The federal government must make its climate protection policy more concrete, coherent and future-oriented.

This is the quintessence of the first annual report by the interdisciplinary expert committee Science Platform Climate Protection, which was handed over to the Federal Minister for Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) and the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, Patrick Graichen, on Friday.

Katja Gelinsky

Business correspondent in Berlin

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"There are white areas in medium- and long-term climate protection planning for which comprehensive, systemic perspectives urgently need to be developed," said Sabine Schlacke, Professor of Administrative and Environmental Law at F.AZ.

on the occasion of the presentation of the report.

Together with the Potsdam economist and climate researcher Ottmar Edenhofer, Schlacke heads the steering committee of the body that advises the federal government on climate protection measures and strategies.

Abolition or reform of the commuter allowance

With regard to the EU climate policy, which is also evaluated in the annual report, Edenhofer called for “creating certainty of expectations for market participants and preventing unwanted price distortions.” The report also criticizes false financial incentives that not only harm the climate, but also de facto favored wealthier households.

The scientists are therefore calling for the abolition or reform of the commuter allowance and the subsidies for electric vehicles.

Distribution issues have not yet been adequately addressed by politicians in the climate debate.

So far, the discussion about distributional effects and their compensation has focused primarily on instruments for CO2 pricing.

In principle, however, all climate policy instruments have a distributional effect.

In general, the scientists miss big lines and at the same time clear announcements in climate policy.

The climate protection program 2030 and the climate protection plan 2050 urgently need to be revised in order to achieve the ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gases and achieving climate neutrality by 2045, Schlacke warned.

The climate impact assessment of laws planned by the federal government is important and correct.

"But so far there are no criteria for how this should be done and checked." In order to get climate protection "on the road", the administration must be given concrete instructions, right down to specifications for weighting climate protection concerns in conflict-ridden decisions.

Without legally secure standardization, it will be difficult to speed up the process of expanding renewable energies.

No less important than the climate policy efforts at national level is that the Federal Government ensures coherence with EU policy and vigorously promotes its climate-friendly orientation.

The CO2 pricing for the heat and transport sectors is still unique in Germany, said Schlacke.

The EU Commission's plans to also introduce emissions trading for transport and buildings are welcomed in the report.

At the same time, however, the existing distortions in the energy tax systems of the Member States would have to be eliminated.

The federal government should also work to ensure that the scope of the EU regulations corresponds to that of German fuel emissions trading.

According to Schlacke, the financial endowment of the social climate fund will play a decisive role in the political negotiations on emissions trading.

The federal government is faced with the difficult task of convincing them that certificate trading is effective.

Agriculture and Forestry

According to the report, another important climate policy construction site at EU level is agriculture and forestry.

"The federal government should work to ensure that the EU's common agricultural policy is consistently geared towards rewarding climate and nature conservation measures when it is next reformed in 2027," the scientists warn.

According to the committee, this also includes the levying of a consumption tax on animal products.

The scientists also appeal to politicians to develop a strategy for negative emissions in order to be able to compensate for residual emissions that remain or are difficult to reduce.

"The federal government should promote research and development of a portfolio of CO2 removal technologies and practices that is as broad and diverse as possible in a very timely manner," says the report.

Citizens as “prosumers”

The climate protection science platform also provides suggestions for social acceptance and participation in shaping the transformation process caused by climate change.

"To put it bluntly, we should think about how we can prevent walks against climate protection measures," said Schlacke, referring to the current protest marches against corona policy.

It must be possible to involve citizens as “prosumers” in climate protection strategies – to address them as consumers and at the same time as climate-conscious producers, for example by installing solar systems.

"Participation alone is not enough," said Schlacke.

We have to become even more innovative in order to achieve a broad and sustainable mobilization of society.” The report speaks of “active sponsorship”,