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By Dick Morris &
Eileen McGann
DickMorris.com
The Copenhagen conference on climate change, held amid record low freezing
temperatures that are blanketing Europe, was shattered by a walkout by the G-77
nations, the bloc of "developing" countries that spans from China to Chad.
Their demand? More "democracy and transparency" in the negotiations! They also
want massive American and European aid under the guise of helping them adjust to
climate change.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has called the climate change issue, a
"pretext for a massive redistribution of wealth from the developed nations to
the less developed ones." That's what the African and Asian dictators are
hoping for.
Like anti-poverty storefronts in Harlem that change to drug rehab projects and
then morph into stimulus programs, the less developed nations are now hanging
out the climate change sign in the hopes of getting aid.
The fact is that almost all the increase
in greenhouse gases over the next two decades is going to come from developing
countries, principally China and India. As noted in an earlier column, the
United States is doing quite well, without a new treaty and without cap and
trade, on lowering its emissions to the level demanded by the Kyoto Agreement
and the goal set by President Obama. It is about halfway toward each.
But the developing countries are hoping to make a killing in Copenhagen, getting
a treaty that does not bind them to specific enforceable goals (and no
inspections) while giving them money to accomplish the climate change goals.
Money without responsibility suits them fine.
Just as climate change is being hijacked in developed countries by socialists
and liberals who want to regulate business and utilities, so it is being
exploited by less developed countries as a pretext for more foreign aid.
China, in particular, won't allow any international monitoring of its compliance
with the climate change goals. This refusal is giving Democratic trade
protectionists the cover they need to raise tariff barriers on imports from
abroad. Yet again, climate change is being hijacked by partisans of a
particular persuasion - protectionists - to suit their goals.
Meanwhile, most voters in the U.S. are far from convinced that climate change is
happening as a result of human activity and there is no broad consensus behind
any of the regulatory changes being pushed in Copenhagen. That's the surprise
awaiting Obama when he returns, treaty in hand.