This report was produced by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), funded by the Heartland Institute, CO2 Science, and the Science & Environmental Policy Institute, assesses the costs and benefits of the use of fossil fuels by reviewing scientific and economic literature on organic chemistry, climate science, public health, economic history, human security, and theoretical studies based on integrated assessment models (IAMs) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA). It is the fifth volume in the Climate Change Reconsidered series (NIPCC 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014) and, like the preceding volumes, it focuses on research overlooked or ignored by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In its 2013 volume titled Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science, NIPCC refuted the scientific basis of the IPCC’s claim that dangerous human interference with the climate system is occurring. In its 2014 volume titled Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts, NIPCC addressed and refuted the IPCC’s claim that climate change negatively affects plants, wildlife, and human health.
In this new volume, 117 scientists, economists, and other experts address and refute the IPCC’s claim that the impacts of climate change on human wellbeing and the natural environment justify dramatic reductions in the use of fossil fuels. Specifically, the NIPCC authors critique two recent IPCC reports:
Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), and Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, the Working Group III contribution to AR5 (IPCC, 2014a, 2014b).
The organization of this Summary for Policymakers tracks the organization of the full report. Citations to supporting research and documentation are scant for want of space but can be found at the end of the document.
Note: This report follows conventional usage by using “fossil fuels” to refer to hydrocarbons, principally coal, oil, and natural gas, used by humanity to generate power. The authors recognize that not all hydrocarbons may be derived from animal or plant sources.
The authors of this report concluded that Fossil fuels have benefited humanity by making possible the prosperity that occurred since the first Industrial Revolution, which made possible investments in goods and services that are essential to protecting human health and prolonging human life. Fossil fuels also power the technologies that reduce the environmental impact of a growing human population, saving space for wildlife.
The IPCC and national governments around the world claim the negative impacts of global warming on human health and security, occurring now or likely to occur in the future, more than offset the benefits that come from the use of fossil fuels. This claim lacks any scientific or economic basis. The benefits of fossil fuels are nowhere reported in the IPCC’s assessment reports. The analysis conducted here for the first time finds nearly all the impacts of fossil fuel use on human well-being are net positive (benefits minus costs), near zero (no net benefit or cost), or are simply unknown.
The alleged negative human health impacts due to air pollution are exaggerated by researchers who violate the Bradford Hill Criteria and rely too heavily on epidemiological studies finding weak relative risks. The alleged negative impacts on human security due to climate change depend on tenuous chains of causality that find little support in the peer-reviewed literature.
Finally, the IPCC and its national counterparts have not conducted proper cost-benefit analyses of fossil fuels, global warming, or regulations designed to force a transition away from fossil fuels. The global war on fossil fuels, which commenced in earnest in the 1980s and reached a fever pitch in the second decade of the twenty-first century, was never founded on sound science or economics. The authors of and contributors to Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels urge the world’s policymakers to acknowledge this truth and end that war.
[Also see: https://journals.lww.com/epidem/fulltext/2021/05000/re__sponsorship_by_big_oil,_like_the_tobacco.22.aspx ]
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
