International

Climate accord, climate law, climate deniers, rising energy bills. Who can make sense of it all? And why does the SP emphasise the importance of climate justice? Below, we outline our position.

• The present Dutch climate accord is designed to suit Shell. It means that everyone except major polluters such as Shell will have to pay up. That's hardly surprising, because the negotiations were headed by the former leader of the right-wing, neoliberal VVD, Ed Nijpels and dominated by representatives of those major polluters, who used their power to block a just agreement.
• Then there's the climate deniers, who are friends of Shell. They keep the heat off the big polluters by acting as if there's no problem with the climate and the environment. These climate deniers include the hard right politicians Thierry Baudet en Geert Wilders.
• What we want is climate justice. We want to leave a clean earth to our children. But we don't want ordinary households to have to pay for this with higher energy bills. We want to see the bill sent where it belongs, to major polluters such as Shell, and their shareholders.
• Finally there's the climate law, which sets goals designed to combat the polluting of our earth. Yet the climate law is of little value while big polluters such as Shell can in practice do whatever they like. That's why it's not only the SP, but the environmental movement and the major trade union federation the FNV which support the climate law, but reject Nijpels' and Shell's climate accord.

See also: Climate policy must reward households