Wednesday, January 28, 2015

I guess some world leaders are not willing to sell out their country for a fantasy.

Cold shoulder: Obama leaves India without a global-warming deal as Modi refuses to commit on CO2 emissions and Air Force One emits 809 TONS of it

  • India refused to agree to a 'peaking year' after which its carbon dioxide emissions would begin to decline
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government brushed off Obama's demands, instead maintaining that it will reduce CO2 levels per dollar of economic activity
  • India also pledged to quintuple its solar energy capacity and boost its wind energy capacity 30-fold by 2022
  • Obama acknowledged that it looks unfair for the US to ask emerging economies to do without the fossi fuels America was built on 
  • Air Force One will emit more than 809 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere during his trip to India and Saudi Arabia

  • President Barack Obama has left India for Saudi Arabia without inking a climate deal that formed much of the basis for his second trip to the subcontinent.
    The Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday that India has refused to embrace the idea of a 'peaking year' for greenhouse gas emissions – a designated year after which emissions levels would have to start decreasing.
    China agreed to that sort of framework last year, but Indian officials now see being lumped in with Beijing as a negative thing. India is the world's fourth-biggest carbon emitter. China is number one.
    'Having a peaking year was not acceptable to us,' an Indian environment ministry official told the Times.
    Obama visited India on Air Force One, a plane that burns five gallons of jet fuel for every mile it flies. His round-trip, including a stop in Saudi Arabia, will emit 809 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere
    'Few countries will be more affected by a warmer planet than India': Obama told 1,500 young people that he was trying to fix the planet for their generation, but left India empty-handed
    'Few countries will be more affected by a warmer planet than India': Obama told 1,500 young people that he was trying to fix the planet for their generation, but left India empty-handed
    Is it warm out here or is it just me? India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and US President Barack Obama (right) couldn't iron out their global-warming differences in New Delhi
    Is it warm out here or is it just me? India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and US President Barack Obama (right) couldn't iron out their global-warming differences in New Delhi
    The U.S. president spared no rhetorical expense on Tuesday morning in New Delhi, telling an audience of 1,500 youths that America would 'continue to help India deal with the impacts of climate change, because you shouldn't have to bear that burden alone.'
    But that promise, it seems, applies chiefly if India follows Obama's lead, something it won't do.
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is brushing off Obama's demands, instead maintaining that it will reduce CO2 levels as a percentage of its economic output – not in hard measurements of greenhouse gases.
    India also says it will quintuple its solar energy capacity and boost its wind energy capacity 30-fold by 2022.
    But a China-like agreement is off the table. In late 2014 Obama reached a deal with Beijing that committed the United States to a cut in greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26 per cent, by the year 2025.
    China promised its emissions would peak in 3030, but made no commitments with hard numbers attached.
    Republicans in Congress complained bitterly, including Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, who now chairs the Committee on the Environment and Public Works.
    'A promise to peak its carbon emissions only allows the world’s largest economy to buy time,' he said then.


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