Monday June 18, 2012
News release from Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow
Belo Horizonte, Brazil. To advance public action on global warming, participants attending the ICLEI World Congress admitted today that they are deliberately employing new terminology to misdirect opponents and gain acceptance of their efforts to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases. By utilizing terms like “sustainability” and “sustainable development,” the group wants to mask its objectives and disarm would-be critics who might otherwise oppose their agenda, ICLEI attendees confided with CFACT representatives at the conference.
Huxley Lawler, Executive Coordinator of Environment and Climate Change of the Gold Coast City Council in Australia (an ICLEI member), told CFACT Executive Director Craig Rucker bluntly that “we don’t use the term climate change anymore. It’s sustainable development.” Rucker and CFACT staffer Abdul Kamara confirmed this in conversations with other delegates, including Paul Chambers, a Sustainability Manager for the Auckland Council in New Zealand. Chambers said it is important to use inexact environment protection terminology when dealing with conservative governments, like the one he says currently heads his nation.
This revelation by ICLEI World Congress attendees comes at a time when public support for global warming is weakening. It reflects a profound change in strategy by proponents of climate action and world governance, and an admission that skeptics of manmade global warming continue to gain ground in shaping public opinion.
ICLEI stands for the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. It was founded in 1990 to advance “sustainable development,” as enshrined in a document called “Agenda 21,” by persuading local governments around the globe to support restrictions on energy use and economic development. ICLEI claims to represent over 1,200 cities internationally. According to one of its founders, Hans Monninghoff of Germany, cities become part of the organization by paying annual membership fees, which vary according to their population. It formally changed its name in 2003 to “ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability” to promote an even broader energy, economic and political agenda.
Another speaker at the ICLEI World Congress admitted today that creating carbon neutral cities, an important ICLEI goal, will likely kill jobs and displace businesses that are unable to adapt to restrictive policies that raise energy prices or reduce energy reliability. Addressing a question about the impact of carbon neutral policies on the economy during a session on “Accounting and Reporting of Low Carbon Cities,” Hans Karsten said, “There is no guarantee that companies doing business today will be doing business in 20 years.” The head of Technical and Environmental Administration for Copenhagen, Denmark, Karsten later revealed that it was his city’s intent to have zero carbon emissions by 2025, with half the residents riding to work by bicycle.
“Thinking they can speak candidly on their home turf, ICLEI speakers reveal an unworkable economic agenda,” said CFACT President David Rothbard. “ICLEI’s bait and switch – substituting ‘sustainable development’ for ‘climate change’ – is shameless and deceptive. People need to understand ICLEI’s real agenda, before it cons other local governments into joining. ICLEI is weaving a crafty spider’s web that will entangle communities before they realize how its restrictive rules will kill jobs and reduce freedoms and living standards.”
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Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow
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