Other Countries Are No Longer Pursuing Climate Measures

By Collin Maessen on 13th March 2013comment

Climate Changes, But Facts Don’t: Debunking Monckton

On the 19th of July in 2011 the National Press Club of Australia held a debate on climate change. In this video I will be analysing the claims Monckton made during the debate and if they are correct or not.

The reason I’m doing this is that Monckton challenges his critics to check his sources, or like he put it in this debate “to do your homework”. I’m going to follow him up on this to see if the scientific literature, and other available sources, corroborate what he’s saying.

Watch this video on YouTube

Video description

On the 19th of July in 2011 the National Press Club of Australia held a debate on climate change. I will be analysing the claims Monckton made during the debate and if they are correct or not.

During this part of the debate Monckton suggests that countries are dropping out of the Kyoto protocol as they don't see the merit in taking action on a non-issue. But is this the case?

Transcript

STEVE LEWIS:
Next question, Jacqueline Malley.

JACQUELINE MALLEY:
Jaqueline Malley from The Sydney Morning Herald.

Lord Monckton, you said that the carbon tax is a non… the wrong solution to a non-problem. I'm just interested in your views on the Coalition's direct action policy. It's also a proposed solution to what you say is a non-problem. Should the Coalition ditch it?

CHRISTOPHER MONCKTON:
Yes the Coalition should, in my opinion, ditch it because there is no need to take any action about carbon dioxide at all. That is why Canada has announced that she is not going to participate in a Kyoto2; Japan has announced the same. America - even America has announced the same. China has announced that if she has a carbon tax at all, it'll be at just $1.50 per tonne.

Why therefore, set your own working people at a huge disadvantage by imposing upon them a carbon tax at a rate which is unmatched anywhere else in the world, and which most other countries are no longer going to pursue?

Monckton is suggesting here that these countries pulled out of Kyoto because they hold the position that no action is needed. Again, this is false.

It is true that Canada stepped out of the Kyoto protocol, but this isn't as simple as presented. One of the reasons they stated is that the Kyoto protocol excludes two of the largest emitters in the world, namely the United States and China. Despite stepping out of Kyoto they are still planning on reducing emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. As stated on their climate change website.

Now lets take a look at Japan, it's fighting to get more support for reducing our CO2 emissions. They also state that they want to include the United States and China in future agreements on cuts in CO2 emissions. This is a far cry from what Monckton is suggesting here.

China is also investing more and more in clean technology in an attempt to clean up pollution and lower their CO2 emissions. But they still have a long way to go. Same goes for the United States government which has stated that action is needed.

He also ignores the fact that other countries are working on reducing their emissions, something I already have mentioned. There are many initiatives, and groups of countries, working together to reduce emissions, some of these have been active for over a decade. Australia is not alone in working to reduce the worlds CO2 emissions.