Author:
- Guus Berkhout
The Oslo 2019 conference opened with the World Climate Declaration, presented by Dr Guus Berkhout. Many Norwegian scientists have also signed the declaration, and the number of scientists all over the world who have signed it, is growing.
The past 150 years show that affordable and reliable energy is key to financing basic needs, such as food, health, sanitation, housing, electricity, and education. The past 150 years also show that more CO 2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth and increasing the yield of crops. Why do world leaders ignore these hard facts? Why do world leaders do the opposite with their ‘Green New Deal’ and lower the quality of life by forcing high-cost, dubious low-carbon energy technologies upon their citizens? To get it their way, fear is used, but fear has never led to sensible policies.
A global network of critical scientists and engineers (CLINTEL) has prepared a simple message: “There is no climate emergency.” Yes, climate change exists and must be addressed, but the network emphasizes that there is NO cause for panic and alarm. The CLINTEL scientists strongly oppose the misleading, unrealistic and destructive global net-zero CO 2 -policy (‘NetZero’). Instead, they promote climate adaptation policies that show a high benefit-cost ratio.