France (with nukes) and Germany (with a huge renewables component) used to forge ahead with climate panic in the EU while the Eastern block (like Poland, with more coal and less cash) reliably pushes back against it. But France is pushing everyone to meet the new sacred 1.5C target with the big Carbon-Neutral-By-2050 plan. It’s a target so wildly ambitious even Germany has pulled the pin on yet another fantasy deadline like the last ones it failed to meet. This is despite (or rather, because of) renewables overtaking coal in Germany in January. The more unreliables a nation has the more inefficient their whole grid is, and the more it costs to save each ton of carbon. Every extra wind turbine is more expensive at reducing CO2 than the last.
The EU Council has just released its summit statement— basically saying yes to all the IPCC favourite pet visions but not putting any dates on it. With no dates, it’s a meaningless wishlist.
But hey, it’s only the planet at stake, it’s not like there is a deadline that matters anyway eh?
The GWPF Calls it “Over” for the EU’s big carbon-neutral-by-2050 target
March 20: Tomorrow, the 28 leaders of EU countries are set to adopt a new strategy on action to combat climate change. In light of the student protests spreading across Europe and the world, many leaders in the West had wanted to strengthen the strategy. But this has been fiercely resisted by Eastern European countries led by Poland.
According to a leaked draft of the strategy, Poland is blocking an idea for the EU to commit to climate neutrality by 2050.
Forbes: Merkel May Kill Ambitious EU Climate Plan Tomorrow
Germany has broken ranks with other Western countries such as France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands who support a call by the European Commission to meet the 2050 goal. The Commission put forward the plan last year.
That tomorrow has quietly come…
Look at the different futures picked by Germany and France. Germany generates around 15% of energy from nuclear power, and 30% from the unreliables. France has more nukes than anyone else in the world — around 75% and cheaper electricity than Germany (and Australia).
Is this how Paris will go? The memes all stay the same just the dates wander quietly away…
UPDATE: it’s hard to get excited. Long term targets are meaningless to politicians anyhow. If Merkel cares, it shows how insanely expensive the plan was.