OPINION:
The world’s elite boarded their Gulfstream private jets in a sour mood last Friday as they left COP29 empty-handed.
“COP29” refers to the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It’s a grandiose title global diplomatic delegations came up with to describe their annual luxury vacation to an exotic destination.
This time, the climate mandarins landed in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they could relax in $1,000-a-night hotels after a hard afternoon’s work pondering how best to persuade the public to accept austerity measures in the name of saving the planet.
The event lost a bit of its cachet earlier this month with the election of former President Donald Trump, who had no interest in joining. Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, took note and ordered his country’s delegation to withdraw in solidarity with the incoming U.S. leader.
On the bright side, conference organizers were thrilled that the Taliban sent a formal delegation to request a generous infusion of international money because their country has been a victim of climate change.
“We appeal to the U.N., major global powers, wealthy nations and those whose greenhouse gas emissions have impacted our environment, to assist us in preserving our environment and in providing better services to the Afghan people,” the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister said last week.
Unfortunately for the terror-friendly regime trying to go mainstream, things didn’t proceed as planned. Afghanistan won’t share the expected $1.3 trillion in climate reparations from developed nations — that is, primarily from American taxpayers — for use on green projects. Those troublesome American voters are replacing President Biden with someone far less compliant.
Mr. Trump explained in 2022 that the world’s self-proclaimed experts have a century-long history of making alarming predictions that never come true. Every few decades, the “science” does a 180 and the goalposts are moved.
“If you look into the 1920s, they were talking about a global freezing, OK?” he said. “In other words, the globe was going to freeze. And then they go global warming. Then they couldn’t use that because the temperatures were actually quite cool. … So, now they just talk about climate change. The climate’s always been changing.”
Mr. Trump’s 2017 withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement signaled the planet’s deepest pockets wouldn’t play along with future climate fundraising drives. To save face, the conference moved the fundraising goalpost after “48 hours of intensive diplomacy,” claiming they were going to gather the cash “by 2035.”
It’s a symbolic pledge that will be forgotten a decade from now, as it should be.
The sole purpose of working the public into a frenzy about climatic catastrophe is to generate momentum for windmill and solar panel projects that are highly profitable for those who have made the right investments.
Others with a genuine concern about the environment will direct their attention toward natural gas or nuclear power, which generate reliable electricity without sending any debris into the atmosphere. As a bonus, these power sources don’t slaughter birds, annoy whales or incinerate insects the way the green alternatives do.
But you won’t hear anything about nuclear power at the U.N. Climate Change Conference next year. The event will be held in Belem, Brazil, a thriving metropolis of 1.3 million people on the edge of the Amazon jungle.
Attendees will have to start making their reservations soon, before all the five-star hotels are booked.
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