[paul cotter (OP)]

Here we are, heading for another copout, will it be as stunningly successful as copout 28? Just to be clear, I am a fully paid-up card carrying member of the cynic party. Did anyone happen to see the "AISEG" generator shown at last year's conference? This free energy doohickey will solve the world energy shortage and it's inventors have discovered 12 new laws of physics including the critical "bandwagon" effect!! How the hell does crap like this get displayed at this, or any other conference? Am I on the right planet?

[alancalverd]

Amazing technological breakthrough! When I played the YouTube clips, I could actually smell the bullshit!

And isn't that what COP is all about?

[Petrochemicals]

card carrying member

Your card was probably made in china using coal, along with your iphone and almost everything in your house.

[paul cotter (OP)]

Wrong!, Petro, I don't have an I-phone(or any other smart phone) and never have had one. Forgot to mention I am also a luddite.

[Petrochemicals]

Wrong!, Petro, I don't have an I-phone(or any other smart phone) and never have had one. Forgot to mention I am also a luddite.

2 out of 3 isnt bad.

[paul cotter (OP)]

Surely Trump's re-election will cripple any possibility of a move to reduce fossil fuel use? The world at the present time is plagued with populist leaders whose only motivation is to stay in power and the best way to stay in power is to maintain cheap fuel prices. I can't see anything useful coming from this and it has always been my opinion that these conferences are a waste of time, space and energy as human nature dictates that selfish actions will always scupper any possible meaningful agreement. Rant over.

[alancalverd]

Fossil fuel will eventually disappear anyway, and in the short term will become uneconomic. It is already politically undesirable. The sensible thing to do is to work on alternatives, not attend fatuous conferences about the inevitable.

[paul cotter (OP)]

Agreed.

[paul cotter (OP)]

Looks like a fudge is on the cards, not for the first time.

[alancalverd]

I have just discovered a 50,000 year old set of committee minutes.

On behalf of what may become Great Britain, Ug said "It is time for the bloated plutocrats of Australia to cough up loads of wonga  to compensate me and my banker chums for the total destruction of our island by the forthcoming ice sheet. The inventors of the boomerang have a social duty to part with their excessive profits and our crap weather is all their fault."   

In reply, Og said "Look, mate, we have our own problems. The inland sea is evaporating and we're going to be left with a bloody great desert and some inedible spiders. The last thing we want is for the coastal strip to be invaded by Pommie crooks looking for cheap sunshine and melanoma. Stick to your flat beer, stop whingeing, and don't misappropriate our lingo."

[Petrochemicals]

I imagine COP29 has been going 29 years. 29 years is a long time, long enough to change, long enough to conclude that COP is useless. In 29 years we could make the UK carbon free.

[alancalverd]

In 2005 I published a short paper explaining how to reduce anthropogenic CO2 emission rates by 25% at no net cost to anyone's lifestyle, by a procedure that, if (as I predicted) it failed to produce any useful effect , could be completely reversed in a few years.

My proposal was supported by the World Bank, the UK Treasury, and pressure groups around the world, but would have eliminated the need for political grandstanding and (if my hypothesis was correct) possibly demolished the careers of a few scaremongers and climate "scientists", so it was never adopted as official policy by any government.