Compiled and annotated by Yutaka Yokoyama

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December 28, 2020

DON’T FORGET POLAND

Financial Times:

“EU and China poised to agree investment pact / … the agreement is expected to cause frictions with the incoming administration of US president-elect Joe Biden. …”

South China Morning Post:

“All EU member states back China investment deal, sources say / … No country had raised ‘stop sign’ … 27 countries in the trade bloc unanimously approving the agreement despite earlier reservations … . Under the deal, European businesses would enjoy a more privileged investment environment in China than their American counterparts … .”

“Erik Brattberg, director of the Europe programme at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the EU’s ‘last-minute push’ to complete the deal with China ‘has already raised eyebrows in Washington,’ adding: ‘It risks undermining the credibility of the EU’s call for a joint transatlantic China strategy with the US even before the new Biden administration settles in.'”

Reuters:

“EU-China investment deal likely this week – officials / … Poland suggested the EU should wait to discuss the deal with the new U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden … but other countries did not share this view.”

Note: China’s rise is worth paying attention to for various reasons. Primarily because it reveals that the American* fantasy of persuading the world to make non-equitable but effective emissions cuts is more and more untenable (it was never tenable). That doesn’t mean the Chinese government is wonderful. What it logically implies is that the more China is respected, the more pressure there is on the U.S. to face its limited range of options (i.e., either accept the equity principle or more than equity in climate negotiations). This also means that China’s obedient wearing of the villain costume on free speech issues reduces the pressure on the U.S., which spells doom.

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MEMORY LANE

NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):

December 28, 2020, CO2 414.93 ppm
December 28, 2019, CO2 412.11 ppm
December 28, 2018, CO2 408.86 ppm
December 28, 2017, CO2 407.61 ppm
December 28, 2016, CO2 404.90 ppm
December 28, 2015, CO2 401.87 ppm
December 28, 2014, CO2 399.12 ppm
December 28, 2013, CO2 397.50 ppm
December 28, 2012, CO2 394.89 ppm
December 28, 2011, CO2 391.94 ppm
December 28, 2010, CO2 389.55 ppm
–
December 28, 2000, CO2 369.90 ppm
December 28, 1992, CO2 356.37 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
December 28, 1980, CO2 338.84 ppm
December 28, 1960, CO2 316.60 ppm

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*”If equity is in, we’re out,” as Todd Stern, Obama’s climate envoy, said.

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