The West’s climate policies are a self-defeating “disaster”, says The Wall Street Journal. What’s the point of Joe Biden and European leaders heading to Glasgow hellbent on “energy masochism”? Without coal-guzzling baddies such as China signing up to Cop26, this idiotic climate agenda will have “net zero” impact on the climate. What it does do is “empower the bullies” in Beijing – and in the Kremlin. European energy prices are more than five times higher than they were a year ago. Russia provides half of Europe’s gas and its ambassador to Brussels, Vladimir Chizhov, is promising even more. “Change adversary to partner and things get resolved easier,” he says. As winter approaches, in other words, Europe finds itself at the “tender mercies” of Moscow.
“Europe’s willingness to harm itself in the name of unachievable climate goals is one of the greatest acts of democratic self-sabotage in history.” Leaders have poured billions into wind and solar at the expense of coal, gas and nuclear. “This has transformed European leaders into the equivalent of 16th-century naval explorers, praying for favourable winds and weather as energy prices rise and fall depending on cloud cover and wind conditions.” Now Biden wants to throw away US energy security in Glasgow. The world’s despots cannot believe their “strategic luck”.