[schnitzelstoat]

Governments still don't take it seriously though.

Here in Spain, we still plan to shut down our nuclear reactors (while many other countries are restarting their nuclear programmes) and at the same time the EU has placed crippling tariffs on Chinese EVs so the transition to electric vehicles remains unaffordable for most people.

When appeasing an ideological voter base or German shareholders remains more important than lowering emissions, we don't have much hope of making further progress.

[pjc50]

> the EU has placed crippling tariffs on Chinese EVs

That was my "OK, so you're completely unserious about this" moment. Governments have been subsidizing EVs, now they're cheap enough to not require subsidy, and you're cutting them off to appease the VW liars?

[schnuri]

VW is against import tariffs on Chinese cars as they fear repercussions (and China is an important export market to them). There are other car manufacturers in the EU which depend much more on domestic sales.

[vasco]

The climate emergency is just a way to make you pay more taxes and accept a worse life for you and your children than what your parents had. It shames you into accepting we are using up too much, but a select few can still eat meat and fly private jets since they can pay for all the extra taxes, meanwhile you should accept your life of sacrifice for the planet.

If we actually are in trouble the people in power can easily geo-engineer cooling the whole planet. Countries have done cloud seeding for decades, we can cool the planet if we want.

[schnuri]

I think it’s important to point out that German car manufacturers and the German government opposed import tariffs on Chinese cars.

[schnitzelstoat]

Fair enough, but in the end we still got the tariffs.

[vasco]

To think things get done in the EU without Germany's approval is a bit past naivety. Germany publicly voted no to try and delay a Chinese reprisal too fast in counter tariffs, but that's just for optics, otherwise they wouldn't have been approved.

It's incredible how one can see what happens in practice but believe what people say rather than what people do.

[schnuri]

That’s just a conspiracy theory. You overestimate Germanys power in the EU by far, it is not 2009 anymore.

Also, German car manufacturers will not profit from these tariffs.

[vasco]

The biggest economy in the block votes on tariffs for foreign competitors in their largest exporting industry and surprise surprise, adding tariffs is approved, and somehow your conclusion is that they are unhappy about it.