Brussels, Berlin The best instrument for protecting the climate are CO2 markets – most economists and climate scientists now see it that way. Because if CO2 emission rights are traded, this leads to savings where they are cheapest to buy. The larger such a market, the cheaper it is to protect the climate.
The UN climate conference in Glasgow created the conditions for CO2 certificates to be traded internationally. Such certificates can be generated through climate protection projects in developing countries. With the emissions that are saved there, industrialized countries could buy themselves free from their own climate protection obligations.
Access to this new instrument would be very attractive for European companies. “The prices in emissions trading are already a major burden for companies,” says Jörg Rothermel from the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI). “Inexpensive certificates from abroad would be a valve with which the pressure could be reduced.”
European industrial companies have to buy certificates for the CO2 they emit. The price for it rises. If they could get these certificates for climate protection projects from abroad, they would save a lot of money. The European business association Businesseurope speaks of 215 billion euros in savings – per year.
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“The EU should link European emissions trading with international emissions trading,” says VCI expert Rothermel. “Then CO2 would be saved where it is cheapest possible.”
Climate expert Matthias Zelinger from the Association of German Mechanical and Plant Engineering also says: “You shouldn’t lose sight of the option of allowing international CO2 certificates in European emissions trading.”
Help for emerging markets
But despite the success of Glasgow, there is still a long way to go. “After the agreement in Glasgow on the set of rules, the ball is now with the European Union,” says Carsten Rolle from the Federation of German Industries (BDI). “The EU should create incentives in European emissions trading so that efforts to reduce emissions from international cooperation projects can also be taken into account.”
However, the EU has decided to achieve its 2030 climate target through its own savings. Certificates from abroad are also not provided for in the reform of emissions trading that is currently being discussed.
The responsible MEP Peter Liese (CDU) says: “Companies have to invest so that we can be climate neutral in 2050”. Buying certificates from abroad only postpones the problem “into the future and costs additional money”.
There is, however, one possibility of how the Glasgow resolution could affect European climate protection: the EU has so far set climate targets for 2030 and 2050, but so far none for 2040. It would be conceivable that this target would not be 100 percent through its own savings is achieved, but partly through investments on other continents.
“With the yet to be defined European climate target for 2040, we should allow some of the CO2 reductions to be achieved through international measures,” says Anja Weisgerber, member of the Bundestag (CSU). “That would be a win-win situation for the Member States, European companies and emerging countries. ”In order to achieve the global climate targets, the developing and emerging countries would have to build their economies in a climate-friendly way right from the start, said the environmental policy spokeswoman for the Union parliamentary group.
Article 6 sets controversial incentives
The rules laid down in Glasgow should result in companies from industrialized countries supporting poorer countries in protecting the climate. These rules are necessary so that no emissions are counted twice. That sounds simple, but it was already laid down in Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 and kept the negotiators busy for six years afterwards. Some loopholes still remain.
Environmentalists criticize even more: “There is a perverse incentive for poorer countries not to set ambitious climate targets,” says Anne glasses from Germanwatch. Because these countries only have leeway to save CO2 on behalf of rich countries if they do not use their climate protection options beforehand.
“Many CO2 certificates could arise because countries set their own targets too low,” says Gläser. CDU politician Liese also says: “Anyone who can save additional CO2 should rather increase their own climate protection target accordingly.”
It would also be possible for companies to buy the new CO2 certificates in order to be able to call themselves climate-neutral. Private companies, in particular, could figure out their carbon footprint without actually doing anything to protect the climate, warns the Greens MEP Michael Bloss. “The global carbon markets must not become door openers for greenwashing,” he says. “We run the risk of hot air being sold on the market as a CO2 reduction solution.”
Innovations instead of buying yourself free
In any case, the EU Commission would prefer that climate protection investments take place in Europe than anywhere else in the world. Vice-President Frans Timmermans sees it as an innovation program when European companies do everything they can to develop the cleanest technologies that they can later export all over the world.
In order to drive this forward, he presented seven projects on Tuesday that are to be funded with money from the European Innovation Fund. External experts selected projects that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases on a large scale and that are planned far enough to be implemented quickly.
The projects include approaches for the production of green steel, for CO2 capture in cement production, for the production of a new generation of photovoltaic systems and for the recovery of methanol from waste.
In order for such technologies to have a chance on the market as soon as possible, the EU Commission believes it is important that the CO2 price remains high.
More: Agreement at the World Climate Conference – These are the results