia for Hamas terrorists, despite a few thin caveats.
Why on earth would we trust them on climate?
COP 28 had other disappointments, of course.
John Kerry has been accused of farting during his speech at the Cop 28 climate conference.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/john-kerry-appears-fart-during-31601598
Talk about the need to reduce emissions. There was a still higher level of disappointment to come. The leftist from central casting, George Monbiot, sighed:
Cop28 is a farce rigged to fail …
Well, George, why keep having them? John Ellwood at TCW describes COP 28 as:
A woke confederation of grifters, chancers and shysters.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/cop28-a-woke-confederation-of-grifters-chancers-and-shysters/
Just about sums it up. COPs and robbers, as another observer at TCW noted. John’s expose of the sheer extent of the taxpayer funded con job is something to behold. For one, the inter-connections are breathtaking. Public private partnerships, as Klaus Schwab would call them.
But there is a more serious side to this farce. It is no joke, even if it looks like one. James Corbett thinks it the “de facto global government”. And the climate “scientists” don’t just want to write reports. They want to run the whole thing.
Five lead authors of IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] reports told the Guardian that scientists should be given the right to make policy prescriptions and, potentially, to oversee their implementation by the 195 states signed up to the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC).
Will Jones notes:
Scientists at the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have demanded the power to set global climate policy as they despair at the slow pace of climate action.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/12/09/ipcc-scientists-demand-power-to-dictate-global-climate-policy/
Slow pace? The destruction of the global economy feels like it is tracking nicely, from where I sit. On any reckoning, the future is grim already. Letting the IPCC dictate national climate policies would get us to the cliff even faster. And usher in world government.
As to the question, why keep having them, well, let the Fin Review explain:
‘A lot of zeroes’: Why global CEOs flock to COP.
In recent years, a ‘climate Davos’ has emerged on the fringes of COP summits, with companies striking deals, swapping notes and talking to politicians.
They, too, have turned the (climate) Temple into a market place. Crony capitalism. Bloomberg referred to “the summit’s gold-gilded enormity”.
It wasn’t kidding. It makes Ben Hur seem like the local amateur theatre company in a small country town west of the ranges.
I wonder if the COP 28 prostitutes charge any more than the $2500 USD a pop, which was the going rate (so I believe) in Davos. By the way, speaking of woke, I hope they all enjoyed COP 28’s “finance and gender day”.
Sad to see that the local Catholic priest, in accord with Pope Francis’ views, is filling his Advent prayers of the faithful with petitions about COP 28 and the United Nations. On such occasions, it feels more like a meeting of the UN General Assembly than Holy Mass, with the inevitable endless prayers for Middle East peace. As well there might be, save for the minor matter that one side doesn’t want peace, only endless, terrorist war. At least the voice is over.
But at least Team Climate has spiritual support. What with the Sultan’s cold shower pronouncements, they might need it.
Then again, the global boiling emergency brigade will no doubt be hoping and praying for the hottest summer ever down under (that they have been predicting), so that all climate arsonists can get to work again after their two-summer hiatus. For if they don’t keep the extreme weather events going, simply relying on the Bureau of Meteorology and its small-j journalist fraternity for “crazy weather, global weirding” narratives might not be enough to keep us all scared witless.
One question remains. Will Australia score COP 31, now that Turkiye (as we all have to spell Turkey now) is in the race? And will there be an economy left for the prospective mein host, Chris Bowen, to gloat over? The Australia Institute’s Polly Hemming thinks a successful bid by Australia (with other Pacific Nations) would simply be a “greenwash”, since:
While fossil fuels are thriving, the government’s domestic climate initiatives are languishing.
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/australias-greenwash-plan-to-host-cop31/
Languishing? There is just no pleasing the radical class.
They have already won, on this as on so many other issues. Yet they think they keep on losing. Our economy is down the gurgler, we are, to quote the Sultan again, simply reversing gear back to the cave man days, we are covering the continent with wind farms and all the endless infrastructure needed to supply them with power and we are giving $150 million of taxpayer funds to Pacific Island climate “victims”, even though the most famous of them (Tuvalu) is actually growing in size rather than sinking into the sea. We are pursuing “net zero”. We are phasing out cars, even though practically no one is buying EVs and the ones that are having great trouble insuring them. We have Liberal Oppositions “matching” Labor’s commitments to killing the fossil fuel industry. We are spoiling views and probably damaging marine ecosystems along the coast with wind farms at sea. The total Canberra spend on not solving the non-problem?
Budget 2023-24 sets out $4.6 billion in new climate-related spending commitments for climate action out to 30 June 2030. This is further to the $24.9 billion of climate-related spending committed in the October 2022–23 Budget.
What else does Polly want, I wonder? A cracker, perhaps.
Paul Collits
10 December 2023
What great remarks from the Sultan. Hot air from everyone else.
Sorry, slightly off topic, but only slightly. Our not so revered Premier, Anathesia Pieceoshit, has joined her fellow rats departing the sinking raft. But only after waiting for the increase in parliamentarians salaries. Good for the final payout on defined benefit super, you see. This, after stating categorically about a week ago that she was not going anywhere. Pants on fire as well.
I guess she will join her colleague Anna Bligh on the private director gravy train but nothing so downmarket as representing bankers, of course.
I wonder when the scumbag Chief Health Officer she appointed Governor will get the message and go for a swim ?