EU’s new economic vision: ‘climate efforts taking a backseat’ to cutting red tape

European Commission HQ, Brussels [image credit: Em_Dee @ Wikipedia]

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The EU says it must ‘adapt to new realities’. The actual climate isn’t new, but the political and economic climate obviously is, with the arrival of Donald Trump in US power again. Suddenly EU bureaucrats notice that their ‘decarbonisation’ policies (aka net zero) are greatly hindering the economies of its member countries, for no measureable benefit as global carbon dioxide levels continue their long rise anyway. Now they want to have their net zero cake and eat it.
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BRUSSELS — The European Union’s new economic “compass” has a north star the burgeoning movement to revoke stringent green rules will love, says Politico.

A leaked draft of the European Commission’s competitiveness compass — an economic doctrine to guide the EU executive’s work for the coming five years — points toward widespread deregulation targeting the European Green Deal in particular.

“This Commission will deliver an unprecedented simplification effort,” the document reads, singling out new rules governing financial and corporate sustainability efforts. [Talkshop comment – unprecedented is an overused word].

A law to streamline these rules is expected in February, but the compass suggests more is to come, describing next month’s proposal as merely the “first” simplification bill.

“In some areas, existing policies will have to be accelerated and upgraded, in others a change of approach is needed to adapt to new realities,” the draft document says.

Still, the compass vows the EU will “stay the course” on its climate targets. But the document’s focus on slashing environmental red tape to boost the European economy fits neatly into growing calls to revise or repeal large parts of the Green Deal — the slate of rules designed to get the EU to net zero emissions by 2050.

The loudest demands for a green rethink have come from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the political family of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose leaders ramped up their attacks on the Green Deal this week.
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But the EU’s new economic doctrine appears to put deregulation before decarbonization, with climate efforts taking a backseat to the Commission’s newfound focus on competitiveness.

“The transition to a decarbonised economy must be competitiveness-friendly and technology neutral,” the draft document reads. “The Compass goal is a Europe where tomorrow’s technologies and clean products are invented, manufactured and marketed, as we stay the course to carbon neutrality.”

Full article here.
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Image: European Commission HQ, Brussels [credit: Em_Dee @ Wikipedia]