The hot weather fits the directional decision. On Wednesday, the thermometer showed more than 30 degrees in the otherwise rainy Brussels than EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the climate goals by 2040.
In the fight against climate change, the Commission plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 2040 by 90 percent compared to the 1990 status. However, the EU countries are given a loophole: they can compensate for part of their emissions via CO₂ certificates from abroad.
From 2036, EU countries can take a limited extent to climate protection projects in third countries that support them, up to three percent of emissions from 1990.
German industry reserved
Ursula von der Leyen assured that the Union is sticking to its overarching goal of being climate -neutral up to 2050. “Since European citizens are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, they expect Europe,” she said at the presentation.
© Imago/Zuma Press Wire/Imago/Wiktor Dabkowski
The proposal is now the basis for discussion for the European Parliament and the Member States, which still have to agree to the goal.
The German industry is highly reserved for the targeted climate goals. They are “clearly too high” and “not realistic”, said the deputy general manager of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Achim Dercks, on Wednesday.
Holger Lösch, deputy general manager of the Federal Association of German Industry, spoke of a “highly ambitious” goal and calls for “more flexibility”.
The announced trade in CO₂ certificates from abroad, which is unanimously welcomed by the industrial representatives, should contribute to this flexibility. However, this is not far enough for them.
“Against this background, the scope of three percentage points that the member states receive through international climate protection agreements is useful, but not sufficient,” emphasized Achim Dercks on Wednesday.
These credits are difficult to check and open the door for fraud and arithmetic tricks.
Michael Bloss, Greens politician in the European Parliament
Criticism of the climate writings comes from the European Parliament. The Greens politician Michael Bloss sees this as an indulgence trade. “These credits are difficult to check and open the door for fraud and arithmetic tricks,” he warns.
The same thing sees his SPD colleague Tiemo Volken. On Wednesday, he expressly referred to fraud cases with supposedly sustainable biosprit from fictional systems in China.
And he points out that in the future the “funds that are needed to invest in the transformation of the European economy and society will be invested outside the EU”. This is not expedient and serves only to raise a company’s climate balance.
Great resistance from individual member countries
CDU man Peter Liese judges the trade less critically. He sees the flexibility required by many EU member countries in the fight against climate change. Most recently, French President Emmanuel Macron had even called for the goals to be completely overturned
“Anyone who combats flexibility makes a contribution to the fact that there is no 2040 climate target at all, since the resistance of other member states against the 90 percent is generally very strong,” emphasized the MEP Liese.
© Imago/Anadolu Agency/Imago/Dursun Aydemir
But the problem also sees the monitoring of trade. “We have to learn from the past,” emphasized the Christian Democrat and he demanded that “only allow high -quality certificates”.
Federal government satisfied
The EU Commission also wants to soften the way to achieve the climate goals for individual industries. Member countries, for example, could then compensate for stalling progress in agriculture with an above-average CO₂ savings in traffic.
“Every Member State is different and faces different challenges,” said EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra.
The suggestions from Brussels are on a line with the coalition agreement of the black and red federal government. Countries such as Italy and the Czech Republic had spoken out open to lower climate goals, they refer to the heavy industry in their countries.
For its part, France wants to ensure that nuclear power and renewable energies are equivalent to the EU climate laws.
Source: Tagesspiegel
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