On Tuesday, Niskanen Center’s Jerry Taylor tweeted a link to a podcast where Charles Koch talks about climate change, saying that Koch has apparently “moved from a skeptic regarding the case for climate action to a proponent of reducing CO2 emissions.”
Taylor also gave some well-warranted skepticism from Taylor--as it turns out, Koch isn’t exactly embracing the Green New Deal here. Instead he’s using the same plainly false talking points as the natural gas industry and the Trump administration: that gas is a climate solution.
One of the first issues to come up on the August podcast with Tim Ferriss (and thankfully quoted by Koch Industries’ PR page) is a question about Koch’s prolific funding of groups that spread misinformation about climate change. Charles laughs off the question about if he funds denial, quipping “I certainly hope not” and claiming to ignore both the most strident deniers and alarmists. After that both-sides dodge, Charles pivoted to the now-standard talking point that gas replacing coal has reduced emissions and is therefore a good climate policy, and that the real problem is China.
This is not some big conversion. Koch is a liar who has spent a lifetime building on his father’s fortune, made by selling oil services to the Nazis, casting blame on China while praising a climate-killing product he’s gotten rich selling in the US as it became by far the largest historic emitter of the excess carbon in the atmosphere.
That said, he’s not entirely wrong about China not reducing emissions. But reality already shows he’s wrong about the gas-for-coal swap being a climate solution. According to recent research, China’s emissions are rising precisely BECAUSE it is using more gas. While the analysis expected China’s coal emissions to fall by 75.6 million tonnes in 2020, overall emissions from energy would still climb by 1.2% because of the addition of 200 million tons of CO2 from oil and gas emissions. (And the picture is potentially worse if China goes ahead with new coal plants.)
Meanwhile, a report published this week from UNEP and others found that the US, China, and the rest of the world are planning to burn enough fossil fuels to blow past the Paris target of limiting global warming to 2°C. Current fossil fuel infrastructure put us on track to, by 2030, release 150% more emissions from coal than we can to uphold the Paris Agreement. And 1.5°C is even further out of reach, with 280% more coal on the books than we can burn.
Unfortunately for Mr. Koch, oil and gas are also looking well over budget. Continued investment in fossil fuels have countries on track to produce 43% more oil and 47% more gas by 2040 than we can if we want to keep warming under 2°C.
Adding up coal, oil and gas, our existing plans for burning fossil fuels translate to being 53% over budget to hit 2C and 120% higher than what is compatible with 1.5C target.
So not only is burning more natural gas not a climate solution, but even burning what we have already on the books will wreck the climate.
If Charles Koch really were interested in a climate conversion, the first thing he might do is admit that yes, he has personally funded a network of climate denial, and lay out a plan for dismantling that ecosystem of “nonprofit” defenders of Koch profits.
Instead, he laughs off the question as though it’s absurd, before embracing the actually-absurd talking point that more fossil fuels are the answer to climate change. Seriously, that’s like if you want a Coke but want to cut down on your sugar intake so you order a Diet Coke, and the waiter says “We don’t have diet, and is Pepsi okay?” and you say sure and then the waiter then brings you a root beer float.
So how much should we trust Charles Koch? Zero!
Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories: