Unearthed today: The final battle?

Morning. Today’s daily was an absolute nightmare to put together so I hope this makes some kind of sense, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it doesn’t. 

First, and simply because I have no idea what to do with it. This, in UK tabloid the Sun. It’s a op-ed by Jeremy Clarkson who made his name by driving cars, hitting a producer and (I would argue) effectively denying climate change. 

He’s done an about-turn on that now and here, in a spectacularly confused piece of writing, that veers between usual assaults on woke-ness and accepting that climate change a thing (ish) he settles on emphasising the importance of the collapse in insect numbers, the threat this poses to humanity and the importance of regenerative farming.

“I’ve… planted insect super-highways in the fields which allow the insects we like to get to the middle of a crop more easily . . . where they can eat the insects we don’t like.

Then I built three dams across various streams to create ponds and boggy wetland areas, which are already home to dragonflies, damselflies and great diving beetles. I’ll have mayflies next year, I hope.”

So on we go to the New Yorker and a brilliant interview with Genevieve Guenther about how we should talk about climate change. One word Jeremy uses a lot above is “we”. 

“You think this little pronoun is so innocent, but it actually obscures the political reality of the whole problem,” she said, bringing up the vast differences in the carbon emissions of rich and poor countries, and the role of the fossil-fuel industry in blocking solutions. She has written that, instead of thinking of climate change as something that “we are doing,” most people should think of it as “something we are being prevented from undoing.”

The “we” locates the blame, and the solution, with the individual, as if it’s the same for everyone and power is not a factor. The key point she raises though is how climate change is – or is not – discussed in reference to stories which are not about climate science itself.

Just as environmental justice should be a part of all climate coverage Guenther wants news outlets to climate into all the other stories it touches, “so people understand that this is not just a science or environmental story—this is the increasingly pressing context for stories about extreme weather, energy, business, finance, real estate, politics, food, travel, and even the arts.” 

I’m reading about… “The final battle for the climate”.

Writing in Foreign Policy Adam Tooze says (somewhat grandly) presages the “next phase” in the political fight to stop climatic chaos.

“We are already well past the point at which global stabilisation can be achieved by a deal between the G3 [Europe, China & the US]. What both Western and Chinese climate policy need is a stabilisation pact that involves not only India, but other big emerging market economies like Brazil and Indonesia, future population giants like Pakistan and Nigeria and the big coal, oil, and gas producers, like Australia, Canada, Russia, and the Gulf states.”

You won’t get far, either, by focusing purely on western corporate giants – or even banks. Sure, Exxon is a big player but “of the ten companies that most dramatically increased their CO2 emissions over the last five years, four were Indian, two were Chinese, the others were Australian, Russian, and Korean. Swiss-based LafargeHolcim, cement supplier to the world, came in at number two. Energy is a business for state capitalists. Twelve of the top 20 corporate CO2 emitters are state-owned. “

But how? One key is climate finance, Tooze discusses the power China could weild if it makes it’s epic belt and road foreign finance initiative green – no word on that yet and neither the EU nor US show any sign of putting similar sums on the table.

Money may switch sides on it’s own though if the economics dictate it and there’s few more powerful tools – argues Tooze – than carbon border taxes. 

“If adopted by the EU, United States and China, carbon taxes would exercise a huge pressure on energy choices around the world. Exporting countries that used solar and wind power, rather than coal, oil and gas would be at a huge advantage; money would surely follow.”

And, weirdly, this could actually happen. The EU is already planning carbon taxes whilst the BBC reports that Biden could go further still (IF he’s elected).

“Joe Biden is proposing that the US adopt climate change tariffs on nations who do not reduce their emissions. Biden’s international climate plan, if anything, is even more ambitious than his domestic plan,” says Paul Bledsoe, who served in the Clinton administration and is now at the Progressive Policy Institute.

As for the UK? Perhaps it will seize the “opportunity” to import what other nations increasingly shun. Green entrepreneur and brexiteer Micheal Liebreich hopes not, pushing the case that the UK should maximise trade opportunities from the world’s push to reduce emissions he writes:

“We cannot have UK farmers and manufacturers exposed to competition based in countries that are not reducing their own emissions. We need a mechanism to level the playing field. The EU has already promised to introduce one by 2023, and the US may too; we need to get ahead of the game and propose one that meets our needs.”

Two thoughts about what transition may look like

Hydrogen – more niche than many think: Bloomberg’s Liebrich – again – writes here about what a hydrogen economy may look like in practice. Forget heating, road transport and even industry – he argues – these sectors could far far more efficiently reduce emissions using electricity. This is bad news for oil companies looking to switch this way. Still, for chemical production, aviation and balancing the power sector Hydrogen is key. 

The power of a ‘climate corps’ after a pandemic recession: The Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps put thousands of young men to work in U.S. parks and forests, transforming the nation’s parks system. A new Climate Corps could provide badly-needed work for young people while providing them with training for today’s green jobs.