EU citizens will pay for CO2 emissions from driving and living
The new climate laws, for which the governments of the summaries and the full parliament still have to give final approval, are needed by the EU to achieve the climate goals. Before 2030, CO2 emissions must be reduced by 55 percent, so that the EU can be completely ‘climate neutral’ by 2050.
The core of the measures is to strengthen and expand the successful system of CO2 certificates for polluters. In recent years, energy companies and industry have had to complete all permits in order to be allowed to emit. Every year the EU spends less of those allowances to reduce emissions. Due to the scarcity, they are becoming more and more expensive. The average emissions trading system (ETS) means that companies have to emit less or pay more.
The negotiators have agreed that such a market for emission allowances will now also be created for the savings for which road traffic and buildings are responsible. Citizens and companies will have to pay for the CO2 from the exhaust and the chimney. This goes through energy companies and pumping stations. They have to pay for emission allowances and then pass on the costs to the customer who comes to fill up or turn on the gas heater.
That can hurt now that everything, and especially energy, has become so expensive last year. That is why it is all the more important that people with a small grant are helped, the negotiators acknowledged. The fund that has been devised for them must therefore be larger than planned. The EU countries can use that money to reduce the costs for the poor or help them purchase a heat pump or electric car.
The EU will be climate champion, but it will also prevent the umpteenth of its own companies from going under. That is why there will also be a border tax for the import of a number of climate-friendly steel and cement products. This should prevent European considerations from being bottlenecked by moving to a less strong foreign country, which does not help the costs of the climate and the climate.