Copenhagen regarded as failure--but not by all

Lord Monckton in Copenhagen
(courtesy Matthew McDermott)

Observers in the press, both conservative and liberal, appeared this morning to believe that the Fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP-15) will end in failure to produce anything of substance. But at least one other commentator disagrees, and expresses great fear that the Copenhagen confab has indeed achieved something far more substantive, and more dangerous, than most people realize.

Late last night, the USA, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa released a three-page draft agreement (readable here on Scribd via The Guardian). This draft states that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is real, that greenhouse-gas emissions are the primary cause, and that action is necessary to remediate these emissions. It even speaks of the 100-billion-dollar annual fund that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about two days ago. But the document speaks mainly in generalities and has few, if any, specific commitments on anyone's part.

The Guardian (London) published two critical articles, suggesting that a legally binding agreement (which this is not) is "out of reach," and sets targets that The Guardian regards as unacceptably low, and without any enforcement mechanisms for meeting them. The only tangible goal is to continue negotiating for another year--presumably until the Sixteenth Conference of Parties (COP-16), to take place November of 2010 in Mexico City. In summary, The Guardian (as repeated by WattsUpWithThat) specifically regards COP-15 as "a failure."

Gerald Warner, writing in The Telegraph, was even more blunt, scathing, and sarcastic in his dismissal of the draft agreement. He mockingly quoted the leader of Greenpeace International, who had said that the document was "the most important paper in the world." Instead, says Warner, the document "is a glorified UN press release."

Unfortunately, the response of all intelligent people will be to fall about laughing; but it was worth a try--everybody loves a tryer--and the climate alarmists are no longer in a position to pick and choose their tactics.

But boy! Was this crass, or what? The apocalyptic document revealing that even if the Western leaders hand over all the climate Danegeld demanded of them, appropriately at the venue of Copenhagen, the earth will still fry on a 3[K] temperature rise is the latest transparent scare tactic to extort more cash from taxpayers. The danger of this ploy, of course, is that people might say, "If we are going to be chargrilled anyway, what is the point of handing over billions - better to get some serious conspicuous consumption in before the ski slopes turn into saunas."

The world appeared in little danger of that. This year, the ski slopes in the USA are opening early. Furthermore, a dangerous snowstorm now moving up the Eastern Seaboard forced President Barack Obama and several Members of Congress, who had been on hand yesterday, to depart early to avoid being snowed out of Washington. Bitter and dangerously cold weather also plagued the United Kingdom, in apparent defiance of a Met Office forecast issued a year ago that 2009 would be a very hot year.

However, Christopher, Viscount Monckton of Brenchley worries that the draft agreement is far more significant than The Guardian or The Telegraph might suppose. In an interview with Steve Watson at prisonplanet.com, Lord Monckton expressed his concern that the true purpose of COP-15, apart from its announced purpose, was to establish a written framework and funding mechanism for a one-world federation of nations. That goal, says his lordship, was achieved, weak-sounding declarations notwithstanding.

That is the one thing that they are definitely going to succeed in doing here and they will announce that as a victory in itself, and they will be right because that is the one and only single aim of this entire global warming conference, to establish the mechanism, the structure, and above all the funding for a world government.

The $100 billion annual climate-change fund is that funding mechanism, says Lord Monckton. He cited UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's earlier declaration on Wednesday that he expects a formal treaty to be signed in the middle of 2010, and suggested that all the earlier reports of deadlock are a blind to promote complacency on the part of climate-change skeptics and one-world-government opponents.

UPDATE: Lord Monckton has revised his opinion of the so-called "Copenhagen Accord." At about noon EST today he left this statement at the Science and Public Policy Institute site, calling the Accord an utterly toothless document. His analysis is that the UN, not to mention the Climategate-involved scientists, seriously overplayed their hand, and now the people are wise:

Copenhagen was the last-chance saloon not for the planet, which does not need saving, but for the UN’s world-government wannabes. They blew it, big-time, by believing their own overspun propaganda about planetary peril and thinking they had “world leaders” where they wanted them. They overreached themselves, and have paid the price.

Previous articles:

• Carbon-emissions trading might be unworkable
• Copenhagen conference begins today
• Copenhagen conference blows up over leaked draft
• Copenhagen talks suspended
• Copenhagen summit embarrassing and stalling
• Copenhagen conference in deadlock
• China might be queering Copenhagen
• Possible Copenhagen agreement announced
• Who really believes in AGW

Like this article? Want to be notified of more? Click Subscribe, above.