By Nancy Thorner -
In a UN Climate Statement on November 1, 2019, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa announced: "We are pleased to announce the COP Bureau has agreed that COP25 will take place from 2-13 December in IFEMA – Feria de Madrid in Madrid, Spain."
Not mentioned in her announcement was how COP 25 had to change locations from Chile to Spain at very short notice (after it had already changed locations from Brazil to Chile), after riots erupted around Chile in protest to energy price hikes to pay for her climate change programs, thus forcing Chilean President Sebastian Pinera to put troops on the streets and cancel his plans to host COP 25.
Stated goals of COP 25
On November 30, 2019, Alex Newman wrote the following about the goals of the UN COP 25 "Climate" Summit prior to its December 2nd, 2019 beginning in Madrid, Spain (Alex Newman is a foreign correspondent for The New American who has traveled the world reporting on the UN's climate agenda.):
“Organizers of the summit made clear that they have big plans to advance global governance and “green” policies at the planetary level. “COP25 is the first summit of a new cycle,” boasted Spanish “Minister for the Ecological Transition” Teresa Ribera, who is playing a key role organizing and running the upcoming UN summit.
As Robera said in an interview, “In Madrid, global climate negotiations are entering a new phase, with a focus on reaching more ambitious climate action by everyone, because what we have on the table is nowhere near enough to prevent average temperatures from rising more than 1.5C, let alone 2C. Everyone, including governments, regions, cities, and social and economic agents” must be aligned with the embattled UN Paris Agreement. “We cannot delay climate action any longer…. This is what societies are demanding."
The UN and most of its member governments are seeking to finalize rules for an emerging global “carbon market.” Under the controversial plan, humanity will pay for emissions of the gas people exhale, commonly known as carbon dioxide or CO2, as part of Western governments' plans to reduce their people's emissions of the essential-to-life gas.
Another key item on the agenda is “climate financing,” organizers said. After all, totally restructuring the economy of the world, as leading UN officials claim is required, will take a lot of money.”
Hypocrisy of climate attendees
As reported by Mark Morano of Climate Depot: "UN climate summit delegates and activists attending lined up daily for hamburgers at the conferences’ onsite Burger King despite the UN warnings that eating meat is not climate-friendly." See: Flashback: UN admits Cutting CO2 ‘not enough’ – ‘We must change food production to save the world
There is also the issue of air travel to and from COP 25? Of concern to environmentalists is that air travel produces greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) – from burning fuel, which contributes to global warming when released into the atmosphere.
According to the provisional list (pdf) published by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), a grand total of 26,706 participants registered for COP25. This breaks down into 13,643 people representing specific parties, 9,987 from observer organizations – such as scientists, business groups and various non-governmental organizations – and 3,076 journalists. How many flew in private jets to Madrid?
Nancy Pelosi’s boondoggle delegation to Madrid
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a bicameral Congressional Delegation found it necessary to spent two days at COP 25. There were 15 in all in her delegation who traveled by air on the taxpayer's dime.
Despite President Trump's decision to remove this nation from the Paris Accords, Pelosi gave this message of assurance on behalf of the U.S. Congress at the end of their stay in Madrid:
“Today, our delegation concluded a successful two-day visit to COP25 in Madrid with a message on behalf of the U.S. Congress of ‘We’re still in,’” Speaker Pelosi said. “Combating the climate crisis is the existential threat of our time and it was essential that our delegation stand with international partners, who are continuing to build upon and solidify their commitments to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals."
The Pelosi delegation trip was expensive, probably costing millions of dollars in travel, lodging, food, and security. Yet this was just the tip of the iceberg. Are we to feel better because Speaker Pelosi purchased carbon offsets to cover all air travel involved in this Congressional Delegation visit to COP25?
Some sound science and climate realism at COP 25
Reported by H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow on Energy Policy, in Climate Change Weekly #344, The Heartland Institute, one of the world’s leading free-market think tanks based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, challenged COP 25 in Madrid by bringing a heavy dose of sound science and climate realism.
Headlining Heartland's event were four distinguished men and nineteen-year-old German YouTube personality Naomi Seibt:
- Award-winning physicist Will Happer, Ph.D. and former top science advisor to President Donald Trump. Happer’s presentation documented human greenhouse gas emissions are having much less impact on global temperatures than predicted by alarmist climate theory and are certainly not causing a climate crisis.
- Meteorologist Anthony Watts, a Heartland Institute senior fellow, showed the majority of official temperature stations are corrupted by artificial heat sources and other factors, giving the appearance of more warming than is measured by global satellites instruments and weather balloons.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane researcher Stanley Goldenberg explained there is no evidence indicating hurricanes are becoming more frequent or severe as the planet warms. Goldenberg pointed out how even the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) acknowledges this.
- Chilean civil engineer Douglas Pollack noted the Chilean government’s climate policies have made the nation’s electricity prices the highest in South America. The government’s price increase for the country’s Metro system — the main mode of transportation for the urban poor in order to pay for its switch to being run on expensive renewable power — was the last straw that resulted in protests and riots in Chile.
- Naomi Seibt presented an account of how she transformed from believing in a climate crisis to being a climate realist. After fact-checking the assertions of her teachers and the media, she realized propaganda was triumphing over science in the climate change debate
- “Throughout the United Nations COP25 “Climate” summit in Spain, America, the GOP, and President Donald Trump — not carbon dioxide or even “climate change” — were public enemy number one. Indeed, the U.S. government, the American people, their elected officials, and what remains of the free-market system that ushered in unprecedented global prosperity were all viciously and relentlessly attacked.”
- “Globalists, communists, Islamists, socialists, environmentalists, and crackpots of all varieties dropped the mask in a carefully orchestrated show. Incredibly, even the many prominent Americans who spoke at the summit demonized their own nation and the freedom that made it so successful. John Kerry spoke from one of the most prominent stages at the UN suit declaring that he was ashamed of being an American. Not a single conservative, pro-America speaker could be found among the 25,000 attendees.”
- If CO2 were the real enemy, the UN summit would have been praising America non-stop as our nation's emissions of the essential gas continues to plummet, and would have instead gone after Communist China which is by far the largest emitter of CO2.
