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Higher EU climate target: How can the new savings be achieved?

2021-02-15T17:46:12.204Z


The EU has set ambitious targets for CO2 savings. But who should do that? It is not just the automotive industry that is resisting - many member states too.


Icon: enlarge

More renewable energies, fewer fossil fuels: the EU wants to become climate neutral by 2050.

Photo: Andriy Onufriyenko / Getty Images

Setting goals is easy, but meeting them is difficult.

Everyone knows that who has pushed aside the good resolutions for the new year in February.

The European Union also has a commendable resolution for 2021: it wants to pass the EU climate law in spring.

But even before all those involved agree to the climate policy heart of the "Green Deal", there is already a dispute in Brussels.

It's about nothing less than who in the Union has to shoulder how much climate protection by 2030.

In the corona crisis in particular, member states and economic sectors are trying to pass the "buck" on each other.

Ursula von der Leyen declared the “Green Deal” a European priority around a year ago.

By 2050, emissions are expected to drop to zero net.

Then no more CO₂ may escape into the atmosphere than is saved elsewhere.

The clock is ticking - after all, the Union blows around 3.7 billion tons of CO₂ into the air every year - just under ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Ambitious interim targets are necessary for this - and these must be distributed fairly across all 27 Member States.

In December, the heads of state and government agreed to increase the 2030 climate target from minus 40 to "at least" 55 percent compared to 1990 CO2 emissions.

The 15 percentage points additional CO2 savings are a lot.

According to the new target, around one billion tons of greenhouse gases must be permanently saved over the next ten years.

Eastern European countries had already complained about the new climate protection policy from Brussels.

Business associations such as the BDI reacted wait-and-see: There are still many questions unanswered.

And the automobile manufacturers are also staring at Brussels.

Effort sharing and emissions trading: everything has to be new

So who has to react first?

Who will save the most?

To clarify this, the Commission is currently putting together the “Fit for 55” legislative package - an all-round package that affects all areas: for example, EU emissions trading, European CO2 regulation for vehicles, the directive for renewable energies, energy taxation and burden sharing be regulated anew between the countries.

Customs duties for CO2-intensive products are also on the agenda for the first time.

A mammoth task from the experts say that the consequences of this could affect Germany much more far than the federal government's climate package.

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So far there have been two systems in the EU for reducing CO2: The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has existed since 2005, but only includes industry and energy producers, such as coal-fired power plants and chemical plants.

The companies receive CO2 certificates, some of them free of charge.

If their CO2 emissions exceed the allocated credits, they have to buy in on the market.

The permitted amount of emissions is falling steadily.

The higher the CO2 price of the certificates, the greater the incentive to rely on CO2-saving technologies.

For all other areas, the EU sets a climate target for each country - what is known as “effort sharing”.

This applies to transport, agriculture and buildings.

Each government can then decide for itself which incentives or bans to set in order to achieve these goals - for example, bonuses for electric cars or a meat tax.

However, the EU states now have to decide between the systems: Either an increase in the targets at national level for cars, animal husbandry and heating or an expansion of emissions trading across Europe to all areas - i.e. a uniform CO2 price for everything and everyone.

In emissions trading, for example, fuel producers and animal owners would also have to buy the CO2 credits.

The advantage: Brussels would not have to set any new targets for the member states and there would also be no sanctions because the savings would be regulated via the European CO2 price.

Fear of billions in sanctions

"Germany is campaigning for an expansion of emissions trading at the EU level because then there is a risk of fewer fines for failure to achieve targets in effort sharing," says Oliver Geden, climate expert at the Science and Politics Foundation.

"Without Covid-19, it would have become very expensive for Germany in the billing period up to 2020," said Geden.

However, a country does not pay the sanctions for failed climate targets to the EU Commission.

"To do this, the countries have to buy CO2 credits from countries that have exceeded their target," says Oliver Geden.

"The reproach of the more affluent states against the Eastern Europeans is therefore that they want to have low targets, which they can exceed with little effort in order to then sell emission rights to the states of Northwest Europe."

For example Poland.

So far, the country has had to do relatively little to protect the climate.

The country only gets problems if the CO2 price rises, because then the CO2-intensive coal-fired power plants become expensive.

Poland has therefore long benefited from a low price in emissions trading and low national climate targets.

The country would prefer it if everything stayed that way.

Problem traffic

But Germany, too, is anything but a model student.

The reason: Germany is an auto nation.

In this country, emissions from road traffic are increasing instead of decreasing.

This is one of the reasons why Germany introduced a CO2 tax on fuels for the first time this year - although it is too low, as scientists criticize.

Icon: enlarge

Autonation Germany: sanctions worth millions for vehicle manufacturers unwilling to reform

Photo: KMKrause / snapshot / imago images

In order to prevent even more fines from being paid to Brussels, Berlin is now campaigning for an expansion of emissions trading in transport.

With this one hopes to finally get rid of the hated CO2 limit values: In addition to »effort sharing«, there are additional levers at EU level, such as the setting of CO2 limit values ​​for vehicle fleets.

The car manufacturers must commit to achieving a certain proportion of emission-free vehicles in their fleets.

According to a study last year, ten car manufacturers are threatened with EU fines running into billions for excessively high CO2 levels.

Such instruments would likely be abolished or weakened with expanded emissions trading.

"The fleet limit values ​​are not only more efficient than emissions trading, but also more socially acceptable, because they increase the range of affordable, emission-free vehicles," says so

Jekaterina Boening from the Brussels traffic think tank T&E.

In order for car manufacturers in Europe to finally change course, they would have to be forced to protect the climate with a combination of strong national targets and fleet limits.

"Emissions trading would be of no use for traffic because the transport sector requires very high CO2 prices," said Boening.

"Even if the price at the gas station rises a bit, don't buy an electric car or ride a bike straight away."

However, the car manufacturers are vehemently resisting higher fleet limits.

With the expansion of emissions trading, the larger chunk would then have to continue to be provided by industry and the energy sector, and the pressure on manufacturers would be less.

Industry considers expansion of emissions trading to be "highly dangerous"

According to InfluenceMap - a European non-governmental organization that campaigns for transparency - the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) has been lobbying for emissions trading and against CO2 limit values ​​for months.

The fact that the federal government is also on the side of the car manufacturer speaks for itself.

"The Union parliamentary group should urgently give up its function as VDA bodyguard and think about how a German auto industry without emission-free cars should actually survive in a climate-neutral world economy if we are already overtaken by Tesla and Co.", criticizes the green member of the Bundestag Lisa Badum .

more on the subject

  • EU concept: Europe's transport should become greener

  • EU heads of state decide on new climate target: Europe's compromise to save the worldAn analysis by Susanne Götze

  • Icon: Spiegel Plus Turnaround is emerging: Car companies want to accept stricter EU climate targetsBy Simon Hage and Gerald Traufetter

But not only the Greens are angry.

The Federal Association of Industry (BDI) - of which the VDA is even a member - has a different opinion: "An expansion of emissions trading would be poison for the investments that politicians want and urgently need, especially in the energy-intensive sectors," the BDI shares SPIEGEL request with.

He even considers the expansion to be "extremely dangerous" at the moment.

The industry fears that an expansion will cause the CO2 price to rise dramatically and thus overwhelm many companies.

"The voice of the federal government weighs extremely heavily in the EU and must speak out in the ETS negotiations crystal clear in favor of consistent climate protection and against industrial gifts, otherwise all that remains of the Green Deal is smoke and mirrors," says Green politician Badum.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

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