How alarmist rhetoric warps climate policy

End of Kyoto would mean nothing for the climate

Dec 24, 2011
Shonali Ghosal

Q: You are known to be critical of the Kyoto Protocol. Does the Durban agreement offer more hope than Kyoto?

Sky News host Chris Kenny says this is a “good time to be alive” as living standards throughout history are at their highest in the modern day. Mr Kenny sat down with Copenhagen Consensus Centre President Bjorn Lomborg to discuss why the world is not falling apart.

For decades, climate activists have exhorted people in the wealthy West to change their personal behavior to cut carbon emissions. We have been told to drive less, to stop flying and, in general, to reduce consumption—all in the name of saving the planet from ever higher temperatures.

The Covid-19 pandemic has now achieved these goals, at least temporarily. With the enormous reduction in global economic activity, it has been as if people around the world suddenly decided to heed the activists and curtail their travel and consumption.