Lima climate change conference's record carbon footprint

The first of these conferences, held in Berlin, was actually both promising and exciting.  The German manufacturers of green tech threw a trade show across from the venue.  Helmut Kohl, the Thatcherite conservative PM of Germany showed up to move things along demonstrating that cranky right-wingers could be excellent environmentalists.  But most of these gatherings have been demonstrations of the utter futility of trying to change carbon consumption patterns by holding meetings.  It would be hard to imagine how they could be more useless without turning them into prayer meetings.

The problem, of course, is that you cannot change the machinery that supports life by voting.  You CAN vote to replace this machinery.  You CAN vote to install economic leaders who will figure out how to fund this replacement.  But even if this enlightenment happens and favorable votes occur, the new and greener support mechanisms must be designed and built—and then they have to work!  So at best, a society can only vote to TRY to create a world that doesn't spew thousands of tons of carbon emissions.  So while the world screams at the environmental movement to solve climate change, these guys cannot imagine doing anything more meaningful than holding another gathering.

It may be time to make Leisure Class environmentalism a capital crime.  Because these clowns intend to hold their high-carbon-footprint meetings until the ice of Antarctica has melted and the world's great cities have sunk beneath the waves.  I am reminded of the story Veblen would tell about the king who found his chair too close to the fire.  Rather than suffer the indignity of moving the chair himself and with the help failing to respond to his summons, he actually sat there and allowed himself to roast to death.  Today's kings gather to proclaim that the climate is changing and the change is due to human wickedness.  They then decide how much the people must suffer in order to lower carbon emissions and after much fussy negotiations, proclaim that all people of good will agree to sacrifice to save the planet.  Of course, they personally won't have to sacrifice, because they know how to "offset" their carbon consumption.

One of the definitions of evil must certainly be the transformation of uselessness into a "virtue."

Hardly green, UN climate talks in Peru's capital on track for record carbon footprint

Article by: FRANK BAJAK , Associated Press December 9, 2014

LIMA, Peru — The current U.N. climate talks will be the first to neutralize all the greenhouse gas pollution they generate, offset by host country Peru's protection of forest reserves, organizers say.

Now the bad news: The Lima conference is expected to have the biggest carbon footprint of any U.N. climate meeting measured to date.

At more than 50,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the negotiations' burden on global warming will be about 1 1/2 times the norm, said Jorge Alvarez, project coordinator for the U.N. Development Program.

The venue is one big reason. It had to be built.

Eleven football fields of temporary structures arose for the 13-day negotiations from what three months ago was an empty field behind Peru's army's headquarters. Concrete was laid, plumbing installed, components flown in from as far as France and Brazil.

Standing in the midday sun here can get downright uncomfortable, but the Lima sun is not reliable. That's one reason solar panels were not used.

For electricity, the talks are relying exclusively on diesel generators.

Organizers had planned to draw power from Peru's grid, which is about 52 percent fed by non-polluting hydroelectric power. "We worked to upgrade transformers and generators but for some reason it didn't work," said Alvarez.

Peru's hydroelectric power could be in danger by mid-century, anyway. Much of that water comes from glaciers that are melting at an accelerated pace. Peru is hardly on a green trajectory. Though it emits in a year the greenhouse gases that China spews in three days, it has doubled its carbon output in the past decade.

Nor is there a guarantee that the 580 square miles (1,500 square kilometers) of forest, whose conservation Alvarez said would offset the talks' carbon pollution, won't someday be gone. The Houston, Texas-sized area — in four different forest preserves — must lie unperturbed for a half century in order to neutralize carbon emitted at the conference, Alvarez said.

Environmental economist John M. Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called that accounting peculiar.

"If this forest is cut down in 50 or 100 years, all of the saved carbon will end up back in the atmosphere," he said.

Reilly called the "wasted efforts" to build makeshift quarters disturbing — unless the talks "were actually successful in halting future emissions." This is the 20th round of talks and so far there is little sign of serious progress.

Alvarez itemized the talks' carbon footprint:

—Construction, nearly 20 percent of the footprint.

—Jet fuel burned by the estimated 11,000 delegates and observers who flew in from abroad, about 30 percent.

—Local transportation. Organizers hired more than 300 buses since there are no public transit services to the venue. All burn fossil fuels. About 15-20 percent.

—Electricity, solid waste treatment, water, paper, food, disposable plates and cups, keeping 40,000 police on high alert, for the balance.

The 50,000 tons the conference emits is what China as a country emits in three minutes, the U.S. does in five minutes and Peru does in six hours and 40 minutes. It is more than eight times as much carbon as the 2009 Copenhagen talks and twice that of the 2010 conference in Cancun, Mexico, according to the U.N.

A more accurate carbon footprint will be published after the conference and certified by the Spanish company Aenor, organizers say. U.N. volunteers have been polling delegates on their air travel in search of precision.

The conference's green components are meager.

Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal asked for a bicycle parking lot. He got it, but only about 40 people use it daily. Most delegates spend about an hour in traffic traveling less than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from their hotels.

Blame that, in part, on the army. It initially balked on letting in bikes even though only the credentialed can enter the base known as "El Pentagonito."

"It took them three days to sort it out," said Andrew Marquard, an adviser to South Africa delegation and an avid cyclist who was interviewed after arriving at the talks on two wheels, skin shiny with sweat.

Blame the dearth of bikes also on Lima, one of the world's least friendly cities for cyclists. The city's few cyclists so fear drivers that they tend to prefer to compete with pedestrians for sidewalk space.

"There are quiet (leafy) areas around the convention center for riding bikes," said Alvarez. "But getting here is a problem."

No hybrid or electric vehicles have been seen at the event. Japan donated 121 electric and hybrid vehicles, chiefly for dignitaries.

"Unfortunately, most didn't arrive," Alvarez said. He blamed shipping bureaucracy.

Some energy savings were applied inside the white temporary structures where delegates wrangle, journalists toil and testy closed-door sessions take place.

"We did not put in strong air conditioning. It is (designed) only to fight the heat in the structures," said Maxime Rosenwald of GL Events, the Lyon, France-based company that built and runs the physical plant.

The air conditioning is often losing that fight as the sun regularly burns away Lima's low coastal clouds, the Southern Hemisphere summer being nigh.

On Monday, U.N. organizers announced that "in view of the high temperatures expected to continue and intensify," delegates were invited to adjust "by wearing business casual attire" to most events. more