OPINION:
The coalition of attorneys general who filed a brief last week in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) apparently do not understand that the CPP will have no measurable impact on global climate (“Democratic attorneys general to police climate change dissent,” Web, March 29). EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy admitted this before congressional hearings and repeatedly asserted that the primary purpose of the regulation is to set an example for the world to follow.
But developing countries, the source of most of today’s carbon-dioxide emissions, the only gas targeted by the CPP, have indicated that they have no intention of limiting their development for ’climate protection’ purposes. In fact, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the foundation of all U.N. climate change agreements, states in Article 4 that “economic and social development and poverty eradication” (not climate change) “are the first and overriding priorities of the developing country Parties.”
Actions to significantly reduce carbon-dioxide emissions would entail dramatically cutting back on the use of coal, the source of 81 percent of China’s electricity and 71 percent of India’s electricity. As coal is by far the least expensive source of electric power in most parts of the world, reducing carbon-dioxide emissions by restricting its use would unquestionably interfere with development priorities. So developing countries simply won’t do it, citing the United Nations’ own treaties in support of their actions.
Most of the public would have no patience with their tax dollars going to support an improbable hope that other countries follow America to possibly avert a hypothetical, future problem. So, of course, polling firms never ask the public about this important issue. The answer would be most inconvenient.
TOM HARRIS
Executive director
International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)
Ottawa, Ontario
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