Justin the heroic warrior for climate

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Nov 21

RE: Canada wanted more ambitious climate plan.  By Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press.  Published in the Hamilton Spectator 1 Nov 21.

A clean-shaven and gleeful looking Justin Trudeau smiles under a headline that says he failed.  But he failed heroically.  He wanted more ambitious language in the G20 final communique on climate, but didn’t get it.  The confab left it to King Canute actually to halt the rise in global temperatures.  President Barack Obama slowed the rise of the oceans and began the healing of the earth, but left the temperature problem to lesser mortals.

Canada couldn’t get more ambitious language into the agreement because Canada doesn’t count.  Any ambitious goal concerning carbon emissions and concomitant rise in global temperatures would have to be achieved by others.  But Trudeau could smile and claim credit for it if they did – he knew they could do it they just tried.  Promising much and leaving it to others to accomplish is a hallmark Trudeau technique.

Canada doesn’t count on climate because it contributes so little to the cause.  Canada contributes 1.5 percent of world CO2 emissions, and ranks 11^th on the list of emitting countries, behind Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, Russia, Indonesia, China, India, and Japan, to name a few.  Most of them don’t care about climate, regarding it as a western fixation.

Western Europe made the mistake of placing itself into the power of Russia, and Russia responded by curtailing exports of natural gas.  To stay warm and keep the lights on this winter, Europe is going to have to burn a lot of coal.

Old fashioned power politics can’t keep Justin from claiming victory, of sorts.

Meanwhile, coal prices remain strong and miners expect to sell out their entire 2022 production.

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