By PATRICK MAYOYO
A new controversial book titled, “The Climate Pandemic: How Climate Pandemic Threatens Human Survival” says the Paris Agreement, the accord that aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change faces insurmountable shortcomings.
The Paris Agreement that came into force on 4 November 2016 aims to keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
However, the new book says even though the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 seeks to bolster the goals of the Paris Agreement, the accord faces insurmountable shortcomings—scientific, technological, economic, logistical, and political—that will prevent its success.
For a detailed write-up on the shortcomings of the Paris Agreement according to the book The Climate Pandemic: How Climate Pandemic Threatens Human Survival (see the chapter Paris Agreement: Blind and Toothless).
According to a press release from the book authors, among the agreement’s major shortcomings covered in the book that is just hot from the press are that:
- The 2°C limit is not a scientific number, but a convenient political measure with a highly dubious scientific provenance.
- The agreement suffers from vague wording that allows the parties to evade their commitments.
- The IPCC is likely using the wrong historical baseline from which to measure global temperature increases.
- Implementing the climate pledges will require investment of many trillions of dollars, amounting to a full 40% of the total global investment in the energy sector.
- Countries’ reports of their emissions constitute a statistical Tower of Babel, with huge gaps between reported emissions and their actual production.
- Countries’ political and economic interests will prevent phaseout of fossil fuel production.
The most egregious fantasy in the agreement, according to the book, is an assumption that “negative emissions technologies” could enable the world to stay below the 2°C goal (see the chapter Carbon Capture Snake Oil).
What’s more, renewable energy will not offer a significant energy source, according to the book (see the chapter Renewable Energy Hype). And decarbonization of the economy is “a delusion born of desperation and ignorance” (see the chapter Decarbonization Delusion).
The sensational allegations in the book are likely to elicit heated debate on the status of the climate crisis in the world as governments and climate change stakeholders converge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the UN climate Conference COP28.
