Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #477
The Week That Was: 2021-10-30 (October 30, 2021)
Brought to You by SEPP (
www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “With a true view all the data harmonize, but with a false one the facts soon clash.” Aristotle: Ethics, Book I, Section 8, 10 [H/t Paul MacRae]
Number of the Week: Thirty-one Years
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This week the UN is holding the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). UNFCCC entered into force on March 21, 1994. The document has morphed into what is called the Paris Agreement. Unfortunately, the US Senate agreed to the UNFCCC with conditions. Though the conditions have not been met, the document is often treated as a treaty. Under the US Constitution a treaty, which must be approved by two-thirds of the Senators, is part of the US Federal law and is fully enforceable.
The Paris Agreement was signed by the Obama Administration as an executive agreement, not a treaty, and it has never been submitted to the Senate for ratification as required for a treaty to be enforceable. The Biden Administration treats the Paris Agreement as law, but it probably recognizes that it cannot hope to obtain ratification. Together with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UNFCCC created the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to:
“…provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/11/01/weekly-climate-and-energy-news-roundup-477/
