Berlin When Roland Harings, CEO of Aurubis AG, is supposed to evaluate the results of the world climate summit, he first tries to find a conciliatory tone. The intensive international exchange within the framework of COP26 is “generally positive and necessary,” Harings told Handelsblatt.
Then comes the but: “As long as a global CO2 price is not possible, as long as investments in climate-friendly technologies are more expensive than investments in conventional ones, we absolutely need reliable and effective framework conditions in the form of functioning carbon leakage protection,” says Haring. “Carbon leakage” describes the migration of industry abroad due to CO2 costs.
Aurubis is one of the world’s leading copper producers and recyclers. The company needs a lot of energy. It is therefore severely affected by the political measures in connection with the energy transition and the transformation to climate neutrality. As long as these decisions are only made in Germany or on a European level, the company will come under pressure in international competition.
Harings is not alone with his insistence on protective mechanisms that compensate for one-sided burdens on companies in this country. The topic affects large parts of Germany’s industrial base.
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“It is dangerous and harms the climate if the differences in ambition for climate protection exist or even increase. This shifts the emissions to countries with less stringent climate protection measures and unilaterally burdens companies that, for example in the EU, already have to cope with large financial burdens, ”said BDI President Siegfried Russwurm.
In the fight against global warming, “stronger international cooperation and binding climate protection targets for practically all states are indispensable,” said Russwurm. “What was achieved in Glasgow is not enough for that,” added the BDI President.
“The race for a climate-neutral economy can no longer be stopped”
Christian Hartel, CEO of Wacker Chemie AG, said that he had “hoped for more tailwind from Glasgow, because business, industry and the international community must all make climate protection a top priority”.
Wolfgang Große Entrup, General Manager of the Association of the Chemical Industry, warns of growing discrepancies in the level of ambition: “Many countries are postponing uncomfortable measures further into the future, while Europe is already massively advancing the climate-neutral restructuring of the economy,” he said. “In order to make progress internationally, the EU should do two things: flank its own ambitions with climate diplomacy and found a climate club of the willing with reliable reduction commitments at G20 level. And it has to make sure that the domestic industry does not come under the wheels during the transformation. “
Sabine Nallinger, head of the 2 Grad Foundation, is convinced that there are good opportunities for the future federal government to make progress in international cooperation: Together with the French EU Council Presidency and under the German G7 Presidency, the aim is to “transform the economy to push ahead reliably and to significantly accelerate the phase-out from fossil fuels, ”Nallinger told Handelsblatt.
“It is also a fact: the race for the climate-neutral economy of tomorrow can no longer be stopped,” she added. Companies from various industries that want to lead the way in climate protection have joined forces in the Foundation 2 Grad.
Climate clubs are gaining advocates
For years there have been various mechanisms that are intended to help industry cope with the transformation process without falling behind in international competition. These include, for example, free allocation of certificates for the European emissions trading system, compensation payments for additional costs for electricity from emissions trading or relief from the levy under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). However, the relief must be applied for anew year after year. In addition, the EU Commission regards many of the regulations as inadmissible aid. The investment climate is significantly affected by this.
With the Federal Government’s decision in spring to sharpen the climate targets and strive for climate neutrality as early as 2045, the transformation costs for many industries will continue to increase.
Steel and chemical companies, for example, have to replace fossil fuels and raw materials with climate-neutral hydrogen as quickly as possible. You are facing gigantic investments. As long as other regions of the world do not show the same ambition, there is a risk of massive competitive disadvantages.
The world climate conferences are not able to solve this problem, since the self-commitments of the states are not binding. The idea of founding climate clubs in which like-minded countries make a binding commitment to emissions reductions is therefore gaining more and more advocates. “Future generations will not ask us which national goals we have considered, but what we have contributed to stopping the dramatic global development of emissions. To do this, we have to try to get other countries to participate. Nothing is more important, ”said the Cologne behavioral economist Axel Ockenfels recently in an interview with Handelsblatt.
“If that doesn’t succeed, our self-centered climate policy threatens to fail,” said Ockenfels. Unilateral measures could even be counterproductive, “if, for example, dirty activities migrate abroad or if the fossil fuels saved nationally are diverted to other regions of the world”.
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