Climate tariff

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A climate tariff is a customs duty in the form of a border adjustment tax . The introduction of a CO 2 tax is currently being discussed worldwide, including in the European Union, but this could lead to a competitive advantage for markets in which there is no such tax. A border tax adjustment is therefore being discussed as a compensation levy to compensate for such competitive advantages.

Climate science background

Climate scientists assume a CO 2 budget which, if exceeded, would have incalculable consequences, such as the state of the greenhouse earth , which would create conditions that are hostile to human life and which could already reach the two-degree target set in the Paris Agreement . With an average emission of around 40 gigatons of CO 2 equivalent per year in 2017 (GtCO 2 e / a), from this point in time (2017), if there is no change in emissions, depending on the assumed CO 2 budget, humankind will still have around 20 to 30 years until this budget is exhausted; thereafter, because of the very long-term absorption of greenhouse gases by the earth system, no greenhouse gases should be emitted for millennia. In order to keep the climate system for the human species within an appropriate framework in the long term, it is therefore necessary to quickly abandon new greenhouse gases and remove existing greenhouse gases through negative emissions . In contrast, surveys, for example as part of the Emissions Gap Report 2018, show that greenhouse gas emissions worldwide have not decreased recently, but increased again, and technical solutions for negative emissions on a large scale are so far not very promising, so that there is a long-term risk of a climate catastrophe .

Political discussion

CO 2 taxes are seen as an instrument in the fight against the climate crisis . These serve to compensate for distortions of competition through necessary investments in measures to reduce emissions. As early as 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy therefore introduced climate tariffs to protect the European economy from competition from markets with weak climate policies. The economist Joseph Stiglitz is one of the proponents of a climate tariff . Shortly after taking office as President of the European Commission in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen presented climate targets, according to which greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union should be reduced by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 and full CO 2 neutrality should be achieved by 2050 ; at the same time, she presented the idea of ​​a CO 2 border adjustment that corresponds to a climate tariff.

In some cases, the European industry praises climate tariffs, since the introduction would also affect production facilities in their possession that are located in other European countries.

example

A well-known example of a climate tariff comes from the economist Gabriel Felbermayr . According to his calculation, the production of 1 kg of onions costs 30 cents in Germany and only 20 cents in New Zealand. The CO 2 emissions that arise during transport from New Zealand to Germany are traditionally not taxed. If the European Union now introduces a CO 2 tax , this will only affect onions produced in Europe. New Zealand onions would therefore have a competitive advantage. The introduction of a climate tariff would offset this so that European onions would continue to be competitive despite the CO 2 tax. Felbermayr said this once: "Goods that are imported into the utility room, should according to the [sic] in the production of CO caused 2 as well as domestic goods -content [sic] with a CO 2 are occupied prize."

credentials

  1. ↑ a b Petra Pinzler, Mark Schieritz: CO 2 -renzausgleich: Klimazoll . In: The time . December 11, 2019 ( zeit.de [accessed December 27, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Jacqueline Hilbert, Holger Berg: Border tax adjustment for additional costs as a result of national / European environmental protection instruments - design options and WTO legal admissibility . Federal Environment Agency , April 2008, ISSN  1862-4359 .
  3. ↑ 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
  4. ↑ 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
  5. ↑ a b Dagmar Dehmer: Climate tariffs do not help . In: Tagesspiegel . September 27, 2012 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed December 27, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Guntram Wolff: We need a climate tariff . In: Handelsblatt . December 10, 2019 ( handelsblatt.com [accessed December 27, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Altmaier's grotesque, honest border tax and Rhenish coal felt Willenbacher's week, August 9, 2020.
  8. ↑ Germany cannot save the climate on its own focus.de