CO 2 price

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Various CO2 prices: Recommendation for the Ministry of the Environment from DIW or the Economic Advisory Council (PIK), as well as implementation by the climate cabinet and improvement

A CO 2 prize , even carbon price called, is a price that for emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 are paid) must. The CO 2 price serves to internalize the external costs of carbon dioxide release , in particular the consequences of global warming . The CO 2 price has to be paid for every ton of CO 2 that is to be emitted. It can be used as CO 2 -tax or CO 2 - emissions tradingSystem to be implemented. An argument in favor of a CO 2 tax is that the level of the burden can be better controlled by the political bodies. CO 2 emissions trading has the advantage that the quantity-oriented CO 2 reduction targets can be precisely met. Hybrid solutions are also possible, such as emissions trading with minimum or maximum prices .

The pricing of carbon dioxide is seen by many experts as an important tool to achieve the two-degree target , as a voluntary agreement like the one made at the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015 . In order to achieve the Paris targets, CO 2 prices of between 40 and 80 US dollars will be necessary by 2020 at the latest, and these will have to rise to 50 to 100 US dollars by 2030. In a cost estimate published in November 2018, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) assumes damage of around 180 euros per ton of carbon dioxide based on Germany's greenhouse gas emissions in 2016.

In a statement published in 2019, the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina called a uniform, cross-sectoral CO 2 price the "most important key instrument for effective climate protection" and called for its rapid introduction. In order for climate policy to be effective, cost-efficient and socially balanced, this price must also be significantly higher when it is introduced than the prices in EU emissions trading , which were around 25 euros per ton when published in mid-2019. At the same time, the CO 2 price must be "recognizable as an immovable climate policy strategy". At the same time, she emphasized that carbon dioxide pricing alone is not sufficient for an adequate climate policy, but must be accompanied by accompanying climate protection instruments. In politics, for example, Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze and the German Renewable Energy Association are in favor of CO 2 pricing, while Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier is critical.

The federal government's climate cabinet presented the climate package in September 2019 . This package of measures provided for the introduction of a CO 2 price of initially 10 euros per tonne of CO 2 from 2021 along with other measures. To this end, on October 23, 2019, the Federal Cabinet passed the draft of the law on a national emissions trading system for fuel emissions ( Fuel Emissions Trading Act - BEHG). After negotiations with the Federal Council , the entry price was increased to 25 euros per ton. With the amendment to the Fuel Emissions Trading Act adopted by the Bundestag on October 8th, 2020, the CO 2 price will now rise to € 55 in 2025, before moving to a trading system with a price corridor.

Scarcity of the atmosphere as a landfill space

The emission of long-lived greenhouse gases leads to the accumulation of these gases in the atmosphere and global warming . With increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, the risks and damage from global warming increase. There are numerous attempts to economically assess the damage caused by the emission of an additional ton of CO 2 or other greenhouse gases. These cost estimates, known as the social carbon cost, vary widely, with recent estimates tending to come up with higher values. The Federal Environment Agency estimated the costs at 180 euros in 2018. The more the earth heats up, the worse the consequences can be assessed. In addition, tipping points are threatened to be exceeded, leading to climatic conditions with incalculable risks, such as has never existed in human history .

In order to avoid a dangerous disruption of the climate system, almost all countries in the world have agreed in the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below two degrees , if possible 1.5 degrees . This means that greenhouse gas concentrations have to be stabilized and emissions have to be reduced to almost zero; In most scenarios, negative emissions are also required to meet the temperature targets . The absorption capacity of the atmosphere as a landfill for long-lived greenhouse gases is therefore limited. The remaining amount of emittable greenhouse gases is the so-called CO 2 budget . With an average emissions of around 40 gigatons of CO 2 equivalent per year in 2017 (GtCO 2 e / a), if there is no change in emissions, humanity will have around 20 to 30 depending on the assumed CO 2 budget Years until this budget is exhausted.

But because those who cause greenhouse gas emissions only bear a fraction of the consequential damage of their own emissions and mostly do not even know exactly about them, they hardly take these so-called external effects into account in their decisions. To remedy this market failure , the scarcity of the atmospheric landfill can be signaled by a price on the emission of a ton of CO 2 or other greenhouse gases. According to economic theory, market participants will then take the consequential damage or the limitation of the CO 2 budget into account in their decisions and choose more technical but also behavioral alternatives that cause fewer emissions. Companies are given an incentive to develop low-emission alternatives and bring them to market.

Economic classification

The CO 2 tax is a form of the Pigou tax . It is intended to compensate for a partial failure of the market and restore the market equilibrium . Certificate systems, on the other hand, are assigned to the price standard approach . The point here is not just to pass on external effects , i.e. to show the “true price”, but rather, in a very pragmatic way, to achieve a previously set target. Depending on how ethical parameters are set, e.g. B. how much the well-being of people will be discounted in the future , damage costs of around 10 to over 1000 dollars per ton of CO 2 result . In 2013, the full damage costs of fossil energy generation amounted to approximately 4.9 trillion US dollars according to the IMF ; With 32 billion tons of CO 2 emissions this year, the damage costs added up to more than $ 150 per ton of carbon dioxide.

In a discussion paper, the association CO 2 Abgabe eV recommends a starting price of 40 euros per tonne of CO 2 , rising continuously to 145 euros per tonne in 2050. Proposals for Germany envisage the use of the income for various goals: a climate dividend , structural change in lignite districts or a reduction in the EEG surcharge or the electricity tax are some of them.

The climate scientist Brigitte Knopf calls for a sustainable financial reform in Germany and at the international level: "In addition to the reduction of fossil subsidies, such a reform must include an effective CO 2 price." She argues that the income from CO 2 prices can be used to lower others Taxes could be used.

In June 2019, the CEO of the reinsurer Munich-Re, Joachim Wenning, called on politicians to significantly increase the costs of CO 2 emissions. Otherwise you run the risk of missing the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Otherwise, global temperatures would have risen by 3.5 degrees by the end of the century, warns Wenning.

Historical development

Emissions trading was developed by economists Crocker and Dales in the late 1960s. In the EU, a CO 2 tax was initially relied on, but this would have required unanimity. With the Kyoto Protocol , the emissions trading system then established itself worldwide. So far there are 17 different emissions trading systems around the world. However, there is the possibility that emission systems that have initially developed independently will merge. The EU is pioneering the introduction of emissions certificates trading . In other regions, e.g. In the USA and China , for example, there are currently only local initiatives. The Federal Government supports the World Bank's Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition initiative, to which more than 20 countries have now come together. In April 2015, Great Britain introduced a minimum CO 2 price of around 30 euros per ton to offer investors planning security and to provide an incentive to invest in low-carbon technologies.

The justice gap between north and south or poor and rich with a high CO 2 price and a climate dividend became a topic of negotiation between the global contracting parties and interest groups at the UN climate conferences and at the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen .

CO 2 and other greenhouse gases

The term CO 2 is often used to simplify the sum of greenhouse gases . In EU emissions trading, z. For example, there is still talk of CO 2 certificates, although nitrous oxide and fluorocarbons have also been included in the trade since 2013 .

Impact on Business

Using economic models from production theory, it can be shown what effects special designs of the CO 2 price have. In the case of a tax that brings the state a fixed price for each tonne of CO 2 emitted , two variants can be distinguished for each company:

  • In the first variant, the company has the option to switch to other production processes that emit less CO 2 , but possibly require more of other resources such as capital, labor or raw materials. If the alternative process is cheaper overall due to the CO 2 tax saved , the company will switch to this process.
  • In the other variant, the company has no options to switch to other processes. For example, because this is technically or physically not possible or because there is a lack of knowledge to implement it. Then the company will produce the same amount of products (and CO 2 ) as before, if it is still making a profit. Otherwise, it will stop production entirely.

In the case of emissions certificate trading, in addition to adapting production processes, companies also have the option of buying and selling certificates. A company that is oriented towards profit maximization will choose the more cost-effective alternative, i.e. lower its own CO 2 emissions with changed processes, if the costs for the process change are lower than the market price of the certificates.

Social impact

A pricing of CO 2 generates government revenues, which can be redistributed as a head lump sum to protect poor households from high energy prices as part of a socially acceptable transition (eco bonus or climate dividend ). It can be shown that even a low price on CO 2 can be sufficient to finance access to clean drinking water and sanitary facilities.

Legacy issues

A CO 2 price aims to reduce future new emissions. However, such a price does not affect legacy issues; H. on the CO 2 quantities that have already been introduced into the atmosphere since the beginning of industrialization , which have increased the concentration from well below 300 ppm to now over 415 ppm. This concentration only drops naturally over the long term, which means that negative emissions would be necessary to achieve pre-industrial concentration . The income generated by a CO 2 price could be used to subsidize providers who provide negative emissions. Depending on the process, such as PyCCS or BECCS , the costs per ton of CO 2 fluctuate considerably. For such a business model to be attractive, the subsidies would have to exceed the costs. An openness to technology makes sense here. As a result, a reduction in costs due to technical progress can be expected. If the costs of generating negative emissions are below the costs caused by CO 2 , for example € 180 per ton (according to UBA), a state-subsidized business model for creating negative emissions would in principle make economic sense.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "We urgently need a CO 2 price" , Deutschlandfunk, Ottmar Edenhofer in conversation with Christine Heuer, November 30, 2015.
  2. ↑ IMF calls for global CO 2 tax , Klimaretter.info, January 12, 2016.
  3. ↑ Edenhofer: CO 2 price instead of emission targets at the world climate summit? , Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, November 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b c Export hit emissions trading , movum.info, Issue 8 of October 2015, Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Stiglitz : "Voluntary agreements ... are the wrong path to the green economy."
  5. ↑ Sky-high carbon tax needed to avoid climate catastrophe, say experts . In: The Guardian , May 29, 2017. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  6. ↑ Felix Poetschke: High costs through failure to protect the environment . In: Federal Environment Agency . November 20, 2018 ( Umweltbundesamt.de [accessed November 28, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Astrid Matthey and Björn Bünger: Method Convention 3.0 for the determination of environmental costs. (pdf) cost rates. Federal Environment Agency, Dessau-Roßlau, November 19, 2018, accessed on November 28, 2018 (page 9: "Cost rate of 180 € 2016 / t CO 2 eq for 2016.").
  8. ↑ Antje Boetius , Ottmar Edenhofer , Bärbel Friedrich , Gerald Haug , Frauke Kraas , Wolfgang Marquardt , Jürgen Leohold , Martin J. Lohse , Jürgen Renn , Frank Rösler , Robert Schlögl , Ferdi Schüth , Christoph M. Schmidt , Thomas Stocker 2019: Climate targets 2030 : Ways to a sustainable reduction in CO2 emissions. . Statement by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , p. 7f. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  9. ^ ZEIT ONLINE: Federal Environment Minister: Svenja Schulze promotes socially acceptable CO2 prices . In: The time . July 5, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed July 10, 2019]).
  10. ↑ Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energie eV: detailed view. Retrieved July 10, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Altmaier speaks out against plans for CO2 prices. Retrieved July 10, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Referent draft of a law on a national emissions trading system for fuel emissions - BMU laws and ordinances. Retrieved October 9, 2020 .
  13. ^ Draft of a First Act to Change the Fuel Emissions Trading Act. In: German Bundestag. June 15, 2020, accessed October 9, 2020 .
  14. ↑ High costs due to failure to protect the environment. Federal Environment Agency, November 20, 2018, accessed on September 3, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Will Steffen , Johan Rockström , Katherine Richardson , Timothy M. Lenton , Carl Folke , Diana Liverman , Colin P. Summerhayes, Anthony D. Barnosky , Sarah E. Cornell, Michel Crucifix, Jonathan F. Donges, Ingo Fetzer, Steven J. Lade, Marten Scheffer, Ricarda Winkelmann, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber : Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . August 6, 2018 doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1810141115
  16. ↑ Vicki Duscha, Alexandra Denishchenkova, Jakob Wachsmuth: Achievability of the Paris Agreement targets in the EU: demand-side reduction potentials in a carbon budget perspective. In: Climate Policy. Vol. 19, No. 2, 2018. doi: 10.1080 / 14693062.2018.1471385
  17. ^ Cameron Hepburn: Make carbon pricing a priority . In: Nature Climate Change . tape 7 , 2017, p. 389 f ., doi : 10.1038 / nclimate3302 .
  18. ↑ See Ottmar Edenhofer : King Coal and the queen of subsidies . In: Science . tape 349 , no. 6254 , 2015, p. 1286 f ., doi : 10.1126 / science.aad0674 .
  19. ↑ What is the price and what is the need for greenhouse gases? For more climate protection, less bureaucracy and more socially fair energy prices. , Discussion paper of the CO 2 Abgabe eV, Freiburg i.Br., June 2017
  20. ↑ a b Paris Climate Agreement: Countries must triple efforts for two-degree target . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 28, 2018]).
  21. ↑ Munich Re: Joachim Wenning calls for a significant increase in the price of CO2. Retrieved June 12, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Anders Bemmann, The treatment of emissions trading in the trade and tax balance sheet , Wiesbaden 2013, p. 9.
  23. ↑ "The CO 2 taxes do not harm the economy" , Deutschlandfunk, Swantje Fiedler from the think tank Forum Ecological-Social Market Economy in conversation with Jule Reimer, 25 November 2015
  24. ^ Coal must become more expensive , Der Tagesspiegel, by Susanne Ehlerding, November 30, 2015
  25. ↑ 7 questions about CO 2 taxes , ORF, December 3, 2015
  26. ↑ Germany joins the new World Bank initiative for a global CO 2 market , Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), July 2015
  27. ↑ Great Britain increases carbon dioxide price, klimaretter.info, April 2, 2015
  28. ↑ Minimum price for CO2 is effective , Telepolis, January 31, 2017
  29. ↑ Claus Leggewie : The Climate Dividend for the Countries of the Global South - The Forgotten Billion , the taz, December 9, 2009.
  30. ↑ Dinkelbach, Rosenberg: Success and environment-oriented production theory , Springer, 2002, 4th edition, pp. 88–94.
  31. ↑ Michael Jakob , Claudine Chen, Sabine Fuss , Annika Marxen and Ottmar Edenhofer (2015). Development incentives for fossil fuel subsidy reform. Nature Climate Change, 5 (8), 709. doi: 10.1038 / nclimate2679
  32. ↑ https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-official-atmospheric-co2-just-exceeded-415-ppm-for-first-time-in-human-history
  33. ↑ Werner, C. et al: Biogeochemical potential of biomass pyrolysis system for limiting global warming to 1.5 ° C . In: Environmental Research Letters . April 17, 2018, doi : 10.1088 / 1748-9326 / aabb0e (English, iop.org [accessed September 15, 2019]).