Marc Morano: the best time for climate realism in the last 50 years
At the 16th ICCC in Washington, D.C., Marc Morano argues that the global climate agenda is weakening, calling this the most promising moment for climate realism in the past 50 years.
Marc Morano
Marcel Crok
Date: 12 April 2026
The final talk of the 16th International Conference on Climate Conference in Washington DC (8 and 9 April) was given by Marc Morano of the website climatedepot.com. Morano is a longtime follower of the climate agenda (he visited close to all the yearly Conference of the Parties, COP’s). He gave a fascinating overview of how the climate agenda has been crumbling down in the past year or so, not only in the US but around the globe (although Europeans maybe notice this less). He concluded with the remark that we live in the best times for climate realism in the last 50 years.
That’s all good news, but Morano also warned that we aren’t there yet and that the forces behind the climate agenda can or will pop up again, for example these days in the form of energy lockdowns because of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. So we have to be very vigilant. But the fact of the matter is that Trump, Chris Wright and administrator Lee Zeldin (who spoke at the Conference) are punching big holes in the climate agenda currently and that the other side is not fighting back at all. They seem to have given up, maybe because of a lack of funding (Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Fink all moved away from the climate agenda, partly or mainly because of their interests in AI for which you need dispatchable energy).
The Conference in Washington is organised every year by the Heartland Institute. Clintel and The Heartland Institute (and maybe other organisations) have serious plans to organise next year’s conference in The Netherlands.
The complete recordings of both days (in both rooms) are available on the conference website. You can see the presentation by Clintel Director Marcel Crok: here.
Watch Marc Morano’s lecture below:
more news
New paper: U.S. temperature extremes have declined since 1899
The key takeaway from a new paper by John Christy is that the story of temperature extremes in the U.S. is more complicated than often presented.
Sustainability is the problem, not the solution
In recent weeks, a common refrain in Europe has been that if we had only focused more aggressively on 'renewable' energy sources, we would not find ourselves in such a vulnerable position because of the war in Iran. But is this claim true? Dutch science journalist and Clintel director Marcel Crok argues the opposite: it is precisely Europe's fixation on climate policy and CO2 reduction that has left us exposed and contributed to the current energy mess.
“Bringing youth into the climate realist fold”
At the recent Heartland Conference, there was a special session called Bringing youth into the climate realist fold. How are younger generations engaging with climate issues and shaping the future conversation? Two interesting speakers were Lucy Biggers, who used to hang out with Greta Thunberg, and Chris Martz, who has been called the ‘Anti Greta Thunberg’.
