Greta Will Be Angry: US Joins China In Refusing To Sign Pledge To Phase Out Of Fossil-Fuel Vehicles

Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and dozens of members of Congress converged on Glasgow this week, as COP26 enters its final few days, without any prospect of the US passing key climate-focused legislation before it ends.The senior US politicians flew to Scotland following a frantic few days on Capitol Hill, where US President Joe Biden managed to get his signature infrastructure bill through Congress, though without any of the major climate initiatives he had promised.

With days left until the end of the summit which concludes on Friday, climate activists have expressed disappointment about the lack of firm US commitments which is perhaps understandable since the last thing Biden needs, trying to explain to his woke constituency why soaring inflation is good for them, is to also having to inform the American public that a grand total of $150 trillion in new – and very inflationary – spending will be required to ram through the Net Zero agenda. Still, activists are hoping the presence of so many members of Congress in Glasgow will give them a chance to press the case for passing Biden’s $1.75tn social security package, which includes around $550bn of environmental provisions.

Biden has promised to put tackling climate change at the heart of his domestic agenda, and attended the Glasgow summit in person last week. But his administration disappointed many attendees when it refused to sign up to a pledge to phase out coal power, joining China and India in opting out of the 40-nation agreement.

To be sure, the White House on Sunday insisted it remained committed to the climate agenda, pointing out the range of measures in the Build Back Better bill. They include $300bn to induce energy companies to build clean power and build charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, $29bn to help finance zero-emission technologies and $19bn in tax rebates to encourage households and factories to install clean technologies such as rooftop solar panels.

There is just one problem: overnight the US once again sided with the world’s biggest polluter, China, when it refused to join a pledge to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles by 2040.

Instead, six major automakers on Wednesday made a meaningless commitment to phasing out the production of ICE vehicles around the world over the next 20 years, as part of global efforts to cut carbon emissions, the British government said in a statement.

But, like everything else at this hilariously fake climate change boondoggle which is only meant to appease the dumbest and most gullible members of society, not only did the US, China and Germany not endorse this pledge, but the the biggest carmakers including the world’s top two, Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen AG also have not signed up. In short, just more theater.

And without action on ICE engines, the world’s so-called commitment to Net Zero is just one giant fraud: cars, trucks, ships, buses and planes account for about a quarter of all global carbon emissions, data from the International Energy Agency showed, of which the bulk comes from road vehicles.

While a bunch of otherwise green automakers, such as Sweden’s Volvo, Ford Motor and General Motors, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, China’s BYD Co and Jaguar Land Rover, a unit of India’s Tata Motors Ltd, were set to sign the pledge at climate talks in Glasgow, the apparent unwillingness of China, the world’s largest car market, and the United States – the world’s largest economy and second-largest car market – to join the pledge raises questions about its effectiveness.

Sources told Reuters that while the United States is not joining the pledge, key car-buying states like California and New York have signed up.

An auto industry source said some carmakers are wary of the pledge because it commits them to a costly shift in technology, but lacks a similar commitment from governments to ensure that the necessary charging and grid infrastructure would be built to support electric vehicles.

In other words, those signing up are only hoping that this will make it easier for them to demand government subsidies in the future, which if not on R&D, can at least be spent on buybacks and other actions enabling early retirement for the C-suite.

The world’s No. 4 carmaker, Stellantis, was also missing from the latest pledge, as were Japanese carmakers Honda Motor Co Ltd and Nissan Motor Co Ltd; Germany’s BMW and Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co .