The center-left is holding off on naming its candidate for chancellor in next year’s election. Source: Merkel wrongfoots Left opponents (again) – POLITICO Filed under: Europe Tagged: Germany, Merkel
Continue readingTag: Merkel
The Disaffected Lib: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? No One, Angela, No One.
Is it the Euro or is it Angela Merkel – or both? Whatever the case, Merkel’s brutal subjugation of Greece has the neighbours outside the Eurozone good cause to think twice about joining the common currency, the Euro. Once, it was an exclusive club that nearly all of Europe aspired
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Merkel’s Toxic Tonic
Has German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s subjugation of Greece inadvertently poisoned European unity? That’s how a pro-EU lobby group sees it. “The last few weeks have laid totally bare the European Union’s brand of authoritarian dogma,” UKIP leader Nigel Farage wrote in the London Telegraph. “More and more people are waking
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: G7 false commitments won’t help us tackle 7-million air pollution deaths
During the hour that it took the world’s elite G7 politicians discussing climate change to wander through an enchanting meadow of flowers in Germany’s Bavarian Alps earlier this week, at least 800 people died prematurely from the impact of air pollution, most of it caused by the burning of non-renewable fossil fuels.
Wanting to show the world – particularly voters at home – that they care about the seven-million people a year dying from various pollution and carbon related causes, the leaders of the world’s richest countries, including Canada, signed a joint declaration calling for a global phasing-out of fossil fuels 85 years from now.
It’s unlikely that, during their deliberations in the picturesque Schloss Elmau at the foot of Germany’s highest mountain, anyone at the Summit reflected on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report of a year ago that said in 2012 around seven million people died – one in eight of total global deaths – as a result of air pollution exposure.
Unfortunately, despite positive coverage in mainstream media in several countries, the section of the Summit dealing with climate change must be considered an over-blown failure.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was disappointed that G7 members – largely because of opposition from Canada and Japan – wouldn’t agree to a commitment to a low-carbon economy by 2050. Instead, the G7 agreed to a full-blown, no-carbon economy, but not until 2100.
According to their declaration, the G7 countries say they intend to insist on greenhouse gas reduction at least in the upper 40 to 70 per cent range by 2050. There’s also a promise to cut emission by 17 per cent by 2020.
But, despite the tough talk, no nation-specific targets were set, and the G7Declaration is not binding.
Canada, living up to its long-held reputation as the world’s leading foot dragger on climate issues, balked at Merkel’s earlier proposal that G7 countries would eliminate carbon emissions by 2050.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who rejects scientific information on the threat of global warming, said Canada would reach the G7 targets through developing new technologies, not by reducing living standards.
Meanwhile, the G7 countries – in a farcical display of public relations – agreed on a binding two degree target for limiting global warming. Again, no timeframe was set, but the G7 group will take their declaration with them to Paris in December for the crucial UN Climate Summit.
Had they been more concerned about the hardship people around their world are experiencing – including people in some of their own countries – perhaps the Summit would have taken a more realistic, more dynamic approach to tackling the world’s most pressing problem.
Environmental groups were divided
in their opinions of the Summit.
Christoph Bals from the NGO Germanwatch said “the summit sends a strong signal for a successful climate agreement at the end of the year in Paris.”
But the development organization Oxfam said the outcome was inadequate. “If the G7 really want to implement their decisions, they must take concrete measures – such as promptly initiating a phase-out of harmful coal,” said Oxfam climate protection analyst Jan Kowalzig.
“Coal is the biggest single cause of climate change”, says Oxfam, “yet the G7 countries are still burning huge amounts, despite efficient, affordable, renewable alternatives being available. G7 coal power stations emit twice as much fossil fuel CO2 as the whole of Africa, and their contribution to global warming will cost Africa alone more than $43-billion per year by the 2080s . . . .”
In addition, despite the bravado in Germany, G7 countries have pledged US$8-billion per year in subsidies to expand fossil fuel production. This runs totally contrary to their claimed emission commitment positions.
Despite U.S. President Obama’s action-oriented position in Germany, the globe’s second largest polluter is not committed to substantive action on climate change. Back home, 70 per cent of Republicans in the Senate and 53 percent of Republicans in the House deny the existence of human-caused global warming.
In view of such contradictions, holding global warming to two degrees appears to be a monumental challenge.
In fact, expectations for a successful outcome in Paris have been waning, and the lack of any concrete action by the G7 further decreases expectations.
If the planet is to avoid large increases in global warming, massive actions never before accomplished by humankind will be necessary.
No doubt some progress will be made but, according to the independent Climate Action Tracker, the world’s current policies would result in global warming of 3.6 to 4.2 degrees Celsius by 2100. Even the current pledges of the G7 countries, if converted into effective policies, probably would not be enough for the world to stay under the target of keeping warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog – Thanks Nick
A Different Point of View....: G7 false commitments won’t help us tackle 7-million air pollution deaths
During the hour that it took the world’s elite G7 politicians discussing climate change to wander through an enchanting meadow of flowers in Germany’s Bavarian Alps earlier this week, at least 800 people died prematurely from the impact of air pollution, most of it caused by the burning of non-renewable
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Germany Alarmed at NATO’s (and America’s) Ginned Up Claims on Ukraine
A Warmonger and a Fearmonger Angela Merkel thinks that Germany (and the rest of the West) is being conned by NATO and the U.S. inflating the Russian threat to the Ukraine. General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59-year-old said,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Big Deal With Low Confidence – Ukraine
Angela Merkel and Francoise Hollande seem to have pulled it off – a peace deal to end the civil war in Ukraine. What no one is even asking is if there’s a chance it will hold. The shooting stops at 5 p.m. ET Saturday. Like all ceasefires the warring parties
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Are We Really Willing to Go To War over Ukraine?
Would you be okay if it was your kids in uniform going off to a shooting war with the Russians over Ukraine? The whole idea seems fantastic, ridiculous. We tend to dismiss it as unimaginable but giving it short shrift can be lethal. Earlier this week three words caught my
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Could Putin Snap?
Now this is worrisome. It is a transcript compiled from verbatim notes of a meeting between Russia’s Vlad Putin and German chancellor Angela Merkel that led Merkel to conclude her Russian counterpart is not in touch with reality but is living “in another world.” Putin squirmed and rambled. And rambled and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Germany Made a Killing on the Euro-Crisis
Europe’s fiscal crisis has hammered much of the E.U. from Ireland to Britain, Spain, Portugal, France and Greece. Germany, however, has made out like a bandit. The collapse of every nation around it made German debt much, much more attractive to investors looking for security. So much more attractive that
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Germany Shines a Light on the Harp of Darkness
When it came right down to it, Germany balked at voting “no” on Palestinian recognition in the UN General Assembly and, instead, merely abstained. Netanyahu was not amused.What transpired between Angie Merkel and Benny Netanyahu may shed so…
Continue readingImpolitical: Caption away
“Look Angela, I don’t know what it is, quite frankly. I think that hippie Trudeau may have had it placed here. Inukshuk or something. Some mumbo jumbo about group effort, balance and being part of something bigger than ourselves. Like I said, I really don’t know what it’s about.” (Source)
Continue readingImpolitical: The German view of the Harper-Merkel bunfest
Despite all the hype in much of the Canadian media about this Harper-Merkel meeting featuring Canada-EU trade talks, the Germans are playing it right down: Mr. Jürgens said he doesn’t expect Mr. Harper and Ms. Merkel to have much detailed discussion about the ongoing trade talks between Canada and the
Continue readingPolygonic: La France Forte, or Why You Desperately Need Sarko Standing On the Beach
The French presidential campaign is kicking into high gear, and Nicolas Sarkozy has one key message for his ungrateful people: vote him back in, and he promises to spend his second term standing on the beach, like a magnificant granite Colossus, liquifying overseas demons with the sheer power of his
Continue readingCuriosityCat: It’s High Noon and a lone Merkel faces off against a horde of armed investors
The Financial Times has a very good article, which states Chancellor Merkel’s position on the ‘eurozone crisis’ very clearly: It needs a better disciplined, closer fiscal union with penalities for those who step over agreed lines, and not a quick fix of having Germany carry the burden of the bad
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Cancelling the Greek Referendum and Angela Merkel’s Steely Focus
Two final thoughts today on the Greek crisis: 1) Under immense political pressure from within his own party, the opposition, and the EU – i.e., Germany – Papandreou was forced to cancel the referendum. But the basic idea was a good one: he knew Germany…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Democratic Greeks fight the German and French Bullies
Gavin Hewitt, the Europe Editor of the BBC News, has written an incisive article today about what is at stake with the Greek Prime Minister’s call for a referendum on the EU austerity proposal.He draws a sharp distinction between the PM’s call that dem…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: A Prime Minister challenges a Chancellor: Could this be the end of the EU?
An epic struggle for the future of the EU was started this morning when a Greek politician threw down the gauntlet, challenging both those within his country who opposed his leadership as prime minister, and the latest ‘solution’ of the EU financial cr…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Merkel kicks Sarkozy who kicks a cat named Greece
We’ve just seen a case of trickle down kicking taking place in the EU. Sarkozy wanted to use the European Central Bank to bail out the banks, but Merkel quickly ruled out, saying it wasn’t up for discussion. So other methods were debated and agre…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Chancellor Brinkmanship: Angela Merkel’s Teutonic discipline for the EU Latin Fringe
To some, the Eurozone crisis has all the hallmarks of a train crash. These onlookers are only partly right.The Eurozone crisis is a slow motion train wreck, with the speed being checked as and when she wants to, by Chancellor Merkel of Germany.The Stam…
Continue reading