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The Council of Experts on Environmental Affairs gives German climate policy a miserable testimony. To advance climate protection, government advisers recommend, among other things, making driving less attractive.
The Council of Experts for Environmental Affairs is in favor of car tolls and more expensive parking fees in cities. This is intended to promote cyclist and pedestrian traffic and promote climate protection, according to a report from the government adviser, which was released today. In addition to strengthening environmentally friendly means of transport, “measures are essential to make individual use of the car less attractive.”
Opportunities to charge parking fees would have to be expanded and limits rates for residents. The council also advocates for a car toll based on route, pollutants, noise and CO2 emissions. “A national toll achieves a significantly better steering effect than a city’s toll and avoids a patchwork of various regulations in German cities,” the report said.
A city toll, a type of city driving fee, reduces the number of vehicles entering a defined area and therefore only works in cities. “This reduction in cars in the city can also be achieved with strict parking space prices,” the council argues. A member of the seven-member committee, Lamia Messari-Becker of Siegen University, does not support the chapter of the report.
Bad testimony to German climate policy
The Council of Experts on Environmental Affairs has been advising the Federal Government on environmental policy issues since 1972. It is made up of professors from various disciplines. The report is titled “For a certain environmental policy in Germany and Europe”.
In it, the Council gives German climate policy a miserable testimony. National targets were too low, and repeatedly were not met. Furthermore, it is not clear “what total greenhouse gas budget underlies German climate policy,” the report says.
Experts recommend a CO2 budget
The budgetary approach assumes that each country can only emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases to limit global warming to well below two degrees, if possible 1.5 degrees, as established by the Paris climate protection agreement. However, there are no budgets in the agreement. The federal government rejects the approach.
The Environment Council, on the other hand, recommends that the government align its climate policy with a long-term CO2 budget. “A sufficient, fair and appropriate German CO2 budget will be a maximum of 6.7 billion tonnes of CO2 from 2020,” explained Wolfgang Lucht of the Humboldt University in Berlin. “With linear reduction, Germany must be CO2 neutral by 2038, not just by 2050.” CO2 neutral means that the bottom line is that no additional greenhouse gases are emitted. The remaining emissions would have to be offset.
“The economy and ways of life have to change”
The Council precedes the report with indescribable words: “Science’s calls to better protect and preserve the natural foundations of life threaten to become an oppressive ritual,” it says. There is no shortage of knowledge, the necessary technologies are also there.
“But since politics, business and society face ecological challenges too slowly, the gap between what has been achieved and what is needed is growing.” Innovations and increases in efficiency are important, but they are no longer enough: “Our lifestyles and finances must also change to meet ecological limits.”
