Search Results for “decarbonization”

Biden to further gut U.S. manufacturing! Dept of Energy Divvies Up $6 Billion To Boost ‘Industrial Decarbonization’ – $6 billion in new funding to help ‘decarbonize’ U.S. manufacturing sectors

March 25, 2024

We're saved! Simply by gutting what's left of the US industrial and manufacturing base we can save the planet! DOE Divvies Up $6 Billion To Boost 'Industrial Decarbonization' –The Biden administration, Monday morning, announced $6 billion in new funding to help decarbonize the… — Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) March 25, 2024

Retreat from Net Zero is underway: Around the world, unpopular decarbonization policies are being shelved

February 8, 2024

https://mailchi.mp/51667c079eb7/retreat-from-net-zero-is-underway-200880?e=0b1369f9f8 London, 8 February – A new paper published by Net Zero Watch shows that governments worldwide are starting to ditch decarbonisation policies, as they seek to avoid electoral wipeout. Author Ross Clark shows that the economic pain inflicted by Net Zero policies has now become acute, and that voters are starting to rebel against them: “As you look across Europe, politicians who reject climate alarmism and Net Zero scaremongering are on the rise. The days of green radicalism, and other luxury beliefs, are on the wane. The political landscape will look very different by the end of 2024.” Mr Clark shows that, in the face of voter unrest, targets are being watered down, delayed and discarded, as he catalogues examples from around the world. And he argues that this is the start of a long road back to rational policymaking: “Net Zero was an attempt to defy the laws of physics and thermodynamics. It was irrational and bound to fail. Cannier politicians are starting to see its fatal flaws. The retreat has begun, and will continue inexorably for years to come. It’s now just a question of how long it takes, and how much damage will be done to society before sanity returns.” The Retreat from Net Zero (pdf) Contact Ross Clark e: [email protected]

Recession is good for the Planet! ‘Economic crises’ can accelerate decarbonization – ‘Impact of economic crises…triggers systemic change’

February 23, 2023

https://www.newswise.com/articles/economic-crises-can-accelerate-decarbonization?sc=swhr&xy=10050612 by Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS)-Helmholtz Centre Potsdam Newswise — Crises can accelerate structural change and spur an absolute decoupling of CO2 emissions from economic growth. Countries that have already embarked on an ambitious path towards climate action have proven themselves particularly adept in times of need. “‘Building back better’ is a popular catchphrase in times of crisis, but can it work? In our new study, we explored the impact of economic crises on decarbonization, and showed that although crises do not automatically lead to structural changes and long-term decarbonization, they have played an important role in triggering systemic change. Almost all countries that have peaked their CO2 emissions did so during an economic crisis”, says first author Germán Bersalli from the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam, Germany. Together with colleagues from RIFS and ETH Zurich, he investigated the relationship between emissions peaks and economic crises in the 45 countries that were members of the OECD and the G20 between 1965 and 2019. At least twenty-eight of these countries peaked their emissions over the past fifty years, with 26 doing so just before or during an economic crisis, suggesting that crises have an effect on national decarbonization processes. These include the 1973-75 and 1979-80 oil crises, the collapse of the Soviet Union (1989-91), and the Global Financial Crisis (2007-09). Even when economic activity in these countries picked up again, emissions did not return to their pre-crisis levels. This positive development contrasts with the broader global trend of a steady increase in carbon dioxide emissions over this period, punctuated by small dips during crises. The researchers describe three mechanisms that can spur long-lasting decarbonization processes in the context of economic crises: Energy efficiency measures taken by governments and firms in response to rising energy prices or deteriorating economic conditions. “This mechanism is particularly evident during the oil crises. Countries that peaked during this period – for example, the UK, Germany and France – saw significant improvements in energy intensity. The consumption of expensive imported fuels decreased, and industrial efficiency increased,” says Bersalli. In addition to government actions, companies also responded to crises and triggered new market trends, such as a shift to smaller and more efficient cars in Western Europe during the oil crises. Changes in the economic structure due to the decline of carbon-intensive industries and a post-crisis upturn for less energy-intensive industries. This change is driven by economic and, sometimes, political forces. As economies recover, companies increasingly turn to less energy- or carbon-intensive production lines and facilities, paralleled by an uptick in service sector activities rather than manufacturing. Bersalli cites Spain as a notable example of this phenomenon: “In Spain, among the hardest-hit countries during the Global Financial Crisis and the following Euro crisis, the effects on industry were strong, with the sectoral share of GDP falling from 26 per cent in 2007 to 20 per cent in 2015; the construction industry in particular collapsed and never recovered to pre-crisis levels. Spain’s return to growth unfolded in other, less carbon- and energy-intensive sectors”. Finally, new market conditions or policy changes resulted in changes in the energy mix that reduced CO2 emissions. In the early 1970s, the First Oil Crisis had a lasting impact on the energy mix, especially in Western Europe, where nuclear power was expanded and emerging renewable energy technologies garnered increasing interest. These findings could aid the development of more robust climate action policies, emphasizes co-author Johan Lilliestam (RIFS): “We are also seeing, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, that ambitious climate policies prove effective in times of crisis. Countries leading the transition towards a carbon-neutral energy future have used their recovery packages to invest in green sectors and seized on the opportunity to strengthen their market position in emerging zero-carbon technologies and industries.” This will lead to falling emissions in the long term. The research findings also provide an answer to the much-discussed question of whether “green growth” is possible: an absolute decoupling of growth and emissions can be achieved if economic growth is moderate. Historically, carbon and energy intensity has rarely fallen more than four per cent per year. This is why even the economies that peaked earliest, in the 1970s, still have a long way to go to fully decarbonize. Journal Link: Communications Earth & Environment

How an orgy of green virtue-signaling lined Putin’s pocket: Energy security was sacrificed on the altar of ‘decarbonization’

March 7, 2022

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10584485/How-orgy-green-virtue-signalling-lined-Vladimir-Putins-pocket.html By STEVE HILTON FORMER DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY FOR DAVID CAMERON Europe’s dependence on Russia for around 40 per cent of the continent’s gas supplies isn’t some kind of natural phenomenon; it’s a conscious political choice. As recently as 2010, EU countries actually produced more gas than Russia exported. But, by 2020, the positions had completely reversed, with Russia exporting nearly three times more gas than Europe produced. Why? Because, being in thrall to the green dogma that has captured the Establishment the world over, European countries cut back on fossil-fuel production. Energy security was sacrificed on the altar of ‘decarbonisation’ – even if that meant reducing production and the storage of reliable lower-carbon energy sources such as natural gas, or most preposterously, a policy towards zero-carbon nuclear power, which meant it was completely shut down in Germany and left to atrophy in the UK. Of course none of this is to argue against the environmental cause: After all, I was the author of David Cameron’s ‘Vote Blue Go Green’ message. A sensible environmentalism, with a focus on conservation and a responsibly managed transition to cleaner energy – in particular one that protects consumers from soaring bills – is something most people would support. However, that’s far from what we’ve seen. Instead, politicians from all parties have indulged in an orgy of green virtue-signalling, implementing self-harming, counter-productive policies such as Boris Johnson’s ban on fracking for shale gas, with no serious thought given to the long-term consequences. In truth, it’s even more cynical than that. Desperate to win the plaudits of green activists, these politicians recklessly cut back on their own countries’ energy production and filled the gap not with the much-vaunted ‘wind ‘n solar’ (both are too unreliable), but by importing dirtier fuels from other countries (such as Russia) that are unencumbered by the ‘climate’ zealotry relentlessly pushed by pressure groups and some in the media in the West. Even more embarrassingly for our idiotic establishment, it turns out that those activists and their media campaigns have been funded by – wait for it – Putin! That’s not some wild conspiracy theory: It’s Nato’s view. Former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in 2014: ‘Russia, as part of its sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations – environmental organisations working against shale gas – to maintain dependence on imported Russian gas.’ And, in the same year, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about ‘phony environment groups funded by Russians to stand against’ energy initiatives such as fracking. In sum, Western leaders handed Putin massive geo-political leverage by making their people dependent on his gas – and were responding to activist campaigns that he had partly funded. How utterly perverse! And look where that leaves us today. Even as Putin unleashes hell on innocent Ukrainians; as we witness scenes of inhumanity of a nature and on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War… Putin’s oil and gas now flows uninterrupted to Europe, while £500million flows uninterrupted every day from Europe to Russia to pay for it.

Decarbonization cannot manufacture the products demanded by civilization

December 20, 2021

https://www.cfact.org/2021/12/18/decarbonization-cannot-manufacture-the-products-demanded-by-civilization/ By Ronald Stein As late as the 1800’s, the world was “decarbonized” as there were no coal or natural gas power plants, and what the Beverly Hillbillies situation comedies of the 1960’s theme song called “oil that is, black gold, Texas tea”, had not been discovered as something that could be manufactured into usable products. Before the 1900’s life was hard and dirty, and most people never traveled 100-200 miles from where they were born, and life expectancy was short. Today, crude oil is manufactured into all the products used in the medical industry, fertilizers, electronics and more than 6,000 other products that are the basis of lifestyles and economies. Now, worldwide efforts are in place to have electricity generated by breezes and sunshine to decarbonize the electricity being generated by coal and natural gas. The “other” fossil fuel of crude oil is caught on the chopping block efforts to eliminate ALL 3 fossil fuels, but crude oil is seldom ever used for electricity generation! Saule Omarova, who withdrew as Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency, wants coal, oil, and gas industries ‘to go bankrupt’ is a reflection that she is either oblivious or ignorant to how life and the economies of the world were before 1900. The world had no coal and natural gas generated electricity, nor any of the products, nor fuels manufactured from crude oil needed for airlines, ships, and militaries around the world, as none of those existed before 1900! Had she been confirmed Saule Omarova wanted to push the world back to those decarbonized days of the 1800’s. As environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors climb up the agenda there is a lost reality that the primary usage of crude oil is NOT for the generation of electricity, but to manufacture derivatives and fuels which are the ingredients of everything needed by economies and lifestyles to exist and prosper. Energy realism requires that the legislators, policymakers, and media that demonstrate pervasive ignorance about crude oil usage understand the staggering scale of the decarbonization challenge. The oil that reduced infant mortality, extended longevity to more than 80+ and allowed the world to populate to 8 billion in less than two centuries, is now required to provide the food, medical, and communications to maintain and grow that population. How can world leaders consciously support the demise of crude oil? Just because 2 of the more than 6,000 products manufactured from crude oil are gasoline and diesel fuels for the short-range and light-weight equipment like cars and trucks, why continue to pursue the demise of crude oil? EV technology is making progress to replace those two products from oil. EV owners have demonstrated that their usage of EV’s for approximately 5,000 miles per year represents a real opportunity to meet that short range need with EV’s. What’s the motivation of encouraging deteriorating oil infrastructure that is a guarantee to inflict irreparable harm to the supply chain of crude oil to the 700 refineries worldwide that manufacture oil products for the world’s infrastructures and it’s 8 billion people, as efforts to cease the use of crude oil could be the greatest threat to civilization, not climate change ? The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline increased world emissions, and costs to Americans, as that Canadian crude oil is now being transported to the West coast where it is then shipped hallway around the world to China. After China manufacturers the crude oil into usable products, in a country will significantly less environmental controls that America, those products are then shipped back to America via air polluting ships to West Coast ports, for American consumption. The current passion to implement a world with only intermittent electricity from breezes and sunshine are oblivious to the unintended consequences of a world without crude oil and the manufactured products from that oil. The signatories to the green movement have failed to imagine how life was without the crude oil infrastructure and those products manufactured from oil that did not exist before 1900 when we had: NO medications and medical equipment NO vaccines NO water filtration systems NO sanitation systems NO fertilizers to help feed billions NO pesticides to control locusts and other pests NO communications systems, including cell phones, computers, iPhones, and iPads NO vehicles NO airlines that now move 4 billion people around the world NO cruise ships that now move 25 million passengers around the world NO merchant ships that are moving products throughout the world NO tires for vehicles NO asphalt for roads NO space program. Wind turbines and solar panels may be able to generate intermittent electricity from breezes and sunshine to partially decarbonize the electric grid, but those renewables cannot manufacture any of the derivatives that come from the “black gold” that are the basis of modern society lifestyles and economies. Author Ronald Stein Ron Stein is an engineer who, drawing upon 25 years of project management and business development experience, launched PTS Advance in 1995. He is an author, engineer, and energy expert who writes frequently on issues of energy and economics.

From Covid to climate, UK is handing policy to the unelected – ‘Covid has been chief determinant of economic performance; once post-Covid recovery is underway, however, decarbonization policy will increasingly become biggest constraint on economy’

December 16, 2020

“Being ‘led by the science,’ as Johnson insists that he is, means handing control of policy to the scientists who nominally advise ministers.” https://www.thegwpf.com/rupert-darwall-from-covid-to-climate-the-uk-is-handing-policy-to-the-unelected/ Rupert Darwall: From Covid to climate, the UK is handing policy to the unelectedThe Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) Climate change sees more power being given to the administrative state. Owen Humphreys/PA via AP Boris Johnson looked awful: slumped on the frontbench, he was about to suffer the worst parliamentary revolt of his premiership. It was December 1 – less than a year on from his historic election triumph – and Parliament was debating the reimposition of regional Covid tiers just as England had emerged from a month-long lockdown. The prime minister had been forced into conceding the debate in return for Parliament agreeing to the lockdown, which had been strongly recommended by the government’s scientific advisers, a move that now appears to have been based on erroneous information. If the prime minister had adjusted the tier system, he might have avoided the parliamentary debate that left his authority in tatters, with more than 50 of his Tories voting against the new restrictions. But being “led by the science,” as Johnson insists that he is, means handing control of policy to the scientists who nominally advise ministers. At least, that’s what’s suggested by the A in SAGE, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies. The reality is different. SAGE takes the big Covid policy decisions, and the prime minister rubber stamps them. The result? Humiliation at the hands of his own MPs. Having been fried in the pan of Covid policy, the prime minister is jumping into the fire of climate policy. Only two days later after the parliamentary Covid vote, Johnson announced that he was accelerating the sharpest cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of any G20 nation – upping the current target of a 57% reduction of 1990 levels to 68% by 2030.Through most of this year, Covid has been the chief determinant of economic performance; once the post-Covid recovery is underway, however, decarbonization policy will increasingly become the biggest constraint on the economy. British politicians have been lulled into false optimism by past performance. Between 2008 and 2018, Britain’s emissions fell by 28%, the fastest in the G20. This figure, however, reflects how the UN counts greenhouse gas emissions. The UN tabulates so-called territorial emissions – the annual quantities of greenhouse gases emitted from activities physically in the territory, along with net emissions from agriculture and land-use changes. It excludes emissions embedded in imports, which form part of a nation’s consumption emissions, a definition that offers a better measure of its carbon footprint. Offshoring your manufacturing is one way to make yourself look like a climate hero. In 1990, the UN’s baseline year, the UK’s territorial emissions were 594.1 million metric tons. Its consumption emissions were 656.0 million metric tons – a gap of 61.9 million metric tons. After 1990, the two figures diverged, territorial emissions continuing a downward trend that had persisted for the previous two decades, while consumption emissions rose by 30.7%, peaking at 857.4 million metric tons in 2007 – opening up a colossal 316.6 million metric-ton gap. Since 2007, consumption emissions have started to fall and the gap has narrowed, though by 2015, they had only fallen back to their 1990 level, at 656.6 million metric tons, making Britain one of the world’s highest per capita importers of carbon dioxide emissions. If the UN’s targets were based on consumption emissions, the UK would have recorded a zero percent reduction to 2015. Full Post The post Rupert Darwall: From Covid to climate, the UK is handing policy to the unelected appeared first on The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).SHAREVISIT WEBSITE

New Paper Shows Hidden Cost Of Net-Zero Decarbonization

July 22, 2020

https://climatechangedispatch.com/new-paper-shows-hidden-cost-of-net-zero-decarbonization/ New Paper Shows Hidden Cost Of Net-Zero Decarbonization Climate Change Dispatch / by Dr. Benny Peiser / 5d The UK faces a £200 billion bill to rewire the country if the government follows through on plans to electrify the country’s homes and transport systems. That’s because the installation of electric car chargers and heat pumps will push up demand for power beyond the capacity of the existing wiring. The findings are set out in a new report from the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which is published today. According to author Mike Travers, this will mean that most streets in the UK will need to be dug up (with diesel-driven machinery): “At present, new home car chargers and heat pumps are using up all the spare capacity. But we will soon reach the point where the network will not be able to handle the extra demand. So in towns and cities, the underground cables which carry the power will be inadequate. That means that we are going to have to dig up almost every urban street and many rural ones too. The whole distribution grid is going to need to be replaced.” And the cables that carry power into the homes will need to be dug up too. According to Travers: “The power cables taking electricity into your home probably run underneath your front drive. So if you want a car charger and a heat pump you are going to have to pay to dig it up. If you have an expensive monoblock drive, that will not be cheap. Distribution boards, main fuses, and smart meters in homes are going to have to be upgraded too.” Travers has estimated the cost of all this work at around £200 billion, even before considering the cost caused by the disruption. “Many homeowners will be paying thousands”, he says. Summary Plans to decarbonize the economy will probably require homeowners to install: • heat pumps • electric vehicle charging points • electric showers • other electric devices. The extra demand for electricity will overwhelm most domestic fuses, thus requiring homeowners to install new ones, as well as circuit-breakers and new distribution boards. Most will also have to rewire between their main fuse and the distribution network. In urban areas, where most electrical cabling is underground, this will involve paying for a trench to be dug between the home and the feeder circuits in the street. In addition, increased demand along a street will mean that the distribution network will need to be upgraded too. This will involve installing larger cables and replacing distribution transformers with larger ones. Most urban streets will need to be dug up. In rural areas, where electricity is normally carried on overhead cables, it may be possible to just replace the wires, but it is more likely that cabling will have to be buried instead. The cost to the country of rewiring alone will probably exceed £200 billion, or over £7,000 per household. This figure excludes the cost of new equipment, such as EV chargers, heat pumps, and electric showers. Mike Travers, CEng, MIMechE, FIET is an electrical engineer, whose career spanned periods in the Royal Engineers, in the hydroelectric sector, and industry. His paper is entitled The Hidden Cost of Net Zero: Rewiring the UK and can be downloaded here (pdf) SHAREVISIT WEBSITE

‘Climate swamp’: ‘Green New Deal’ accepts ‘climate junk science’ & seeks decarbonization as national policy

February 16, 2019

http://www.carlineconomics.com/archives/4860 Why the Green New Deal Uses a Particularly Expensive Approach to Not Achieving Its Environmental Objectives By Alan Carlin | February 15, 2019 The Democratic Party continues to rush ever further into the climate swamp. The left wing of the party accepts climate junk science and now wants to implement rapid decarbonization as national policy through a so-called “Green New Deal” (GND). See also here. They have added many non-climate aspects including providing economic security “to all who are unable or unwilling to work.” This post, however, is limited largely to economics. Presumably most readers of this blog understand why I believe that the scientific basis for climate extremism is invalid, and whatever is done under GND will have no significant effect on temperatures even if fully carried out. Using the GND, however, will make decarbonization even more expensive. One of the problems with the GND is that it ignores the huge costs of accelerating changes in the basic equipment used to provide energy. This is very expensive and vital equipment for a modern economy. The problem is that this equipment is very long-lived, and moving to new equipment that can use different technology or different fuels is very expensive. Changes in technology/fuel are much less expensive if implemented gradually so that aged, less useful equipment can be retired when it is near to retirement anyway. But the GND proponents want to do just the opposite: Use the power of government to push change rapidly rather than when the old equipment is about to be retired anyway. If the entire civilian airline fleet must be retired within 10 years and replaced with high-speed trains, the cost will be much higher than if the transition is made gradually as it becomes more obsolete and will need to be replaced anyway. But somehow the GND proponents never seem to have understood this. This particular proposal is lunacy, of course, but making the changes slowly would reduce the cost enormously. Hopefully, the Democratic Party will perceive this reality before they waste ever more of other people’s resources on a decarbonization campaign that we can already say will not accomplish its objectives. They are already bucking history, which has brought about a pronounced shift from lower density, less reliable fuels such as wood and wind to higher density, more reliable fuels like coal, oil, and natural. And they are all for government intervention to bring this about despite the lack of a basis for such intervention. Bucking the trend to higher density, more reliable fuels is a difficult change even for governments to bring about. An additional problem is that economic markets usually make much better decisions on shifting technologies while governments have a rather consistent record of making bad decisions in guessing what the technology/fuel winners will be. So GND is clearly one of the most expensive technology/fuel approaches to implementing decarbonization. Germany has already tried it by more gradually reducing the use of coal and nuclear fuels. and it appears to be a major disaster with sky-high electricity prices and increasingly unreliable energy availability. Why should we repeat their disastrous approach, but in an even more extreme manner? Obviously much better policy would be to eliminate government intervention in the choice of energy technologies and fuels. But since decarbonization will not make any significant difference in temperatures, at least use a more economically rational approach.

Gore calls for centrally planned civilization in San Francisco: ‘We have to make the decarbonization of the global economy the central organizing principle of human civilization’

September 15, 2018

http://www.cfact.org/2018/09/14/gore-calls-for-centrally-organized-civilization-in-san-francisco/ “We have to make the decarbonization of the global economy the central organizing principle of human civilization,” said former Vice President Al Gore at a San Francisco forum organized in conjunction with Governor Brown’s “Global Climate Action Summit.” CFACT is at the summit, where national sovereignty and individual freedom do not seem to part of the conversation. Gore called for the United States to remain subject to the UN’s Paris Climate Accord despite President Trump’s decision to withdraw and President Obama’s failure to submit the “agreement” as a treaty to the Senate for ratification. Gore said that, “under the law the first day that the United States of America could actually leave the Paris agreement is the day after the next presidential election… and under the terms of the treaty if there is a new president… a new president could give thirty days notice and we’re right back in.” Gore never misses a chance to attribute naturally occurring events to global warming and used this forum to attribute both California fires and Hurricane Florence to climate change. Take a look at the graph climate scientist Dr. Roy Spencer posted earlier this week which shows that while the cost of hurricane damage has risen as a result of intense coastal development, hurricane intensity has not. Sorry about the inconvenient facts, Al. ________

Al Gore laments: ‘We’re still not winning’ – We have to make the decarbonization of the global economy the central organizing principle of human civilization’

September 12, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/us/california-today-climate-change-trump.html?mc_cid=f02d77544a&mc_eid=d5e6b5270d On Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown, who is one of the sponsors of the Global Climate Action Summit, signed a bill requiring California’s utilities to get all their electricity from zero-carbon sources by 2045. And former Vice President Al Gore struck a bullish note on the spread of zero-carbon technologies at an event on Tuesday. But he was also blunt about the pace of change. “We’re still not winning,” he said. “We have to make the decarbonization of the global economy the central organizing principle of human civilization.” He spoke in a dark cavernous hall at the Fort Mason Center for the Arts and Culture, surrounded by giant photographs of coal miners and receding glaciers, part of an exhibition organized by the Asia Society.

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