vonderleyen2_Patrick Pleulpicture alliance via Getty Images_wind energy

Um Acordo Verde Global

Mar 22, 2021 Ursula von der Leyen , Werner Hoyer

BRUXELAS – Na Europa, prestámos atenção aos alertas sobre as alterações climáticas. Sabemos que se os nossos sistemas industriais, energéticos, alimentares e de transportes não mudarem, poderemos estar perante um aumento catastrófico da temperatura superior a 3 °C ainda este século.

Ao nos aproximarmos do fim de 2020, o ano mais quente na Europa desde que existem registos, tomámos na União Europeia a decisão colectiva de reduzir as nossas emissões de gases com efeito de estufa (GEE) até 2030, pelo menos para 55% dos níveis registados em 1990. A Comissão Europeia está a dar seguimento a este compromisso com alterações políticas concretas, e o Banco Europeu de Investimento está a apoiar o esforço com a sua capacidade financeira.

A década actual é um momento decisivo para o nosso planeta. Para confrontarmos os desafios imediatos perante nós, as nossas duas organizações estão a convocar governos, instituições internacionais e investidores para um evento marcante a 24 de Março de 2021: “Investir na Acção Climática”.

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Ursula von der Leyen

Writing for PS since 2021
2 Commentaries

Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission.

Werner Hoyer

Writing for PS since 2017
6 Commentaries

Werner Hoyer is President of the European Investment Bank.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 12 Comments on this article

Henk Crop Mar 30, 2021

I think this smells to mission creep. The EU Commission and the EIB is set up to serve the EU and not the World.
The pragmatic approach would be, for example in the case of polluting coal fired power plants, to address all parties in the World operating such Power plants.
Propose plans to solve their CO2 pollution.

First I would invest in comprehensive Research to see if pollution can be avoided.

If that is not possible the coal Power plants should be replaced by either nuclear or gas Power plants.
If you manufacture these new Plants in series they will become cheaper.
There will be social cost, such a miners loosing their jobs. Covering these costs should also be part of the project. Also mine owners will have to compensated.

When you set up such a project on a global scale you will need an independent authority, in which business experts, investment banks, relevant governments cooperate.
The EU Commission could have a useful role in launching such an organisation and providing finance.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Don Rollins Mar 29, 2021

Back to the land to feed the people AND have a favorable affect on climate AND be financially prudent with anybody’s money AND perpetuate a sustainable future is possible. Consider this one project, sorely needed in thousands of places worldwide. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/20/our-biggest-challenge-lack-of-imagination-the-scientists-turning-the-desert-green?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1
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Enrique Woll Battistini Mar 28, 2021

Project Syndicate

March 22, 2021

A GLOBAL GREEN DEAL
by Ursula von der Leyen & Werner Hoyer

QUOTE
We need to embrace the idea of a “circular economy.” As matters stand, we are taking more out of our planet than it can afford to give us, and the effects of this overreach will become increasingly dramatic and destructive with each passing year. We must urgently reduce the environmental and carbon footprint of the goods we consume.
To do so, we need to invest in circular technologies that reuse resources, rather than constantly producing or importing new goods and extracting ever more raw materials. The circular economy has huge potential not only to reduce our dependency on scarce resources, but also to create jobs. As Europe continues to show, the Green Deal is not just an environmental policy; it is an economic and geopolitical necessity.
Five years ago, 196 countries came together and signed the Paris agreement, committing to keep the average global temperature within 2°C – but preferably 1.5°C – of its pre-industrial level. So far, this commitment has yet to be matched by sufficient action. It is time to raise our ambitions and accelerate progress. That will be our message to the world at “Investing in Climate Action” on March 24.
We all must come together – not just governments but also businesses, cities, financial institutions, and civil society – to confront the climate challenge. Europe has the tools, the skills, and the knowledge to lead by example. We must translate our climate-policy leadership into market leadership to secure a Global Green Deal.
Let’s get to work.
UNQUOTE

***

March 27, 2021

The world is pleading for a transcendental New Deal of justice and welfare. Indeed, Roger E.A. Farmer is right: "The solution is not to get rid of free markets, but rather to redesign institutions. And to get that right, we don’t need fewer economists; we need more." Project Syndicate's 2013 article "Gaming US Fiscal Reform" by Mohamed A. El-Erian, brings to mind that the dissonance between academia, big business, and government in the U.S. is of such magnitude that the innovative grand bargain in Congress required to permanently avoid the fiscal cliff, as the People rightly expect, will never happen without a repeat of the Grand Depression of the 30s, because it would demand far-reaching changes in the current economic, social and political model tantamount to a new Social Contract, given the long-standing inequitable distribution of production, and gross imbalances in welfare, these being unstoppable changes which are not envisioned and much less discussed in the halls of power, and which must seemingly be, by their very nature, de facto.

***

My Comment to:

Project Syndicate – THE WORLD’S OPINION PAGE

Why We Need More Economists – October 8, 2019

Roger E.A. Farmer

October 19, 2019

The World is Pleading for a Transcendental New Deal of Justice and Welfare

© Enrique Woll Battistini 2019

Roger E.A. Farmer is right: "The solution is not to get rid of free markets, but rather to redesign institutions. And to get that right, we don’t need fewer economists; we need more." Project Syndicate's 2013 article "Gaming US Fiscal Reform" by Mohamed A. El-Erian, brings to mind that the dissonance between academia, big business, and government in the U.S. is of such magnitude that the innovative grand bargain in Congress required to permanently avoid the fiscal cliff, as the People rightly expect, will never happen without a repeat of the Grand Depression of the 30s, because it would demand far-reaching changes in the current economic, social and political model tantamount to a new Social Contract, given the long-standing inequitable distribution of production, and gross imbalances in welfare, these being unstoppable changes which are not envisioned and much less discussed in the halls of power, and which must seemingly be, by their very nature, de facto. The model is obsolete; this is evident. The formal apparatus must yield and adapt, or it shall collapse. What is not mentioned in articles dealing with poverty and its links to distribution of production, about the impending or potential effects of unemployment in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Africa and the world as a whole, is the need to increase productivity and production, in all of its currently affected countries, and that this requires increased demand, and that the shortest route to this is consumption, and that the only route to this, in the immediate horizon, is economic stimulus through an impulse increase in the disposable income of the people, with the assurance of continuity in the mid term horizon: economic –cash- stimuli through 30-day consumption –debit- cards issued by governments against new debt –or by the Central Banks- through commercial banks in all target countries.

Furthermore, given the paradoxical reality that warring is a known quantity, ever present in the American folklore, and a recurring phenomenon in practice, whereas large scale Private-Public Partnerships for Development, and peace, are simply not, I believe that recent movements such as the Ninety-Nine Percent Declaration should take into account the wider global economic and social protest context. This threatening groundswell, which must be addressed, is exemplified by the "Los Indignados" of Spain, begun on May 15, 2011, that has spread not only to the USA, in the form of Occupy Wall Street, begun on September 17, 2011, but to the UK, is being amplified by other movements, in the First World, in the context of the European crisis, and is widening its reach to very many other countries in it and in the Second, Third, and Fourth Worlds, echoing the current global revolution begun earlier that year in the Arab Spring. Indeed, it appears that the world has reached a point where the paradigms of national and supranational government in the fields of finance, industry and commerce, justice, and security, at both levels, established at the end of World War II through global institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have on the one hand reached a certain level of philosophical irrelevance, and on the other, a level of practical incompetence, a la Peter Drucker. In this situation would also fall, under their own weight, sooner rather than later, the old British Commonwealth of Nations, the Organization of American States, the Commonwealth of Independent States created by the Russian Federation after the Soviet Union's demise, with its recent Eurasian Economic Community, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, currently without any counterweight, and even the European Union, preceded by its Euro Zone and nascent fiscal union, and the probably hundreds of dependent organizations, treaties, and multinational projects.

That the "Recent stock market sell-off foreshadows a new Great Recession" in the U.S. as foreseen by professors Steven Pressman of Colorado State University and Robert H. Scott III of Monmouth University in their article of March 19, 2018 in THE CONVERSATION, may very well be. The question is, what can be done to prevent it, or to stem it, where, how, and on what scale? In my view, the world can no longer solve its most pressing problems -threatening anthropogenic climate disruption and global warming and universal income polarization with extreme inequality- on a piecemeal, national, and country by country basis, when the world's real economies -the U.S., China, the EU, and Russia- are globalized. Clearly, acceleration of socioeconomic inclusion and concerted investment for development to make it possible must be envisioned and constructed on a global scale without further delay. At the crux of world peace, and planetary rescue, would be tax reform, via Sole Consumption Tax (SCT), that would enable eradication of absolute extreme poverty and relative extreme poverty, through regular income redistribution ensuring the attainment of autonomous survival with increasing welfare potential for the poorest, that would irreversibly approach that of the richest, voluntary population stabilization, voluntary production and consumption stabilization, and carbon emissions stabilization. In this context one must consider that Multilateral organizations, and others, though imperfect, rose to give hope to millions upon millions of disenfranchised survivors of the war, and have evolved into a network of powerful and effective institutions serving the peoples of some 200 countries, in all manner of adverse contexts and circumstances, and staunchly facing clear threats like imminent wars, epidemics and new infectious diseases, cyclical global warming and anthropogenic climate disruption. All in the quest for comprehensive environmentally-friendly development to secure peace and prosperity on a global scale.

No individual has the right to arbitrarily or autocratically and needlessly devolve, or deflate, or destroy, this crucial multilateral societal structure, and worse for the sake of self-aggrandizement, a condemnable purpose not only crassly counter-productive and irrational from every point of view, but a clear and present betrayal of humanity, in peace time, much in the vein and in the nature of war-time crimes against humanity. Also, clearly the basically unfettered capitalism of today is a failed socioeconomic system that is exterminating the poor and enriching the rich at an increasing pace and will lead in short order to civil unrest, and soon after, to global revolt, warfare and total social chaos. This perverse result is built into the system given the unbalanced, unfair, and self-reinforcing upward-flow nature of its income and wealth distribution system in society which cannot and will not be contained through the simplistic and shortsighted solutions offered by the progressive taxation systems implemented today. A cursory analytical look at Thomas Piketty's Thesis clearly suggests that the intrinsic nature of Capitalism ensures that the rich will get richer and the poor poorer, ad infinitum, till annihilation of the poorest, in any society in any country, unless, again, taxation through a Sole Consumption Tax (SCT) is used to regularly redistribute the wealth created in all societies, within societies, in such a way as to preempt consumption by the poorest from falling below the threshold of autonomous survival with monotonically increasing welfare potential, that would bring their share of wealth consumption irreversibly and asymptotically closer to consumption by the richest of the rich over time.

In addition, authentic imagination, creativity, and thus inventiveness and innovation, are still the province of the human mind, but AI embodied in computers, particularly those performing as brains in all manner of robots, and those involved in far-reaching decision-making, as in government, are rapidly gaining momentum in the takeover of human affairs. This will likely have the perverse effect of increasing inequality between the people in the various layers of society in all countries, and between countries, with severe disruptive and destabilizing effects in both spheres. This, unless note is taken at the corresponding political decision-making echelons, of the fact that who should take credit, or be given credit, for production, is far less important than who should receive its benefits; that intellect or capital developed and contributed through personal effort or through shared enterprise, should continue to be creditworthy, and praiseworthy, and still be considered mostly responsible for the level and quality of production at this time, but should no longer be the prime criteria for its distribution, which is an entirely different matter, the truth of which shall become more evident as the machine-contribution to production rises and the human contribution in all terms declines and the return on capital increases. Capitalist assignment of work and its rewards has clearly proven to be perverse in the twenty-first century world, as Thomas Piketty has abundantly shown. But disrupting or dismantling working domestic or international financial, economic, or legal institutions, systems, or treaties, that have held the world together for seventy years, and purport to do so indefinitely, without having a clue as to what would take their place, simply because someone feels the impulse to leave his mark in history, would have been unthinkable a year ago.

BREXIT's opting out of the world's largest trading accord, which remains very sound, having been extremely successful, for some sixty-two years, based on magic thinking, at best, and perhaps merely to gain political notoriety, instead of reforming or restructuring it from within, would also have been considered patently absurd, till less than four years ago, and is today beginning to be perceived that way by a growing part of the people of the UK. Perhaps, it is time to consider bold visions of how prosperity for all could be reached as proposed by the Mathematical Model and Simulation for "A Partnership for Development with the United States of America" that would articulate Private Sector and Public Sector entities pertinent to environmentally-friendly holistic socioeconomic development in the American Hemisphere, bringing together its 35 nations, in a concerted effort to reduce and eliminate the existing ominous welfare gap, led by the Private Sector, for profit. Such a system would have to be considered under a philosophy that would include the likely possibility that the capitalization imbalance between the northern hemisphere, and the southern hemisphere, developed countries and the underdeveloped, and between OECD countries and the rest, suggests that something may be failing in the capital markets’ capacity to arbitrate investments: It would seem that it does not function effectively, and that the not so uncommon perception of increasing relative backwardness of the Third World is true. If so, beyond investigating its causes, it is necessary to investigate the attributes, achievements, and plans of existing multilateral and governmental poverty eradication and economic development organizations, and of their private counterparts, and the regulatory environment, in order to determine the need and opportunity for the creation of new private-public systems to increase the north-south investments rate. This aggressive North-South investment promotion system could and probably should be implemented simultaneously in North-South America, Europe-Africa, and Asia-Oceania, in a decided attempt to revert extreme poverty and indeed all poverty across the globe at this threatening time of global warming and anthropogenic climate disruption.

God help us all.

***

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- Enrique Woll Battistini Apr 11, 2021
  
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Dallas Weaver Mar 28, 2021

An article on the subject of CO2 emissions that doesn't mention a carbon tax or related methods of internalizing externalities into economic decisions is clear nonsense. Any system without a carbon tax will result in self-interested political decisions that will create great political advantages and financial benefits for some and not solve the problem. The real agenda of the author doesn't appear to solve the problem, but to use the issue for other goals.
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Danny Leipziger Mar 28, 2021

Pres. Hoyer: This sounds good but we really haven't seen the EIB as an effective partner in either Africa or Latin America as it seems the EIB is working mostly in the European theater. This will need to change if real progress is to occur.
Pres. von der Leyen: If the handling of pandemic is a guide, the EU is poorly equipped to make these lofty goals happen. There needs to be more accountability for failed performance inside the union and greater attention to policy incentives.
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Kurt Kristensen Mar 25, 2021

For the next decade, or two, it's necessary, in my opinion, that Europe takes a global leadership role in many areas. The 1940-2020 Era of American moral and financial leadership has come to an end for lack of vision and an over-emphasis on solving all its problems via military influence.

Europe has been rebuilt with a massive financial support from the US via the Marshal Plan and the Nato military umbrella, and it's been able to afford developing a social network that should become a model for the West. It has also developed global technology leadership in wind energy systems and urban development.

Europe now needs to find the voter support and balance to pay for both its own defense system and generate global systemic change in both energy and financial systems to effect the necessary changes for 7.2 billion people to live on Planet Earth in an environmentally sustainable manner.

The cost will be steep, and European total tax burdens are already some of the highest in developed world. But, perhaps their legislators will succeed in capping corporate profits with an automatic 10% gross income surcharge to be used to finance fairly the New Green Deal. If they lead by example, other countries will come onboard, or be left behind.
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Henk Crop Mar 25, 2021

From what I read I have to conclude that, in the EU at least, "climate" is a total chaos.
The knowledge to properly address this issue is lacking. Discussions to arrive at consensus among experts has been made almost impossible, because ideological pressure groups and politicians have been too deeply involved.

The time line. The climate experts base their forecasts on RCPS8.5. Which expect a CO2
concentration in 2100 of 950 ppm. Corresponding with a temperature increase of 3,8-6,8 degrees. Between 1900 and 2020 ( 120 years) the concentration of CO2 has increased by 125 ppm (from 290 - 415). Why would the concentration of CO2 suddenly increase fourfold over the next 80 years ?
The huge investments that are being planned need a sound basis. Not the observation that 2020 was the hottest year.

The scope. The climate plan does not only want to reduce the CO2 challenge , but also develop a green, fair and social society for everybody. Climate is used as a pretext for an overhaul of the EU countries.
In addition the Commission wants to finance projects outside the EU, while it has not yet build expertise how.
If you make a project big enough it is the best guarantee that it will never succeed.

The Commission is advertising that it has so much money available. That is the best way to attract gold diggers.
My suggestion is that first money be invested in Research. Then in sound plans.
Also solid project management, and cost schedule control, has to be installed first.
Further these projects have to be placed at a distance from politics.
The goal should be to achieve results.
The Commission should build up unbiased expertise in Brussel and offer expert advise to the countries.
Otherwise it will all get stuck in bureaucracy.
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John Alexander Mar 25, 2021

"We all must come together – not just governments but also businesses, cities, financial institutions, and civil society – to confront the climate challenge. Europe has the tools, the skills, and the knowledge to lead by example. We must translate our climate-policy leadership into market leadership to secure a Global Green Deal."

Thoroughly in agreement. How could any thinking resident of our planet not be? But which will be greater, the force behind this injunction or the force behind consumerism? The command to consume superfluously will continue in deadly earnest, from morning till night, everywhere, fully endorsed by the rightwing mind.
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Michael Public Mar 23, 2021

Tragedy of the commons. We will be lucky to achieve 3 degrees - as virtually no nation is going to spend on behalf of others to solve this problem and there is no mechanism to force others to spend. Read the article above carefully and you will see the author is more trying to flog European technology (which will earn billions for EU companies) rather than bring any kind of new angle to the discussion. This mentality is exactly what is going to drive us towards a lot of trouble fairly soon.
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Emanuel Müller Mar 23, 2021

It's a nice idea to turn the planet into a garden with long term perspectives for its biological varieties. Within its 200 thousand years of existence the homo sapiens has already managed to come up with interesting ideas and products, and as we recently came to understand the planet is fit for homo sapiens use for at least grosso modo another 2 billion years or 10 thousand times the current time of homo sapiens existence.
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Leo Arouet Mar 23, 2021

A GREAT GOAL.
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