Dubai, UAE
She came bearing gifts, or at least promises, early in the Christmas season here at the UN climate summit, though not a few attendees would view her as the Grinch.
Of course, we are referring to the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, who flew in and out of Dubai for the opening of the conference, nine time zones from Washington, D.C., using many tons of carbon emissions from Air Force Two. Her mission, which she chose to accept, was to inform the delegates from dozens of participating nations, something she could have Skyped. The Federal Reserve printing presses—computers, actually—will be disbursing another $3 billion for the UN’s Global Climate Fund, she announced.
The Vice President made no mention of printing dollars that don’t exist. But that is how the U.S. government finances about one-third of its annual budget these days, by “borrowing” from the Federal Reserve Bank, which manages the supply of money. On a $34 trillion U.S. debt, what’s another $3 billion?
Nathan Thanki is not impressed. He is the International Project Coordinator for a group called the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which supports banning all new oil and gas exploration. His and many organizations at COP28 were set up to spread the gospel of climate change and the need to keep oil, gas, and coal in the ground, undisturbed, to purportedly save the planet. Living standards and economic betterment take a back seat.
Without new sources of such traditional fuel, I asked Mr. Thanki, whose group was one of dozens set up in booths within the conference “Blue Zone,” how do developing nations mired in poverty advance economically as the U.S. and Western nations have done for decades using oil? “They have to ‘leapfrog’,” he said, to renewable energies. In other words, skip right over expanding fossil fuels and instead develop energy from wind and solar projects.
I then asked the rhetorical question, how is “leapfrogging” oil and gas possible? Mr. Thanki began with the United States, which should bear “the lion’s share” of the expense. Specifically, he was referring to the estimated climate mitigation costs from the latest edition of a report entitled The 2023 Fair Shares Deficit by the Civil Society Equity Review. The report claims at least $100 billion annually is needed for nations to fight climate change, and financial commitments from the U.S. and other European nations fall woefully short by tens of billions of dollars. Even this huge number is “wholly inadequate,” according to the report.
Mr. Thanki and his organization typify a widespread view among organizations and delegates at the COP28 summit that fossil fuels must be sharply curtailed and that the U.S., in particular, is way too stingy on funding the war on climate change. Later that day, there was a modest but loud protest led by activists with Environmental Defence Canada against oil and gas production in the Canadian tar sands, 90 percent of which is exported to the U.S., according to its Associate Director for National Climate, Julia Levin. Since Canadian provinces govern their respective oil and gas development, not the federal government in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nonetheless intends to impose a cap on emissions from such development to the delight of Ms. Levin and her fellow protestors.
Which brings us back to Vice President Harris’ promised $3 billion gift to the UN.
The Global Climate Fund was established in 2010 to redistribute money from wealthier nations, primarily the U.S., to more developing nations to help them “adapt” to climate change, meaning replace oil, gas, and coal with so-called “renewable” energy to reduce carbon emissions. Thus far, the U.S. has contributed $2 billion over a dozen years and now wants to increase its contribution by 50 percent.
There’s a catch, however.
The U.S. Department of Treasury acknowledged at the tail end of its statement issued last week that the Vice President’s pledge “is subject to the availability of funds.” Exactly. The U.S. Constitution stipulates that Congress, not the Executive branch, authorizes spending by the federal government.
At least some members of Congress are in no mood for more spending on almost everything, especially for climate change projects in other nations. But that is tomorrow’s problem for the Biden administration. V.P. Harris got her frequent flier miles, delivered her soundbites, and got her polite applause.
Mission accomplished.