India & Developing Nations Defeat Obama’s Green Agenda

Fresh from India’s “success” at the Nairobi environment conference, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said the country has decided to “reposition” its role in the global stage on climate change issues by intensely “lobbying” for a “good strategic relationship” with like-minded nations on the matter. He said India lobbied with Arab countries, G-77 plus China and BRICS to defeat the US position that Rio principles should not be made part of its final outcome document. “In negotiations, we were active this time. America was saying don’t refer to Kyoto Protocol, CBDR, Rio principles. We resisted that…we lobbied…all Arab countries, BRICS, G-77 plus China…all came together to oppose America’s position and ultimately Rio principles were part of the final outcome document,” he said. --Times of India, 30 June 2014

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The November election [in the US] will be played out along all the usual social memes – from gay marriage, racism and immigration to the “war against women.” But what may determine the outcome revolves around one key economic issue: energy. The energy issue has become in our era what tariffs were in the 19th century: an increasingly insurmountable partition that separates Americans by region and class and which, ultimately, touches on the long-term economic trajectory of the country. --Joel Kotkin, Orange County Register, 30 June 2014 For years, I took energy for granted. There’s no telling how many times I walked into my office, flipped a light switch, and powered up a PC without thinking at all about the magic of getting electricity any time I wanted it. But then I started traveling to poor and middle-income countries, and I had a very different experience. According to the United Nations, some 1.4 billion people have no access to electricity, and a billion more only have access to unreliable electricity networks. That’s why I think any anti-poverty agenda has to look at giving more people access to affordable energy. In the rich world, we are right to worry about conserving energy, but in poor places, people need more energy. --Bill Gates, GatesNotes, 25 June 2014

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Consumer energy bills will rise in order to pay retainers to dozens of power stations to guarantee they are available to keep the lights on, ministers have announced. It hopes the scheme will keep existing gas and coal power plants from mothballing and encourage the construction of dozens of new gas plants by helping to guarantee their profitability. Building new gas plants is otherwise unattractive, because as Britain builds more wind farms, gas plants may only run for short periods of time when the wind isn’t blowing. Analyst Peter Atherton at Liberum Capital said that total payments to energy companies under the scheme could be in the region of £1.6bn, implying payments of at least £20 per household. --Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph, 1 July 2014 Around 400 jobs are to go at the Tata steelmaking plant in Port Talbot, the company has announced. Chief executive Karl Koehler said the changes were vital if the company was to remain competitive. He pointed to the UK's high business rates and "uncompetitive" energy costs as factors in the decision. --BBC News, 1 July 2014 Al Gore, the world’s most famous global warming guru, last week meddled in Australian climate politics to the undisclosed benefit of his business partners, and against the interests of Australians. Clive Palmer presented Gore at a press conference called to announce he would help the Abbott Government axe the carbon tax. Why had Gore blessed Palmer’s climate vandalism? Was he tricked? Paid? Why did Gore agree to this stunt? Gore is a co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management which “participates” in Australia’s $1 trillion Investor Group on Climate Change. --Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 30 June 2014

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