Economy
Heritage Foundation president tells Davos: Future Trump admin must reject all WEF ideas
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos
From LifeSiteNews
The Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts said that everyone in the next administration must ‘compile a list of everything that’s ever been proposed at the World Economic Forum’ and object to ‘all of them, wholesale.’
The president of the conservative Heritage Foundation in said in his appearance at Davos that the next Republican administration needs to reject “everything that’s ever been proposed at the World Economic Forum.”
Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation, the leading conservative think tank in the U.S., said during a panel discussion called “What to Expect from a Possible Republican Administration?” that “the kind of person who will come into the next conservative administration is going to be governed by one principle and that is destroying the grasp that political elites and unelected technocrats have over the average person.”
BREAKING – @Heritage President @KevinRobertsTX calls out globalist elites at WEF
He said the next Republican administration needs to “compile a list of everything that’s ever been proposed at the World Economic Forum and object [to] all of them, wholesale.” #WEF24 pic.twitter.com/DXmlZUoCOA
— Andreas Wailzer (@Andreas_Wailzer) January 18, 2024
“And if I may, I will be candid and say that the agenda that every single member of the administration needs to have is to compile a list of everything that’s ever been proposed at the World Economic Forum and object [to] all of them, wholesale.”
“Anyone not prepared to do that and take away this power of the unelected bureaucrats and give it back to the American people in unprepared to be part of the next conservative administration.”
Trump admin will ‘trust the science’ and reject push of gender ideology
Roberts said that the idea that the WEF is defending “liberal democracy” and the suggestion that Trump would be a “dictator” are both “laughable.”
My message to the self-appointed global elites: Your time is up. pic.twitter.com/Wj2Bntjztz
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) January 18, 2024
“Whoever is the next conservative president is going to take on the power of the elites,” he declared.
“Political elites tell the average people on three or four or five issues, that the reality is X, when in fact reality is Y.”
Roberts went on to list five things as examples that President Trump will take on if he is elected:
“Take immigration: elites tell us that open borders and even illegal immigration are okay, the average person tells us in the United States that both rob them of the American way of life.”
“Elites also tell us that public safety isn’t a problem in American cities. Just travel to New York or Washington or Dallas, Texas. The average person will tell you that the lack of public safety damages not just the American way of life but their life.”
“Thirdly, I guess the favorite at the World Economic Forum, is climate change. Elites tell us that we have this existential crisis with so-called ‘climate change,’ so much so that climate alarmism is probably the greatest cause for [the] mental health crisis in the world. The solutions, the average person knows, based on climate change are far worse and more harmful and cost more human lives, especially in Europe during the time that you need heating, than to the problems themselves.”
“The fourth: China. The number one adversary not just to the United States but to free people on planet Earth. Not only do we at Davos not say that, we give the Chinese Communist Party a platform. Count on President Trump ending that nonsense.”
“And fifth, another supernational organization, the World Health Organization, is discussing foisting gender ideology upon [the] Global South. These are practices that are under review if not being rejected, by countries in Northern Europe.”,
“The new president, especially if it is President Trump, will, as you like to say, ‘trust the science.’ He will understand the basic biological reality of manhood and womanhood.”
“I think President Trump, if in fact he wins a second term, is going to be inspired by the wise words of Javier Milei, who said that he was in power not to guide sheep but to awaken lions,” Roberts concluded.
Roberts: ‘I’ll probably never be invited back’ to the WEF
In a video published on his X account shortly before his appearance in Davos, Roberts said that “for too long, the self-appointed globalist elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland have lorded over you and me.”
This morning, I'll be joining #WEF24 to usher the Davoisie into early retirement. Tune in live at 10:15 a.m. EST.
🔗: https://t.co/VIJtdayL8b pic.twitter.com/Oozlr19HmW
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) January 18, 2024
“And you’ll never guess, the president of the Heritage Foundation was invited this year to go, and against my preference, I’m going, on your behalf, to read those people the riot act.”
“Their time of lording over us has come to an end, whether it’s COVID lockdowns, riding over there in their beautiful fancy private jets while lecturing us at the same time, sometimes while on the plane, that climate change is an existential threat.”
“I’m going to talk about all of it. I’ll probably never be invited back, but considering I never wanted to go in the first place, I look forward to it.”
Business
Taxpayer watchdog calls Trudeau āout of touchā for prioritizing āclimate changeā while families struggle
From LifeSiteNews
The prime minister told a G20 panel this week that fighting so-called ‘climate change’ should be more important to families than putting food on the table or paying rent.
Canada’s leading taxpayer watchdog blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for being completely “out of touch” with everyday Canadians after the PM earlier this week suggested his climate “change” policies, including a punitive carbon tax, are more important for families than trying to stay financially afloat.
In speaking to LifeSiteNews, Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) federal director Franco Terrazzano said Trudeau’s recent comments show his government “continues to prove it’s out of touch with its carbon tax.”
“Canadians don’t support the carbon tax because we know it makes life more expensive and it doesn’t help the environment,” Terrazzano told LifeSiteNews.
Terrazzano’s comments come after Trudeau told a G20 panel earlier this week that fighting so-called “climate change” should be more important to families than putting food on the table or paying rent.
Speaking to the panel, Trudeau commented that it is “really, really easy” to “put climate change as a slightly lower priority” when one has “to be able to pay the rent this month” or “buy groceries” for their “kids,” but insisted that “we can’t do that around climate change.”
Terrazzano said that the Trudeau government’s carbon tax in reality “impacts nearly all aspects of life in Canada by making it more expensive to fuel up our cars, heat our homes and buy food.”
“The carbon tax also puts a huge hole in our economy that we can’t afford,” he said to LifeSiteNews, adding that if Trudeau really wanted to help Canadians and “prove it understands the struggles facing Canadians,” then it should “scrap the carbon tax to make life more affordable.”
On Thursday, Trudeau, who is facing abysmal polling numbers, announced he would introduce a temporary pause on the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) for some goods.
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre this afternoon said about Trudeau’s temporary tax holiday that if he is serious about helping Canadians, he would cut the carbon tax completely.
People’s Party of Canada (CPC) leader Maxime Bernier called the move by Trudeau a cheap trick to try and “bribe” Canadians, noting that it will not work.
“What a ridiculous gimmick. Bribing Canadians temporarily with borrowed money,” Bernier wrote.
“When the real solution is to stop growing the bureaucracy, cut wasteful spending, stop sending billions to Ukraine, eliminate subsidies to businesses and activist groups, stop creating new unsustainable and unconstitutional social programs, eliminate the deficit, and THEN, cut taxes for real. None of which he will do of course.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, a survey found that nearly half of Canadians are just $200 away from financial ruin as the costs of housing, food and other necessities has gone up massively since Trudeau took power in 2015.
In addition to the increasing domestic carbon tax, LifeSiteNews reported last week that Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault wants to create a new “global’ carbon tax applied to all goods shipped internationally that could further drive-up prices for families already struggling with inflated costs.
Not only is the carbon tax costing Canadian families hundreds of dollars annually, but Liberals also have admitted that the tax has only reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1 percent.
Economy
COP 29 leaders demand over a $1 trillion a year in climate reparations from ‘wealthy’ nations. They don’t deserve a nickel.
COP 29 is calling for over $1 trillion in annual climate reparations
- A major theme of COP 29 is that the world should set a “New Collective Quantified Goal” wherein successful nations pay poor nations over $1 trillion a year to 1) make up for climate-related harm and 2) build them new “green energy” economies. In other words, climate reparations.¹
- What would $1 trillion a year in climate reparations mean for you and your family?Assuming the money was paid equally by households considered high income (>$50 per day), your household would have to pay more than $5,000 a year in climate reparations taxes!²
- Climate reparations are based on two false assumptions:1. Free, wealthy countries, through their fossil fuel use, have made the world worse for poor countries.
2. The poor world’s main problem is dealing with climate change, which wealth transfers will help them with.
But free, fossil-fueled countries have made life better for poor countries
- Free, wealthy countries, through their fossil fuel use, have not made the world worse for poor countries—they have made it far, far better.Observe what has happened to global life expectancies and income as fossil fuel use has risen. Life has gotten much better for everyone.³
- The wealthy world’s fossil fuel use has improved life worldwide because by using fossil fuel energy to be incredibly productive, we have 1) made all kinds of goods cheaper and 2) been able to engage in life-saving aid, particularly in the realms of food, medicine, and sanitation.
- Without the historic use of fossil fuels by the wealthy world, there would be no super-productive agriculture to feed 8 billion humans, no satellite-based weather warning systems, etc. Most of the individuals in poor countries would not even be alive today.
Free, fossil-fueled countries have made the poor safer from climate
- The wealthy world’s fossil fuel use has been particularly beneficial in the realm of climate.Over the last 100 years, the death rate from climate-related disasters plummeted by 98% globally.
A big reason is millions of lives saved from drought via fossil-fueled crop transport.⁴
- The “climate reparations” movement ignores the fact that the wealthy world’s fossil fuel use has made life better, including safer from climate, in the poor world.This allows it to pretend that the poor world’s main problem is dealing with rising CO2 levels.
The poor world’s problem is poverty, not rising CO2 levels
- The poor world’s main problem is not rising CO2 levels, it is poverty—which is caused by lack of freedom, including the crucial freedom to use fossil fuels.Poverty makes everything worse, including the world’s massive natural climate danger and any danger from more CO2.
- While it’s not true that the wealthy world has increased climate danger in the poor world—we have reduced it—it is true that the poor world is more endangered by climate than the wealthy world is.The solution is for the poor to get rich. Which requires freedom and fossil fuels.⁵
Escaping poverty requires freedom and fossil fuels
- Every nation that has risen out of poverty has done so via pro-freedom policies—specifically, economic freedom.
That’s how resource-poor places like Singapore and Taiwan became prosperous. Resource-rich places like Congo have struggled due to lack of economic freedom.
- Even China, which is unfree in many ways (including insufficient protections against pollution) dramatically increased its standard of living via economic freedom—particularly in the realm of industrial development where it is now in many ways much freer than the US and Europe.
- A crucial freedom involved in rising prosperity has been the freedom to use fossil fuels.Fossil fuels are a uniquely cost-effective source of energy, providing energy that’s low-cost, reliable, versatile, and scalable to billions of people in thousands of places.⁶
- Time and again nations have increased their prosperity, including their safety from climate, via economic freedom and fossil fuels.Observe the 7X increase in fossil fuel use in China and India over the past 4 decades, which enabled them to industrialize and prosper.⁷
- For the world’s poorest people to be more prosperous and safer from climate, they need more freedom and more fossil fuels.The “climate reparations” movement seeks to deny them both.
- The wealthy world should communicate to the poor world that economic freedom is the path to prosperity, and encourage the poor world to reform its cultural and political institutions to embrace economic freedom—including fossil fuel freedom.Our leaders are doing the opposite.
Climate reparations pay off dictators to take away fossil fuel freedom
- Instead of promoting economic freedom, including fossil fuel freedom, wealthy climate reparations advocates like Antonio Guterres are offering to entrench anti-freedom regimes by paying off their dictators and bureaucrats to eliminate fossil fuel freedom.This is disgusting.⁸
- The biggest victim of “climate reparations” will be the world’s poorest countries, whose dictators will be paid off to prevent the fossil fuel freedom that has allowed not just the US and Europe but also China and India to dramatically increase their prosperity.
- The biggest beneficiary of “climate reparations” will be China, which is already emitting more CO2 than the US and Europe combined. (Though less per capita.)While we flagellate and cripple ourselves, China will use fossil fuels in its quest to become the world’s superpower.⁹
- The second biggest beneficiary of “climate reparations” will be corrupt do-gooders who get to add anti-fossil-fuel strings to “reparations” dollars and dictate how it’s spent—which will surely include lots of dollars for unreliable solar panels and wind turbines made in China.
Leaders must reject reparations and champion fossil fuel freedom
- We need leaders in the US and Europe who proudly:1. Champion the free world’s use of fossil fuels as an enormous good for the world, including its climate safety.
2. Encourage the poor world to embrace economic freedom and fossil fuels.
Tell your Representative to do both.
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1 Scientific American – COP27 Summit Yields ‘Historic Win’ for Climate Reparations but Falls Short on Emissions Reductions
Phys.org – COP29 climate finance deal ‘must cover loss and damage,’ experts urge
COP29 official website – Fund for responding to Loss and Damage ready to accept contributions
2 Global population was about 8.02 billion in 2023.
About 7% of world population are considered high income, which translates into about 562 million individuals. Considering 3 people per average household in high income households, this translates into about 187 million households.
Pew Research – Are you in the global middle class? Find out with our income calculator
$1 trillion per annum paid by 187 million households means the average household would pay about $5,300 per year.
3 Maddison Database 2010 at the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, Faculty of Economics and Business at University of Groningen
4 UC San Diego – The Keeling Curve
For every million people on earth, annual deaths from climate-related causes (extreme temperature, drought, flood, storms, wildfires) declined 98%–from an average of 247 per year during the 1920s to 2.5 in per year during the 2010s.
Data on disaster deaths come from EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium – www.emdat.be (D. Guha-Sapir).
Population estimates for the 1920s from the Maddison Database 2010, the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, Faculty of Economics and Business at University of Groningen. For years not shown, population is assumed to have grown at a steady rate.
Population estimates for the 2010s come from World Bank Data.
5 UC San Diego – The Keeling Curve
Data on disaster deaths come from EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium – www.emdat.be (D. Guha-Sapir).
Population estimates come from World Bank Data.
6 Our World in Data – Energy Production and Consumption
7 BP – Statistical Review of World Energy
8 UN News – ‘Pay up or humanity will pay the price’, Guterres warns at COP29 climate summit
9 Our World in Data – Annual CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels, by world region
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