Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! T&E reaction to Ursula von der Leyen statement on Automotive Dialogue. The EU Commission will weaken the 2025 CO2 target for carmakers by allowing them to comply over three years instead of one, President Ursula ... [continued]
Consider the context though. The EU is under direct political attack from a fascist enemy through both propaganda and direct threats.
Causing thousands to be laid off in a time of global turmoil is NOT going to help prevent the likes of AfD and FN taking power. It would in fact garner them votes. Couple that with the US deliberately starting an economic war and this is sub optimal but necessary if the EU is to survive the fascist rise.
so offering lax climate targets without any regulations/obligations is just stupid and self destructive.
giving in to those fascistic enemies that even deny the existence of the climate crisis is self destructive.
and to try to bail out those car manufacturers AGAIN just because they are threatening with lay offs, come on…
EU do not have any petroleum source. Buying oil directly supports our adversaries.
You can instead invest in the defense industry. EU needs more than ever to convert factories to arms factories. This is how you prevent people from being unemployed.
We still have to prepare for a post-carbon world, or defending EU existence and state of law etc will be all for nothing. Climate change is really going to bring chaos worldwide.
I agree, all of those are good approaches which is, presumably why VdL has made several announcements about defence spending in the last week (€800bn euro or something today - only saw headline havent read it yet).
Europe does have petroleum (although technically EU doesn’t) both Scotland & Norway have a fair bit so they don’t HAVE to buy Russian or American, and Australia & Canada are definitely still allied. Middle east are dodgy but most of them aren’t part of the fascist conspiracy.
The problem with the last point is the same reason it’s hard to get a soldier in a war zone to quit smoking, if you’re imminently likely to get shot, worrying about lung cancer down the line is hard to focus on.
I think we definitely need to push hard to decarbonise, but not at the expense of being dead before getting there. Particularly not when the US is actively seeking to reverse its climate change efforts and recarbonise.
Europe does have petroleum (although technically EU doesn’t) both Scotland & Norway have a fair bit
Which is great, except they can’t produce much more than they already do, especially Norway. If Norway weren’t tapped already, then e.g. Germany would most definitely buy a lot more gas there rather than expensive LNG from the US/Qatar or semi-sanctioned LNG from Russia. But it’s simply not possible.
And sure, even Germany has some untapped gas reserves, but besides the environmental hazards through fracking, those reserves are projected to last for a total of 20 years of the current level of consumption in Germany.
If the EU were to stick with its current oil/gas consumption, the vast majority of said oil/gas would necessarily have to be imported from outside the EU.
It is if looked at in isolation.
Consider the context though. The EU is under direct political attack from a fascist enemy through both propaganda and direct threats.
Causing thousands to be laid off in a time of global turmoil is NOT going to help prevent the likes of AfD and FN taking power. It would in fact garner them votes. Couple that with the US deliberately starting an economic war and this is sub optimal but necessary if the EU is to survive the fascist rise.
true you can’t look at it in isolation.
we are in a climate crisis
so offering lax climate targets without any regulations/obligations is just stupid and self destructive.
giving in to those fascistic enemies that even deny the existence of the climate crisis is self destructive.
and to try to bail out those car manufacturers AGAIN just because they are threatening with lay offs, come on…
Well
Where did you get that idea?
I agree, all of those are good approaches which is, presumably why VdL has made several announcements about defence spending in the last week (€800bn euro or something today - only saw headline havent read it yet).
Europe does have petroleum (although technically EU doesn’t) both Scotland & Norway have a fair bit so they don’t HAVE to buy Russian or American, and Australia & Canada are definitely still allied. Middle east are dodgy but most of them aren’t part of the fascist conspiracy.
The problem with the last point is the same reason it’s hard to get a soldier in a war zone to quit smoking, if you’re imminently likely to get shot, worrying about lung cancer down the line is hard to focus on.
I think we definitely need to push hard to decarbonise, but not at the expense of being dead before getting there. Particularly not when the US is actively seeking to reverse its climate change efforts and recarbonise.
Which is great, except they can’t produce much more than they already do, especially Norway. If Norway weren’t tapped already, then e.g. Germany would most definitely buy a lot more gas there rather than expensive LNG from the US/Qatar or semi-sanctioned LNG from Russia. But it’s simply not possible.
And sure, even Germany has some untapped gas reserves, but besides the environmental hazards through fracking, those reserves are projected to last for a total of 20 years of the current level of consumption in Germany.
If the EU were to stick with its current oil/gas consumption, the vast majority of said oil/gas would necessarily have to be imported from outside the EU.