Rail nationalisations may be coming down the track

[jiml]

 

[Ziv]

The amusing thing about the Kyoto Protocols is that the only developed nation that is even close to cutting their emission levels back to the levels they were at in 1990 is the US, famously a non-signer of the agreement. And they did it, in the main, by simply shifting from coal to natural gas for production of electricity, which was possible due to the efficiencies that capitalism (and fracking) brought to the natural gas market. Natural gas is much cheaper of late than it used to be and that has led to a reduction in the use of coal, and in turn to our greenhouse gas emission dropping by much more than the other G-20 nations. Most of whom signed onto the Kyoto Protocol but have failed to make meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green.../File:Greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-gas_(2).png

I am sure you are right, making a "profit" is all that matters in a capitalist society, no need to have a social conscience. I guess that's why America thinks that Global Warming is not it's concern, not much profit in saving the world?

 

[caravanman]

I bow to your superior knowledge, it surprises me though, as your recent President was such a fan of digging coal up and building oil pipelines. Maybe the fact that US business men shut their steel works, factories, etc, and transfered the work overseas for cheap labour helped reduce emissions in the US itself?

 

[neroden]

Natural gas emissions were underreported; there's a ton of fugitive gas emissions. So it's funny accounting. The only thing which has made a real impact is the shift away from fossil-burning, which is happening worldwide but only really starting to show up in the numbers in the last few years.

 

[Ziv]

I don't know about superior knowledge. LOL!
Trump backed coal because it got him votes, not because it was a good energy source for generating electricity. And the US has actually seen a small renaissance in manufacturing jobs since the price of natural gas has fallen from its "recent" highs between 2003 and 2008. Nat gas averaged more than $8 then but of late it has stayed below $4 most of the time. We lost a ton of manufacturing jobs from 1997 to 2010 but from 2012 to 2019 we actually saw small but steady gains in manufacturing employment. The US has gotten more efficient at production while using less energy which in turn is part of the reason that our GHG emissions have been falling but replacing coal plants with nat gas plants has been crucial.
One interesting aspect of this is that when you look at G-20 nations the US is doing better than almost all of them in reducing GHG emissions. And we are not a part of the Kyoto Agreement, while almost all of them are. So maybe if the rest of the countries would leave the agreement maybe their emissions would fall as much as the US emissions have dropped. ;-)

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/m...-at-the-same-level-of-69-years-ago-2019-01-04

I bow to your superior knowledge, it surprises me though, as your recent President was such a fan of digging coal up and building oil pipelines. Maybe the fact that US business men shut their steel works, factories, etc, and transfered the work overseas for cheap labour helped reduce emissions in the US itself?