From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

The five stages of Europe’s climate grief: The bargaining stage.

‘We cannot kill our industry due to climate change,’ Manfred Weber says

By Vincenzo Genovese
Published on 01/07/2026 – 9:35 GMT+2

European People’s Party President Manfred Weber has told Euronews that EU climate policies must be “reasonable from a business perspective” and has criticised Spain’s large-scale plan to regularise undocumented migrants.

The European Union cannot “kill its industry due to climate change,” Manfred Weber, president of the European People’s Party, told Euronews’ flagship programme Europe Today, as a brutal heatwave sweeping across Europe claimed around 1,300 lives and reignited the debate over the bloc’s climate policies.

Weber chairs the European People’s Party, the largest political force in Europe, which has in recent years rolled back parts of the Green Deal — the package of policies designed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the bloc by 2050 — in a bid to prioritise industrial competitiveness.

“What we are asking for is to be reasonable in the business aspect. So we need a common understanding to bring things in balance,” he said, underlining his party’s role in shaping the Green Deal during the previous legislature.

While Weber argued that climate policy must strike a balance with economic realities, he applied the same reasoning to personal energy use. For him, using air conditioning is a necessity, even though, when powered by fossil fuels, it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and has become a flashpoint in the debate over the EU’s climate transition.

…Read more: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/01/we-cannot-kill-our-industry-due-to-climate-change-manfred-weber-says

While the European People’s Party describes itself as center right, they are in no sense comparable to the right wing of US politics, in my opinion at best they are like establishment Democrats.

In Germany Manfred Weber is also a member of the Christian Social Union. Politicians in Europe are frequently members of a national party and a separate pan-European party. In 2025 the Christian Social Union entered a coalition with left wing parties to prevent the Trump aligned Alternative for Germany from gaining any political power.

European People’s Party are very much cheerleaders of the climate nightmare which is threatening to destroy what is left of Europe’s economy. As a dominant force in European politics they share a lot of responsibility for Europe’s current problems.

So what is driving this concern about the plight of industry? One factor might be looming job losses at Volkswagen.

Volkswagen plans to slash 100,000 jobs, shut factories: report

Richard Wood
Updated June 28, 2026 – 1.20pm. First published at 11.48am

German car giant Volkswagen is considering cutting 100,000 jobs as part of a massive restructure that would be the biggest in the vehicle industry.

The company is weighing up closing four factories, with plans for the overhaul to be discussed by Volkswagen’s supervisory board on July 9, according to a report by Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter.

…Read more: https://www.nine.com.au/world-news/volkswagen-plans-to-slash-100-000-jobs-shut-factories-report-20260628-p60ao0.html

To his credit Manfred Weber has called for climate policy moderation before. But I still see this as a bargaining phase – an attempt to discover a set of policies which allows Europe to embrace their green revolution AND have economic growth.

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I guess bargaining is progress, the anger phase – lashing out at the USA and other perceived climate villains – was getting tedious.

Let’s hope for Europe’s sake they skip quickly through the bargaining and depression phases, and come quickly to acceptance they have to ditch their climate pretensions if they want to preserve any of their remaining industry.