Ecology has reconnected the fundamental and sacred link that connects the environment to man. With this communion, it fills the void left by religions in an age of technological explosion. But it feigns ignorance of the gap that is widening on all sides between the political application of its principles and the assessment of its results.
The global dimension of the phenomenon and the unprecedented sums devoted to it justify an attempt to analyse its origin and approach, as well as its hidden motives and the geopolitical consequences that may be expected from it.
The two parts of this article will deal with these two facets of political ecology.
Part Two
Bearing in mind the paucity of the results for renewable energy mentioned in the first part of this article, the scale of its global development stands in for any good argument.
A reminder is in order.
The Chinese ambush
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a flexible mechanism in the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialised countries to continue to pollute at lower cost through investments supposed to reduce CO2 emissions (eq) in so-called “developing” countries.
Each tonne of CO2 deemed to have been avoided, thanks to these projects, permits an emission reduction certificate which authorises the equivalent emission in the industrialised country concerned.
Since the establishment of this mechanism, China has offered advantageous conditions that have attracted almost 60% of investments to 2013[9]. And it notably also benefits from technology transfer which has made it the number 1 for solar panels and one of the main manufacturers of wind turbines.
In 15 years, no less than $300 billion [10] has been invested in this way by industrialists in “developing” countries, with the main benefit going to China, and in particular over 84,034 MW of wind energy has been financed in China[11] by the “industrialised” countries, motivated by the increased profitability made possible by the allocation of additional emission rights.
In fact as far back as 2012 the China Institute noted cynically[12]:
“Chinese companies also see this mechanism as a short cut to obtain state-of-the-art equipment, even though they often do not have the technical knowledge needed to maintain them in the medium and long term.
As for Western companies, they are naturally attracted by the savings that carbon credits represent by allowing them to pollute at a lower cost, rather than by the socio-environmental benefits of CDM projects.
This same report sees these exchanges as an opportunity for China to assert its international leadership.
These projects are of course located in the regions offering the most attractive financial conditions for foreign investors, and not those that needed them the most.
Inner Mongolia in particular has been the location of most of the wind projects.
(Source UNEP DTU)
It has consequently become the most over-equipped province in China, with, according to Bloomberg [13], 75 GW of power installed for a peak demand of 20 GW. The Chinese electricity grid is not designed for these excess loads, resulting in an impressive amount of lost wind power.
At the same time the rights to pollute from this scheme have largely contributed to the fall in the price of carbon to values low enough to dissuade Europe from investing in its own modernisation, even though it would be likely to actually reduce its emissions.
The relay baton is handed back
After having faced this overproduction [14], China now has put a stop to its solar power development. [15].
Although these factors are not enough to discredit the validity of wind energy, they must shed light on the reasons for the success of green energy in China and its return to Europe.
Because China is now investing massively in European wind power [16] and dominating the green energy market, our industries are becoming unable to compete with Chinese equipment, as confirmed by the new provisions that allow it to break into the European photovoltaic panel market[17] all the more effectively as the halt in their development in China results in availability of significant stocks, to be sold here.
China’s near monopoly on rare earth elements [18], used in large amounts by green energies, is the final straw for the future of our industries.
So our green jobs will vanish[19], despite being subsidised, after they themselves have eliminated thousands of jobs before them.
Beijing-Moscow, the dangerous silk road
Vostok’s spectacular Russian and Chinese military manoeuvres [20] should be seen as a show of strength to the old world order dominated by the Americans.
And the new Beijing-Moscow axis[21] is the fruit of the colossal new silk roads project, intended to disrupt world trade to its advantage and to lure many countries into a debt trap with China [22], allowing China to buy up entire sections of their infrastructure.
After massive subsidies to intermittent energy have ruined the European electricity system, it is Europe’s energy industry, the nerve centre of any economic war, that China is now proposing to buy[23].
A headlong rush into the abyss
It is inconceivable that our elites have not spotted the danger.
But one should not underestimate the obstacle constituted by a public opinion blinded by the new green religion whose carrot of the Garden of Eden and stick of the end of the world are held by the media as vastly superior to any scientific opinion, or to any factual analysis.
Studies exist that show how to achieve the goals we set ourselves. And there are thorough reports denouncing the inefficiency of the choices already made[24] and the impasse they are leading us to.
But we have already gone so far in our efforts that the situation has closed in on us and is leading us inevitably onwards.
This headlong rush is given our blessing by the mad desire to make these choices irreversible[25], thus adding to the refusal to tally up the existing accounts, a refusal to believe in the future.
Many sources report[26] that on 29 October 2004, at the Hyatt-Hotel in Cologne, Angela Merkel, then head of the CDU, reportedly said :
“In the long run, there will be so many wind energy profiteers that it will become impossible to find a majority to limit its development” (Auf die Dauer gibt es so viele Profiteure der Windenergie, dass sie keine Mehrheiten mehr finden, um das noch einzuschränken).
The necessary return to Reason
The ecological credo meets a need. And it should not be judged on face value.
But it is only by objectively taking stock of its results so far, as well as by looking again at the science and its technological progress, that its political expression can still hope to help us avoid the worst.
It is the duty of our elites to make people realise that the future world we dream of, is not the world that is coming about.
They cannot give in to the mystical pressures subscribed to by their electorate without pledging the Nation to a future of chaos.
9 http://www.cdmpipeline.org/cdm-projects-region.htm
10 https://unfccc.int/news/clean-development-mechanism-passes-new-milestone
11http://www.cdmpipeline.org/cdm-projects-type.htm
12 http://www.china-institute.org/articles/La_Chine_et_le_marche_international_des_credits_carbone.pdf.
15 http://www.journaldelenvironnement.net/article/la-chine-sabre-son-solaire,92023
18 https://www.techniques-ingenieur.fr/actualite/articles/chine-monopole-production-terres-rares-51380/
20 https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/geopolitique/geopolitique-12-septembre-2018
21 https://www.algerie360.com/laxe-alger-pekin-moscou-supplante-la-france/
24 http://lemontchampot.blogspot.com/2018/03/debat-public-sur-la-ppe.html
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