Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Economic and political reality is biting hard in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced a push back against CO2 emissions targets which she originally helped to propose.
Merkel Pushing Back Against Higher EU Climate Change Target
Dave Keating
Aug 27, 2018,5:01 pmIn 2014, the leaders of the 28 countries of the European Union came to a difficult compromise on combating climate change – agreeing to make greenhouse gas emissions 40% lower than 1990 levels by 2030.
Now, some of those countries say new data and Europe’s alarming heat wave this summer mean that target should be raised to 45%.
Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU’s energy chief, said earlier this month that he will put forward just such a proposal in September, following a request in June from 14 EU countries including France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
…
Though Germany was one of the original signatories of the letter asking for an increase, following significant pressure from German industry, Chancellor Angela Merkel has changed her tune.
Asked this weekend about the proposal to raise the target, Merkel told the German program Tageschau that she is opposed. “I am not so happy about the new proposals because many member states today do not comply with what they have already promised,” she said “We should first reach the goals we have already set. I don’t think that constantly setting new targets makes sense.”
…
What a surprise – EU member states cheating on their own carbon targets. Germany hesitating to support deeper CO2 emissions cuts, citing the climate hypocrisy of other EU member states.
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Hark! Hear that? The sound of reality slapping people upside the head.
These people are “trucked” in the head.
A reasonable person is always ready to change their position when presented with new information. If EU leaders wake up to the climate con-job, they are to be commended.
“Greg
A reasonable person is always ready to change their position when presented with new information.”
Alarmists are not reasonable that’s why they shut down oil pipelines etc etc etc etc!
Reasonable people don’t take 15 years to realize they were wrong
Nice one!
Especially a very easy to foretell “wrong”.
What the German for schadenfreude?
🙂
Fredo: Uh, how do you say “banana daiquiri?”
Michael: Banana daiquiri
Fredo: Yeah?
Michael: Yeah.
New information – huh?
They refuse to look at the ‘old’ information. It’s called self-preservation – no more, no less – the environment is irrelevant – we extract money from the masses under the guise that we are doing something to the ‘betterment’ of the planet
A reasonable person is always ready to change their position when presented with new information…..or you’re a politician and polls say you’re going to lose
The EU … hypocrisy so palpable you could cut it with a Merkel
Other than the fact that these policies have grown more unpopular, what new information has she been presented with?
MarkW
German industry breathing down her neck over this and Brexit.
She’s a politician, that right there tells you she’s not a reasonable person 😉
“Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.” Kin Hubbard
…and by the time they leave the legislature, that man is no longer innocent
A reasonable person does not declare the debate ended in order to race ahead on policy when the science is weak and subject to change. You don’t see this in medicine, industrial safety standards, vaccines, or public safety. In fact unreasonableness looks to be correlated with lack of standards for conduct and emphasis on advocacy.
No She still believes in catastrophic global warming. Any person who seems a little less than an idiot is still an idiot. Who would have thought that in 2018 there are still people that believe in the tooth fairy?
Greg,
(Federal elections were held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were all 598 seats …)
thick folders filled with written on papers were distributed among all 598 members of the german parliament so Merkel was not alone with reading.
the saying goes that papers decipher the story of global warming and the impact on German economy while trying to fight this ominous ‘global warming’.
I wonder if Germany et al have made their prescribed contributions to the 100B climate fund?
Just because Trump pulled out shouldn’t absolve other member states from living up to their commitments.
Trump hasn’t pulled out of anything since Stormy Daniels. US is still a signatory of Paris Agreement. He has simply stopped paying into the Climate Slush Fund.
When will he REALLY do something about officially pulling out of Paris Ag.?
It can’t happen officially until Nov. 4, 2020. But since we won’t be participating in the charade, for all intents and purposes, we’re out. They are going to try to put some teeth into the “Agreement” at the next Climapalooza in Katowice, Poland. Yeah, good luck with that.
That Climapalooza to which you refer: http://cop24.gov.pl/
Ask the Senate.
From what I understand, since the Senate didn’t ratify anything to do with the Paris Agreement, the US as a nation is not a signatory of it… only Obama is. And he’s gone…
Do we know how much Ex-POTUS Obama has contributed, personally [rather than by hijacking the US Taxpayer’s dimes] to the slush-fund for Third World pollies?
Auto
Just askin’!
I’m guessing $0 of his own money. (AFAIK it’s “only” $1 billion of hijacked US taxpayer money).
Trump won’t. The Green Industry lobby won’t permit it.
Legally, the Paris Agreement has the status of an executive agreement as far as US law, despite anything stated in the agreement. As Obama never had it ratified as a treaty, the authority to enforce it left with him.
America is not a member. Barack Obama is, he joined. America, via ratification by its elected members in Congress passed on joining. If anyone owes several billion to this fund it is Obama.
How can the US pull out of an organization that it never joined?
Your pathological hatred of Trump is once again duly noted.
No, Greg, the US is not a signatory, for it to be a signatory the agreement would have to have been ratified by Congress. It wasn’t. Only Barak Obama is a signatory.
Greg,
There’s nothing to pull out of. It’s not a treaty, ratified by the Senate. It’s really just a declaration of principles, a “gentlemen’s agreement” if you will. So it was a charade all along. Stop feeding it, and it dies.
Don’t tell me – next winter or Summer when the temps are lower than normal, no one will
suggest lowering the targets. Don’t these fools ever examine global temperature data?
Is there reliable global temperature data? A whole “economic solution to a problem” is based on shonky data. In engineering I learned “Measure twice, cut once.” What seems to apply to “climate science” is “Measure some stuff and make up what you like.”
“Measure twice, cut once”, is a carpentry saying. The engineering equivalent, established over hundreds of years is “if it falls down, rebuild stronger”.
BCBill
“if it falls down, rebuild
stronger”‘Better’ perhaps?
Yes, after the era of simply adding more rock to the pile, things did eventually get better. With notable exceptions up to the present day.
If you have operated a lathe you would understand the saying is more applicable.
I have and I don’t.
Cut twice and still too short.
Seems like the only ones not back tracking now are the ones that were promised money. Now why would that be? /sarc
Climate and weather are changing every minute, but GREENHOUSE GASSES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. USING PROPERTIES OF WATER WE CAN REDUCE WILDFIRES, DROUGHT, FLOODING, TORNADOES, THUNDERSTORM AND OTHER WEATHER AND CLIMATE DISASTERS.
WE MUST REEVALUATE DEADLY WRONG SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE ASAP.
Are You TREVOR IN DISGUISE?
Excessive capitalization?
Auto – apologies for the three capitalized words, but possibly getting attention from Trevor or Michael. ;-}
Someone may have explained to Frau Merkel – a supposed physicist!!!!! – that the laws of physics cannot be changed by the subsidy laws of men, or women. Perhaps she is from the “subsidy macht frei” school of climate science. All the poor Germans get is a bigger gap between the relative wealth of the rich and poor, and the easy destruction of their environment and diverse agriculture that comes with solar farms, wind farms and mono culture crop subsidies, none producing ANY net CO2 reduction in Germany, just Billions of Euros for insiders, for making all the claimed objectives worse in science fact , on every measure of energiewende, that never could wend anywhere productive on the energy science fact. This was always an undeliverable fraud on the energy STEM facts. Politicians at work, and they don’t work for their Deutsche Volk! Schrecklich, Nicht Var? This is state organised crime, a genuine legalised climate change protection racket – “Pay up . Planets can catch fire” (sometime next century, possibly). It’s like paying your priests so you go to their version of heaven. Same old frauds, same old fraudsters, new religion.
China gets a bye and is by far the largest emitter of CO2, so it doesn’t much matter what the EU does. That said, the EU is the third largest emitter. link
Ummm… what? I just woke up. Is this some kind of weird dream I was having? No?
Oh, good grief!!! (said Pooh.) What’s next? Is Angela realizing that her notions of how to do things are not so hot? (Pun intended.) Gee whiz, what IS next?
I’m going back to sleep now and when I wake up, everything will be like it was in 1956… or something. We’ll still be using a wringer washer and hanging clothes to dry on the clothesline, and growing sugar peas and snap beans and sweet corn and I’ll have to feed the chickens again.
I think, with elections looming, she wants to still be in power afterwards. I dunno, maybe I am dreaming!
Pooh: “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
It appears that Angela’s popularity is not as high as she deems it. These recent riots in Chemnitz over the stabbing death of a local man by two migrants shows that the people have had just about enough of her nonsense. Copy it into your search block if it doesn’t “link up”.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/08/eastern-germany-hit-by-riots-after-deadly-stabbing-spree/
One thin after another seems to be piling up on her. It’s just about time it did, in my view.
not because they soon won’t have the UK to effectively bank-roll them……
nah
or possibly missing a shed-load of revenue from the Volkswagen Audi Group (and others)
may explain the skyrocketing price of VAG product – over priced electric cars can’t come soon enough?
Leaves a bad-taste wondering why the UK is in such an unholy rush to get e-cars on the road.
(See in other news: Li-ion battery prices are rising quite steeply – run out of cobalt by accounts. Trace element nutrients eh, Damn those nutrients.)
“Peta of Newark
not because they soon won’t have the UK to effectively bank-roll them……
nah”
Too right!
Lithium batteries? Then I should get the extra Li flashlight batteries** I meant to get right now, instead of waiting another month? Thanks for the warning. Nice to have the heads up on this now, instead of sticker shock later.
**My flashlights are specifically engineered for Li batteries, not standard flashlight batteries.
Germany emits more CO2 per country, per capita and per MWh generated than any other country in Europe.
Despite ‘Energiewende’ and generating 25% of its electricity from toy windmills and solar panels. and having more nuclear power running than the UK.
Hypocrisy aint in it.
We should encourage our European friends to take every extreme measure they can to limit CO2. Nothing could make Russia happier.
And I still haven’t figured out how to harness lightning to power my little house. I’ll keep working on it. Must be some way to do that….
Really, really, big batteries.
Or big capacitors.
Ben Franklin knew a little something about that…
A general observation… Progressive/leftist positions on most things comes with an expiration date.
Just landed in Vienna thu’ a forest of windmills. Austrian electricity is
61% hydro. Oil and coal equal to solar and wind at c. 10% each. Jolly Good .
Coeur de Lion
Short scrap metal. When that lot comes down the price will bomb.
Austria doesn’t have the industrial economy to feed that Germany has. And hydro is not “green”, don’t you know? The same idiots in the US who want to dismantle nuclear reactors also want to blow up hydroelectric dams.
Chancellor Merkel might consider some help from the VW software engineers to “push back” against the new emissions targets. The entire CO2 scare began with “tuned” software, did it not?
Dieselgate began with “software”. NoX is a post-CO2 bogey man. The limits of course set by Obama’s EPA, now being dismantled. Unfortunately the poison gas label given to CO2 has not yet been repealed.
Maybe the members are revolting and threatening to leave the club and stop paying the membership fees, due to the extreme club rules. This might explain the return to reason by the club administration who realise that they will lose out. Follow the money?
Reminds me of the politician in “A Clockwork Orange”
Coach Springer
Man, that’s going back. I dogged off school to watch it in the cinema when it was released.
Looks like, next door, Macron’s “Ecology and Solidarity Transition” Minister, Mr. Hulot just resigned , abruptly on-air! Coincidence?
So the virtue signaling is melting away in the face of reality. The lie that “renewables” can replace fossil fuels came to light and Climate Change is being realized for what it really is ….. wealth redistribution with China the chosen country to reap the benefits. Oh the tangled web we weave…….
I predicted this retreat from green energy debacles starting in 2002 – this from 2015:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/20/terrorism-and-a-cold-winter-refugee-crisis/#comment-1649569
,,,
In Europe, where green energy schemes have been widely implemented, the result is higher energy costs that are unaffordable for the elderly and the poor, and increased winter deaths. European politicians are retreating from highly-subsidized green energy schemes and returning to fossil fuels. When misinformed politicians fool with energy systems, innocent people suffer and die.”
Joe d’Aleo and I wrote this article on Excess Winter Mortality in 2015:
COLD WEATHER KILLS 20 TIMES AS MANY PEOPLE AS HOT WEATHER
https://friendsofsciencecalgary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/cold-weather-kills-macrae-daleo-4sept2015-final.pdf
Regards, Allan
Predicting this retreat wasn’t hard though. What they wanted was impossible, therefor there was no way forward.
Greg –you must be joking, because you could not be more wrong.
I am not aware of anyone else making this strong anti-green-energy prediction in 2002 or earlier. Everyone was sure there was going to be a brave new world of “carbon-free energy”.
Our aforementioned energy prediction, and our other predictions made in the APEGA “Kyoto Accord” debate of 2002 were considered “climate sacrilege”. Note also that ALL of our “APEGA 2002” predictions have now materialized, vs NONE of the IPCC’s very-scary-fairy stories.
A few outspoken critics of global warming alarmism existed then, such as Dr. Richard Lindzen at MIT, Dr. Tim Ball (retired) and my co-author Sallie Baliunas at Harvard-Smithsonian, but the global warming juggernaut was on a roll and tolerated no dissent.
Tim Ball received many threats of violence, but I only got one, for an article in published in the National Post. I felt under-appreciated. 🙂
Regards, Allan
Typo corretion:
Tim Ball received many threats of violence, but I only got one, for an article published in the National Post. I felt under-appreciated
Merkel has been a disaster for Europe.
Tom Abbott
Theoretically Brexit should be good for the UK, assuming the feckless, lazy, sponging socialist remoaners get their fingers out their arse and work for a change.
They’d better leave their fingers in that place where the sun never shines because their fumbling around with such fingers in other people’s cup of tea causes a helluvalot of inconvenience.
Changing the goals is what advocacy strategy is all about.
She isn’t living up to Germany’s NATO obligations, so this is no surprise either. Maybe with the money she saves she can buy some rifles for the Bundeswehr that actually work.
Russia will supply as many as they want.
The U.S. is no longer uncompetitive on corporate tax rates and that puts the whole German industry sector on edge. That is the “new information” in town.
Another factor is tariffs. Currently the EU imposes a 10% tariff on US car imports. This is why BMW decided to build a new plant in Mexico, which has a free trade agreement with the EU, rather than the US.
Trump is threatening a 25% tariff on EU car imports. Merkel and the German car makers can’t be very happy about that.
Trump just settled on a free trade agreement with Mexico.
One of the items I found interesting was part of the deal requires Mexican automobile manufacturers to raise their payrate from about $3.50 per hour to $16.50 per hour, which then makes U.S. auto manufacturers competitive with Mexican manufacturers because the payscales are equal and that will supposedly keep American jobs from going down to Mexico because of cheaper labor costs, like they do now.
I’m not sure how requiring Mexican manufacturers to drastically raise their labor costs works, but I’ll bet the Mexican workers who get the pay raise will be pretty happy with the deal. They’ll be chanting: “Make Mexico Great Again!” 🙂
More info…..
https://www.yahoo.com/news/truth-trump-tremendous-trade-deal-225116841.html?.tsrc=jtc_news_index
Thanks for the link, RG.
“America first”. That’s DJT.
“Terrorists welcome”. That’s Angie Merkel.
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel, top candidate of the Christian Democratic Union Party”
I wonder how many Muslim votes she has received over the years in each election? The number ZERO keeps popping into my head.
Christian Democratic Union Party
None of those words should be found together.
In the mad rush to jump off a financial cliff, Merkel is saying “You guys go on ahead, we’ll catch up. Honest”.
Well good for Germany, better late than never.
Who knows, maybe with a few more wake up calls from reality they will even withdraw from their horrific decision of abandoning nuclear power.