(CNN): As the dust settles on Democrats’ $1.75 trillion economic framework, climate has emerged as a big winner.

PART-1: WHAT THE CNN REPORT SAYS ABOUT THE BIDEN CLIMATE PROGRAM

The framework crafted by President Joe Biden and congressional leaders includes $555 billion for climate and clean energy provisions. If passed, it would be the largest legislative investment on climate in US history, and a significant step forward for a Congress that has punted on climate action for decades while global temperatures have risen at an alarming rate. We’re spending over five times what we spent in the 2009 Recovery Act, and it’s a lot broader. These investments can have a huge positive impact on the economy. The White House ia preparing to roll out climate actions to meet Biden’s goals, with or without Congress. In the end, climate measures made up the largest policy line in Biden’s framework. It will cut a billion metric tons of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The White House is also confident the legislation will put the US on track to meet Biden’s Paris Agreement goal of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. At the start of negotiations, environmental groups were asking for $700 billion in clean energy investments. The bill’s final number at $1.75 trillion. Senate negotiations were touch-and-go for months with Joe Manchin opposing the clean electricity program. That program was dropped but other investments were added to make up for it. A proposed $320 billion for clean energy and electric vehicle tax credits has survived negotiations. It includes electric vehicle tax credits of up to $12,500 for buyers of electric vehicles made in the USA with American materials and by union workers. The plan also expands existing home energy and efficiency tax credits, and create a new rebate program for electrification.

The Biden plan also includes a 300,000-person Civilian Climate Corps to conserve public lands and help the US be more resilient against climate impacts. Corps jobs will be union jobs. This progrm includes a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator in the form of a green bank that will issue loans for clean energy projects. Though the framework has been announced and draft legislative text circulated, lawmakers have yet to vote. Manchin hasn’t endorsed the framework. It os unclear if and when the bill will be passed. Democrats in the House and Senate want to ensure that no more climate provisions get cut from the proposed $555 billion climate action budget. The Biden climate action framework is not yet codified but it gives Biden and Kerry some the opportunity to present these proposals at COP26 in Glasgow as the climate action roadmap for clean energy in the USA. And that will establish that Biden is living up to his ppromise to be a world leader on climate.

CRITICAL COMMENTARY

THE BIDEN CLIMATE ACTION PLAN DESCRIBED ABOVE IS BEST UNDERSTOOD AS A PREPARATION FOR COP26 WHERE THE USA WISHES TO BE SEEN AS A CLIMATE HERO SUCH THAT THE BILLYUNS AND BILLYUNS BEING SPENT IN THESE CLIMATE PROGRAMS ARE INTENDED TO MAKE BIDEN AND KERRY AND THE USA LOOK LIKE CLIMATE HEROES AT COP26. THIS IS NOT A CLIMATE ACTION PLAN. IT IS A KIND OF CLIMATE POLITICS.

OTHER ODDITIES AND WEAKNESSES OF THE PLAN ARE AS FOLLOWS.

FIRST, THE CLAIM THAT THE PROPOSED $555, $700, AND $320 BILLION BUDGETS FOR CLIMATE ACTION WILL REDUCE GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS BY A BILLION METRIC TONNES IMPLIES THAT THE NET EFFECT OF THIS PLAN IS A REDUCTION OF GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS BY 1/36 OR 2.8%. THIS IS WELL WITHIN THE UNCERTAINTY RANGE OF GLOBAL EMISSIONS. THEREFORE, NO MEASURABLE OR STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED EMISSION REDUCTION ON THE CLIMATE IS POSSIBLE.

SECOND, AND MORE IMPORTANT, THE GLOBAL WARMING ISSUE IS A GLOBAL ISSUE AND ONLY A GLOBAL ISSUE IN WHICH GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING AND THE CLIMATE ACTION SOUGHT IS A REDUCTION OF GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS TO ZERO. IT REQUIRES A GLOBALLY COORDINATED PROGRAM OF ALL COUNTRIES TO REDUCE GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS. THERE IS NO OPPORTUNITY HERE FOR THE CLIMATE HEROISM OF NATION STATES, EVEN OF A NATION STATE AS LARGE AND HEROIC AS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. IN A RELATED POST ON THE “CATCH-22” PRINCIPLE IN CLIMATE ACTION: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2020/05/22/climate-catch22/ , WE NOTE AS FOLLOWS:

Although the world of humans is separated into nation states, they are connected by economics. This connection is vast and complex and involves cross border investments, stocks, bonds, monetary policy, technology, intellectual property rights, and so on and so forth but most importantly in this respect, the nations of the world are connected by trade. International trade is so important, that even though we think of our civilization in terms of the nation states, we are really one huge global economy because we are connected by trade. Because nation states are independent nations in some respects but global in terms of trade, a climate action decision by an individual nation state will not lead to global emission reduction. This is because any national climate action plan by a single nation state will increase the economic cost of production and make that nation state less competitive in international trade and hand over a cost advantage to nations that do not have a national climate action plan. The cost advantage of non-climate-action takers will cause their production and exports to rise by virtue of demand from climate action taking nations. The net result will be that economic activity {and fossil fuel emissions} will decline in climate action taking nations but with a corresponding rise in economic activity {and fossil fuel emissions} in non-climate-action taking nations. In the net there may be no emission reduction. This is the Catch-22 of national level emission reduction plans. THEREFORE THERE IS NO OPPORTUNITY FOR CLIMATE ACTION HEROISM OF NATION STATES.

IN A RELATED POST: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/02/23/renewable-energy-statistics/ WE SHOW THAT {NATIONAL LEVEL CLIMATE ACTION PLANS ARE FATALLY FLAWED BECAUSE THEY DO NOT CONTAIN USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT CLIMATE ACTION. OVER THE LAST DECADE INTENSIVE NATIONAL LEVEL CLIMATE ACTION BY THE ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY NATIONS SUCH AS GREAT BRITAIN, THE EUROPEAN UNION, AND AUSTRALIA, AT GREAT COST AND SUFFERING BY THEIR CITIZENS, HELPED ALONG BY THE COVID PANDEMIC IMPLIES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH CLIMATE SCIENCE AND THE CALL FOR CLIMATE ACTION BY CLIMATE SCIENCE, THAT THE RATE OF INCREASE IN ATMOSPHERIC CO2 AND THE RATE OF GLOBAL WARMING SHOULD HAVE BEEN REDUCED. BUT NO SUCH IMPACT IS FOUND IN THE DATA FOR EITHER OF THESE KEY AGW VARIABLES. A SPECIFIC IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC WAS THE REDUCTION IN GLOBAL AIRLINE TRAFFIC FROM 39 MILLION FLIGHTS PER YEAR TO 16 MILLION FLIGHTS PER YEAR. THROUGH ALL THIS CLIMATE ACTION AND THE PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON ECONOMIC ACTIVITY WORLDWIDE, ATMOSPHERIC CO2 AND GLOBAL MEAN TEMPERATURE CONTINUED TO RISE AT THE SAME RATE AS THEY HAD WITHOUT ANY INDICATION OF AN EFFECT EITHER OF CLIMATE ACTION OR OF THE PANDEMIC. THESE DATA IMPLY THAT THERE IS NO CLIMATE ACTION INTERPRETATION FOR NATIONAL LEVEL EMISSION REDUCTION PLANS.

IN TERMS OF CONFERENCE OF PARTIES {COP}, THE OBJECTIVE THERE IS THAT THE GATHERING OF NATIONS WILL MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO COORDINATE A COOPERATIVE GLOBAL EFFORT OF ALL NATION STATES TO REACH AN EMISSION REDUCTION AGREEMENT LIKE THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL IN WHICH THE NET GLOBAL EMISSION IS ZERO.

THE COP IS NOT A PLACE FOR NATION STATES WITH INDEPENDENT AND UNCOORDIANTED CLIMATE ACTION PLANS TO IMPRESS THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE COP DELEGATES WITH THEIR INTENTIONS AND CLIMATE ACTION PLANS. IT IS A PLACE WHERE THEY CAN CREATE A COORDINATED GLOBAL PLAN TO ELIMINATE GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS AS IN THE SO CALLED “MONTREAL PROTOCOL FOR THE CLIMATE’.

THE LONG AND SORDID HISTORY AND THE DISMAL AND COMICAL FAILURE OF THE 25 COPS THAT HAVE BEEN HELD IN THE PAST IS DESCRIBED IN TWO RELATED POST:

LINK#1: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/06/05/the-paris-agreement/

LINK#2: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/08/21/cop26-glasgow-2021/ . THE USA CLIMATE ACTION HEROISM DESCRIBED ABOVE IS A CONTINUATION OF THIS BIZARRE CARICATURE.