Sunday Times article: The whole of Europe is delusionally living beyond its means

MrEarl said:
Very true...

The simple fact of the matter is that our county is on track to blow the entire Apple Money, plus the money put away into the ISIF, on one simple thing - fines (for not hitting our 2030 targets).
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Fines from whom exactly?

There is no binding commitment anywhere for such nonsense.
 
In days of old, journalists had virtually no control over their pieces headline.

I assume its pretty much the same now?

I sometimes find myself being hooked by a headline and giving up half way through the article when it shows little or no relevance to the title.
 
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No wonder the RTE article reads so woolly. The assertions in the original source document (page 31) produced by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, are dreadfully weak. I've bolded the weak bits.

The climate transition raises challenges, but doing nothing has substantial costs. If Ireland fails to reduce its emissions, as it currently looks set to by a wide margin, it may have to transfer large amounts of money to neighbouring countries. This would be in the form of the government being required to purchase statistical transfers or credits — basically overperformances in other countries. A recent report by T&E(2024) suggests Ireland’s costs could be between €1.7and €9.6 billion by 2030. However, these estimates assume Ireland follows through on measures that it looks increasingly unlikely to implement. If these measures were not implemented, then the State would be further from its climate objectives and would face much higher compliance costs, potentially as high as €20 billion.

This estimate adjusts for additional measures not yet adopted and takes on board non-compliance costs associated with the full set of legislative requirements.
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charlie007 said:
In days of old, journalists had virtually no control over their pieces headline.

I assume its pretty much the same now?
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This. Headlines are added by subeditors after the journalist has filed the copy.

Subeditors always worked under pressure of time but, these days, in the world of instant online publishing, the pressure is intense to post a story before a competitor does. Plus, most media organisations have greatly reduced revenues, so they employ fewer staff — including fewer subeditors. So subeditors regularly write headlines for stories that they haven't had time to read all they way through, much less understand.

(And that's before we think about the parallel set of pressures that incentivise a sensational, clickbaity headline.)
 
T McGibney said:
All I see there is a headline. You'll have to be a lot more specific than that, especially as the Fiscal Council report doesn't make any mention of binding EU targets backed by any system of fines.
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Perhaps scroll down and read a little more. Current targets are set out here. Not so much fines as credits will have to be purchased if targets are missed, supply / demand for credits will influence cost which is why projections are used.
 
Leo said:
Perhaps scroll down and read a little more. Current targets are set out here. Not so much fines as credits will have to be purchased if targets are missed, supply / demand for credits will influence cost which is why projections are used.
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Thanks, that explains all the if's but's and maybe's in the IFAC report.
 
bill_cash said:
Climate change reporting is full of hysterical media inflated sensationalism.
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And fact and data and scientific conclusions and projections based on that date and those conclusions.
bill_cash said:
The climate will change to some degree,
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We all agree on that, well most of us anyway. There are still some people who are wilfully ignoring the facts and the data.
bill_cash said:
we will adapt and governments will fudge the fines or commit electoral suicide if they pay them
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We will indeed adapt. It is the level of adaption needed and the economic and political consequences of that adaptation, and the economic and human devastation, that are of concern.
 
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