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The rich world’s fossil fuel hypocrisy is on full display in its response to the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the wealthy G7 countries admonish the world’s poor to use only renewables because of climate concerns, Europe and the United States are going begging to Arab nations to expand oil production, Germany is reopening coal power plants and Spain and Italy are ramping up African gas production.

Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money - was the topic of the latest Intelligence Squared US debate (Jan 13). Bjorn Lomborg, Peter Huber and Philip Stott spoke for the motion.  

Though they started out with 16% for their proposal and 49% against ("major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money"), they ended with 42% for, 48% against - see attached chart.

Over the past year, climate campaigners didn’t grow tired of claiming that the fossil fuel industry received “a whopping $5.2 trillion in subsidies” in 2017, equivalent to 6.5 percent of global GDP. Quoting an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that suggests the US alone wastes $649 billion annually, Rolling Stone declared that “the United States has spent more subsidizing fossil fuels in recent years than it has on defense spending.“