Climate Change aids EU Integration
May 4, 2008 by Ken
Filed under Is that an Elephant
Of course there is no chance that the EU will take the slightest notice of the facts on climate change as reported by Booker this morning. The EU has far too much invested in the industry to allow little things like facts get in its way. The climate change scenario fits extremely well with the EU integration measures it could almost have been invented for just that reason.
How many times have we been told that we need international action to combat the effects of climate change or that we cannot remain aloof because the fall out will effect us and that we must all pull together in the face of this forecast devastation. The mere fact that the forecasts are continually being proven wrong by time and the climate will be an unimportant sideline as far as the federalists are concerned.
They have already invested a great deal of their time and energy setting up and implementing the EU system of environmental control and seen the success of the strategy as an interrogational measure to allow even the slightest doubt to enter the debate.
The introduction to the European Climate Change Programme web site states, the European Commission has taken many climate-related initiatives since 1991, when it issued the first Community strategy to limit carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions and improve energy efficiency. These include: a directive to promote electricity from renewable energy, voluntary commitments by car makers to reduce CO 2 emissions by 25% and proposals on the taxation of energy products.
However, it is clear that action by both Member States and the European Community needs to be reinforced if the EU is to succeed in cutting its greenhouse gas emissions to 8% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012, as required by the Kyoto protocol.
The EU Council of Environment Ministers acknowledged the importance of taking further steps at Community level by asking the Commission to put forward a list of priority actions and policy measures.
The Web site making it totally clear that this is a measure to implement further integration has a link labelled integration covering areas as diverse as Agriculture, Transport, Trade and external relations, an cohesion policy.
So I do not hold out much hope that the EU federalist will anytime soon be faced with a revelationary moment as the scales drop from their eyes, and admit that as earth is not warming there is no need for international action to face the consequences. I think we will see pigs flying over Brussels before anything like that happens.
