Europe's climate revolt - Benny Peiser

The reasons for Europe’s anxiety are not difficult to fathom. The financial meltdown has rendered its climate policy untenable and hugely unpopular among voters who are increasingly hostile to green and climate taxes. Overlooked by most media outlets, Germany, one of the EU’s heavyweights, has also raised the alarm about the climate package’s immense burden on its energy-intensive industries. While Chancellor Angela Merkel more tactfully expressed her country’s opposition than her Polish and Italian counterparts, she ensured that the wording in the summit statement clearly signals (at least according to the German media) the first step of a general break with the EU’s ambitious climate goals.
Remarkably, the climate revolt has failed to generate significant protest among political parties in Europe. It was greeted more with resignation than objection.
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Italy’s proviso suggests that the EU climate pact cannot be finalized before a cost-effectiveness study is conducted and published by the end of 2009. In effect, this year-long delay once again will tie in the EU’s decision making process with that of the UN. The meeting of the European Council in December of 2009 will coincide with the crucial UN climate conference in Copenhagen.
Whether intended or not, this timing offers the EU the opportunity to make its future climate policy conditional on the moves by the world’s other regional powers. By linking its decision to that of the rest of the world, Europe would begin to act as a mature competitor on the stage of international power diplomacy. It would appear that the EU, at long last, is on the brink of breaking away from its unilateral and self-destroying climate policy.