[basisword]

>> Until very recently the EU stated that being carbon neutral by 2050 was of overriding importance[1].

I'm ok with that. Not every continent/country/economic bloc has to have the same goals. Competing with the US or China in the 'AI race' is a race you're probably going to lose anyway. And it's going to make fuck all difference to the vast majority of the population anyway. Healthcare, education, life/work balance. All much more important and don't require competing in the 'AI race'. The EU has made some missteps with its tech regs but it's worth it to be able to download or delete my data from any service and that's something Americans are also benefiting from as most companies didn't bother geo-locking it.

You could argue economic success has a knock on effect on everything else in a country and it does to some extent. But, while many European countries have their problems socially and politically over the last decade none of them have come anywhere close to the train wreck that is US.

[logifail]

> Not every continent/country/economic bloc has to have the same goals.

One potential outcome of that would appear to be a mostly deindustrialised Europe with low carbon emissions and no growth, and the rest of the world politely trying not to laugh?

> And it's going to make fuck all difference to the vast majority of the population anyway

https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-upda...

"In 2024, the eight highest emitting economies - China, USA, India, EU, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil and Japan - collectively contributed to 66.2% of global GHG emissions. Only the European Union and Japan decreased their emissions compared to the previous year (-1.8% and -2.8% respectively), while all others either kept them rather stable (China: +0.8%; USA: +0.4%; Brazil +0.2%) or increased them (India: +3.9%; Russia: +2.4%, Indonesia: +5% - the highest relative increase).

In absolute terms, India has the largest increase with 164.8 Mt CO2eq more emissions released in 2024 compared to 2023."

[naIak]

>Healthcare, education, life/work balance. All much more important and don't require competing in the 'AI race'.

Neither of which will improve by us being "carbon neutral".

[fyrn_]

Europe not being dependent on foreign oil is a worthy goal as well, it's not the US whcih could supply it's oil use domestically.

A lot of green infrastructure is also expensive upfront, but cheaper over the full lifespan. It's the kind of investment I like to see goverment making.

[logifail]

> Europe not being dependent on foreign oil is a worthy goal as well

Forget oil, Europe is going to be dependent on foreign everything.

[basisword]

I think taking care of the environment rather than burning through resources needlessly will improve life for us. But if you're looking for a more specific example, moving to renewable energy and getting off Russian gas and oil would be beneficial in many ways for Europe and at a most basic level would hopefully eventually lead to lower and more predictable energy prices for consumers.