While many global warming skeptics are calling the newly-signed United Nations climate deal a “paper tiger,” at least one prominent skeptic is warning the deal could set the stage for a new “bureaucratic behemoth.”
“This agreement will not meaningfully alter the temperature of the Earth, even under the U.N.’s own computer models,” writes Craig Rucker, executive director of the conservative group Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).
“The bad news is that it plants the seeds of a new UN climate regime that left unchecked will swell into a bureaucratic behemoth,” Rucker warns.
On Saturday, nearly 200 countries signed a U.N. deal to cut global carbon dioxide emissions and keep projected warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. The U.N. agreement, however, is based completely on voluntary actions from individual countries — countries like China and India have made no firm commitments to cut emissions.
“The good news is that the agreement’s soft commitments, lack of penalties for noncompliance, and long dates buy time for more scientific data to come in,” Rucker writes. “The more scientific evidence we examine, the weaker the case for economy-wrecking global warming policies becomes.”
While the core of the agreement is completely non-binding, news reports indicate other parts of the agreement are legally-binding. The Wall Street Journal reports the “main body of the Paris Agreement, including the temperature targets and regular reviews, are binding under international law.”
This was intentionally done so President Barack Obama would not have to send any agreement he signs in Paris to a Republican-controlled Senate — where any Obama-backed treaty will surely be voted down.
Environmentalists also see the Paris agreement as the first step on the road to “decarbonizing” the world’s energy supply. Activists believe the current framework will allow delegates at future U.N. climate summits to push others to ratchet down their emissions even more. Delegates already plan on using this “ratcheting mechanism” to get countries like China and India to play ball on global warming.
“In Paris, the human race joined together in a common cause, but what is really important is what countries do after this,” Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, tells USA Today. “All eyes will be watching because this deal on its own won’t dig us out of the hole we’re in. But it makes the sides of the hole less steep.”
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