Calgary Declaration on Climate Change and COP23

Preamble: In Sept. 2015, the Pacific Island Development Forum issued the PACIFIC-ISLAND-DEVELOPMENT-FORUM-SUVA-DECLARATION-ON-CLIMATE-CHANGE.v2 pleading the case of member islands.  Today, Fiji is the host nation of the COP23 Bonn Climate Conference. 

We believe that every nation has its challenges and Canada’s are not being heard. In particular, our unique climate and weather conditions do not permit our country to reduce or eliminate fossil fuel use without causing death.  Current #ParisAgreement greenhouse gas reduction targets for Canada are unattainable without causing the destruction of Canada. This is contrary to the fundamental principles of the UN Charter – Article 2.1 which guarantees equal sovereignty and Article 55 which promotes economic development, full employment and higher standards of living.

Calgary Declaration on Climate Change and COP23

We speak for the people of Canada who hold dissenting views on climate change science, and for our society, which has reviewed climate science and energy policies in an open, transparent and inclusive manner since 2002, and we present this document to the November 2017 Bonn COP23 host nation of Fiji and declare that we:

1. Are gravely distressed that climate change policy poses an existential threat to Canada and that climate change itself, in the likely event of cooling, will severely damage and potentially destroy large sectors of the Canadian economy, and in the event of new glaciation, will wipe out much land for settlement or productive activity;

2. Express profound concern that the scientific evidence unequivocally proves that climate data has been manipulated and exaggerated in favor of claiming global warming is caused solely by humans, when both warming, and cooling are scientifically proven to be primarily driven by solar and ocean cycles, nominally by human industrial carbon dioxide emissions or other industrial greenhouse gases, and yet clear and appropriate review of such data is lacking in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) process or reports;

3. See and suffer from the adverse impacts of climate change, including but not limited to extreme periods of drought (1930’s), extreme periods of flooding (particularly in the bed of the former glacial Lake Agassiz region), extreme seasonal winter storms and related multi-billion dollar damages, extreme temperatures capable of causing death in minutes if people are exposed to minus >40°C/F (in the absence of housing and sufficient prime power proper heat source), extreme risk of catastrophic blackouts from geomagnetic storms like that of 1989 (particularly in the Canadian Shield region of Quebec which features both large hydro installations and transmission lines and highly conductive geology), potential for extreme risk from earthquake and seismic activity in some regions of Quebec and all along the West Coast of the province of British Columbia, extreme risk of permafrost melt, due in part to black soot deposits from industrial activity in Asia and wildfires from Siberia, extreme risk of cumulative mercury poisoning due to airborne mercury deposits from industrial activity in Asia and the United States, extreme risk of naturally caused wildfires and human-caused arson related to wildfires, extreme risk of unusually deep snows, especially in the Atlantic region and Maritimes, extreme risk of heat-or-eat poverty and total industrial collapse in the event that wind and solar farms replace the existing prime power of coal, natural gas, and oil;

4. Note with great regret that our previous proposals for a common-sense approach to energy and climate change policy (“Clear the Air in Paris” https://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/Clear_The_Air_In_Paris.pdf and “Décontaminer l’air à la conférence de Paris” https://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/D%C3%A9contaminer_l%E2%80%99air_%C3%A0_Paris.pdf) submitted for the COP-21 Paris Conference have been ignored by our own government and the Paris convenors, to the detriment of our people in Canada;

5. Are deeply disappointed that the “Montreal Pledge”[1] and the “L’Appel de Paris/Paris Pledge for Action” of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) and the act of becoming signatory to the UNPRI “Six Principles” creates a form of compelled speech, thought and business decision-making process that ultimately extorts compliance by corporations on various non-investment related social matters, and is founded on unverifiable scientific claims and assumed outcomes. The arrangement extorts compliance through threat of economic isolation from various banking and financial instruments, and these outcomes appear to be contrary to aspects of the Canadian Charter, Canadian law, Canadian Securities Law and World Trade Organization principles. Further, these climate pledges and organizational perspectives are reliant on the out-dated and non-scientific catastrophic political definition of climate change the UNFCCC,[2] rather than the scientific definition of climate change of the IPCC,[3] which acknowledges the key role of natural forces in climate.

6. Express grave concern that the Montreal Pledge and UNPRI ignore the requirement of continuous disclosure in investor relations by adopting a blanket statement on climate science which is a fluid and continuously changing field of inquiry; the UNPRI relies on magical thinking that humans are the sole arbitrators of climate change; and improperly creates an artificial market based on undefined promises that have no guarantee in the natural world, all of which is contrary to all fundamental principles of security law, examples being:

a) Unsupported promises of results. i.e. equating emissions reduction with both stopping ‘dangerous’ (undefined) climate change, peace and prosperity (undefined), reduction of ‘risk’ (undefined) of climate change, delivery of ‘better’ growth (undefined) and sustainable (undefined) development.

b) Parties not at arm’s length – Board members of UNPRI and the current advisor to ‘responsible’ investment on fiduciary duties related to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles is Al Gore and his Generation Investment Management Foundation.[4] These parties are not at arms length. Likewise, the Task Force on Climate Related Disclosure parties have vested interests, though some of these are difficult to find as their investments may be woven into mutual funds.

c) Conflicts with World Trade Organization principles[5] which are between elected and accountable governments, not self-appointed or vested interest groups like UNPRI or CDP. UNPRI relies on reporting from CDP Worldwide which is a Rockefeller Financial Advisor’s charity that gathers and documents valuable business energy use information, but which has no neutral, elected or accountable, or governmental authority reviewing its methods of rating reportees – none-the-less these reports have become crucial deciding factors for investment decisions of the unelected, unaccountable signatories to the UNPRI. In the case of Canada, the reports are detrimental to fair and equitable evaluation of corporate business operations and there is no reasonable recourse to protest a rating. This arrangement appears to contravene World Trade Organization principles, fair trade standards and common business practises wherein these two transnational, non-governmental bodies with substantial vested interests end up directing investment dollars on outdated science.

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION PRINCIPLES

Non-discrimination

A country should not discriminate between its trading partners and it should not discriminate between its own and foreign products, services or nationals.

More open

Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious ways of encouraging trade; these barriers include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such as import bans or quotas that restrict quantities selectively.

Predictable and transparent

Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be raised arbitrarily. With stability and predictability, investment is encouraged, jobs are created and consumers can fully enjoy the benefits of competition — choice and lower prices.

More competitive

Discouraging ‘unfair’ practices, such as export subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share; the issues are complex, and the rules try to establish what is fair or unfair, and how governments can respond, in particular by charging additional import duties calculated to compensate for damage caused by unfair trade.

More beneficial for less developed countries

Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges; over three-quarters of WTO members are developing countries and countries in transition to market economies. The WTO agreements give them transition periods to adjust to the more unfamiliar and, perhaps, difficult WTO provisions.

Protect the environment

The WTO’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health. However, these measures must be applied in the same way to both national and foreign businesses. In other words, members must not use environmental protection measures as a means of disguising protectionist policies.

d) No evidence of success in terms of climate claims. As with mining scams like Bre-X, we find high pressure tactics but long-term efforts in the ‘climate’ and GHG emissions reduction framework with little or no results, suggesting inappropriate activity. See Interpol’s “Guide to Carbon Trading Crime” for insights.[6]  Indeed, this year’s COP23 slogan is “Further, faster, together” is a high-pressure slogan that does not allow for sober second-thought or diversity of opinion.

e) Non-reproducible results underlie both the scientific claims on climate change risk reduction and the claim of improved growth and sustainability. In securities law, non-reproducible results are the hallmark of fraudulent endeavors. There is no evidence that humans can control earth’s temperature.

f) Creation of sub-market with preferential ‘vulture investor’ opportunities. Private funds are not required to participate in the UNPRI signatory process, creating a ‘vulture investment’ market potential where well-meaning funds might divest their valuable fossil fuel shares hoping to meet Paris Agreement emissions reduction goals, only to have those same shares snapped up by a private fund – one which may have insider knowledge based on the other published reports and ‘black’ or ‘white’ or ‘green’ lists created by the CDP. This sub-market may be directly related to signatories – it would be difficult to tell.

g) Breach of good faith. Corporations that have voluntarily reported to the CDP in good faith are then coerced into agreeing to invest in non-core industries (i.e. oil companies investing in wind/solar) to satisfy the activist institutional investor demands, thus skewing consumer markets for electricity. This is contrary to national and public interest.

h) The creation of activists instead of investors. The UNPRI and the CDP turn investors into activists – against the interests of the global economy.

7. Highlight the irreversible loss and damage to the Canadian economy caused by these market manipulations, on the order of $50 million a day[7] since 2013, resulting in forced displacement of our highly skilled oil and gas population of scientists, technologists, Professional Engineers and Professional Geoscientists. They become climate policy refugees with their home markets destroyed. We also claim the loss of quality assets for investors and the on-going, illegal divestment campaigns against fossil fuels which benefits vulture investors and which decimates and breaches the social and economic rights of Canadians.

8. Support the development of a Canadian task force on investment-loss reclamation and climate financing to recoup these lost revenues and to claim damages from the board participants of the UNPRI and COP signatories, responding to:

a) Our deep concerns about the continued lack of road map to address the unique climate and weather conditions of Canada, the vast distances, sparse populations, extreme winters and short winter days, conditions that are not comparable to survival conditions in any other country but Russia;

b) Our request for recoupment of some $73,000,000,000.00 in damages (2013-2017 based on Canadian Chamber report) from the UNPRI signatories and COP signatory nations who appear to be the ones jointly responsible for this market distortion;

c) Our demand that the UK registered charity “CDP Worldwide” (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project – a Rockfeller Financial Advisor’s project – UK Charities # 1122330 – CDP WORLDWIDE) be delisted as a charity and the data based dissolved as there is no net public benefit to Canada and their various reports have prejudiced investors against our country; this is not a net public benefit;

d) Our statement that clearly Canada will be unable to meet any further international funding commitments and we demand that all such requirements, including financial support for the United Nations, the UNFCCC, the IPCC, the Green Climate Fund and any Clean Device Mechanism financing be cancelled immediately and irrevocably.

9. Welcome the efforts of the United States of America to reintroduce the scientific method to climate science and the abandonment of the Paris Agreement by President Trump, as the current system is ineffective in its design and appears to be established solely to prop up an international Ponzi scheme of carbon trading and sale of renewable energy devices like wind turbines and solar farms, neither of which are suited to Canada, where they have low (for wind) and negative (for solar) energy return on energy invested, thus unable to support even a basic society.[8]

10. Emphasize that there is no scientific evidence that humans can control climate change and making such claims is contrary to all scientific principles. Emphasize that even though humans undoubtedly affect climate through changes in land use, water diversion, construction of large, complex built areas like urban centers, it is the unconstrained emissions of noxious pollutants (primarily in the developing world), and emissions of untreated sewage and waters into living bodies of water that pose risks to humanity and the planet, and it is these are the practical matters that should be addressed instead of climate change.

11. Reiterate our commitment to the reduction of noxious pollutants from industry and human activity and reject the physically impossible notion of a ‘low-carbon’ economy since, based on current technology, all manufactured devices and all the modern world is made or powered by or made possible by fossil fuels; the stream of diverse extracted by-products also create millions of jobs. Phasing out fossil fuels is not a rational consideration now for any reason.  Mitigating pollution is a rational and realistic option that should be pursued instead of climate targets; indoor pollution in third world countries due to the lack of electricity and the burning of wood and animal dung for heating and cooking is killing four million people per year.

12. Reaffirm that the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol have been hijacked by agenda driven non-governmental groups and opportunistic corporations like the former Enron[9] and others that continue that fraudulent tradition to this day;

13. Urge all parties to the Paris Agreement to abandon the Paris COP21 Agreement and engage in more rational and constructive relations, country to country, in accordance with WTO principles;

14. Emphasize that despite the global nature of the atmosphere, climate change is cyclical and largely driven by solar and ocean cycles; carbon dioxide is a nominal warming factor; national responsibilities must be tailored to the unique circumstances of each country. For example, Denmark is a unique world power in marine shipping – a very large emitter of noxious pollutants; it would not be fair, reasonable or economic to demand Denmark shutter its shipping industry, just as it is not reasonable to demand that Canada shut down or damage its oil, gas and coal industries. Another example, Sweden presents itself as a model of carbon neutrality, but in fact its signature commercial operations of IKEA and H&M have huge ‘carbon footprints’ and are vast consumers of raw materials; the final products require shipping world-wide.  No one is asking Sweden to close IKEA. Canada should not be asked to shutter or damage its oil, gas and coal industries.

15. Emphasize that the 2015 Paris Agreement in completely flawed and unbalanced as explained in “Just the Facts”[10] and that the “Green Climate Fund”[11] creates significant inequality in the world and thus both should be abandoned – neither address the issues of noxious pollutions and untreated waste water, which should be humanity’s focus;

16. Recognize that gender-based inequality and discrimination are social issues that vary greatly between nations, religions, cultures, and individuals and thus are irrelevant to this discussion about climate science and mitigation of pollution; compelled speech on these matters is contrary to the principles of Freedom of Speech and UN Charter of Nations that provides of national sovereignty and the UN Declaration of the Rights of Man which provides for Freedom of Speech, thought, religion, and conscience.[12]

17. Recognize the crucial importance of Professional Engineers, Professional Geoscientists and diverse scientific assessments of proposals for mitigation of human impacts on climate and pollution;

18. Recognize that there are conflicting views on Hydrofluorocarbons [HFC] under the Montreal Protocol and that this arrangement led to economic damage to Canadian companies and monopolizing of related markets by foreign entities.

19. We the Leaders of Friends of Science Society after some 15 years of professional review of IPCC reports, diverse areas of climate science peer-reviewed literature, and related local, national and international energy policies stemming from the numerous COP conferences, the IPCC reports and UNFCCC statements therefore call for:

a) the abandonment of the COP-21 Paris Agreement and public acknowledgement by all parties involved that humans may affect climate, but cannot control it;

b) that the UN Charter right of national sovereignty be respected and no legally binding arrangements based on the Paris Agreement or any punitive measures such as forced acquisition of carbon credits be implemented anywhere in the world;

c) that signatories to the Paris Agreement turn their efforts to the strenuous efforts to mitigate noxious pollutants and agree to provide to developing nations the Best Available Technology Economically Achievable (BATEA) to assist in rapid deployment of prime power to poor people in developing nations, with the least impact of noxious polluting emissions to the air or water;

d) that the loss and damages claimed by us on behalf of Canada be paid by the large sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors which are signatory to the CDP and UNPRI for their prejudicial judgements against Canadian resource development industries which was based on unfair and discriminatory Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) that do not consider the unique living conditions and seasonal weather/climate circumstances of Canada; further those INDCs also fail to consider the fact that Canada is a net carbon dioxide sink due to Canada’s vast forests that are absorbing carbon dioxide.

e) that considering our losses, Canada be fast-tracked as a now vulnerable nation, damaged by false and misleading attacks from non-governmental organizations, many of which are funded from offshore and apparently acting as proxies for competing international trade interests in the resource and energy sectors;

f) that it be formally acknowledged that there is no such thing as a low-carbon future in light of the current necessary use of fossil fuels for all activity and enterprise in the modern world; thus the push for decarbonizing society is simply a ruse to prop up financial investments of groupthink institutional investors, and now to foist low energy density wind and solar products onto countries that need prime power to succeed, using the UN Clean Device Mechanism and similar tools like carbon trading – all of which have been deemed to be fraught with fraud and criminal elements by Interpol – these methods should thus be abandoned;

g) that it be acknowledged that coal is the most abundant, affordable source of energy for the world and that nations work toward mitigating any noxious emissions using modern ‘scrubber’ technology, pulverized coal, and where possible, modern supercritical or ultra critical High Efficiency, Low Emissions plants;

h) that the focus be on improving health, water treatment and pumped/pumpable water delivery, water sanitation, water conservation, viable energy according to regional needs and geographic/resource options, viable agriculture suited to the region, stopping wanton deforestation or cultivation for the end purpose of biofuels, implementing modern forest management and fishery techniques at suitable scale for all people world-wide;

i) that adaptation measures for various small or poor countries be considered in light of diverse options including offering permanent residency in a safe country or for flood-risk plains, the construction of suitable barriers to the sea, in accordance with that nation’s ability to pay or their ability to relocate populations to higher ground;

j) support for the establishment of friendly trading relationships that are based on a hand-up, not a hand-out;

k) assistance to vulnerable nations to build more suitable structures to withstand known weather events like tropical storms; acknowledgement that a vast, cold, dark-winter country like Canada must make multi-billion dollar investments every year in battling the damaging effects of cold weather extremes that are absent in warmer climates  – thus our first financial concern must be for Canadians and Canada; we will assist with foreign aid through charities where individuals can make the choice to donate and where the state will not be subject to various manipulations in inter-government dealings as we have seen in the past two years;

l) on-going Canadian financial and research support to better understand the three oceans surrounding our country – sea to sea to sea. This information will be shared, as appropriate with other countries.

m) capacity building in educating the public of Canada and subsequently the world on how energy systems work, what provides the motive power to the modern world, the >4 billion years of earth’s climate change; the Holocene era and the dramatic natural climate changes of the Minoan, Roman, Medieval and Current Warm Periods and the dark cold ages of erratic weather that interspersed those periods;

n) international coordination to study the effects of solar cycles and ocean cycles on climate change, looking for means to forecast potential long-term changes; continued study of the climatic effects of changing solar activity.

o) recognize that numerous studies have shown that the effects of urban and industrial development (the Urban Heat Island effect) has seriously contaminated the government temperature indices and encourage the study of how much the Urban Heat Island effect has affected the land temperature record.

Signed this day Nov. 07, 2017 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in -18°C conditions (with wind chill -23°C) with 7 cm of snow

Nov. 6, 2017

During the Bonn COP23 Conference.

FRIENDS OF SCIENCE SOCIETY

[1] http://montrealpledge.org/ “As institutional investors, we have a duty to act in the best long-term interests of our beneficiaries. In this fiduciary role, we believe that there are long-term investment risks associated with greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and carbon regulation.

In order to better understand, quantify and manage the carbon and climate change related impacts, risks and opportunities in our investments, it is integral to measure our carbon footprint. Therefore, we commit, as a first step, to measure and disclose the carbon footprint of our investments annually with the aim of using this information to develop an engagement strategy and/or identify and set carbon footprint reduction targets.”

[2] “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”

[3] Climate change in IPCC usage refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. [emphasis added] This usage differs from that in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where climate change refers to a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/mains1.html

[4] http://www.fiduciaryduty21.org/

[5] Non-discrimination

A country should not discriminate between its trading partners and it should not discriminate between its own and foreign products, services or nationals.

More open

Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious ways of encouraging trade; these barriers include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such as import bans or quotas that restrict quantities selectively.

Predictable and transparent

Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be raised arbitrarily. With stability and predictability, investment is encouraged, jobs are created and consumers can fully enjoy the benefits of competition — choice and lower prices.

More competitive

Discouraging ‘unfair’ practices, such as export subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share; the issues are complex, and the rules try to establish what is fair or unfair, and how governments can respond, in particular by charging additional import duties calculated to compensate for damage caused by unfair trade.

More beneficial for less developed countries

Giving them more time to adjust, greater flexibility and special privileges; over three-quarters of WTO members are developing countries and countries in transition to market economies. The WTO agreements give them transition periods to adjust to the more unfamiliar and, perhaps, difficult WTO provisions.

Protect the environment

The WTO’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health. However, these measures must be applied in the same way to both national and foreign businesses. In other words, members must not use environmental protection measures as a means of disguising protectionist policies. https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/what_stand_for_e.htm

[6] https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-media/News/2013/PR090/

[7] Canadian Chamber of Commerce http://www.chamber.ca/media/blog/130917-50-Million-a-Day/1309_50_Million_a_Day.pdf

[8] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-energy-and-sustainability/article/lessons-from-technology-development-for-energy-and-sustainability/2D40F35844FEFEC37FDC62499DDBD4DC/core-reader

[9] https://ep.probeinternational.org/2009/05/30/enrons-other-secret/

[10] https://blog.friendsofscience.org/2017/06/09/the-cop21-agreement-just-the-facts-please/

[11] https://blog.friendsofscience.org/2017/06/04/where-will-the-u-n-get-its-climate-money-now/

[12] http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-15.html

Friends of Science Society

P.O. Box 23167, Mission P.O., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2S 3B1
Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597
Web: friendsofscience.org

E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience( dot)org

Web: climatechange101.ca