A newly released analysis of Chinese government data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration found over the past decade-plus, China consumed as much as 14% more coal on an energy-content basis than previously reported. Its domestic coal production meanwhile was as much as 7% higher between 2000 and 2013. The upward revisions are also a reminder of just how unreliable Chinese government data can be. It illustrates just how difficult it is to get an accurate historic account of China’s emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. —The Wall Street Journal, 17 September 2015
Coal India’s plan to double production to almost 1 billion tonnes by 2020 hinges precariously on the successful completion of 25 key projects that are meant to deliver half the targeted output. To speed up the rail links, the government is forming special purpose vehicles in which Coal India is likely to hold the majority stake, followed by the Indian Railways and the respective state governments. –Debjoy Sengupta, Times of India, 11 September 2015
“You made the mess — you clean it up” may well be India’s attitude at the coming international climate-change talks in Paris. “It’s the West which has polluted the world for the last 150 years with cheap energy,” Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in an interview. “I can’t tell the people of India that we’ll burden you with high costs because the West has polluted the world, now India will pay for it. Not acceptable to us.” –Anindya Upadhyay, Bloomberg, 17 September 2015
African negotiators plan to block a global agreement on reducing global warming if the deal is too weak and fails to consider the implications of climate change for the continent’s wellbeing. —SciDev Net, 16 September 2015
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and some of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination slammed the Obama administration’s climate policies during a short exchange on the matter during their Wednesday night debate. “We’re not going to destroy our economy the way the left-wing government we’re under wants to do,” Rubio said at the main-stage event. “Every proposal they put forward are proposals that will make it harder to do business in America, that will make it harder to create jobs in America.” –Devin Henry, The Hill, 16 September 2015
It’s hard to imagine House leadership or any committee of jurisdiction scheduling time to debate or mark up this latest Constructive Republican Alternative Proposal. Nonetheless, given the administration’s increasingly shrill anti-carbon campaign, the impending Papal visit to preach climate alarm to congressional skeptics, and the looming pitched battles over the Clean Power Plan and Obama’s climate treaty agenda, we should not be complacent when a group of GOP lawmakers decides to crank the Me Too amplifiers up to eleven. Perhaps the Me Too resolution will languish in obscurity after today’s unveiling. But if co-sponsors start piling on, congressional constitutionalists, free-marketers, and affordable energy advocates will need to pass their own resolution to marginalize that of the Tweedle Dums. –Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 17 September 2015
Looming parliamentary elections in coal-dependent Poland will bedevil European Union efforts on Friday to agree a strong position for a global deal to tackle climate change. EU environment ministers meet in Brussels on Friday to finalise the bloc’s negotiating position for a U.N. climate summit in Paris starting at the end of November. Many EU nations are eager to retain the leading role the bloc has taken in moving to lower carbon energy, but Poland, whose economy relies on coal, says the cost of shifting from fossil fuels will undermine EU competitiveness unless the rest of the world is in step. Warsaw has support from other east European nations, diplomats said. –Barbara Lewis, Reuters, 17 September 2015
