by James Woudhausen in Spiked, 25 May 2023
Brussels' Net Zero obsession will make Europe poorer, colder and darker.
Earlier this month, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen hailed the ‘amazing progress’ being made by the EU’s Green Deal legislation. It is a funny kind of progress, however. The Commission is pushing through countless regulations in its effort to ‘decarbonise’ Europe and to force member states towards Net Zero by 2050. The pace of regulation is now so great that the leader of Europe’s manufacturing employers’ association has described it as a regulation ‘tsunami’. He says it has severely damaged his members’ competitiveness on world markets.
As I show in ‘Lights Out: Is the EU Failing on Energy Policy?’, a new white paper published this week, the EU’s commitment to green objectives is not only harming businesses, it is also deepening Europe’s energy crisis. The main problem is that instead of trying to improve energy production – save for subsidising and incentivising renewables – the EU is investing almost all of its political capital in trying to cut corporate and personal energy consumption.
Apparently, these cuts need to be made to fight the so-called climate emergency. In Brussels, there is no talk of how best to maximise coal or gas production, and no will to build new nuclear reactors. All of which are desperately needed to help keep Europe’s lights on. Energy policy has become entirely subservient to climate policy, regardless of the consequences. ... Continue reading >>>
]
EXPLORE:
[ Europes economic suicide ] ... [ Germany ] ... [ France ] ... [ Europe unglues ] ... [ Green Dreams ] ... [ Net zero fantasy ]
