Poland Vetos Further EU Carbon Cuts...For Now

Last year I explained how I thought the EU had lost it's backbone by not taking the opportunity to make deeper cuts in carbon emissions by 2020.

Well, it looks like they were listening ;) because last week they were attempting to change their target for cuts from 20% to 25% by 2020!

This was great news. Not only would it cut emissions faster but it would make later reductions more cost efficient to achieve (As this 'Road Map' shows).

On March 9th, EU ministers from all countries met to vote on the new targets but Poland decided to veto it. The Poles depend on coal for around 90% of their electricity production so you can understand something of their reasons, but their environment minister, Marcin Korolec, tried to hide behind this: "There is no point whatsoever in gambling with the European economy's future, introducing policies that might put our industries in jeopardy versus our competitors". Yeah, right. That's your only reason.

This link gives more background, unfortunately I've lost the one on the post-vote talk. In it, the EU say they are disappointed by the veto (Poland was the only one to vote against it in the end) but this won't be the end of this. It sounded a lot like they would go ahead without the Poles.

If they do, then I applaude them. The time for old thinking is over. We've got to stop thinking about national interests, and economic advantage and start working together to stop the runaway climate train. If we don't, then we leave future generations with a train-wreck of a planet and economic chaos.