Regular readers know I spend a fair amount of time tracking the gap between what the climate-policy elite preach and what they practice. Davos jet-setters, green-energy summiteers flying private, net-zero bureaucrats who somehow never seem to personally sacrifice anything yet harangue us all on our carbon footprint.
Well, the European Commission just handed me a new entry into the Climate Hypocrisy Hall of Fame, and this one practically writes itself.
As I noted in a previous post, a dreaded “heat dome” baked the continent last week with temperatures in Belgium threatening to crack 40°C.
The European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels was forced to shut down its air conditioning system. That’s the 13-story nerve center of the most ambitious regulatory machine on Earth, the same institution that has spent years lecturing the rest of the world about energy austerity, carbon footprints, and the urgent need to consume less.
But it turns out carbon dioxide only impacts the lower 7 floors of that building; the upper floors, where top bureaucrats work, are apparently always “Net Zero” no matter the temperatures.
Staff working at the Berlaymont building received a text at midday, reading: “BERL — URGENT — Due to extreme weather conditions, forced shut down of air cooling system from floor 1 to 7 for the rest of the day.”The 13-story building is home to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, her 26 commissioners and about 3,000 staff. Von der Leyen works on the 13th floor, and most of her commissioners’ offices are housed on floors eight or above.
The staff was given guidance on “traditional” means of keeping cool, which caused a great deal of consternation and analogies to the medieval style of governance.
…[T]he European Commission sent out recommendations to employees on how to behave during the heatwave, specifically advising them to avoid being outdoors during peak hours, drink more water, and, if possible, start their workday earlier. However, these recommendations sparked discontent among some staff members, especially in buildings where cooling systems are unreliable or nonexistent.One employee, speaking to the media, sharply described the situation as “it’s like feudalism,” referring to the uneven working conditions on different floors. Other employees also stated that the temperature in the offices remains uncomfortable even when the air conditioning is running. According to another employee, on some floors, the temperature inside the rooms reached nearly 26 degrees, which significantly hindered work.
The accusation of feudalism certainly fits. The feudal system was, at its core, a tiered arrangement in which the lords at the top of the castle enjoyed warmth, comfort, and resources, while the peasants below endured whatever conditions the weather or their “superiors” imposed upon them.
Seven centuries later, the Berlaymont building appears to have rediscovered the model, just with better architecture and a stronger HR department.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen might as well have said: “Let them eat ice.”
Meanwhile, the European Parliament down the street had already suffered power blackouts earlier in the week when its cooling systems were cranked up to maximum and overloaded the grid. The event certainly is a fitting metaphor for a continent whose green energy policies have left its electrical infrastructure chronically underprepared for the very “climate extremes” it claims to be fighting.
However, there may be hope for Europe. According to Bjorn Lomborg (President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center known for his cost–benefit-focused critiques of mainstream climate policy and environmentalism), a new report on European attitudes toward climate shows they are shifting back to sanity.
The EU has been gripped by a decade-long climate panicBut it is now finally fading, leaving an opportunity to finally focus on sensible, affordable climate policies.
In the end, the Berlaymont meltdown is less about a broken cooling system and more about a broken governing philosophy that rations discomfort downward while insulating those at the top.
When the people writing Europe’s energy rules cannot keep their own building functional during a routine summer heat wave, it raises serious questions about the real-world viability of their grand climate schemes.
I suspect the next time Lomborg checks the numbers, even more climate sanity will be baked into Europeans — especially those who came to the U.S. for the World Cup.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY