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33 sats \ 1 reply \ @unboiled 12h \ on: Europe's Green Delusions Are Luxury Beliefs (WSJ, Tom Fairless & Max Colchester) econ
In Germany at least, it was the other way around:
Environmentalists have been pitching that for ages while obstructing anything to do with nuclear power. But most politicians were warning about the technology not being ready yet to produce enough energy affordably. Even some members of the Green party were pumping the brakes ever so slightly on public expectations.
At the time, the roadmap was to gradually introduce a mix over a long period (iirc switching off nuclear plants in the late 2020s or early 2030s).
Then Fukushima happened. And Germans did what Germans do when tragedy strikes: They held candle vigils. Vigilists turned up in such great numbers that aunty Merkel, as the political opportunist she was, did a 180 on those plans to gradually mix renewables into the energy mix and brought the whole timeline forward.
And later, when the Green party got back into power, that timeline was shortened even more.
It was somewhere around that Merkel point, that the political narrative switched. On this topic at least, they turned to what any successful Youtuber eventually does: Tell their audience exactly what they want to hear, regardless of what reality looks like.
While in EU politics dictates over engineering and the result is an expensive and dysfunctional mess, in China the politicians are 80% engineers and they understand that the real solutions are based in engineering.
Today China has the cheapest electricity of any major industrialized economy- 50% cheaper than any other major manufacturing nation.
They also lead in energy efficiency technology.
Germany and the EU show how NOT to do it.
China has shown how it can be done- a growing economy with reducing GHG emissions and rapidly increasing productivity and energy efficiency.
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