|
The EU is planning an ‘EU-wide CO2 tax’.
Meeting in Sweden on 1-2 October, the Commission floated the idea of imposing a carbon tax on sectors outside the EU's emissions trading scheme for the first time at ministerial level.
Taxation Commissioner László Kovács said,
The introduction of a new tax in the European Union has never been easy and particularly it's not easy in the time of a financial and economic crisis. ... But it is evident that climate change is an even more disastrous global challenge than the current financial and economic crisis. ... The revenue could be used both to compensate lower-income households and also to build trust between developed and developing countries, simply putting money on the Copenhagen table,
The commissioner wants to bribe developing countries into supporting EU proposals at Copenhagen with money it takes from you.
The EU is so far the only region to have produced tentative figures for how much funding would have to flow from industrialised nations to developing countries to finance efforts to cut emissions and adapt to inevitable consequences of global warming. Last month, the Commission presented its blueprint for climate aid, suggesting that the EU earmark €2-15 billion per year per year by 2020 to poor countries.
This is called ‘climate aid’, but its real purpose is to increase EU control over your life and the developing world.
The Commission estimates that developing countries' overall financing needs will hit €100 billion a year by 2020, if an ambitious agreement is reached in Copenhagen.
If the EU was really interested in helping the developing world there are much more effective options it could consider.
For starters, it could scrap the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which consumes nearly half the EU’s budget. Nearly €50 billion a year is paid in subsidies to farmers. This distorts prices, and encourages over-production. Farmers in the developing world are hit with a double-whammy – they are effectively excluded from the market because they can’t compete on price and huge subsidy-driven surpluses are dumped on their own markets. Non-EU farmers can’t sell their product at home or internationally, thanks to the EU. So they become dependent on ‘aid’ from the West. Scrapping the CAP would open up these markets, and allow producers in the developing world to have a chance at providing for themselves.
But EU interference isn’t about ‘saving the planet’ or about ‘helping the poor’. These are simply pleasant sounding ruses for increasing its control both here, and in the developing world. The tax it wants to take from you and transfer elsewhere is about nothing more than giving itself power and purpose. If it were just pointless, it wouldn’t be so bad, but the EU’s thirst for control damages economies and lives.
Speaking of 'development', an OFGEM survey of the state of Britain’s energy infrastructure found that there is a ‘need for investment of up to £200 billion in power plant and other infrastructure over the next ten years to secure both energy supplies and climate change targets.’ Even more bad news – we face a 60% increase in our energy bills.
The reason for this story state of affairs is ridiculous and unnecessary EU and Environmental legislation.
If £200 billion and a 60% rise in bills are needed just to keep the UK’s lights on, what difference is €100 billion a year in ‘climate aid’ going to make to the developing world? Not a jot.
All that this regulation and taxation will do – all it seems it is intended to do – is reduce Britain to the level of a third world country. Read more
|
