"Skeptical Environmentalist" opposes propping up EU carbon credits

Reliable and affordable energy is vital for today's developing and emerging economies. Driven mostly by its fivefold increase in coal use, China's economy has grown 18-fold in the past 30 years and lifted 680 million people out of poverty. Worldwide, almost three billion people still don't have access to modern energy, instead they use firewood, dung and crop waste for cooking and heating indoors, which is so polluting, the World Health Organization estimates they kill one of every 13 people that die on the planet.

As it is becoming obvious that political responses to global warming such as the Paris treaty are not working, environmentalists are urging us to consider the climate impact of our personal actions. Don’t eat meat, don’t drive a gasoline-powered car and don’t fly, they say. But these individual actions won’t make a substantial difference to our planet, and such demands divert attention away from the solutions that are needed.

At 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, people and public places across the globe will switch off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about the impact of energy use on climate change. Unfortunately, this Earth Hour event is nothing but an ineffective feel-good event. It does little for the climate in terms of reducing CO emissions and distracts us from the real problems and solutions — especially giving light to those in the darkness.