CLIMATE BANDITS FALL TO INFIGHTING

BY STEVEN HAYWARD IN CLIMATE

As we’ve pointed out here many times, developing nations that need a lot of cheap, abundant energy have resisted the demands of the climatistas that they agree to be poor forever, or subsist on the equivalent of an energy starvation diet, which is what some obscure UN forecasts actually assume. But developing countries are usually willing to go along with international charades so long as they are given wealth transfers from the developing world. Easier to fill up your Swiss bank account that way.

Hence, the Paris Climate Accord, building in previous pledges, promised $100 billion a yearin “climate assistance” through a UN-run “Green Climate Fund.” The Paris Climate Accord never specified which nation should pay, or how much, but you can guess who most people want to write the big checks. And guess what Trump has said? Actually you don’t need to guess at all.

Well guess what? Hardly anybody is coughing up the promised cash—certainly nowhere near the amounts promised. And so we get headlines like this:

Board Meeting Turns ‘Toxic’ as UN Climate Fund Runs Low

Disputes between rich and poor nations at the UN’s flagship climate fund are intensifying as the money runs low.

A meeting of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) board in Songdo started unevenly on Sunday, as co-chair Paul Oquist was detained by political turmoil in Nicaragua, leaving Sweden’s Lennart Båge to run the session single-handed.

With developing countries complaining their priorities were not properly represented, it took nearly two days to agree on the agenda for the meeting. “I have never served on a board that is this dysfunctional and toxic in my life,” said US representative Geoffrey Okamoto, as the discussion dragged on.

In the context of Donald Trump’s US cutting off contributions to the fund, however, Okamoto’s comment rankled with some. “It is typical playing to the crowd,” said Zaheer Fakir, who represents South Africa. “The reason why it is dysfunctional and toxic is the way [the co-chairs] prepared for this board meeting.” . . .

The barely veiled hostilities come as the fund faces a cash crunch. It has $2.8 billion left to allocate from its start-up donations. Projects up for consideration on Wednesday would claim $1bn of that.

As well as the US withholding $2bn of its pledge, the pot has lost some $1bn in value due to exchange rate fluctuations since 2014, officials reported. . .  Trump’s refusal to contribute has driven a wedge between other wealthy countries and the developing world, which still expects governments to fulfil a collective promise to deliver $100bn climate aid a year by 2020, partly through the GCF.

UPDATE from today:

UN’s Green Climate Fund at ‘Low Point’ After Director Resigns

The head of the Green Climate Fund, set up by the United Nations in the fight against global warming, stepped down abruptly after less than two years on the job, leaving the organization’s future in doubt.

Howard Bamsey, an Australian diplomat who served as the GCF’s executive director since January 2017, resigned after a “difficult” meeting in which no new projects were approved, according to a statement released after the gathering in Songdo, South Korea.

Sometimes you just have to take the sweet with the sweet.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/07/climate-bandits-fall-to-infighting.php