If one could be safe judging by appearances, the news out of Copenhagen appears hopeful. The chaos which chewed up several days of the climate change conference has exposed some of the root problems of the entire venture. With the “Climategate” scandal once again raising fundamental questions about the "science" behind the theory of manmade climate change, the Copenhagen conference ought to be (with apologies to Shakespeare) an occasion not to praise the theory, but to bury it.

According to the official conference website, Australian PM Kevin Rudd is among those worrying over the prospects for success:

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday urged world leaders to be more flexible as a consensus looks difficult to achieve. Otherwise, the global climate summit is at risk of "failure", the Prime Minister told Sky News, according to Channel NewsAsia.

"I think... to land a strong agreement in Copenhagen we are going to have to see more compromise all round - from the big developed economies as well as the emerging economies... We've got a lot of work ahead of us," the Prime Minister said.

Of course, Rudd couldn’t even get his own Parliament to support his position on Copenhagen: Despite the Prime Minister’s pontificating, the Australian Senate rejected the version of “cap and trade” which Rudd had been pushing. It raises the question: Why should the world follow Rudd’s lead if his own government won’t?

After all the pre-Copenhagen posturing about wealth transfers, delegations from the developed nations suddenly found themselves cast as parsimonious by the Third World delegations which came to the conference looking for easy money. UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon wants at least $100 billion a year in commitments from the First World, but it is hard to see where that money is going to come from, unless Obama turns Copenhagen into the next TARP-scale giveaway. According to CBC News:

Leaders of the countries of the European Union agreed Friday to contribute 7.2 billion euros ($11.14 billion Cdn) over the next three years to help poorer countries grapple with global warming.

Following two days of difficult negotiations in Brussels, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said that all 27 EU members will contribute to the short-term fund.

The U.K. promised $650 million each year, and said it wants to push that figure, and the EU total, higher next week at the Copenhagen climate summit.

France and Germany said they would contribute $622 million each year.

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said EU nations need to work together to provide the finances so that developing counties can change their policies

"There's never been any doubt that we would have to put up some money from the richest countries," he said.

EU leaders could not come to an agreement on a firm figure for the fund on Thursday, and worked through the night to strike a deal.

The EU leaders also said they would cut their emissions by 30 per cent from 1990 levels, by 2020. However, they said they would only keep that commitment if other polluting countries make similar pledges.

In other words, the EU is hoping that the U.S. will hold out and take the blame for "failure" at Copenhagen so that the Europeans will have had the "feel-good" moment of publicly committing to such reckless action, without actually having to commit economic suicide. The notion that the EU would only commit to roughly 10 percent of the pre-conference goal for wealth transfers to the Third World is further proof that it is more fun to talk about solving the climate change problem than to actually pick up the tab.

Much is being made of the so-called tensions between the United States and China; at present, it is the central element of the soap opera of mutual recriminations being played out in Denmark. According to The New York Times,

Negotiators for the United States and China have been trading public accusations in recent days and making little progress in negotiations on the critical issue of treaty compliance.

Chinese negotiators have said little during formal negotiation sessions here, where they have been working in partnership with the developing countries. They have made clear that they do not expect money from the industrial powers to help make the shift to a more energy-efficient economy.

But they will not accept any outside monitors to ensure that they are indeed making the changes that they have promised to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants emitted per unit of economic output.

“I think there’s no doubt that China, when it says 40 to 45 percent reduction in energy intensity, is serious about that,” said Ed Miliband, the British secretary of state for energy and climate change. The more challenging hurdle, he said, is finding a way that China can prove to the outside world that it is reducing its emissions by the amount it claims.

He Yafei, the Chinese vice foreign minister, said China’s laws would guarantee compliance.

“This is a matter of principle,” even if it scuttles the talks, he said in an interview with The Financial Times.

Cue the laugh track. Without more context, it is hard to tell whether Miliband’s comments are sharply ironic or painfully naïve (one might expect either — or both — from someone speaking on behalf of the UK). But He Yafei’s deadpan comedy is a hoot! “China’s laws would guarantee compliance.... This is a matter of principle.” Talk about a line which creepily evokes decades of Communist reign of terror with a "principled" commitment to unaccountability. And the world, not getting the joke, will probably give in to China’s demands.

If European realists are hoping for an American “bailout” in one form or another — either by paying an enormous portion of the bill, or by bringing the conference to a dead end — they might get their wish, but it is more likely that the Candidate-in-Chief will be trying to  pay for his Nobel with our money. The seeming-standstill in Copenhagen appears to be good news, but do not be surprised by "sudden" compromises which "save" the conference. The world won't be safe until the delegates have returned home having taken no action.

Rt. Rev. James Heiser has served as Pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Malone, Texas, while maintaining his responsibilities as publisher of Repristination Press, which he established in 1993 to publish academic and popular theological books to serve the Lutheran Church.  Heiser has also served since 2005 as the Dean of Missions for The Augustana Ministerium and in 2006 was called to serve as Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA). An advocate of manned space exploration, Heiser serves on the Steering Committee of the Mars Society. His publications include two books; The Office of the Ministry in N. Hunnius' Epitome Credendorum (1996) and A Shining City on a Higher Hill: Christianity and the Next New World (2006), as well as dozens of journal articles and book reviews.

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rprew said:

	It's NOT about the climate... It's all about the redistribution of wealth... ... primarily into the hands of the internationalists... ..., i.e., CONTROL!
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December 15, 2009
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Pat Henry said:

no trust, verify and yet verification in the hands of communists is also laughable, since lying is acceptable in their worldview. What will money do? Underdeveloped must develop, not magically leap into a utopia that even prosperous western nations have not accomplished. This is so obviously an attempt to decapitalize the West. But giving money to poorer folks does not make them good managers. It's like solving your child's maturity problem by putting him in change of a billion dollar company. He may have talent and ability, but he must develop it in order to use it.

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December 15, 2009
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DDW said:

	They're all preposterous fools He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. Psalm 2:4 But Thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. Psalm 59:8
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December 15, 2009
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