The European Green Deal was launched yesterday.
I am quite pleased they did not call it a Green New Deal, because it isn't. Growth is at its core, with the claim that it can be decoupled from carbon. I am not wholly convinced. Nor is anyone seriously involved in the Green New Deal. I am sure we can do more for each other. But it will have to be very different. And this document feels too much like tinkering around the edges.
I am reminded that the last person to launch a Green Deal rather than a Green New Deal was David Cameron, in 2010. It did not go well.
These are nice words, and I would rather have them than not, but a very great deal in the main document is vague, and target rather than action-driven. This is a start, but we will need more:
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I did a BTL in Euractiv.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/eu-commission-unveils-european-green-deal-the-key-points/#comment-342265
They fail to deal with the money problem and still talk about “Cost-benefit” (yawn) when we are talking about investments (with varying business cases).
One of the problems with the European Commission is that they are unfamiliar with concepts such as discounted cash flows (which form business cases)
Instead they have approaches which are “cost-benefit” based and which never get to the core of the issue: what is the investment required, what is the return (& by extension does this need policy support and/or a subsidy of some sort). We are still in the land of “putting a price on carbon” – which never worked & can never work (this is not a view – it is a reality – the EU ETS has had zero impact on EU emissions – all the heavy lifiting was done by renewables. rant over.
At least it’s a start.
One great plus of sustainable cost accounting is it does not price carbon
Thinking this is necessary is a massive distraction
I’m brainstorming at the Commission tomorrow – this will then be fed to “decision makers”. I’ll keep you & others posted.
Good luck
Well said sir. Respect.