Friday 13 September 2013

The European Union's huge - and expensive - climate bureacracy should be cut down

European politicians and bureaucrats often boast about the EU's climate policy leadership role in the world. However, as Europe's competitiveness is continuing to deteriorate as a result of these policies, it is not surprising that influential business leaders have began to demand an end to the excessive, costly - and useless - climate policies.

And it is not only the policies which should be rewritten. The huge and expensive EU climate bureaucracy should also be abolished, or at least scaled down drastically.

The Commissioner for Climate Action, the former Danish journalist Connie Hedegaard, has a staff of over 20 bureaucrats, and when one adds the staff of the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG.CLIMA) and other climate related EU units, then we are talking about hundreds of overpaid bureaucrats, wasting European taxpayers' money that could, and should, be used for some meaningful purposes.

A look at the DG.CLIMA's staff page shows that the Directorate-General consists of at least 23 units:

++ CLIMA,
+++ CLIMA.DG (Reporting directly to the Director-General)
++++ CLIMA.DG.SIAC (Shared International AuditCapability ENV/CLIM)
++++ CLIMA.DG.001 (Office of Policy Coordination and liaison with DG ENV)
++++ CLIMA.DG.002 (Communication)
++++ CLIMA.DG.003 (Administrative & Legal support, Liaison SRD)
+++ CLIMA.A (International and Climate Strategy)
++++ CLIMA.A.1 (International and Inter-institutional Relations)
++++ CLIMA.A.2 (Climate Finance and Deforestation)
++++ CLIMA.A.3 (Monitoring, Reporting, Verification)
++++ CLIMA.A.4 (Strategy and Economic Assessment)
+++ CLIMA.B (European and International Carbon Markets)
++++ CLIMA.B1 (Implementation of ETS)
++++ CLIMA.B2 (Benchmarking)
++++ CLIMA.B3 (International Carbon Market, Aviation and Maritime)
+++ CLIMA.C (Mainstreaming Adaptation and Low Carbon Technology)
++++ CLIMA.C.1 (Low Carbon Technologies)
++++ CLIMA.C.2 (Transport and Ozone)
++++ CLIMA.C.3 (Adaptation)
+++ CLIMA.SRD (Shared Resource Directorate, ENC/CLIM)
++++ CLIMA.SRD.1 (Human Resources and Administration)
++++ CLIMA.SRD.2 (Finance)
++++ CLIMA.SRD.3 (Information Technology)

All of these units have large staffs. Just as an example, the CLIMA.A.2 includes at least the following bureaucrats:

 
Mr    Peter WEHRHEIM Head of Unit 

Secretary - to the Head of Unit


Secretary - to the Head of Unit


Policy Officer - International climate finance


Policy Officer - Land use, land use change and forestry issues (REDD+)


Legal Officer


Policy Officer - International relations


Policy Officer - Land use, land use change and forestry issues and follow-up on partnerships with Latin America (esp. Brazil)


Policy Officer - Energy & Environment Policy


Policy Officer - International climate negotiations and cooperation with 3rd countries esp. on innovative clean energy technologies


Policy Officer - International climate negotiations (esp funding issues) and follow-up on partnerships with Africa


Policy Officer - Energy & Environment Policy


Policy Officer - International relations


Policy Officer - EU's climate action

These people are of course only the tip of the iceberg. To keep the EU warmists rolling, there is a huge number of unnamed ushers, drivers, caretakers, cooks and other service staff ....

 
  
  

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