U.N. Official Admits: We Redistribute World�s Wealth by Climate Policy

The Blaze (Link) - Meredith Jessup (November 18, 2010)

�This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy.�

Is this quote from a) a climate change skeptic, or b) an official from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?

Climate change skeptics have long theorized about ulterior motives behind attempts to legislate and regulate man-made global warming. This speculation reached a fever pitch after data from the University of East Anglia � widely referenced by the United Nations � was found to be flawed and private emails pointed to a broader conspiracy to falsify the so-called evidence.

But this speculation is only likely to grow after a leading member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told a German news outlet, �[W]e redistribute de facto the world�s wealth by climate policy.� Via the Media Research Center, Germany�s NZZ Online Sunday interviews Ottmar Edenhofer of the U.N. (emphases mine):

(NZZ AM SONNTAG): The new thing about your proposal for a Global Deal is the stress on the importance of development policy for climate policy. Until now, many think of aid when they hear development policies.

(OTTMAR EDENHOFER, UN IPCC OFFICIAL): That will change immediately if global emission rights are distributed. If this happens, on a per capita basis, then Africa will be the big winner, and huge amounts of money will flow there. This will have enormous implications for development policy. And it will raise the question if these countries can deal responsibly with so much money at all.

(NZZ): That does not sound anymore like the climate policy that we know.

(EDENHOFER): Basically it�s a big mistake to discuss climate policy separately from the major themes of globalization. The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War. Why? Because we have 11,000 gigatons of carbon in the coal reserves in the soil under our feet � and we must emit only 400 gigatons in the atmosphere if we want to keep the 2-degree target. 11 000 to 400 � there is no getting around the fact that most of the fossil reserves must remain in the soil.

(NZZ): De facto, this means an expropriation of the countries with natural resources. This leads to a very different development from that which has been triggered by development policy.

(EDENHOFER): First of all, developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world�s wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole.

According to the Media Research Center, Edenhofer was �co-chair of the IPCC�s Working Group III, and was a lead author of the IPCC�s Fourth Assessment Report released in 2007 which controversially concluded, �Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.��

This week marks the one year anniversary since the �Climategate� scandal erupted. �