The Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC – or ‘COP28’ – is almost upon us. Like an expensive holiday season, it rolls around faster each year, knocking on the world’s treasuries with a ‘tax or die’ greeting. To save the planet, you must pay up. Is it an ice age, global warming, climate change, or global boiling? Who cares … as long as it comes with a ticking clock.

Events such as these are packed full of ‘start-ups’ and billion-dollar companies flogging some new ‘green thing’ that will ‘save the world’. Whether it’s eating printed bugs or harnessing the power of thunderclaps – climate festivals are designed as an expo interspersed with speeches so riveting the US President napped through some of them.

Governments send envoys to this festival of terrible ideas for the sole purpose of committing to international climate slogans thinly draped over an enormous corporate machine. COP wants to be the World’s Fair started in 1851 by Victoria and Albert. Suffice to say, it is not. Environment Ministers, Prime Ministers, Presidents, and dead-set morons swoop in on private jets with taxpayer credit cards funded by public guilt.

We no longer live in a world of individual customers buying good products at a reasonable price. Corporations sell to countries.

Presently, ‘climate change’ is the money tree of the apocalypse.

…and it’s amazing how profitable the end of the world has become.

Some say it will cost $62 trillion to complete the global renewable energy transition. Forget everything else with a green hashtag. Of course, we know government projects always come out on budget and that $62 trillion is not going to misplace a few decimal points along the way. Yes, climate change is a luscious money tree but the water table is sinking and when it withers and dies – which it shall – what is the world going to be left with?

Climate Change is a marriage of economics and politics propped up by the magic of religious zeal. How else can you explain wealthy nations using ‘green’ companies to buy rainforests in the third world which they ‘mine’ for carbon credits? While increasing domestic emissions and raking in a fortune, these countries can claim they have met their Net Zero 2030 goals at the same time as expanding their physical land empire via climate change corporate contracts. The losers? Those sucker nations that sold off their rainforests for trinkets.

At least distasteful regimes used to be honest about their expansionist ambitions – rolling tanks over the border and planting flags.

Conquest via Carbon Credits is a lot like China’s debt-trap diplomacy only nations that engage in it get to parade their victories around talk-fests to the sound of applause.

The reality is that vulnerable nations are losing control of their territory via a mix of corruption, desperation, and marketing. Sure, we’ll hand over control of our rainforests if it means we’ll get a seat at the climate club… These nations are prisoners of folly.

Countries in the third world are not the only ones being preyed upon in the carbon credit scheme.

There is every chance the Australian Labor Party will enter into some kind of nightmare deal to allow a private company – probably foreign-owned – to use our natural resources as climate-cash.

It’s clear the Labor Party aren’t taking carbon math seriously. If they were interested in legitimate value, they would listen to Professor Ian Plimer who, among others, has demonstrated that Australia is currently carbon negative. We didn’t meet our Net Zero goals because we started from a position of victory. Where is our fanfare? Can we have some praise from the UN?

Being Net Zero is not commercially useful. Only the journey to Net Zero is desirable.

Politicians have no interest in a Net Zero Australia. You cannot mine a rainforest or Great Barrier Reef for Carbon Credits if they are already being used to keep Australia out of the UN’s ridiculous carbon extortion project.

We need to keep a very close eye on the promises made by Australia at COP28.

It boasts the world’s first stocktake of natural resources – but as anyone in retail will tell you, if someone’s doing a stocktake, they intend to sell the product.

The land beneath our feet is being translated into a carbon dollar value. Climate capitalism or eco-fascism… Whatever this is, we need to get out of it fast.

Next year, the expiration date on the planet will be moved a few decades into the future.

And we will get poorer.

Our oceans, forests, farmlands, and reefs are in danger… Not from the climate, but from corporate interest.

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