news
From Politico
Summary
- MCC Brussels, a think tank funded by the Hungarian government, is challenging the consensus on climate change in Brussels.
- The organization aims to create a generation of climate iconoclasts and influence the debate on climate policy.
- MCC Brussels says it is not coordinating its campaign with the Hungarian government, but its views align with Hungary’s skepticism towards green policies.
- Despite pushback, Europeans still agree on the need to reduce planet-warming emissions.
BRUSSELS — Global warming? A luxury belief. Net-zero policies? Soviet-like rules. Telling children about the uncertain future of a boiling planet? A crime.
Those are just some of the fringe — and factually challenged — views increasingly bouncing around Brussels thanks to a think tank closely linked to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government.
The organization, MCC Brussels, gets funding from the Hungarian government and has one of Orbán’s closest advisors on the board. It made headlines in April when police, citing unmanageable counterprotests, tried to shut down an event set to feature Orbán and anti-EU rabble-rouser Nigel Farage.
Now, MCC has turned its attention to fracturing the EU’s “consensus” on climate change — a push that neatly aligns with Hungary’s own ambitions as it prepares to assume the EU’s rotating presidency in July.
The opening salvo came last Thursday, just meters from the Schuman roundabout at the EU’s core. The MCC event had all the hallmarks of a typical, sedate Brussels gathering — academics ruminating, policy jargon galore. But the panel topics (“the perils of net zero”) and warnings against climate “scientism” indicated the boundary-pushing motives.
“The battle of the ideas has just begun,” said Frank Furedi, MCC Brussels executive director, telling POLITICO he plans to host similar forums as the year progresses.
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