The European Green Deal will bypass the poor and go straight to the rich

(The Guardian, 19 Feb 2020) For all the talk of retraining Polish miners, this fund will most likely line the pockets of the carbon finance elites

When Josep Borrell, the EU’s newly appointed foreign policy chief, recently caused outrage by dismissing young climate activists as flaky sufferers of “Greta syndrome”, he made not just a serious error of judgment but a serious mistake in macroeconomics. It was a mistake that is symptomatic of the dire state of European economic debate after a decade of austerity and schwarze Null (balanced budget) ideas.

“The idea that young people are seriously committed to fighting climate change – we could call it the ‘Greta syndrome’ – allows me to doubt that,” Borrell said, before going on to question their naivety about the cost of tackling the climate crisis.

“I would like to know if young people demonstrating in Berlin … are willing to lower their living standards to offer compensation to Polish miners, because if we fight against climate change for real they will lose their jobs and will have to be subsidised.”

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The Guardian, 19 Feb 2020: The European Green Deal will bypass the poor and go straight to the rich