Defending The European Union

We have the French and German ambassadors telling us all how much we need the European Union in The Guardian today:

The single market and European cooperation enable European governments to deliver better outcomes; and as, for instance, the EU role on climate change proves, they give us sufficient critical mass to be an effective global player.

Whether you can influence matters globally is somewhat less important than how you influence matters. There's no point in having such worldwide power if your actions are in fact malevolent.

That is, to put it mildly, extremely alarming. That rise in N2O emissions (the RS is as always very gentle in its phrasing) means not that biofuels will reduce emissions less than previously thought, but that they will increase them, to greater than the levels using fossil fuels originally.

All of which leaves us in a rather uncomfortable position really. Well meaning attempts to deal with a perceived problem by means of international politics and bureacracies has actually lead to a worse outcome than if nothing had been done. Said politicians and bureaucrats now having to admit that they hadn't actually thought through the issue before they made their pronouncements. 

Oh well, as we know, diplomats are those sent abroad to lie for their country.