They just dont have the energy...
....to stand by their promises.
It seems the government is yet again trying to perform sleight of hand and creative accounting in an attempt to wriggle out of promises made.
This time its about the targets that all EU countries agreed to meet for renewable energy usage by 2020. But they seem to have alot of energy to waste in scheduling meetings to come up with proposals of how to find options of creating 'statistical interpretations of the target' to make it easier to achieve. I.e. Lie. By trying to include things such as nuclear power and investment in African solar farms. In other words, the usual trick of 'double counting' existing efforts or claiming to be meeting targets by using external measures in place outside of the UK.
Its one thing to make a pledge and present it to the voting populice in order to gain their confidence that the government is listening to their point of view and actively tackling these issues - but seems that its quite another to remember that you actually have to follow it through.
Privately there are fears that we will not acheive the target, and the most we can hope for is 9% - a long way from the 20%. And yet again, it seems the driving factor in not putting the effort in to make these changes is, you guest it, fear of cost.
Bollocks to that. For starters, the estimated costs they are fearful of are actually about a third of what the initial recommendations were that all of these countries should spend a year combating climate change.
Its about time the real costs were worried about, rather than the cosy complicity that they fear losing with all of the corporations whom they are worried of offending and losing financing from.
The real costs of sustaining our future energy resources, usage and climate far outweigh a few slimy backhanders and sitting in the pockets of damaging multi-nationals.
And you would think an even bigger cost to the government would be on maintaining the trust of its voters and the public at large. Gone are the days when we would just sit back and accept any cover up, spin or obfuscation and just treat it without questions. Most of us will just not stand for that any longer, and we also have the means to challenge it.
So its time they woke up and delivered.
