“It has become increasingly clear that Donald Trump’s presidency hasn’t just led to the withdrawal of the United States from the landmark agreement. It has also halted the rest of the world’s efforts…. Call it the ‘Trump’ effect.”
– Joseph Curtin, “Trump Has Officially Ruined Climate Change Diplomacy for Everyone.” FT, December 12, 2018.
Another realistic, “defeatist” article about the futile global crusade to cap and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been published. “Trump Has Officially Ruined Climate Change Diplomacy for Everyone,” subtitled “The evidence is in: the Paris Agreement doesn’t work without the United States,” joins other articles (such as rising global coal consumption, profiled last week at MasterResource) in the death rattle.
Joseph Curtin, senior fellow at the Institute of International and European Affairs, authored the blunt assessment.…
“The major international energy issue should not be climate change. It should be, per Guillermo M. Yeatts, country-by-country privatization of subsurface mineral rights to benefit the mass of surface owners and would-be entrepreneurs.”
He was a true friend of private property, free markets, the rule of law, and goodwill for all. He was a successful entrepreneur in the US and Latin America. He was a thinker and doer, building up an intellectual case for public policy reform and acting on it. And for a lot of us, he made classical liberalism more fun.
Guillermo M. Yeatts recently died just short of his 81st birthday. Born in Buenos Aires, he studied in America and successively rose in business in the US and in Argentina (see Appendix A). As he advanced, he embraced classical liberal think tanks at home and abroad, including the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), the Institute for Energy Research (IER), the Atlas Society, and Fundación Atlas 1853.…
“The story of the carbon tax’s fading appeal, even among groups that like it in principle, shows the difficulties of crafting a politically palatable solution to one of the world’s most urgent problems — including greenhouse gas levels that are on track to reach a record high this year. ‘This aversion to taxes in the U.S. is high and should not be underestimated,’ said Kalee Kreider, a former Gore adviser and longtime climate activist. ‘I have a lot of scars to show for that’.”
“‘You do have this irony, and that is the policy that is overwhelmingly endorsed by economists of the right, the center, and the left as the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is inverse with what is politically feasible,’ said Barry Rabe, a University of Michigan professor who has studied carbon taxes.”…