Climate change: With "Fit for 55" Europe is starting its new climate offensive

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Dark clouds are gathering:

Experts agree that climate change should be stopped

Photo: Jan Eifert / imago images / Jan Eifert

This Wednesday, the movement for more climate protection in Europe will open a new chapter: EU Vice Commission President

Frans Timmermans

(60) will present his plans for the European Union (EU) 's climate protection program "Fit for 55".

The details are not yet known.

But it already seems clear that countries, companies and private households will once again face major changes and requirements to reduce harmful greenhouse gases - provided that everyone can agree on them.

Because this is such an extensive and complex project, the appearance of Timmermans on Wednesday should only be the starting signal for a Europe-wide negotiation marathon that can drag on for years.

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"Fit for 55":

EU Vice-

Commission President

Frans Timmermans will

present his climate plans on Wednesday

Photo: POOL / REUTERS

"Fit for 55" - the name refers to the intended tightening of the EU's emissions target: by 2030, at least 55 percent of CO2 emissions are to be saved compared to 1990 levels.

It is a step on the way to climate neutrality of the economy by 2050. Up to now, savings of 40 percent were planned by 2030.

The project is by no means just about an energy transition that makes electricity a little more expensive.

It is also about a turnaround in traffic on land, at sea, in the air - ultimately to the almost complete abandonment of oil, coal or gas.

And particularly explosive for Germany: It is also about an industrial turnaround towards green technologies.

Many trillions of euros are at stake.

The status quo - this is how the EU has been fighting climate change so far

In essence, the EU has so far advanced climate protection in two ways. Above all, there is

emissions trading

: power plants and industrial companies have to acquire rights to CO2 emissions. The number of these certificates is reduced annually. Those who produce in a climate-friendly way can sell excess pollution rights on the stock exchange to those who need additional ones. With this emissions trading, the EU controls around 40 percent of CO2 emissions in the EU.

The

EU has set targets

for the greenhouse gases that are

emitted

outside of this emissions trading

, for example in road traffic or from residential and commercial buildings. How and, above all, with which instruments these are achieved has so far been largely left to the Member States. Not only Germany is lagging behind.

This was one reason why the black-red coalition in Berlin passed the new climate protection law with detailed specifications a few weeks ago. The background to this was also a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court a few months earlier, according to which the old Climate Protection Act had to be improved. With the new law, the federal government is already going further than the EU: Germany should become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045 instead of 2050. The emissions target by 2030 will also be increased. By then, Germany should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65 percent compared to 1990 levels. The old climate law provided for a minus of at least 55 percent - exactly the value on which the plans that Timmermans want to present on Wednesday are based.

One measure that is intended to help achieve the goals in this country is the CO2 price on fuel, heating oil or gas, which has been paid since the beginning of the year.

The price started at 25 euros per tonne of CO2 and is expected to rise to 55 euros by 2022.

This puts a strain on drivers, tenants and other consumers.

The plans - first outlines of what the EU will ask for

When Vice Commissioner Timmermans presents his plans on Wednesday in Brussels, he will initiate new EU guidelines with twelve individual laws. It is interfering with the most diverse areas of life and the economy across the EU. Those who refuel in Slovenia will feel it just as much as the steel company in Duisburg. If you want to heat your house in Finland, you will calculate just like the car manufacturer in Wolfsburg or the shipping company in Rotterdam. The "Fit for 55" project has "a completely different character than previous climate packages," says

Andreas Graf

from the Agora think tank in Brussels.

"Because you are now also talking about things like prohibitions that were otherwise taboo."

And the Federation of German Industries (BDI) is certain: "We have to change everything that we have done nicely here in the last 150 years - from business to mobility to living."

"We have to change everything that we have done nicely here in the last 150 years"

Federal Association of German Industry

The core of Timmermans' proposals is likely to be a

Europe-wide CO2 price

, similar to the one that has been in place in Germany since the beginning of the year. While Germany has a fixed price premium - currently around eight cents for a liter of fuel - the EU is considering a trading system with emissions rights, comparable to the emissions trading that already exists for industry and power plants.

That means: There will be a certain number of CO2 certificates, which will then be reduced every year.

This would make fossil fuels more expensive from Portugal to Poland.

In order to prevent an outcry like the yellow vests movement in France, the states should use the income mainly to relieve the poor.

As the news agency Reuters reports, the EU Commission wants to

propose

a

social

fund

for this purpose

, with which low-income households are to be given a helping hand in the planned introduction of a CO2 surcharge for gasoline and heating oil.

20 percent of the income from the new levy should therefore flow into this fund.

In addition, measures are emerging that affect various sectors of the economy:

Auto industry - number of emission-free vehicles to increase

The EU wants at least 30 million emission-free cars to be on the road by 2030.

That would mean that by then about every tenth car will have to be powered by an electric motor.

There are currently around three million electric cars in Europe for a total of more than 300 million vehicles.

Various measures will be required to achieve the goal. On the one hand, with its plans for "Fit for 55", the EU is likely to once again introduce

stricter CO2 limits

for new vehicles. The current target of reducing average CO2 emissions from new vehicle fleets in the EU from currently 95 grams / kilometer by 37.5 percent by 2030 will be tightened. According to an earlier announcement, it should be 50 percent. According to media reports, the commission recently discussed 60 percent, and from 2035 it could even be 100 percent - then only emission-free cars would be allowed.

In addition, the

lack of charging options

has so far been an obstacle for many consumers who

are

flirting

with the purchase of an electric car.

After a long period of hesitation, the auto industry started building the network, and energy and oil companies are also participating.

State funding is already flowing into Germany.

But the industry is calling for more political support.

As part of its "Fit for 55" package, the EU is also planning to regulate the charging infrastructure.

Thirdly, the above-mentioned

CO2 price

and the associated emissions trading system should

also apply to fuels

.

Steel industry, chemical industry and others - discussion about border tax

In German industry, the discussion about the emissions trading system introduced in 2005 is viewed with concern, because the EU is planning changes there too.

The introduction of a

CO2 border tax is planned

, through which the EU wants to prevent corporations from relocating particularly climate-damaging productions to countries where less strict rules apply.

The background: In the existing system, the EU has been reducing pollution rights over the years.

It is now planned that, on the one hand, the number of surplus rights that have not yet been granted will decrease significantly with one cut.

On the other hand, the annual reduction of all available rights is to be accelerated.

The price level in emissions trading will rise as a result.

This worries the steel cookers, for example, some of whom are already switching to "green" steel, which is produced with hydrogen instead of electricity from coal.

Because rising costs could drive companies to relocate their production to other regions of the world that are less specific about climate protection.

The catchphrase for this is "carbon leakage".

In order to put a stop to this hustle and bustle, the EU Commission is relying on the said CO2 limit levy.

This should be paid, for example, by steel importers for every tonne of CO2 that is generated during its production.

Border tax instead of free certificates for the steel industry - there is already some criticism of this idea. Federal Minister of Economics

Peter Altmaier

(63), for example, demanded that the steel industry will still need free certificates in the future, otherwise there is a risk of job cuts. The steel trade association also agrees.

The implementation of the border tax is "very complex", said

Holger Lösch

, deputy chief executive of the BDI.

"How can the authorities check, for example, whether imported steel has been produced with green electricity and how high the CO2 content is in the product?"

Such concerns make "Fit for 55" even more difficult.

In addition to the resistance within Europe against the legislative package, states such as the USA and China have also protested against the border tax.

Aviation - Finding ways to reduce emissions

Before the Corona crisis, air traffic caused 3.7 percent of CO2 emissions, and short flights in particular have already become a red rag for climate protectors - and a topic in the upcoming federal election campaign. The overriding goal in this industry is therefore: down with emissions. The following tightening for aviation could be included in the "Fit for 55" drafts:

Sustainable aviation fuel

or biokerosene - SAF for short - could replace fossil kerosene. However, according to experts, it costs three times as much. No wonder then that so far only 0.05 percent of the aviation fuel in the EU is bio-kerosene. The EU wants to change that: It is planning an SAF admixture quota. An initial proposal, according to which airlines fill up with 2 percent sustainable fuel by 2027, 5 percent in 2030 and more than 60 percent by 2050, was rejected. The entry rate could be higher.

Next point: A taxation of the climate-damaging, previously tax-free fossil aviation fuel should reduce the large price gap to the much more expensive sustainable kerosene. The EU wants

to

propose

a gradually increasing

minimum tax rate on kerosene

from 2023

, which has already met with criticism from the German aviation industry.

And

CO2 emissions trading also plays

a role

in aviation

. The industry has been participating in the trading system in the EU since 2012. Almost 6000 international airlines from 150 countries are obliged to do so. Airlines receive a certain amount of the certificates free of charge, so that the almost 500 companies managed in Germany did not have to pay anything for around 38 percent of their emissions in 2018. In the future, the levers could now be tightened by reducing the available certificates more quickly or reducing the free ones.

There is also hope in the development of

emission-free aircraft

.

Manufacturers should bring such models to market by 2035.

The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus has announced an emission-free commercial aircraft within this timeframe.

But these are smaller machines for regional flights and short-haul flights, while longer flights will still be dependent on fuel in 2050.

cr with material from Reuters