STIRLING: Foreign-funded Canadian 'charity' pushing fossil-fuel phase-out at COP28

The big climate conference, COP28, is coming up this week (November 30 to December 12, 2023) in Dubai, UAE. Some 70,000 people who want to stop climate change will be flying there to 'save the planet.' Among them are members of a Canadian ‘charity’ that wants to phase out fossil-fuels altogether.You can’t think of a greater irony than holding a global climate conference in Dubai, when the stated goal of the climate activists attending is to phase out fossil fuels. Never mind the jet fuel to get 70,000 people there and home later; the air conditioning energy use should be a standing rebuke.Of particular interest to Canadians however, is the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). This so-called charity is based in Canada, but largely foreign-funded. Perhaps that's a clue to the thinking behind its 2022 report, that put the boots to Canada’s opportunities to sell Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to Germany and Japan. As the IISD now claims, “COP28 presents an opportunity for governments to correct course and send strong signals to corporations and financial institutions to stop investing in fossil fuel expansion.”How foreign-funded is the IISD? Of the $29 million in income it reported to the Canadian Revenue Agency, more than two thirds, $21.2 million came from outside Canada. (BN/Registration number: 127202349 RR 0001.) Check: Remember how people such as Mark Carney freaked out over $100 donations to the Freedom Convoy and suspicions foreign funding would affect Canadian policies?Much of the focus of COP28’s fossil fuel phase-out plans rely on the “Production Gap” report co-authored by IISD with other international activist groups. The report tracks the misalignment between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and global production levels consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C.As I’ve noted in previous articles, the 1.5°C or 2°C targets are political, not scientific ones, meaning there is no peril if global average temperatures exceed these. Actually, the claim of a global temperature itself is unscientific as Essex, McKitrick and Andresen show in this paper. And the global mean temperature anomaly record is equally useless as Lindzen and Christy show in this report (Video). And for what it's worth, astrobiologists, when seeking new habitable worlds for us to live on in outer space, seek an environment that is 5°C warmer than earth. (We are of course, still working on an emissions-free warp drive to get us there.)Fossil fuel phase-out is kind of a tough sell in Dubai where commodities experts CEIC data report that “United Arab Emirates Crude Oil Exports was reported at 2,717.117 Barrel/Day in December 2022 … an increase over 2,304.910 Barrel/Day for December 2021.” The stunning marvel of modern-day Dubai with its iconic skyscrapers reaching far into the heavens could not exist without fossil fuels, especially in a desert land.Oil is produced in 70 nations of the world. Major oil/gas competitor nations to Canada (we are one of the top five/six exporters of oil and gas) such as China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq aren’t the least bit interested in phasing out fossil fuels, no matter what petulant youth climate activists such as Greta Thunberg or Calgary’s Sadie Vipond and Ontario’s Sophia Mathur say.If anything, Dubai is emblematic of the economic development and energy security a vibrant, government-supported resource sector provides. Wake up, Canada! UAE boasts the second-largest economy in the Middle East next to Saudi Arabia, another petroleum giant which was the world’s largest exporter of crude oil in the world in 2021. With its 9.5 million citizens, UAE’s energy sector revenues have provided people with enviable jobs, government paid medical care, no personal income tax, astounding modern architecture and a booming tourism industry. Many tourists are drawn to Dubai’s human-made islands built by naughty, energy-intensive activities such as dredging sand from the Gulf seafloor and piling up rocks to stabilize the island construction. Gasp! Dredging! That would never pass an Environmental Impact Assessment in Canada! And imagine trying to get approval to build something like the Burj Khalifa in Canada today! Would every floor have to have heat pumps? Would Net-Zero cladding and 12-inch walls turn astounding architecture into a parody of itself?And yet this marvel of modern application of oil and gas — the UAE — which literally financed and built these breathtaking edifices, is hosting a climate conference populated with thousands of climate activists who would have no place to go and no way to get there, if their dream of fossil-fuel phase out came true. And your tax dollars are subsidizing most of these climate fanatic environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) which claim to be doing charitable work. Really? What is the ‘net public benefit’ to Canada of phasing out the fossil fuels that have made Dubai and the UAE a wealthy architectural miracle in the desert with fully funded health care?Meanwhile in resource-rich Canada on NetZero steroids, the best we can do for you if you are really ill, is offer you MAiD.