THE CARBON WAR

200
The Winning of The Carbon War
I open an e-mail from Paul Bodnar, an old colleague of Anthony Hobley’s
who has told me he was persuaded to work on climate policy by reading my
book The Carbon War. Paul is now President Obama’s advisor on climate and
energy. The subject of his e-mail is a single word: “Result”. There is no message,
just an attachment. I open it and see a picture of him holding up the front page
of the Financial Times.
The G7 leaders are in tune with the zeitgeist, it seems. A global climate
survey released today shows that nearly two thirds of a poll of 10,000 people
from 79 countries want governments to do “whatever it takes” for a two-degrees
deal in Paris.
There is other encouraging news. Chinese greenhouse gas emissions may
peak by 2025 on current trends, an LSE study shows: five years earlier than the
current target. If this kind of progress spreads around the world, warming of
more than two degrees can still be avoided, the researchers conclude.
The first US state goes 100% renewables in electricity: Hawaii, by 2045.
The Governor signs a bill with a 100% renewables portfolio standard.
The proportion of the population viewing fossil fuels as risky investments
is soaring, at least in the UK. A poll shows that whereas in 2014 21%
in thought fossil fuel investment risky, a year on 66% do. Among 18-34 year
olds, the figure is 80%.
80%! Such figures must be very daunting for incumbency marketeers.
Unless, that is, they are advocates of transition.
A new YouGov poll looks at the deep climate-deniers around the world:
the percentage of the population wanting no climate deal at all. The US tops a
league table of 15 countries, with 17%. The UK comes fifth, with 7%. In China,
Indonesia and Malaysia the figure is 1%.
How to explain this disparity? Clearly the malign misinformation power
of media organisations like the Daily Mail and organs of the Murdoch empire
such as Fox News have a lot to do with the depth of minority denial in Britain
and America. But for how long will their systematic infusions of poison be
able to hold back the rising tide of groundswell dot world? Even their peers
in the press are ganging up on them. Global news organisations formed an
unprecedented alliance on climate in May. Twenty-five publishers including
Le Monde, China Daily, The Guardian, and El País, have made a collective
commitment to raising awareness of climate change in the run up to Paris.