We Must Reject Our Elites’ Failed, Top-Down Environmentalism

Last month in Davos, the World Economic Forum (WEF) held its 54th annual meeting where world leaders suggested countries should make significant concessions to address climate change. Ideas included having wealthier nations pay for so-called climate action in poorer nations and the phasing out of fossil fuels globally. It is not countries that sacrifice, however, but rather real people who lose opportunities for sanitation, food security, transportation, and reliable electricity needed for clean water, home heating, and many industries.

Much of the meeting’s climate-change talk echoed views expressed at the most recent United Nations climate-change conference (COP28) in Dubai last December. Chief among the talking points in Dubai and Davos was that the world needs to transition away from fossil fuels. As is the case with many extreme climate policies, there was little to no acknowledgment of the harm and trade-offs from such initiatives.

For decades, climate extremists have tried to scare the public into huge, immediate sacrifices to address what they perceive as a crisis. They willfully ignore the significant and life-altering consequences of making such sacrifices, and also ignore the reality that a better tomorrow results from greater human ingenuity and abundance today.

Let’s assume that governments all over the world did, in fact, mandate the phasing out of fossil fuels, as was pushed by COP28 and WEF 2024 attendees, and supported by U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry. This would mean that we’d give up essential resources (coal, natural gas, and oil) that currently meet more than 80 percent of the world’s energy needs, even though we lack reasonable and ready alternatives.

Read the full article on National Review.