A few days ago, the UN Environment Agency advocated an international green tax reform - now economists have presented a new concept for a CO2 price reform in Germany and Europe right before the start of the climate summit in Katowice, Poland.
A few days ago, the UN Environment Agency advocated an international green tax reform - now economists have presented a new concept for a CO2 price reform in Germany and Europe right before the start of the climate summit in Katowice, Poland. SPIEGEL magazine was reporting on this issue in advance this weekend. Christoph Schmidt, Chair of the German Council of Economic Experts from RWI Essen, Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, and Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), have jointly drafted the cornerstones for a market-based way out of coal. Climate-damaging CO2-emissions would need to become more expensive, while at the same time the electricity tax could be lowered. A socially just and efficient transition to a sustainable economy is possible, according to the professors, who both belong to the Leibniz Association. If, on the other hand, greenhouse gas emissions were not reduced, there would be the risk of economic climate damage of unprecedented proportions.
"This is not about increasing the tax burden, it is about distributing it differently," says Ottmar Edenhofer in SPIEGEL magazine. "Today, for example, we tax natural gas much higher than heating oil, even though it is comparatively less harmful to the climate. We want to put an end to such nonsense and in future levy taxes on all energy sources according to their CO2content. And something else is part of our concept: What the state earns additionally, it gives back to the economy and consumers." The two economists believe that Germany could implement the climate plan together with a pioneer coalition of other European countries - France in particular is strongly committed to effective CO2 pricing, but the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries have also recognized the issue.
Read more at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
