“An oil embargo has significant potential”

Berlin Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), has warned that the European Commission’s planned second emissions trading system for transport and buildings, known in technical jargon as ETS 2, will fail. “That would be a fatal signal,” said the climate economist to the Handelsblatt. “Really bad for all efforts to counter the growing climate risks with effective climate policy.”

Only with the existing emissions trading system for the industry and energy sectors and the second emissions trading for transport and buildings would the EU “send the urgently needed signal that it will drastically reduce the demand for oil and gas in the long term,” said Edenhofer.

Edenhofer called the planned oil embargo against Russia a “prohibitively high import tax”. There are possibilities “beyond all or nothing,” he said. Grading of import taxation would be possible, which would reduce the quantities. Translated, this means: Edenhofer advocates imposing a kind of levy on oil from Russia, the amount of which can be variable.