Do ha, so good.

One result of Doha is to allow the dumbest countries on Earth to continue poisoning their economies by extending the pointless Kyoto Protocol (which no longer includes Japan, New Zealand, Russia and Canada, and has never included the US, or any developing countries) until 2020. Even the Kiwis are smart enough to have bailed out, but not Australia, with Greg Combet proudly shackling us to the stern of the Titanic as she sinks beneath the waves.

More important than that is talk of “compensation” for “loss and damage” to developing countries caused by climate change.

As Tim Wilson puts it in The Australian this morning:

Unsurprisingly, developing countries want a blank cheque. Doing so would give life to the comments at the start of the summit from the chief of the UN climate body, Christiana Figueres, that “in the whole climate change process is the complete transformation of the economic structure of the world”.

If anything will ensure failure to secure a new global treaty to cut emissions, it is that statement. But for many countries a “complete transformation of the economic structure of the world” is what they are hoping to achieve with climate change as their Trojan horse. (source)

But once again, the muddled thinking would, if taken to its logical conclusion, result in unintended consequences.

China and India are two of the worlds largest emitters – China is THE largest. So I guess compensation should flow from China and India to, say, Australia, for the costs that we will incur adapting to rising sea levels [allegedly] caused by those emissions? Why should funds flow from Australia to pay countries that emit many, many times more CO2 than Australia?

No wait, they say. You evil developed countries started all this with the Industrial Revolution. Maybe, we say, but there was less than one degree of warming in 150 years. Look at the predictions now – 4 to 6 degrees in just 88 years! Your emissions, developing countries, are swamping everything we did since the 1850s.

The likelihood, of course, is that the compensation won’t actually be for our emissions, but for the behaviour of the Sun, or natural multi-decadal climate cycles, or some other factor the IPCC has missed or ignored, over which we have no control whatsoever, essentially reducing all of this to little more than global wealth distribution.

Carbon-spewing gab-fest

The latest in the merry-go-round of lavish climate talks will take place next month in Doha, and we should thank the Brazilians for making it crystal clear well in advance that there won’t be any progress – just like there hasn’t been any progress at any of the previous gatherings.

With luck, we will be spared all the environmental hand-wringing and preaching that has accompanied every other pointless “save the planet” gab-fest since 1992:

Major emerging economies’ obligations to cut emissions under a climate change agreement should not be the same as those of rich countries, Brazil’s chief negotiator said, signalling a retreat to an old position that has hamstrung years of UN negotiations.

Ambassador Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado told Reuters during last week’s UN General Assembly that Brazil is committed to working toward a global pact to cut emissions in both developed and developing nations as agreed at last year’s climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

But Figueiredo said that agreement should adhere to the UN’s principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities,” a line between developing and developed countries drawn in 1992 that enabled countries such as Brazil, China and India to escape mandatory carbon cuts, which the Durban summit had supposedly eliminated.

“Different countries would have different contributions in this fight against climate change, and these different contributions have to do with a number of factors of national circumstances,” Figueiredo said, referring mainly to the belief that rich countries are responsible for “generating the problem.”

The so-called BASIC bloc (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) i n the UN climate negotiations stressed the point at a joint meeting in Brasilia last week to harmonize their position for the next round of negotiations in Doha, Qatar, which begin next month.

An agreement is to be formalized by 2015 and to take effect by 2020. (Reuters, via SMH)

Ironic that Qatar is the country with the largest per capita emissions on the planet. It also happens to have the largest GDP per capita on the planet. What does that tell you about the effects of plans for “massive emissions cuts” on the global economy?

The COP18 website is here.

They're welcome to it

South Korea will host the COP18 talks in 2012. Of course, by that time, the science of global warming will have been exposed as corrupt and flawed, the general public will realise that the climate system cannot be controlled by the CO2 dial, and hopefully people will have moved on to spending money on actual problems, like alleviating poverty and disease, rather than chasing shadows.

The South Korean President says his country will host global climate meetings in 2012, the last talks before obligations expire under the landmark Kyoto Protocol.

Lee Myung-Bak told Copenhagen that the meeting, known in UN jargon as a Conference of Parties (COP), would take place in South Korea in three years time.

“Korea is ready to contribute in opening up the post-2012 regime by hosting the COP 18 in 2012,” Mr Lee said.

The Kyoto Protocol requires wealthy nations to cut carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for global warming, until the end of 2012.

Nations are negotiating in Copenhagen on what action to take after 2012, but talks are bogged down by disputes with wealthy nations pushing for independent verification of developing state action against climate change.

All I can say is that I hope they’re as successful as COP15.

Read it here.