"How should Europe become climate-neutral? The EU Commission is looking at air traffic and is aiming for an import tax - and an end date for the sale of new vehicles with internal combustion engines."
The EU Commission wants to introduce a kerosene tax for flights within Europe. The existing exemption for the aviation industry from the fuel tax is to be phased out over ten years, as the Brussels authority announced. Private business flights and freight traffic should therefore continue to be exempt from taxation.
In addition, Brussels is aiming to introduce an import tax on climate-damaging products from third countries from 2026. A transition phase is initially planned from 2023 so that companies can adapt to the innovation, the commission said. Subsequently, importers of steel, aluminum, cement and fertilizers will have to buy CO2 certificates based on the climate-damaging nature of their imports.
The aim is to protect companies in the EU from competition from abroad whose production is not subject to the same climate regulations as in the European Union - the focus is on countries like Russia and China. A few hours before the Brussels plans were announced, the People's Republic announced that it intends to start an emissions trading system (ETS) this month. Trading in CO2 certificates is an important instrument for climate protection.
In addition, as from the F.A.Z. previously reported on a ban on the sale of new vehicles with internal combustion engines from 2035 on-wards. By then, the entire new vehicle fleet in the EU should no longer emit any greenhouse gases. According to the current state of the art, this can only be achieved by pure electric cars. The Commission is also raising the intermediate goal on the way to greenhouse gas neutrality of the new vehicle fleet: According to current EU guidelines, a group's vehicle fleet may only emit an average of 95 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer; by 2025, a further 15 should be reduced by 2025 percent and by 2030 by 37.5 percent. According to the new proposal of the EU Commission, the value for cars should now drop by 55 percent by 2030 and for delivery vans by 50 percent.
At the same time, according to the commission, the expansion of the charging infrastructure will be pushed ahead. By the end of last year, there were around 260,000 publicly accessible charging points in the 27 member states of the European Union - more than two thirds of them in the three countries of the Netherlands, France and Germany alone. The aim now is to have charging points at least 60 kilometers apart along the most important roads.
President of Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce Peter Adrian, on the other hand, warned: “With the Green Deal, the European Union is setting ambitious climate protection targets for companies. The economy can only achieve these goals if companies remain competitive - in the EU internal market and in exports. ”The legislative package presented today offers many opportunities. “But it also shows how demanding the foreseeable transformation towards climate neutrality is,” he said. This applies particularly to the German economy, with its large industrial share.
The reformed emissions trading will significantly increase the pressure for low-emission production processes and energy-efficient products. Climate-friendly production processes are not yet available in some industries or are far from being profitable. “The politically intended high CO2 prices are therefore only sustainable if at the same time compensation is made for the particularly affected companies. Otherwise, energy- and emission-intensive companies run the risk of their products no longer being competitive. This applies to the manufacturers of basic and raw materials such as steel, aluminum and cement, but also to many companies that process them.""
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