The EU’s “Climate-Political Nightmare”! Germany’s Flagship Daily ‘Die Welt’ Comments On Brexit

Economics editor Daniel Wetzel at Germany’s center-right national daily Die Welt here writes that the Brexit may be the end of the Paris climate treaty and that it is a climate-political nightmare for the EU.

Already, he notes, the price of CO2 emissions certificates has plummeted to near low-grade levels, see chart at Die Welt.

The Die Welt journalist writes that those holding these pollution-permitting certifcates saw a large chunk of value get wiped out. Already at the end of last year the certificates had a value of near 9 euros. Now they are hovering at less than 5 euros.

The reason for the plunge in price, Wetzel writes, is that Great Britain will no longer be bound to the European Emissions Trading system, and so dozens of UK power plants will no longer need their certificates and will likely dump them on the European market, causing their price to plummet further. The result, Wetzel writes:

For industrial plants all over Europe there will be hardly any financial incentive left to invest in CO2-saving efficiency technology.”

New political constellation at Westminster

Activists are still hoping that Britain will remain in the Emissions Trading Scheme, even after exiting the EU, just as non EU member Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein are currently doing. Wetzel asks whether Britain will continue staying commited to ambitious CO2 reductions as it has in the past. One factor that speaks against continued commitment to reducing CO2 emissions is that “among Brexiteers and EU-skeptics in Unitted Kingdom – as is the case with the German AfD – the number of climate skeptics is especially high“.

Wetzel adds:

In part not only is the man-made impact on climate questioned, but whether climate change is happening at all. In a new political constellation in Westminister, the high British climate targets may not be possible to maintain in the future.”

A weakened Europe in climate negotiations

Here Wetzel cites a recent research paper by the Chatham House that looked at the possible impacts on climate policy should Britain vote to leave the EU. The Chatham Report has in its conclusion:

A diminished EU, for its part, would be weaker in managing relationships with Russia, which already seeks to divide it and to negotiate bilateral energy deals with individual member states. The EU would also be less able to influence global climate negotiations alongside other major powers such as China and the United States, as it would represent a much smaller share of the global economy and of global emissions. This would not serve the longterm interests of either the UK or the EU.

The report concludes that in the event of a British exit (which is now the case), Britain would be freer to decide its energy policies on its own without meddling from Brussels.

Climate policy-making center of gravity shifts eastwards

What bodes especially ill for European climate policy, Wetzel writes, is that the “decision-making center of gravity” will now likely shift eastwards to more climate-policy obstinate countries, such as coal-producing Poland, and the Czech Republic.

Wetzel even warns, citing the Chatham House report, that should Britain not live up to its climate protection commitments, it could face “international criticism, and in the worst case sanctions from other countries“.

28 responses to “The EU’s “Climate-Political Nightmare”! Germany’s Flagship Daily ‘Die Welt’ Comments On Brexit”

  1. Boyfromtottenham

    Hahahahahahaha!

  2. Harry Dale Huffman
  3. Henning Nielsen

    Would be fun to see what sanctions Britain would face, and by whom. Great potential for huge entertainment value there.

    1. Papy Boomer

      Particularly if they go for fracking the big reserves of natural gas. The rest of EU will compete to have a belateral commerce exchange with UK (free wine from France, free diesel car from Germany, … add your products for the bilateral agreement). Hahaha

  4. Stephen Fox

    “Britain ….could face international criticism”

    Oh no. However will we cope?

    1. DirkH

      Quiver, islanders, quiver in the face of our wrath! We shall use the most derogatory terms our philosopher-kings in Brussels can come up with!
      Juncker is already drinking himself warm:
      https://youtu.be/XPgiI46FCDU

    2. John Silver

      We will fart in your general direction.
      Your mothers are hamsters and your fathers smells of elderberries.

      1. Stephen Fox

        Duly quivering and holding my nose already!
        Haha….

  5. Adam

    The EU started out, so I understand, as a free trade zone idea. A good idea. Over time, however, it has become a centralized power political structure. The UK could easily (and simply) stay a part of the free trade zone and suffer little, if any, economic fallout. But you can be sure that the socialist apparatchiks will do all they can to punish the UK for choosing freedom. Especially if they adopt a fossil fuel based energy generation platform. It didn’t help that the UK minister to the EU parliament insulted the other members.

    1. DirkH

      “But you can be sure that the socialist apparatchiks will do all they can”

      and that is NOTHING. Look at how they punished Russia with sanctions. The result? Now all German companies build factories in Russia and make their products there because they are not allowed to export to Russia. Russia gets the jobs and the manufacturing capacity.
      German dairy farmers get 20 Eurocents a liter of milk and need 50 for cost covering – because EU food exports to Russia have been abolished by Russia as retaliation for industrial sanctions.

      Have the EU as enemy and you don’t need friends anymore. Or the other way round, when the EU is your friend you don’t need enemies anymore.

    2. DirkH

      The piecemeal transition into an antidemocratic superstate was pre-planned by the founder of the Pan-European movement Coudenhouve-Kalergi in his 1925 book Practical Idealism; and then again after WW II by his follower Monnet. Kalergi demands rulership of the “Geistesaristokratie”, the aristocracy of the mind. Notice – ARISTOCRACY, NOT democracy. Meaning, the rulers should be appointed, not elected (or maybe even get their appointment through heritage, he does not specify.)
      Monnet very clearly stated that democracy is too dangerous as WW II proves that it leads to war.

      The tranformation of the EEC into the EU is a textbook example of how to boil frogs – slowly. For slowly, also see the Fabians (the above-mentioned Chatham House is of course a Fabian-founded institution – like the UK Labour Party, the NHS and the LSE. And probably the BBC.)

    3. Stephen Richards

      Adam, it was Delors and friend who started the ball rolling about 1950 and yes the word was of a common market but the lying little tweep really was doing a stalin and goebels by slowly taking freedom away from people without them realising. They always intended a federal Europe.

    4. diogenese2

      Adam: “It didn’t help that the UK minister to the EU parliament insulted the other members.”

      ?? Are you referring to Nigel Farage? He is not part of the UK Government or even a member of the UK Parliament.
      He is the leader of the UK Independence Party and his status in Brussels is a (pariah) MEP! He has been trading insults with the EU nomenclature for decades and this was his “I told you so..” moment.

      1. ilma630

        …and what a delicious “told you so” moment it was. Will the EU apachiks wake up to what is happening around them though? No, of course they won’t. Foolish human pride is far stronger than acceptance of fact. What they have never grasped, and should have been the central message of the Leave campaign, is that there is no requirement to have political union (incl. free movement) in order to trade. The ‘free movement’ principle is entirely political, i.e. opinion.

      2. yonason

        “He has been trading insults with the EU nomenclature for decades” – diogenese2

        And the ones I’ve seen on you tube were a delight to watch, too.

  6. Mick J

    Amber Rudd the DECC minister has just committed to the next UK Carbon Budget.
    ————
    The British government has set its 5th Carbon Budget with a 2030 target of forcing CO2 emissions down by 57% on 1990 levels. In contrast, the EU-wide target is 40%.
    In fact, the new Budget is the most ambitious climate policy in the world. As a result it puts the UK at a damaging competitive disadvantage compared with its European neighbours and all other major economies around the world.
    http://www.thegwpf.com/5th-carbon-budget-based-on-assumption-that-uk-remains-in-the-eu/
    and
    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/decc-commit-to-fifth-carbon-budget/

    1. yonason

      I’m going to hazard a guess that those govt., officials who approved it weren’t supporters of BREXIT.

      1. Mindert Eiting

        Interesting question. Paul Homewood considers it wishful thinking that Brexit makes a difference. It is no coincidence that my double-alarmist newspaper (after a few days of hysteria about Brexit) came yesterday with a front page article about the Paris treaty, not going far enough. They know intuitively that the climate scam can only flourish among the present political elites. After embracing these ideas, there is no way back and they can only hope not to be exposed as long as everybody in their environment shares them. It is a psychological mechanism. Change is their enemy.

      2. ilma630

        I wouldn’t be surprised if the new PM removes her, and replaces her with someone who can think rationally, e.g. Owen Patterson or Peter Lilley. That way, one of the defining actions of #Brexit can be the repealing of the disastrous Climate Change Act. This should also lead to (i) the renaming of DECC back to just DE, and (ii) the complete abolition (annihilation) of the CCC, consigning the odious Lord Deben to the political ductbin.

  7. DirkH

    “The reason for the plunge in price, Wetzel writes, is that Great Britain will no longer be bound to the European Emissions Trading system,”

    The crazier the central planners act, the more profitable it becomes to break free from the NWO. So it will happen more, not less.
    The NWO orgs (of which the EU is one) failed to dole out enough punishment. They are impotent.

  8. Stephen Richards

    Rudd will go under the new regime, almost certainly.

  9. Richard of NZ

    So the “Climate Change Act 2008” will no longer apply? It is my impression that this act enshrines in law the toughest requirement of any government in the world to reduce the gases defined under Kyoto as “Greenhouse Gases”. The figure from memory is something like 80% under 1980(?) levels.

  10. Fred

    The thing is if it is enshrined in law now they only answer to themselves so 5 minutes of flagellation with a good pint will absolve all sins.

  11. gallopingcamel

    BREXIT is a really big deal with immense implications for many countries including the USA.

    However it won’t mean much unless my countrymen elect a Prime Minister who is not in it for the money.

    1. yonason

      “…it won’t mean much unless my countrymen elect a Prime Minister who is not in it for the money” – “gallopingcamel

      You voted for BREXIT, so I have no doubt that if you can find one, you will elect him. But before you can elect one, you have to know who he is. I wish you (and us Americans) success at that. They are very rare everywhere, and there are many pretenders (Cameron was supposed to be “Conservative,” as I recall). It’s going to be hard, but it will be worth the effort.

      Anyway, hoping for the best for you and all of us.

  12. william Partridge.

    Why is the brilliant science from the astrophysicists,like Prof.Henrick Svensmark And Nir Shaviv Being kept secret? It clearly shows how the sun not co2 governs our climate When will the British politicians wake up and listen to Piers Corbyn {astrophysicist} brother of Jeremy .Piers knows that the sun not co2 governs climate change .Yet people still adhere to the failed science of James Hansen And The fraud from M.Mann

  13. Brexit Spells End Of Europe’s Climate Obsession | Atlas Monitor

    […] 7) Brexit: ‘The EU’s Climate-Political Nightmare’ No Tricks Zone, 30 June 2016 […]

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    […] Economics Editor Daniel Wetzel at Germany’s news publication Die Welt notes that the Brexit may end the Paris climate treaty. Recall, President Obama touted last year’s Paris climate treaty as a success. He also called […]

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