Finance for developing countries, recognition of cumulative emissions, and adaptation, are the three key issues being championed by the 24 states of the Like-Minded Developing Countries. They may cause the end of Boris Johnson’s dreams of glory at Glasgow.
Russia has been careful to maximise Western European dependence on its gas exports, and a Net Zero world advantages China
Non-hydro renewables have indeed become much cheaper when measured by Levelised Cost of Energy, but what matters is the System Levelised Cost of Energy, and when this is considered, renewables cannot compete.”
The EU thus met its Kyoto target with ease – practically before it was set – and it proceeded to assume the high moral ground and lecture those like Australia that had a different set of interests.
Across the globe there are billions of people without access to reliable electricity, who can’t afford the luxury of risking trillions of dollars on unproven technologies to solve a ‘problem’ they otherwise wouldn’t even notice because they are far more concerned with simply trying to survive.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote to every head of state demanding they set out plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This provided the basis for every NGO and state that saw advantage in Net Zero by 2050 to demand that Australia and every other “recalcitrant” state fall into line with something that they never agreed to – and which lacks any sound scientific basis.