The Convenience of Climate Change

The United States Senate is claiming that Cap and Trade / Climate Change legislation is being put on the back burner for the time being. However, a recent report from the State Department shows how American taxpayer dollars are being used to fund climate change initiatives on a global scale. The State Department released the Fifth Climate Action Report on April 7th that highlights "the actions the U.S. is taking to address climate change, contains updated projections on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and underscores the United States commitment to address climate change." Previous reports have been released in 1994, 1997, 2002, and 2007.St

The report details governmental funding to combat global climate change, including $1 billion from the Consolidation Appropriation Act for "climate related foreign assistance" and more than $400 million dollars managed by the World Bank and the United Nations for climate change in 2010 alone. The Obama administration has pledged nearly $1.5 billion as part of a multilateral agreement following the Copenhagen conference on climate change last winter. This agreement stated, "developed countries shall provide adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources, technology and capacity-building to support the implementation of adaptation action in developing countries." Additionally, the Report highlights the Obama administration's goals of devoting $30 billion by 2012 and $100 billion by 2020 as a part of developed countries mitigation efforts.

The Fifth Climate Action Report indicates that multiple U.S. government agencies are involved in funding global climate change programs: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy, the Department of State, the Department of Agriculture, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Commerce, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

In the name of combating climate change, funds are being used to fund other types of projects. One such use is the creation of World Bank Climate Investment Funds, not only for climate change purposes, but also to "pilot new advances in governance." In 2009, the G8 committed $20 billion to combat food insecurity abroad in the name of "hunger-related emergencies" that may result because of climate change. Monies have also been earmarked for conference and forums to discuss how to combat climate change, including a 2010 Methane to Markets conference in India and a carbon sequestration forum. America has also formed energy research centers with both India and China. Additionally, the EPA is working on projects for "green" vehicles and energy efficient products in foreign countries. Among the projects receiving EPA funding include "auto rickshaws" in India and methods testing of greenhouse gas emissions in trucks in China.

Further actions highlighted by this report focus on loans and public-private partnerships, including a guarantee of $183 million in loans for US renewable and clean energy projects in foreign countries via the Export-Import bank. There are also public-private sector alliances between USAID and private companies, such as the tire company Firestone, to "combine their assets to address pressing development problems, achieving a solution that would not be possible for any individual partner alone."

In the name of increasingly discredited anthropogenic climate change, such action has been taken to re-distribute American taxpayer money to "pilot new advances on governance" and help finance foreign loans among other things. When such exorbitant funding is embraced, it gets away from the goal of reducing "climate change" and moves towards a goal of increasing foreign funding for programs, conferences, and initiatives, not actual environmental improvement. With man made "global warming" now essentially debunked, why is the federal government using billions of taxpayer dollars to fund such global initiatives? Could climate change simply be a convenient way to implement a worldwide re-distribution of monies?

Crossposted here.