Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Fearing history's verdict

Interesting Financial Times analysis of the implications of the Paris climate agreement (subs. maybe req'd) --

Brian Ricketts, secretary-general of Euracoal, a trade body representing the EU coal industry, says: “That 1.5C might be a target, but it means NGOs will be striving for the complete phase-out of fossil fuels very quickly, which means we will be hated and vilified in the same way slave traders were.”

There is a bit of a historical irony there since the forerunner of the EU (the ECSC) was founded to consolidate the coal and steel industries, so an orderly shrinking of coal is in the DNA of the EU. But anyway, it's probably climate change "sceptics" who should worry most about what their statements will look like 10 years from now. 

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