Business
Biden announces massive new climate goals in final weeks, despite looming Trump takeover
From LifeSiteNews
Outgoing President Joe Biden announced a new climate target of reducing American carbon emissions from 61-66% over the next decade, even though President Trump would be able to undo it as soon as next month.
Outgoing President Joe Biden announced December 19 a new climate target of reducing American carbon emissions of more than 60% over the next decade, even though returning President Donald Trump would be able to undo it as soon as next month.
“Today, as the United States continues to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, President Biden is announcing a new climate target for the United States: a 61-66 percent reduction in 2035 from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions,” the White House announced, the Washington Free Beacon reports. The new target will be formally submitted to the United Nations Climate Change secretariat.
“President Biden’s new 2035 climate goal is both a reflection of what we’ve already accomplished,” Biden climate adviser John Podesta added, “and what we believe the United States can and should achieve in the future.”
The announcement may be little more than a symbolic gesture in the end, however, as Trump is widely expected to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement upon resuming office in January, in the process voiding related climate obligations.
Trump formally pulled out of the Paris accords in August 2017, the first year of his first term, with then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley stating that the administration would be “open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favorable to it, its business, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers.”
Such terms were never reached, however, leaving America out until Biden re-committed the nation to the Paris Agreement on the first day of his presidency, obligating U.S. policy to new economic regulations to cut carbon emissions.
In June, the Trump campaign confirmed Trump’s intentions to withdraw from Paris again. At the time, Trump’s team was reportedly mulling a number of non-finalized drafts of executive orders to do so.
Left-wing consternation on the matter is based on certitude in “anthropogenic global warming” (AGW) or “climate change,” the thesis that human activity, rather than natural phenomena, is primarily responsible for Earth’s changing climate and that such trends pose a danger to the planet in the form of rising sea levels and weather instability.
Activists have long claimed there is a “97 percent scientific consensus” in favor of AGW, but that number comes from a distortion of an overview of 11,944 papers from peer-reviewed journals, 66.4 percent of which expressed no opinion on the question; in fact, many of the authors identified with the AGW “consensus” later spoke out to say their positions had been misrepresented.
AGW proponents suffered a blow in 2010 with the discovery that their leading researchers at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, East Anglia Climate Research Unit, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had engaged in widespread data manipulation, flawed climate models, misrepresentation of sources, and suppression of dissenting findings in order to make the so-called “settled science” say what climate activists wanted it to.
Business
The ESG Collapse: Al Gore, Intel, BlackRock, and the Failed Promise of “Sustainable” Investing
From StosselTV
For years, investment firms pressured companies to hire people of certain races and genders, and pushed “sustainability.” That has hurt returns.
Investments that claim to be “sustainable” have been underperforming. It’s because companies that embrace “ESG” woke investing end up prioritizing politics over innovation.
Intel, once a leader in the tech world, wasted millions on ESG goals. Now, it lags behind its competitors. Its stock is down more than 70%. “You have a company that’s absolutely failing!” Says Matt Cole, CEO of Strive investment managing.
Even BlackRock, which led the “ESG” push, now backs away from ESG investments. “What you’re seeing today,” says Cole, “is ESG funds shuttering at record speed.”
Our new video explains why.
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Business
GOP Lawmakers Urge Coast Guard To Defend US Ports Where ‘Chinese Military Company’ Operates
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Philip Lenczycki
Republican lawmakers urged the U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday to take “decisive action” against a Chinese military company that has “expansive operations at major U.S. ports,” according to a letter exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The House Committee on Homeland Security and House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to U.S. Coast Guard Acting Commandant, Admiral Kevin E. Lunday requesting information and a classified briefing related to COSCO Shipping, a Chinese state-owned enterprise that the Department of Defense (DOD) recently added to its list of “Chinese Military Companies.” COSCO Shipping poses a “significant” national security threat to the U.S., ranging from “espionage, cyber intrusions, sabotage, and supply chain disruptions,” according to the letter.
“Permitting vessels and personnel affiliated with COSCO SHIPPING to operate within U.S. ports without adequate safeguards exposes the nation to unacceptable risks, particularly during times of increased geopolitical tension,” the letter states. “As the lead federal agency for maritime security, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) must take decisive action to mitigate these risks.”
The letter is signed by House Homeland Security chairman, Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, China Select Committee chairman, Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez and South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) exploits “Chinese Military Companies” for intelligence and military purposes as part of its “Military-Civil Fusion Strategy,” the letter states.
Military-Civil Fusion “supports the modernization goals of the People’s Liberation Army by ensuring it can acquire advanced technologies and expertise developed by PRC companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities,” according to the DOD.
Toward that end, China engages in “forced technology transfer, intelligence gathering, and outright theft,” and directs Chinese enterprises to “undertake classified military R&D and weapons production,” according to the State Department.
In addition to being a state-owned enterprise, the committee’s letter warns that COSCO Shipping vessels “frequently have Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political commissars embedded amongst their crews.”
COSCO Shipping’s website includes a section for “Party building” and states that its CEO, Wan Min, also serves as the Party secretary of the firm’s internal CCP branch. A “Party branch” is the smallest “grass-roots” CCP organization, and one must be established within any Chinese institutions containing three or more Party members, according to the Chinese government.
The committee’s letter also urges the USCG to intensify its protocols for “screening vessels, owners, and crew members associated with COSCO Shipping and other entities linked to the PLA or the PRC’s security and intelligence services.”
COSCO Shipping’s previous CEO, Xu Lirong, simultaneously served as deputy director of the China International Culture Exchange Center (CICEC), which former analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Alex Joske identified as a front for China’s premier civilian intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security, the DCNF previously reported.
“It is essential that biographical information for all foreign mariners, particularly those from the PRC and other high-risk countries, undergo comprehensive scrutiny utilizing the complete range of classified and unclassified data resources accessible to the U.S. government,” the committee’s letter states.
A USCG spokesperson told the DCNF it “routinely evaluates vessels before arrival within U.S. waters” and examines vessels “for safety and security” after arrival as well.
The committee’s letter also requests for USCG to provide answers to nine questions by Feb. 3.
More than half of the questions relate to the protocols, process, or datasets USGC uses to vet foreign vessels and mariners.
For example, one question asks: “What classified and unclassified datasets are used by the USCG to vet foreign mariners, vessel owners, and operators?”
Another question asks: “Is the USGC’s vetting and screening process for foreign vessels and mariners fully automated, partially automated, or primarily manual?”
Other questions concern USGC’s possible coordination with federal agencies, like the FBI, and inquire into whether or not USGC has conducted a risk assessment specific to COSCO Shipping.
“The USCG must prioritize the integration of both classified and unclassified intelligence, strengthen interagency coordination and collaboration, and leverage advanced technological solutions to enhance its ability to detect and deter emerging threats,” the committee’s letter states.
COSCO Shipping did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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