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European Union coal subsidies extendedOn July 25, the very same week that world leaders signed up to a modified Kyoto protocol in Bonn, and lambasted the United States for declining to do the same, the European Union had an opportunity to do something tangible about global warming. For years EU governments have been subsidising coal, the filthiest and most carbon-intensive fuel, for electricity generation. The sums involved are huge. From 1995 to 1998, Germany, France and Spain alone provided over $23 billion of state support for coal production. Britain under the Conservatives and to start with New Labour has sinned less in this respect, although last year the Blair government doled out $200 million to RJB mining the successor to the former British Coal. The effect has been predictable. Older polluting coal-fired power stations have remained in action, and the introduction of clean gas and combined-cycle ones has been delayed. It is difficult to calculate exactly how much extra CO2 has been released into the atmosphere as a result of these subsidies. It certainly will have dwarfed any benefits from the other so called "renewables", solar, wind and wave power, that get all the publicity, but account for less than two percent of Europe's energy production. Recognising this the EU agreed some time ago to phase out all such subsidies by 2002. So what did the saviours of the planet do on July 25? You've guessed. They decided to delay the phase out for another ten years! The iGreen lesson is clear. Don't listen to what politicians say on the environment. Look at what they do. The Euro-pols who criticise Bush for rejecting Kyoto are secretly delighted. They've no intention of doing anything they would not have done anyway to slow global warming, but Bush gives them the cover they need to carry on posing as environmentalists a little longer. The hypocrites! Jim Thornton
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