{"id":404594,"date":"2025-09-24T17:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=404594"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:01:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T15:01:01","slug":"un-climate-week-reveals-elites-scorn-for-the-worlds-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=404594","title":{"rendered":"UN Climate Week reveals elites\u2019 scorn for the world\u2019s poor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Crowd<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The New York Post<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Bjorn Lomborg<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As world leaders and influencers converge for New York\u2019s UN General Assembly<\/a> and Climate Week, two incompatible visions are about to clash \u2014 rich-world elites obsessed with climate change versus developing nations battling poverty, hunger and disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a plain fact the elites refuse to accept: Hundreds of trillions of dollars spent on traditional climate policy can only deliver tiny benefits, but devoting just billions to simple, proven policies can transform lives, alleviate poverty, promote health and boost resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This chasm highlights why most of the world perceives rich virtue-signaling elites as disconnected from reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate activists flooding New York this week ignore decades of failed summits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1992\u2019s Rio Earth Summit, the renewable share of global energy has risen just two percentage points, from 12% to 14%, despite the world spending over $14 trillion \u2014 mostly on ineffectual subsidies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On current trends, it will take another four centuries to get to all-renewable energy production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even if all unconditional pledges are fully implemented, emissions in 2030 will still be about 19% higher<\/em> than 2019 levels, the UN predicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet expect the activists to make bolder, costlier promises, blind to their economic toll and puny impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the world spent over $2 trillion on climate policies. By 2050, net-zero will cost an impossible $27 trillion every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will choke growth, spike energy costs and hit the poor hardest \u2014 and still will deliver only 17 cents back on every dollar spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, mere billions of dollars could save millions of lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No glitzy \u201cMaternal and Newborn Care Week\u201d in New York draws celebrity advocacy power, yet 260,000 mothers and 2.3 million newborns die annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple interventions \u2014 like a $5-per-use hand-pumped neonatal resuscitator for birth asphyxia\u2014could avert 166,000 maternal and 1.2 million infant deaths for $2.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every dollar invested in such a program would generate social returns worth $87, an investment 600 times more effective than net-zero policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there\u2019s more: For $1.7 billion we could extend childhood vaccines to save 500,000 kids annually, yielding $100 in social returns per dollar spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another $1.1 billion would fight malaria<\/a>, avoiding 200,000 deaths and giving $48 back to society on every dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And $5.5 billion in agricultural research and development would hike food yields by 10%, cutting hunger for 100 million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrast this with climate policies\u2019 huge costs and paltry returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If, as is realistic, only rich countries end up carrying through these promises, the cost could reach $5,000 to $20,000 per person per year \u2014 unaffordable and implausible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the impact is trivial: Even the UN\u2019s own climate model finds a negligible difference between the current policies of the rich world and achieving net-zero by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because either way, most emissions will be coming from China<\/a>, India and Africa, which are understandably prioritizing poverty alleviation via cheap energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate campaigners claim that the end of the world is close. But in reality, meta-studies by climate economists analyzing the impacts of climate change find that unchecked warming would cut global GDP by 2% to 3% by mid-century \u2014 very far from Armageddon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We won\u2019t find the solution to climate change in making energy ever more unaffordable and unreliable, but in energy innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world needs to boost green R&D spending to accelerate breakthroughs that will make green energy cheaper than fossil fuels \u2014 making the shift possible for all, not just for wealthy elites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And lifting people out of poverty makes them less vulnerable and more resilient in the face of climate challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The global choice is a stark one: Whether to focus first on tackling the world\u2019s most urgent problems of disease, hunger and poverty, or on the climate concerns of the world\u2019s rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate Week in New York will inevitably echo the same failed script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, just a tiny fraction of the ill-spent climate trillions could be spent smartly to tackle humanity\u2019s deadliest foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing nations aren\u2019t able to wait around to watch the rich-world theatrics. They need energy, food and health assistance now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 30 years of a narrow climate agenda drowning out all the world\u2019s other challenges, it\u2019s time to pivot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world\u2019s poor need better livelihoods \u2014 not pointless multi-trillion-dollar gestures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus, a visiting fellow at Stanford University\u2019s Hoover Institution and author of the books \u201cFalse Alarm\u201d and \u201cBest Things First.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As world leaders and influencers converge for New York\u2019s UN General Assembly and Climate Week, two incompatible visions are about to clash \u2014 rich-world elites obsessed with climate change versus developing nations battling poverty, hunger and disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":404598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"Explore how UN Climate Week 2025 reveals tensions between climate policies and urgent needs in developing nations for poverty alleviation.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"UN Climate Week 2025: Elites vs. the World's 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