On Copenhagen as merely an ordinary communist takeover plot

from Peter Ravenscroft, 30.12.09

I will have a go at interpreting the Copenhagen document that Lord Monckton of Brenchley says is a covert blueprint for a communist takeover of the world. Here is Our Man in Darkest Anglia.

Eyes Right!

I much respect Chris's views on just how bad the science on climate change has been to date and we have exchanged a few emails, sporadically, over a few years and occasionally pulled each other's leg. I pull his right one, and he pulls my left, as our politics are slightly different. I do not share his view on the likelihood of a takeover of the world by communists, based on the document below or on anything else. I am sure he would reciprocate the favour, were I to propose the planet is about to be captured by fridge magnets, which is probably what he almost thinks of my Geomagnetic Model of Climate change anyway. But is far too polite to say.

Still his "Communist pouring through the Brandenburg Gate" speech has been a huge hit, in what he calls the Land of the Free, which he dearly loves and where only every nth black man is in jail, etc. Me, I merely love the west coast of same and all the people I met when hitch-hiking there in minor hurricane. And Colorado, of course, where an ex-girlfriend lives, though I have never been. I am afraid I am also an abject failure as a praise singer for declining empires, having grown up in one (the RSA) and having helped pack another, the Portuguese, into boxes just as it was cancelled. I tried singing Rule Britannia at both occasions, but it did not seem to go down all that well. I did, however, hitch with my brother clean across Botswana in my youth , with both of us wearing cardboard versions of the hat Chris is wearing above. Minus the liners. One elderly African gentleman fell right off his bicycle laughing, and rolled about on the ground in total glee, yelling, "The British are back, the British are back! You come back boys, run this country, and get rid of this fucking government" So you see, I am also a covert imperialist at heart, and you do have some wins. Anyway, to work. We can't have the Jerries pouring through the Brandenburg Gate again, can we?

Make your own reading of the extract below, from the official website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as the Copenhagen Conference.

I think what these folk were struggling manfully to say was something like this:

"How are we to review the progress we are making, as the years go by, in getting done what the Copenhagen Convention would like to see happen?'

They offered three options.

Option 3 says there should be reviews. The mob doing the reviews will call themselves the Conference of Parties. They might as well have been the Party of Conferees, and that would have avoided a problem, but no matter, it sounds reasonably grand either way. It is a review committee, whatever you call it. The COP. No doubt the loony right and the world's cartoonists will have a field day with that acronym.

Anyway, in the pursuit of administering this review process and of seeing that the convention or treaty or deal or whatever the writer(s) hope(s) would have been signed by one and all, actually works, (not running the planet, note) the unfortunately-named COP will, under the heading of "governance," merely see that the admin will be done by a new lesser committee (a "new subsidiary body on adaptation') that will be subject to the direction of the original COP. I think "governance' was a bad choice of a word, as "admin" would have let Chris and a million conspiracy theorists keep their hair on.

Here is as much or as little as you care to read from the original website, which is here. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/awglca7/eng/inf02.pdf

Process of reviewing overall progress towards the ultimate objective of the Convention and actions related to mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation
35. Option 1http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/awglca7/eng/inf02.pdf" title="The text of the Great Communist Plot">http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/awglca7/eng/inf02.pdf
[Parties shall periodically review the implementation by Parties of their commitments under the Convention, overall progress towards the ultimate objective of the Convention and actions related to mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer and other means of implementation, in the light of [the best available scientific information] [, including an assessment of climate change and its impacts] [intergovernmental scientific] [the most up-to-date information released by the IPCC] [[as well as relevant technical, social and economic information,] [the most recent scientific information provided by the intergovernmental mechanism] and taking account of observed impacts and efforts made to adapt to climate change], bearing in mind the changes in circumstances of the Parties, including [a] comprehensive review [not later than 2016] [at least five years before the end of the commitment period], incorporating consideration of future emission reduction requirements and targets in the light of the [Fifth Assessment] [findings of the latest assessment] Report of the IPCC.]
Option 2 (in the case of a long-term global goal as defined in paragraph 27, option 3, above) [The long-term global goal for emission reductions [shall] [should] be updated to reflect [progress in scientific knowledge] [inter-governmentally accepted scientific assessment of anthropogenic
global climate change and its impacts]. [To allow for these updates, the 2 oC goal [shall] [should] be broken down into partial targets: initially, a 0.2 oC temperature increase per decade over 10 decades. Every 10 years, the partial target [shall] [should] be evaluated, with a view to possibly redefining it,
taking into account [advances in scientific knowledge] [recommendations of the IPCC as agreed by the governments] and the reduction of uncertainties. In all cases, the probability of achieving the temperature goals should be greater than 50 per cent.]
Alternative to paragraph 35, option 2:
[This long-term target should be reviewed no later than 2015 and on a regular basis thereafter. Such a review must be informed by the experiences and observations of Parties, the findings of the IPCCAR5 and other relevant scientific information. The Conference of the Parties will be tasked with the
responsibility of setting interim short-term targets and monitoring the achievement of these targets. In these reviews, adaptive risk management strategies, to compensate for shortfalls, should be utilized as
FCCC/AWGLCA/2009/INF.2
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they allow for immediate progress and also permit for adjustment of strategies as actual outcomes and impacts in SIDS are observed. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, the precautionary principle dictates that lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for
postponing measures. In this context, the avoidance of further negative climate change impacts on SIDS must be one of the key benchmarks for assessing the adequacy of our long-term goal.]
Option 3
The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol shall undertake reviews of this Protocol, including the consideration of commitments of the Parties for subsequent periods, in the light of the best available scientific information and assessments on climate change and its impacts, as well as relevant technical, social and economic information, bearing in mind the changes in circumstances of the Parties. The first review shall take place at least five years before the end of the commitment period, and further reviews shall take place at regular intervals and in a timely manner. Based on these reviews, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol shall take appropriate action, which may include the adoption of amendment to Annex B (commitments by developed country Parties) and Annex C (actions by developing country Parties). The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol shall, at its first session or as soon as practicable thereafter, identify elements, including the economic development stages, response capabilities and shares of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, to be considered as criteria for changes in circumstances of the Parties.
36. The new agreed post-2012 institutional arrangement and legal framework to be established for the implementation, monitoring, reporting and verification of the global cooperative action for mitigation, adaptation, technology and financing, should be set under the Convention. It should include a financial mechanism and a facilitative mechanism drawn up to facilitate the design, adoption and carrying out of public policies, as the prevailing instrument, to which the market rules and related dynamics should be subordinate, in order to assure the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention.
37. The new institutional arrangement will provide technical and financial support for developing countries in the following areas: (a) preparation, implementation and follow-up through monitoring, reporting and verification of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) by developing countries.
These activities could include options to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD); (b) preparation, implementation and follow-up of national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs) or national communications in developing countries; (c) technology needs assessments (TNAs) for adaptation and mitigation under the NAMAs and the NAPAs or national communications of developing countries; (d) capacity-building and enabling environments for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries; (e) education, awareness raising and public participation, focused on youth,
women and indigenous peoples; (f) design and implementation of adaptation programmes and projects; (g) support for all technological cycle phases: research and development (R&D), diffusion and transfer, including acquisition of technologies for adaptation and mitigation, including the purchase or flexibility of patents. ( I am very glad to see that bit about buying patents. I have this thing called a waffle deleter. It is wind, or as they say now, biogenic-gas-powered. - PSR)
38. The scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention will be based on three basic pillars: government; facilitative mechanism; and financial mechanism, and the basic organization of which will include the following:
(a) The government will be ruled by the COP with the support of a new subsidiary body on adaptation, and of an Executive Board responsible for the management of the new funds and the related facilitative processes and bodies. The current Convention secretariat will operate as such, as appropriate.
FCCC/AWGLCA/2009/INF.2
Page 19
(b) The Convention’s financial mechanism will include a multilateral climate change fund including five windows: (a) an Adaptation window, (b) a Compensation window, to address loss and damage from climate change impacts, including insurance, rehabilitation and compensatory components, (c) a Technology window; (d) a Mitigation window; and (e) a REDD window, to support a multi-phases process for positive forest incentives relating to REDD actions. (Note to self - set up a window cleaning business now - PSR) (c) The Convention’s facilitative mechanism will include: (a) work programmes for
adaptation and mitigation; (b) a long-term REDD process; (c) a short-term technology action plan; (d) an expert group on adaptation established by the subsidiary body on adaptation, and expert groups on mitigation, technologies and on monitoring, reporting and verification; and (e) an international registry for the monitoring, reporting and verification of compliance of emission reduction commitments, and the transfer of technical and financial resources from developed countries to developing countries. The secretariat will provide technical and administrative support, including a new centre for information exchange. (Not a word, note, about the penguins. But I am sure they will come soon - PSR)
Alternative to paragraph 1–38
[The shared vision shall take the form of preambular text (See, I told you they had not been forgotten - that's what penguins do - they preambulate when the snowstorms are very fierce - PSR) that encapsulates both the long-term global goal and pulls together the other elements of the agreed outcome, in the following form:
The Conference of the Parties, Seeking to further implement the Convention, in light of evolving science and mindful of evolving economic development and emissions trends, Recognizing, in the light of Article 2 (objective) of the Convention, the importance of identifying one or more reference points in the mid-century timeframe that can guide the efforts of the Parties and the international community and against which aggregate global efforts can be continually assessed, Considering, in that regard, that [ ] is/are desirable global indicator(s), Having a shared vision of [summary that ties together the elements of the agreement], Hereby adopts [an implementing agreement].]"

So there. That is a ghastly mouthful, but if that is a plan for a world takeover by those communists who poured through the Brandenburg Gate a while back, took over Greenpeace and then dashed on and got that lot together, Chris is right. The gods help us, we are all going to be put to death by the application of exquisite boredom.

Pull the other leg, Chris. I know this is the Great Game, but that one has an Afghan mountain goat tied to it with used fly-by wire.

You can always spot a real commie plot. "The victory of the proletariat" always surfaces, somewhere in the fine print. I got Wordpad to carefully search the entire document, and we got a hit rate of exactly zero. It is not the commies. It is far worse. We are being stalked by demented lexicographers.

Relax, M of B, me old mate, and let's get back to the science. The conspiracy theorists of the world will miss you and a million hits for your Brandenburg Gate speech must be very cheering, but you are too damn good at the science to be wasted like this.

Happy New Year,

Peter.