Von der Leyen Pushes Green Deal in European Parliament Speech
July 16, 2019 (EIRNS)— If you thought there could be nothing worse than Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission, his designated successor will have you changing your mind. In her programmatic speech before the vote in the European Parliament (which she ended up winning by a narrow margin), designated EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised everything and the contrary to everybody in order to appease all factions and get elected. Most notably, however, she promised a radical anti-industrial plan and called it a “Green Deal.”
Von der Leyen started her speech in French, continued in German, and turned into English at a certain point, to attack the Belt and Road Initiative and to present her climate policy.
Referring to the nations that joined the Belt and Road, she said: “Some are buying their influence by investing in dependence from ports and roads,” and some “turn to authoritarian states.” But “We go the European way,” she said.
Then she continued:
“Our most pressing challenge is to keep our planet healthy. This is the greatest and most important opportunity of our time. I want Europe to become the first CO2-neutral continent in the world by 2050!
“To make this happen we must take both steps together: Our current goal of reducing emissions by 40% by 2030 is not enough. We must go further. We must try for more. A two-step approach is needed to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030 by 50% if not 55%. The European Union will lead international negotiations to increase the level of ambitions by other major economies by 2021, because to achieve real impact we do not only have to be ambitious at home; we have to do that, yes! But we have to do it together.
“I will put forward a Green Deal for Europe in my first 100 days in office. I will put forward the first ever European Climate Law, which will set the 2050 target in law. This increase of ambitions will need investments on a major scale. Public money will not be enough. I will propose a European Union Sustainable Investment Plan and turn part of the European Investment Bank into a Climate Bank. This will unlock €1 trillion in investments over the next decade. It means change. All of us and every sector will have to contribute. From aviation to maritime transport, to the way each and every one of us travels and lives. Emissions must have a price that changes our behavior.
“To complete this work and to ensure that our companies can compete on a level playing field, I will introduce a carbon border-tax to avoid carbon leakage.”
Translated: I am going to put a super-tariff on China, which produces too much CO2.
