EU & Brexit Bunker

[First Aspect]

We can still make ICE and electric cars to sell to the EU regardless of whether we harmonise on this point. And the EU can still sell us ICE and/or electric cars depending on our sovereign decision.

Unless you want a land rover or Aston Martin, the options are limited. I was more thinking that we will need to be buying electric cars under a different supply/demand regime than we had hoped. More demand due to UK legislation, less supply due to EU regulation. It's going to keep prices high and perpetuate the offset between EV and ICE costs for longer. I could be wrong.

 

[PurplePenguin]

We need more than "heading in the right direction" Time is of the essence ie we have less than very limited time to address out trashing of the planet and just facing the right direction won't solve anything.

The slower we more the worse the climate damage and the higher the cost (flooding, extreme weather, immigration from areas becoming uninhabitable, health impacts eg as diseases like dengue hit the UK, etc.)

We need ambitious targets. A saying I seem to remember "Aim high. You might miss your target but you won't shoot your foot off".

The EU tends to gloss over the big environmental issues and focus on things like USB-C cables. See also fishing.

 

[Stevo 666]

Unless you want a land rover or Aston Martin, the options are limited. I was more thinking that we will need to be buying electric cars under a different supply/demand regime than we had hoped. More demand due to UK legislation, less supply due to EU regulation. It's going to keep prices high and perpetuate the offset between EV and ICE costs for longer. I could be wrong.

Like I said, we can buy ICE cars from the EU and have plenty of choice. The UK/EU tariff free trade agreement also helps in this respect.

I agree, less regulation will help keep prices down.

 

[Stevo 666]

We need more than "heading in the right direction" Time is of the essence ie we have less than very limited time to address out trashing of the planet and just facing the right direction won't solve anything.

The slower we more the worse the climate damage and the higher the cost (flooding, extreme weather, immigration from areas becoming uninhabitable, health impacts eg as diseases like dengue hit the UK, etc.)

We need ambitious targets. A saying I seem to remember "Aim high. You might miss your target but you won't shoot your foot off".

Technology is the best way to solve this, and there have already been major advances in this area, but governments being governments think that regulation is the only answer. The automotive market is providing an appropriate answer to that if you look at the lack of demand for EVs. There is probably also the realisation in Europe that the Chinese ability to out-compete in the EV car market means that cutting off the ICE market prematurely will have a major negative impact on a major industrial sector in EU.

But anyway, you think that the EU has got it wrong?

 

[bobzmyunkle]

Technology is the best way to solve this

The market?
Alternatively, I used to have regular discussions with a Marxist chap who reckoned ecology was a load of cr*p. If we got socialism it didn't matter if the world was concreted over.

Needless to say I think there's an element of rational choice, a role for government and a need to take climate action a bit more seriously.

 

[Psamathe]

Technology is the best way to solve this, and there have already been major advances in this area, but governments being governments think that regulation is the only answer. The automotive market is providing an appropriate answer to that if you look at the lack of demand for EVs. There is probably also the realisation in Europe that the Chinese ability to out-compete in the EV car market means that cutting off the ICE market prematurely will have a major negative impact on a major industrial sector in EU.

But anyway, you think that the EU has got it wrong?

We have already caused massive damage to our climate. We have the technology we need to stop making things worse (even to improve thnings but that seems off any political agenda).

To wait around for new technology whilst continuing to worsen an already bad situation is just daft.

It's a case of hidden costs vs corporate profits. Climate damage costs us massively eg crop yields, property damage, immigration, health impacts. At the moment corporations want business as usual so they can keep their profits as we will all suffer and pay for the damage. As with eg Ultra-processed foods, self-regulation doesn't work when highest profits are the driving motive.

Hence EU has got it wrong. Time for politicians (incl. in UK) to act in the interests of the real human beings rather than corporations.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

Time for politicians (incl. in UK) to act in the interests of the real human beings rather than corporations.

And there's the rub, as they say.