There is no shortage of “denialism” among climate alarmists

Baku, Azerbaijan

There is no shortage of contradictions and la-la-land thinking at United Nations’ annual climate summits, and COP29 in Azerbaijan is no exception. Consider just a sampling below, both from news accounts (Part I) and on-the-ground encounters (Part II to follow).

The host country president, Ilham Aliyev, extolled the blessings of oil and gas as a “gift of God,” even as his minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Mukhtar Babayev, also the COP29 President, the day before screamed climate alarm.

Argentina, the world’s eighth largest nation with the 23rd largest economy, on day 3 of COP29, pulled the plug on its participation and ordered its delegates home. Evidently, Argentine President Javier Mileu has had enough of this participatory folly.

Heads of state among the world’s largest nations are eschewing COP29 as well, including China, India, Russia, France, and Germany. They are just not that into it. For the United States, outgoing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, both of whom attended previous COP meetings, were wise to save the jet fuel since both are now lame ducks. Biden’s senior climate fanatic, John Podesta, did show up to reassure the summit that the cause continues in the U.S., tout Biden’s record, and regurgitate junk science; but, he will follow his boss out of power in January.

Much has been written, including by me, about how Donald Trump’s imminent return to the U.S. presidency would cast a dark cloud on this year’s climate summit. No doubt the senior UN bureaucrats and developing nations are concerned about the likelihood the new administration will shut off the climate money spigot.

But, among the 50,000 summit attendees (a figure I heard disputed as too high), the beat nonetheless goes on. Their lives revolve around existential climate change in the bubbles of NGOs, government bureaucracies, media, foundations and universities. It also amazes me how many thousands of people who attend these COP meetings wander the facility or park themselves to look at their phones without bothering to sit through the multiple sessions. And, there will still be billions of dollars made available for climate “mitigation” and “adaption,” so most will stay employed in this lucrative climate industry, even without U.S. taxpayer largess.

That means the ongoing climate denialism of COP29 will continue, that is, denial about the inability of mankind to alter the natural, ongoing vicissitudes of climate change.