President Obama announced a “historic” (probably should have said “hysterical”) agreement with China regarding greenhouse gases. The President says we will reduce CO2 emissions by an economy-wide targets by 26%-28% below its 2005 level in 2025. This will require an equivalent reduction of the use of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal). China will continue to increase its CO2 emissions to sometime around 2030 and to make best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% by 2030. So, the US will incur sharp increases in the cost of energy over this period of time. China gets the green light to use the cheapest form of energy production until at least 2030.
The following graph shows CO2 emissions for selected countries. China’s emissions last year were essentially 160% that of the United States —–and in sixteen more years, the Chinese emissions will be triple ours if they continue on their current growth path and we have reduced by 28%. And by then the price of energy will have caused our industry to wither and/or flee to China or India.
Graph courtesy of Ed Hoskins – British Petroleum Statistical Review of World Energy 2014 – Click the pic to view at source
Why would Obama think that this is a good deal? It does nothing but strengthen China. China is most likely the major adversary the US will face in this century. We should not intentionally weaken our country.
I have little confidence in the veracity of the Chinese government. “The Onion” seems to share my views. For those that are not familiar with “The Onion” it is a satirical posting, usually funny and often mistaken for a real article. But in fact they are poking fun at the subject of their efforts. Click here to read “China Vows To Begin Aggressively Falsifying Air Pollution Numbers”
cbdakota
Climate Change Sanity 