Björn Lomborg: Europe's sceptical environmentalist

One of the things we’re hearing more and more about here in Paris is so-called “climate aid.” There has been a huge push from climate NGOs to convince rich countries to spend a fortune to help poor countries adjust to global warming. This term is a catch-all for money being given from rich countries to poorer countries for global warming education, solar panels, adaptation, or anything you can imagine that can be linked to global warming.

Across the world, politicians are going out of their way to promise fantastically expensive climate policies. President Biden has promised to spend $500 billion each year on climate — about 13 percent of the entire federal revenue. The European Union will spend 25 percent of its budget on climate.

Most rich countries now promise to go carbon-neutral by mid-century. Shockingly, only one country has made a serious, independent estimate of the cost: New Zealand found it would optimistically cost 16 percent of its GDP by then, equivalent to the entire current New Zealand budget.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared last week that “the world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” The freshly minted congresswoman skewered anyone who’d want to talk about the cost of global-warming policies, given the looming doomsday. Yes, her full remarks made it clear she only meant that the world would begin to end in 12 years if we don’t act. But she was still wildly wrong.