Editorial

Things are picking up speed with the revision of the Climate Protection Act! Now that the Federal Constitutional Court has ruled on the shortcomings of the previous law, it is imperative that new targets be set for climate protection in 2030 and also a further interim target for 2040, even before the Bundestag elections. All of this is right and overdue anyway, especially now that the EU has raised its climate protection target!

But the most important discussion of all still needs to be conducted with focus and commitment, probably after the Bundestag elections: namely, which measures must be implemented in order to ensure that the general target can be reached in all sectors and the sectoral targets can also be achieved with a high degree of probability. The issue of which measures are required in order to achieve the targets in the mobility sector is likely to be quite painful, especially if we consider that an agreement on a reduction in emissions has consistently proved impossible since the 1990s. This also applies to the construction sector, i.e. to heat supply, in which the specification of refurbishment rates for buildings and apartments has remained elusive thus far.

Nevertheless, some parties are already pointing out that an overbearing approach by the state or even a planned economy would not be expedient and that “market-based” instruments should be used instead to reduce greenhouse gases. In this case – fortunately – it is possible to point to the revised and increasingly efficient EU certificate trading system for CO₂ emissions. At present, the price for large industrial facilities is now above €50.00 per tonne of CO₂. That most definitely exerts a powerful influence!

In order to be effective, therefore, the price of €25.00 per tonne of CO₂ that was introduced for all sectors not subject to the EU trading system on 1 January 2021 will definitely be inadequate. Instead, a predictable price level of €50.00 to €100.00 during the next legislative period will be inevitable, even desirable, in order to achieve climate protection targets in the transport and heating sectors. This will now require rapid and ambitious progress – after conservative stakeholders have spent years attempting to let the topic run its course or even waiting it out. That is not “planned economy”, but “politics with a plan”!