Wednesday 22 May 2013

EU climate madness: ECOFIN conclusions on "climate finance"

Last week EU finance ministers rubber stamped a paper, written by bureaucrats working for EU's überwarmist Connie Hedegaard: 

Council conclusions on climate finance – fast start finance 
3238th ECONOMIC and FINANCIAL AFFAIRS Council meeting 
Brussels, 14 May 2013 

"The Council: 
1. NOTES the EU and its Member States' commitment to provide EUR 7.2 billion cumulatively 
over the period 2010 – 2012 to fast start finance; UNDERLINES that despite the difficult 
economic situation and tight budgetary constraints, the EU and its Member States have more than fulfilled their commitment by allocating EUR 7.34 billion to fast start finance; ---

3. ... UNDERLINES the importance for the EU, together with other developed countries, of continuing to provide support beyond 2012 as set forth in the Doha decision and; REITERATES that in this respect the EU and its Member States are continuing to provide climate finance support after 2012 ; ---


4. RECALLS the Council Conclusions on climate finance of November 2012; REITERATES in this respect that the EU and other developed countries should continue to work in a 
constructive manner towards the identification of pathways for scaling up climate finance 
from 2013 to 2020 from a wide variety of sources, public finance and private sector finance, 
bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance, as needed to reach the 
international long term committed goal of mobilising jointly US$100 billion per year by 2020 
in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation

My conclusions:
1. I RECALL what I wrote on April 23:
  • Over 26 million people are unemployed in the EU countries
  • Eurozone unemployment rate is 12%, a record since the single currency was created in 1999
  • Youth unemployment in Greece is 58%
  • Youth unemployment in Spain is 56%
  • The eurozone economy has contracted for five consecutive quarters in 2011-2012
  • Forecasts for the first quarter of this year, to be released in May, are not expected to show any improvement
2. I NOTE that the EU finance ministers, in the middle of the worst economic crisis probably since the Great Depression of the 30s, take pride in announcing that billions of EU taxpayers' money have been wasted on useless "climate finance" in Africa and other continents. 

3. I RECALL that the percentage of European nationals who distrust the European Union is growing faster than ever. In November 2012 e.g., some 72% of Spaniards said they “tended not to trust the EU,” compared to just 23% five years earlier. In Italy, the figure has spiked to 56% from 41%, according to Eurostat figures. Anti-EU opinion is in a steep rise in almost all member countries. 

4. I UNDERLINE that most ordinary EU citizens understand that "business as usual" is over. The fact that EU finance ministers, as well as other ministers, do not seem to understand that, most certainly will lead to even more anti-EU views (which as such is welcome, of course). 

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