EDITORIAL ⟩ Against green madness

What are you messing with those plants for? Come, let’s better go do a green turn! The green revolution, that green madness! – What does not become green, must be painted green! Illustration: Urmas Nemvalts

• The climate law is full of peculiar proposals.
• The ministry must not become a bureaucracy in itself.
• We must not lose our common sense with the green turn.

The green turn must not turn into green madness, which has no connection with reality and the wishes of the people.

The green turn must not turn into green madness, which has no connection with reality and the wishes of the people.

Postimees writes how the climate law being prepared by the Ministry of Climate is full of some peculiar proposals, be it, for example, a plan to limit the import of used cars, an infrastructure tax or a ban on renting out apartments with only a low level of renovation. Although the climate law is not yet strongly in the spotlight, an analysis by Postimees shows that it has little to do with a real market economy and, from there, capitalism.

It is politically risky not only for the Reform Party, which, as we know, was created namely in 1994 to promote a liberal market economy and to avoid any kind of regulation. All this seems to have come full circle now, considering that Kristen Michal, a member of the Reform Party, is in charge of the Ministry of Climate. Of course, there are political parties in Estonia who believe that the world must be governed by all kinds of regulations and that market economy freedoms are just an illusion.

However, forcing the green revolution with proposals increasingly removed from reality is also risky for Estonia's relationship with the European Union. As we know, people associate the green turn namely with the European Union and if the green policy initiated there is fueled further here, people will no longer want to belong to the European Union. And yet, this spring marks 20 years since Estonia joined the European Union, and during this time we have benefited enormously from European Union membership. Proposals that are disconnected from reality also lead to separation from the European Union.

The Ministry of Climate must not become a bureaucracy in itself, where officials propose and draft laws just to justify their existence.

The Ministry of Climate must not become a bureaucracy in itself, where officials propose and draft laws just to justify their existence. It is clear that a modern state must have a functioning bureaucracy apparatus, but it must serve the interests of the people, not itself. The maintenance of ministries is paid for by the taxpayer.

Ex-prime minister Juhan Parts said in a recent interview with Maaleht (ML, March 17) that “the protection of clean water and air turned very quickly into global world salvation”. Here's the catch: the green turn must not turn into some kind of messianic ideology that we saw in the 20th century in the form of Communism or Nazism. People who grew up in the Soviet era still vividly remember the times when propaganda trumpeted about the decisions of yet another party congress, which had nothing to do with real life.

At the same time, as Tallinn University psychology lecturer Avo-Rein Tereping points out in Postimees, the Estonian state is not dealing with demographic issues with sufficient seriousness. And yet, this is just as long-term a problem as climate change.

We must not lose our common sense with the green turn. All people of Estonia most likely agree that clean nature must be preserved. It is also clear that energy sources change over time. However, changes must not turn into preposterous laws and taxes that no one understands.