The ministers for climate protection in the EU Member States have set out a new climate goal. The goal aims to reduce the EU's CO2 emissions by 90 percent by 2040 relative to the 1990 levels. Starting in 2036 it will be possible to achieve up to five percent of this reduction using international carbon credits from outside the EU. The target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 66.25 to 72.5 percent by 2035. Benedict Probst, environmental economist and head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, shares insights on what carbon offsets contribute to climate protection.
Benedict Probst heads the Net Zero Lab, an interdisciplinary research group at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich. The goal of the Net Zero Lab is to accelerate the development of climate technologies that are crucial for replacing fossil fuels in industry and removing CO2 directly from the air.
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Ben Probst, how effective are carbon credits from countries outside the EU for climate protection?
This regulation is a step backwards in climate policy. If we meet a significant portion of our climate targets through carbon credits, we will be taking the pressure off the European economy to undergo a true transformation. The evidence of the last 20 years is clear: carbon offsets have not generally achieved the emissions reductions they promised. But what is at stake is not just climate protection, but the future of Europe. Every euro we put into questionable certificates is money that is not available for investments here at home: in renewable energies, heat pumps, green hydrogen and climate-neutral industry. While we are using offsets as an excuse, China is investing heavily in precisely these forward-looking technologies, with the result that we run the risk of falling even farther behind on the key industries of the 21st century. That is not only disastrous in terms of climate policy, but also economically short-sighted.
What does it mean that five per cent of CO2 emissions can be credited through non-European emissions certificates?
It is important to understand the scale of this: five percent sounds harmless, but it is an enormous amount when measured against the 2040 target level. In concrete terms, it means that, if the EU makes full use of this allowance, in 2040, 50 percent more CO2
