The ‘Green Energy Transition’ That Wasn’t

After two weeks, huge amounts of political rhetoric, and much activity behind closed doors, we have a treaty. While there will be celebrations among activists, the Paris Treaty will do very little to rein in temperature reductions.

The Paris Treaty promises to keep temperature rises below 2°C. However, the actual promises made here will do almost nothing to achieve that. It is widely accepted that to keep temperature rises below 2°C, we have to reduce CO₂ emissions by 6,000Gt.

Copenhagen wants to be the world’s first CO2-neutral city by 2025. But this initiative, however wonderful it sounds, is little more than a costly vanity project.

After all, the whole accounting exercise works only if others are still using coal and gas that Copenhagen’s unpredictable wind power can replace. If the city's unrealistic assumptions fall short, the financial losses for its inhabitants will be substantial.

John & Ken had another fascinating interview with environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.