China and the US finally get their arses in gear:
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It is potentially huge, and quite a surprise. However, the fact that the infrastructure bill that just went through Congress really points to the ‘how?’, particularly considering the chances of getting another bill of that kind of significance through Congress after next November don’t look that good right now. Obama started off with some great promises too.
or is it just lip service to get us to shut up whilst they keep raping the planet and raking in trillions of dollars in revenue
“do what I say, not what I do”
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Hopefully it’s a sign of the Democrats realising that their losses are in large part due to the complete lack of unity the party is showing. Nobody likes the gridlock in Washington at the moment, and it’s not a good look for the party that controls Congress as well as the White House.
I don’t think it is. The American press barely noticed it, probably because the Washington press corps are fully aware that in order to resolve that lack of unity, the infrastructure bill was stripped of most of the climate-relevant stuff. That is more or less a signal that the Biden WH, like the Obama WH, is going to talk a great game, do what it can within existing regulatory scope, but isn’t likely to work to embed anything in legislation.
I don’t think there is much that better captures COP than the announcement of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance to end new fossil fuel projects, made up entirely of jurisdictions that don’t have oil and gas production.
If producers like Canada would actually just eliminate the exploration tax credit that constitutes the majority of subsidies, it would go a long way to reducing new projects. Right now, ‘juniors’ can raise exploration capital using flowthrough tax credits that effectively pass the majority of the risk to taxpayers. Canada’s announcement that they would stop financial support for projects outside Canada is classic sleight of hand. Those are a drop in the barrel compared to domestic. If it was meaningful, there would have been domestic pushback. Calgary yawned.
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To what degree does the Republican Party yet feel the need to take account of moves to combat climate change? I presume that there is a growing element among their constituents that prioritises this issue but not yet in sufficient numbers to move the needle?
I think your presumption would be wildly wrong. There were more Republican legislators willing to contemplate carbon cap and trade in 2008 than there are now. McCain sponsored a climate bill with Lieberman, I am not sure there is a single Republican Senator who would attach their name to that now.
In the House, there are a couple of outliers, but again, fewer than in 2008. That is fundamentally a function of their constituents polarizing away from the ‘libs’. The price of gasoline is a bigger issue in American politics than climate change.
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That’s just incredible. It’s astounding to me that republican voters would have become less committed towards tackling climate change in the last 10-15 years.
Just a reflection of the general polarisation of politics in the US fuelled by extremely partizan media.
Rep voters watch Fox, which tells them it’s all a lie made up by ‘liberals’, so they vote for climate change sceptic politicians who feed the cycle.
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Despite all the talk about climate change, human society has never stopped to accelerate emission of CO2 in the atmosphere, to pollute and to destroy natural environments. Since the talk seriously started back in the late nineties, we’ve seen nothing less than an ever-accelerating attack on life in the name of profit and everlasting economic growth.
By all accounts, the USA have led the charge, so I’m not actually surprised to see even less commitment today from the political class towards stopping it, than a couple of decades ago…
I think the analysis needs some nuance in interpretation, because it includes both emissions and land-use change. But it tells a story.
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Just need to cut the ability to obliterate every square inch of the planet a million times oven now.
I wonder what cooling effect would come from removing all of that hot air being generated?
Wow there now, you can have a choice. Loons or right wingers.
Shutting all the USA’s aircon off would make a hell of a difference.
We live in a world where the Republicans feel the need to criticise Big Bird
Nothing surprises me about them 
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Snap, the engine was indistructible but the rest was kept together with string and cellotape.
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just a few % but it looks like there’s some promise
