Is The Paris Climate Agreement As Toothless As It Appears?

28 Dec, 2015 by William Teach

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I’ve blogged and tweeted numerous times that the Paris agreement is essentially non-binding, voluntary, and has no force of law. I’ve even had Warmists retweet that, because they are upset that it is non-bonding, voluntary, and provides no mechanisms to force legal compliance. Marlon Lewis at GlobalWarming.org argues that the agreement is not a paper tiger, though

Summary: The Paris climate agreement is “non-binding, underfunded, and unenforceable,” as one conservative commentator put it. However, Paris is a “paper tiger” only on paper. The treaty’s core purpose is not to impose legal obligations but to establish the multi-decade framework for a global political pressure campaign. The pressure will be directed chiefly at those who oppose EPA’s unlawful Clean Power Plan and other elements of the President’s climate agenda. Republicans will get rolled unless GOP leaders organize a political counter-offensive centered around a Byrd-Hagel 2.0 resolution. Key message point: Contrary to President Obama, the Paris agreement is a treaty, hence it is not a policy of the United States until the Senate ratifies it.

Dismissing the Paris Climate Agreement as a paper tiger because America’s emission-reduction and foreign-aid commitments are not “legally binding” is whistling past the graveyard. The Paris agreement is first and foremost a device for mobilizing political pressure against U.S. opponents of President Obama’s climate policies. Those would be Republicans and their fossil-fuel industry allies.

Mr. Lewis makes the case that, while not legally binding, it is “politically binding”. “Commitments are to be enforced via political pressure (“naming and shaming”) rather than through international tribunals or economic sanctions.”

The absence of formal sanctions does not mean Paris has no teeth. Suppose, for example, the next president, future Congresses, or even courts try to upend any part of Obama’s climate agenda. Thanks to Paris, 190 foreign heads of state, hundreds of Democratic pols, scores of green advocacy groups, and legions of liberal pundits will be primed to denounce Republicans for breaking “America’s promises” and sacrificing mankind’s future on the altar of corporate greed.

Think about how George Bush was vilified by Warmists and their compliant media for “taking the US out of the Kyoto Protocol”, despite never having joined it formally. The Senate voted 95-0 against it. Bill Clinton signed it, and, but, it had no force of law without Senate confirmation, since it was a treaty. Al Gore symbolically signing it had no force of law in the least.

The Obama administration spins the Paris agreement as a non-treaty exempt from Senate review so that U.S. and global greens can more efficiently organize political pressure to defend and promote the Clean Power Plan, other regulatory assaults on affordable energy, and EPA’s unlawful reign as the nation’s climate legislator.

Mr. Lewis makes a compelling argument, which should be read in full. The agreement is a mechanism to browbeat those who refuse to comply with the push to enact “green” initiatives, which are really just mechanisms to control citizens, private entities, the energy sector, and economies.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.