From article John Kerry: Putin’s Useful Climate Idiot. Rupert Darwall. March 03, 2022
Vladimir
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine marks the end of the West’s Era of Illusions.
It
was an era in which Western elites
obsessed about solving climate change
because the climate crisis was far more dangerous than issues of war and peace and the stability of the
international system.
They
even convinced themselves climate change causes war, so climate change policy
could double as national security policy.
For
many years, the annual round of kumbaya UN climate talks was the apogee of
international relations.
…
In a
BBC World Service interview, presidential climate envoy John Kerry expressed
concern about the amount of greenhouse gas being emitted from the war in
Ukraine.
Kerry
was just getting warmed up with a string of platitudes that show him as a
deluded climate relic, unable to come to terms with the reality Putin has
imposed on the world.
“Equally
importantly,” Kerry complained, “you’re going to lose people’s focus,” as if the first invasion of a sovereign
European country since the Second World War is an annoying distraction.
Hopefully,
Kerry continued, Putin would realize Russia’s land is thawing, and the people
of Russia are at risk.
…
Kerry
concluded with an expression of pure self-deception, saying he hopes Putin
“will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the
climate.”
Stay
on track? Russia has never hidden its
intention to avoid cutting its emissions.
Russia’s
second Nationally Determined Contribution, submitted in November 2020 under the
Paris climate agreement, is to limit its 2030 emissions to “no more than 70% of
1990 levels.”
The
document is careful to avoid pledging to cut or reduce emissions.
…
The
1990 baseline year was the last one before the collapse of the highly
inefficient and heavily polluting centrally planned Soviet economy.
Thus,
the 70% limit actually enables Russia to
increase its emissions by 34% – and that’s before taking account of any
changes in forestry and land use that would allow Russia to claim credit for
negative emissions.
…
Despite
Kerry’s claim about the thawing of their frozen north, Russians’ indifference
to climate change predates Putin’s rise to power.
During
preparation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) first
assessment report in 1990, Soviet
scientists argued warming might be beneficial at northern latitudes.
Yuri
Izrael, the Soviet academician and chair of the IPCC’s working group examining
potential impacts of global warming, emphasized the doubt and uncertainty of
climate change and disputed claims it would be harmful.
…
At a
2005 conference on avoiding dangerous climate change organized by Britain
during its G-8 presidency, Putin’s former economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov,
challenged the premise of the conference.
“Anyone
who is frightened about the prospect of global warming is welcome to come and
live in Siberia,” Illarionov told a journalist.
Indeed,
a strong case can be made Russian
climate scientists have a better understanding of climate science and
the likely impact of rising levels of carbon dioxide on global temperatures
than their colleagues in the West.
…
Two
years ago, at a business conference in Moscow, the Russian president denounced
fracking as “barbaric,” claiming fracking technologies “destroy the
environment.”
A
January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian activities in U.S.
elections noted that RT, the Russian state-owned news channel, ran
anti-fracking programming that highlighted the alleged environmental and public
health harms of the practice.
“This
is likely reflective of the Russian Government’s concern about the impact of fracking and US natural gas
production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to the
Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom’s
profitability,” the assessment concluded.
…
Putin
understands the importance of energy as an essential component of American
strategic power. John Kerry does not.
That
is why, to borrow from Lenin, Kerry acts as Putin’s useful climate idiot.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine plunges the world into its gravest emergency since
the Cuban missile crisis sixty years ago.
The Ukraine crisis puts into perspective the
folly of those, like Kerry, who confuse imaginary crises with real ones.
(end
of article)
… …
“The
impact of fracking and US natural gas production on the global energy market
and the potential challenges to the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom’s
profitability.”
Russia
funds West European Green groups that fight against fracking and shale oil, forcing
governments to hold down oil production in Europe.
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