U.S., China Agree to Work on Climate Change

(Reuters) – China and the United States, the world’s top emitters of greenhouse gases, pledged on Saturday to work together to attenuate the effects of global climate change.

“China and the United States will work together … to collaborate through enhanced policy dialogue, including the sharing of information regarding their respective post-2020 plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions,” according to a U.S.-China joint statement issued at the end of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s whirlwind Beijing visit.

The two sides “commit to devote significant effort and resources to secure concrete results” by the Sixth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue later this year, the statement added.

“Both sides reaffirm their commitment to contribute significantly to successful 2015 global efforts to meet this challenge,” the statement said.

International talks to try to agree on a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first and only international agreement to tackle climate change, are due to be held in Paris next year. The United States never ratified the Kyoto deal.

A new global pact might include pledges on curbing greenhouse gas emissions and measures to enable the poorest nations to adapt better to climate change.

Kerry welcomed Chinese cooperation.

“This is a unique, cooperative effort between China and the United States and we have hopes that it will help to set an example for global leadership and global seriousness on the issue of next year’s climate negotiation,” Kerry told reporters before departing for Jakarta.

“China and the United States will put an extra effort into exchanging information and discussing policies that will help both of us to be able to develop and lead on the standards that need to be announced next year for the global climate change agreement,” Kerry said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a report last September they were more convinced than ever that humans are the main culprits for global warming, and predicted the impact from greenhouse gas emissions could linger for centuries.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the study was a call for governments, many of which have been focused on spurring weak economies rather than fighting climate change, to work to reach a planned U.N. accord in 2015 to combat global warming.

Ban is seeking to re-energize the global climate change debate and boost the U.N.’s role. He has appointed former New York city mayor Michel Bloomberg, former Ghana president John Kufuor and former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg as special envoys on climate change.

[H/T Rueters]

Global Warming Scientists Still Trapped In Record-Level Antarctic Ice

The scientific ship currently trapped in Antarctic ice is carrying a team of climate change scientists who keep harping the dangers of “global warming” even after multiple rescue ships failed in their attempts to save them.

On Christmas Day, the ice-strengthened MV Akademik Shokalskiy got stuck in Antarctic ice during her Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Australian global warming professor Chris Turney.

“Bad news: [Rescue ship] Aurora couldn’t get through,” Turney tweeted earlier today. “Tried twice [but] low visibility and heavy ice. [She’s] returning to open water.”

“Try again tomorrow?”

Turney and his team launched this voyage to study “ocean warming” while retracing the route of the original Australasian Antarctic Expedition, which was launched in 1911 by Australian geologist Douglas Mawson.

The official web site for the expedition suggests that the ice in East Antarctica, where the Akademik Shokalskiy is stranded, is threatened by this “warming.”

“There is an increasing body of evidence, including by the AAE members, that have identified parts of the East Antarctic which are highly susceptible to melting and collapse from ocean warming,” the site continues.

But as blogger Anthony Watts points out, Mawson’s team landed in Antarctica under much warmer conditions in 1912:

Additionally, the National Snow & Ice Data Center reports that the current extent of the Antarctic sea ice is two standard deviations above normal:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration even announced back in September that Antarctic ice reached its largest extent since measurements began in 1979.
Yet Turney’s team is still defiant to these facts even as they stay stranded in record levels of ice that rescue ships have not yet breached.
“Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change,” they announced. “But here it is building up.”

Obama’s Senior Progressive Strategist John Podesta Paves Way for Local ‘Clean Energy’ Projects, Massive New Federally Funding Waiting in The Wings

President Obama’s new staff adviser, senior progressive strategist John Podesta, has been spearheading a push for massive new federal funds to finance local “clean energy” projects nationwide, WND has learned.

Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, is founder of the highly influential Center for American Progress.

Earlier this week, it was reported Podesta will serve for one year as a “counselor” to the president. The New York Times reported Podesta will focus on executive orders with specific emphasis on so-called climate change issues.

A review of recent Center for American Progress, or CAP, research papers finds specific plans for the Commerce Department to finance so-called clean energy projects on a local level throughout the nation.

Earlier this week, Podesta’s CAP released a 32-page paper, “The Green Industrial Revolution and the United States: In the Clean Energy Race, is the United States a Leader or a Luddite?” The paper recommended new “clean energy” manufacturing projects be founded locally.

The paper was also sponsored by the Institute for America’s Future and the BlueGreen Alliance, which was formally known as the Apollo Alliance.

Obama’s controversial former “green” jobs czar, Van Jones, is on the board of all three groups, the Institute, CAP and the BlueGreen Alliance. Jones resigned from the White House in 2009 after it was exposed that he founded a communist revolutionary group.

Jeff Jones, who heads the BlueGreen Alliance’s New York branch, is a former top leader of the Weathermen terrorist organization, while Alliance associate Joel Rogers is a founder of the socialist-oriented New Party.

Podesta’s new “Green Industrial” report, meanwhile, is mostly a rehash of an extensive CAP recommendation paper titled “Regional Energy, National Solutions: A Real Energy Vision for America.”

The new report asserts the U.S. “would greatly benefit from fostering a regional approach to clean energy.”

The report argues strongly for a new “set of national policies that provide a framework for this regional action: a price on carbon, a true national clean energy standard, certainly and stability in the alternative energy tax credit market, and strong support for advanced energy manufacturing, to name the most critical.”

The report provides what it sees as an “alternative, sustainable vision” for each of the six major multistate regions of the country, with each vision based on what is perceived as the region’s unique strengths.

Namely, “offshore wind off the Atlantic, solar in the Pacific, advanced vehicles in the Midwest, smart grid in the Southeast, large-scale renewables in the Mountain West, and coastal restoration in the Gulf states.”

One of the main objectives of the CAP report is to advocate use of the Commerce Department as the central agency for funding so-called clean energy regional projects.

States the report: “With solid leadership and increased capacity, Commerce could be the central department ensuring that energy programs out of the Department of Energy, environmental programs out of the Environmental Protection Agency, and workforce training and standards programs out of the Department of Labor, all work together to support regionally specific economic development plans that will help America consolidate global leadership in the green industrial revolution.”

Federal ‘green’ bank

The new CAP report builds on a second CAP action paper from 2011 that calls for the founding of a federal “green” bank or “Energy Independence Trust.”

The trust would borrow from the federal treasury to provide low-cost financing to private-sector investments in “clean energy.”

The trust aims to hold sufficient reserves to protect the Treasury Department from loan losses and would offer a variety of debt- and equity-based financial instruments, loan guarantees and tax incentives to draw a wave of private capital into the so-called clean energy sector.

Obama himself signaled support for the “green” bank trust concept in his February 2013 State of the Union. He used the address to announcement what he called an Energy Security Trust.

He said the trust will “drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good.”

Obama did not go into more detail about the composition of such a trust.

In a conference call Tuesday presenting the new CAP paper to reporters, Kate Gordon, senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, claimed, “Ninety-seven percent of scientists believe the world is warming due to human behavior.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, participated in the CAP conference call.

Barack Obama: Eyes Executive Action To Advance Climate Change As Second Term Implodes

Barack Hussein Obama and company have 3 years (maybe more if her highness is elected) left to dismantle the Constitution and implement a European flair of Socialism, or worse.  And Climate Change Plan is on deck.  What better way to advance the ‘ultimate goal’ than to use implied executive action for the ultimate fallacy?  Climate Change would cause utter chaos and rip the gut out of this country economically.  A perfect fit for a Saul Alinsky disciple.

[H/T Red Flag News]: (THE HILL) — President Obama has a chance to craft a second-term legacy on climate change even as the rest of his agenda runs aground in Congress.

Gun control legislation is dead; immigration reform is on life support; and reaching a fiscal deal with Republicans appears to be a long shot.

To make matters worse, what was supposed to be his signature first-term achievement — ObamaCare — is suffering from a disastrous rollout.

But there’s one thing that’s going right for Obama: Executive action on climate change is moving full-speed ahead at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“He may be able to do more through climate change [rules] because the EPA has the authority,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Hill on Thursday.

The most far-reaching piece of Obama’s climate plan is carbon emission standards for the nation’s fleet of existing power plants, by far the largest single source of industrial carbon emissions. The EPA is also writing standards for new plants.

“I think climate change, immigration reform are both sort of legacy issues,” Blumenthal said. “The measure of his presidency will be whether he has left changes in law and regulation, but also a heightened awareness, which I think he has been doing.”

Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer said the push on climate change through executive action could shape Obama’s legacy — but only to a point.

“There are limits to what it will mean to his presidency,” said Zelizer, who teaches history and public affairs.

One problem facing Obama is that some of the new EPA regulations might not be settled by the time he leaves office.

***

[H/T The Hill]: President Obama has a chance to craft a second-term legacy on climate change even as the rest of his agenda runs aground in Congress.

Gun control legislation is dead; immigration reform is on life support; and reaching a fiscal deal with Republicans appears to be a long shot.

To make matters worse, what was supposed to be his signature first-term achievement — ObamaCare — is suffering from a disastrous rollout.

But there’s one thing that’s going right for Obama: Executive action on climate change is moving full-speed ahead at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“He may be able to do more through climate change [rules] because the EPA has the authority,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Hill on Thursday.

The most far-reaching piece of Obama’s climate plan is carbon emission standards for the nation’s fleet of existing power plants, by far the largest single source of industrial carbon emissions. The EPA is also writing standards for new plants.

“I think climate change, immigration reform are both sort of legacy issues,” Blumenthal said. “The measure of his presidency will be whether he has left changes in law and regulation, but also a heightened awareness, which I think he has been doing.”

Read rest of article

Obama Administration: Global Warming Gets Nearly Twice as Much Taxpayer Money as Border Security

This article screams New World Order, and unfortunately is exactly what is playing out right in our own backyard.

The Obama administration global warming fallacy supersedes any and all border control, because quite frankly open borders and chasing unattainable pipe dreams suits his agenda.  That same agenda that is systematically breaking down America and rebuilding her in Socialist/Marxist vision.

[H/T The Daily Caller]: New estimates show the federal government will spend nearly twice as much fighting global warming this year than on U.S. border security.

The White House reported to House Republicans that there are 18 federal agencies engaged in global warming activities in 2013, funding a wide range of programs, including scientific research, international climate assistance, incentivizing renewable energy technology and subsidies to renewable energy producers. Global warming spending is estimated to cost $22.2 billion this year, and $21.4 billion next year.

At the same time, the federal government will spend nearly $12 billion on customs and border enforcement this year.

Obama’s climate agenda has attracted criticism from congressional Republicans who have been hammering the administration over the accountability and transparency of its global warming efforts.

Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee have been calling on the heads of major federal agencies to testify on global warming activities. So far, only the heads of the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency have opted to testify in front of the House.

“With billions of dollars currently being spent annually on climate change activities, Congress and the public should understand the scope of what the federal government is doing, how the billions of dollars are being spent, and what it will accomplish,” said Kentucky Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield. “Anyone who believes the committee ought to be focusing its attention on climate change related issues should be standing with us to get these answers.”

Earlier this summer, the Senate held a hearing to highlight the immediate impacts of global warming. However, Senate Republicans released a report ahead of the hearing that rejected many of the claims made by scientists, politicians and activists about rising global temperatures.

“Over nearly four decades, numerous predictions have had adequate time to come to fruition, providing an opportunity to analyze and compare them to today’s statistics,” reads the report from Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Republicans have also taken aim at the EPA’s efforts to cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. The agency will be imposing emissions caps on new and existing power plants across the country, which significantly hurts the coal industry.

“The American public should be deeply troubled to learn that EPA is actively working to increase energy prices based on predicted global temperature increases without first undertaking efforts to determine if temperatures are actually increasing to the extent predicted by the climate models they are using,” reads the Senate Republicans’ report.

The Obama administration recently declared that the country has moved beyond debating whether or not global warming is a threat, and instead, should be debating what can be done about the issue.

“We have turned a corner on that issue,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in a recent speech. “We are — including in our Congress — really past the issue of whether we need to respond.”

Charles Krauthammer: Obama’s Climate Change Bill is ‘Nuts’