Hero of the EU
Out of 27 countries, only Poland has the common sense and foresight to oppose the EU’s suicidal, and ultimately utterly pointless, emissions reduction policy, guaranteed to send the bloc back to the Dark Ages.
Poland rightly considers that allowing its population access to cheap and affordable energy is more important than politically-correct environmental posturing which will achieve nothing for the climate. Reuters is shocked:
BRUSSELS, March 9 (Reuters) – Coal-reliant Poland on Friday vetoed European Union efforts to move further towards a low carbon economy, pitting itself against the rest of the 27-member bloc.
Denmark, holder of the rotating EU presidency, has placed the environment at the heart of its leadership, backed by the Commission and the business community on the need for clear direction on EU climate policy beyond an existing set of 2020 goals.
Only the Danes could be so blinkered. At a time of global financial uncertainty, Greece on the verge of default, the US up to its neck in debt, the bacon and Lego country believes “the environment” should be front and centre…
But Poland, which relies on carbon-intensive coal for more than 90 percent of its electricity, said it could not agree to any inclusion of milestones for future carbon reductions in an EU text debated at a meeting of environment ministers.
“Unfortunately, one delegation has blocked,” Denmark’s Climate and Energy Minister Martin Lidegaard told reporters. “It has been a tough day. It would have been better if 27 countries would have been on board, but 26 is very encouraging.”
That translates as one custodian of common sense, and 26 ecotard lemmings…
The text of an environmental council meeting does not have firm policy status within the EU’s complex decision-making process, but it is a signal, which is weakened if consensus cannot be achieved.
Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the backing of almost the entire bloc was enough to allow the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to keep working on further progress.
“Twenty-six member states want us to move ahead with the low carbon road-map,” she told Reuters.
In other words, the EU will find a way to go ahead with this nonsense at any cost.
To help fill the policy vacuum after a firm goal of a 20 percent carbon cut by 2020 expires, the roadmap lays out a route towards a long-term aim to reduce the bloc’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by the middle of the century. (source)
Eighty percent by 2050 is sheer madness. Even 20% by 2020 will be extremely damaging for the European economy, and will make no discernible difference to global temperatures (even if we assume CO2 is a driver of global temperature), since China and India will more than make up for any such reductions.
Australian Climate Madness 
Let’s hope Polands stance will slowly help the other countries see commen sense and say NO to this madness.
Bless you, Poland.
Well, the Polish government is just running out of money – this is the only reason why they voted against the stupid policy. They are afraid the soaring energy prices may spark massive protests.
There is a great story on WUWT where Lord Monkton addresses students at a university. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/10/moncktons-schenectady-showdown/#more-58770
Monkton does the figues based on our Carbon tax on the total cost of global mitigation, extract below, and demonstrates why Poland made the only sensible decision……
Next, Lord Monckton turned to climate economics and demonstrated that the cost of acting to prevent global warming is many times greater than the cost of inaction. The example of Australia’s carbon dioxide tax showed why this was so. Australia accounts for only 1.2% of global CO2 emissions, and the government’s policy was to reduce this percentage by 5% over the ten-year life of the tax. On the generous assumption that the entire reduction would be achieved from year 1 onward, the fraction of global emissions abated would be just 0.06%. Because this fraction was so small, the projected CO2 concentration of 412 ppmv that would otherwise obtain in the atmosphere by 2020 would fall to 411.987 ppmv. Because this reduction in CO2 concentration was so small, the warming abated over the 10-year period of the tax would be just 0.000085 C°, at a discounted cost of $130 billion over the ten-year term.
Therefore, the cost of abating all of the 0.15 C° of warming that the IPCC predicted would occur between 2011 and 2020 by using measures as cost-effective as Australia’s carbon dioxide tax would be $309 trillion, 57.4% of global GDP to 2020, or $44,000 per head of the world’s population. On this basis, the cost of abating 1 C° of global warming would be $1.5 quadrillion. That, said Lord Monckton, is not cheap. In fact, it is 110 times more costly than doing nothing and paying the eventual cost of any damage that might arise from warmer weather this century.
God bless the Poles!
Irony alert: When I was a kid, “Polish” jokes were somehow in fashion, the vague concept being that Polish people were somehow stupid. Boy was that wrong! Let’s hope the rest of Europe figures out that Poland got this one right.
YES go mother land…….!!!!!!
Jescze Polska nie zginela….. 😀
Actually James, the Polish term for the home country is “Ojczyzna” = Fatherland, just like the Germans. Similar cultural / linguistic evolution, I guess …
In order for Poland to agree to emission reductions it would need to switch from coal to gas, but Poland is reliant upon natural gas imported from Russia.
Poland already shed the iron rule of the Soviet Union many years ago, but now the EU wants it to hand power back to Moscow, who will be able to dictate its terms of supply to a beholden Poland.
Seems a good venue for some Australian jokes. Anybody?
Labour/Green intelligence jokes only please! Trust me, the Australian Carbon tax does not have the support of the majority of the electorate. Quite the opposite. All the joys of minority government!
So there actually is one country in the EU whose govenment has some sense !! The massive cost on every citizen and business of the idiocy of reducing carbon dioxide is simply too stupid to even contemplate, if for no reason other than it is not CO2 tat is warming the earth !! It has been proven way beyond any possible doubt that the earth’s warming has NOTHING todo with man’s breathing out or other means of CO2 production.
Proud of my Polish heritage now.
Well done Poland at least your Politicians have some sence unlike our bunch of sheep…..
“It has been a tough day. It would have been better if 27 countries would have been on board”
Since this is bad English, I assume Lidegaard said the original in Danish. Danes usually speak excellent Englsih, and know the correct English is “It has been a tough day. It would have been better if 27 countries HAD been on board”
Poland barely survived communism. They’ve learned the hard way. They are clever enough and won’t repeat another misguided fraudulent communist ideology cloaked under the blanket of global warming/climate change policy.
I don’t think we will be lucky enough to avoid the new form of communism – Gillard-Brown are doing all they can to bring it in – censorship of internet, removal of freedom of speech, the destruction of the middle class (carbon tax) and the destruction of the Kulaks… sorry – farmers (MD Basin Plan).
Makes you wonder why the joined EU?
The reliance on Coal, the need to lift themselves out of the poverty of the past and the “living memory” of life under stalinist control are all factors that have influenced this excellent action by the Poles.
Cheering the Poles from Australia – if only we had such gumption to walk our own path in Australia, instead of slavishly trying to be the most politically correct nation on the planet.
While I applaud Polands decision on this – they are doing it all for themselves… they are so pro-EU that nornally they say “Yes please” to any insanity suggested by the commission – so nobody should get their hopes up that we have champion for our cause.
As noted, the EU is already looking at a work around to nullify this decision by Poland. In the meantime, Poland will be worked on, behind the scenes by a small army of bullying eurocrats.
Watch out for a reversal of Polands stance some time in the future, for the EU has them by the “balls”, in every sense, and the EU does not tolerate dissent.
Apologies for the negativity on this, but I would like to show why most of us in the UK want to leave this insane fledgling super power – it’s not just because of the incompetency and corruption, its actually rotten to the core.
Hopefully the other nine former communist countries in the EU will soon follow suit.
Just keep reminding these idiots in Europe that a reduction of 50% of our CO2 emissions globally will result in a change of 0.2C difference than if we continued emitting the same amounts of CO2 by 2050. I personally don’t see any of these countries every reaching the target of any significant reduction (i.e. 10 or 15%) let alone 80%.
For decades the Polish people had a cursed capacity for suffering that was imposed upon them by the Soviet Communists, Stalin and others. Now they intend to suffer no more at the hands this time of the stupid uneducated idiots running the unelected EU commissions. A level of stupidity unmatched in the history of the human race. Its up to the European people to delete this blight upon themselves and regain their place in the world.
Poland has large reserves of Shale gas, in addition to Coal. It has a road map to prosperity. It has no reason to turn its back on that. Good luck to you Poland. Europe has been taken over by the Green Treens, can they be resisted?…….Probably not.
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/
The E.U. Will find some way to sack the current Polish Government and install A Prime minister that will go along with the Carbon madness. they did it in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Ireland over the debt issue. What makes you think these fascists wont do it in Poland over climate. Its beginning to look a lot like Berlin in the 1930’s.