US and China deadlocked on climate talks

From Andrew Bolt, who once highlights the complete pointlessness and futility of anything Australia might be able to do. With our share of global greenhouse emissions now at less than 1.5%, Barnaby Joyce's summation remains the clearest yet - 5% (our current reduction target) of 1.5% is bugger all and will have no influence on global climate. Interesting too that so many climate alarmists refuse to deal with the fact that both China and India have made it clear that they expect billions and billions of dollars to flow their way.   There really isn’t any need for Kevin Rudd to rush through legislation before December to approve his plan to cut emissions when the real game is being played without us - and is getting badly bogged, anyway: China and the US failed to achieve a breakthrough at their latest round of climate talks on Wednesday, raising the stakes in the global effort to fight global climate change.   The two countries responsible for almost half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions ended three days of negotiations in Beijing. While there are still months to go until the December meeting in Copenhagen, where 181 countries, led by the United Nations, plan to work out a new climate pact, the two biggest emitters’ glacial pace towards compromise is likely to discourage others from making concessions during a pre-Copenhagen round of negotiations under way in Bonn, which is set to wrap up on Friday.   Todd Stern, President Barack Obama’s special envoy on climate change, tried to sound optimistic when the US delegation ended its China visit but could hardly conceal that little had been achieved…   Chinese officials maintained that the two countries should have a “common but differentiated approach” – code for Beijing’s reluctance to adopt a formal domestic mandate to reduce its carbon emissions. The US Congress is considering a bill that would reduce US emissions to 83 per cent of 2005 levels by 2020. China wants the US to cut its emissions to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 – a different order of magnitude. It also wants the US to pledge up to 1 per cent of its gross domestic product to pay for clean technology in China and elsewhere. Yeah, good luck with those demands for cash from a country with none left to spare. But it all makes so unbelievably stupid the claims by Rudd that Australia needs to set an example by the end of the year to impress the Copenhagen summit. Who’d notice? Who’d care? Who’d follow?

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