Lukas Köhler: The best climate protector is the market economy

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Everyone can do what they want or not, as long as they do not violate the rights and freedoms of others - that is the translation of the inseparable leitmotif of liberalism: freedom and responsibility. The ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on the federal government's climate law is therefore a thoroughly liberal ruling. It recognizes with unprecedented clarity that climate change threatens the freedom of all people and that our Basic Law assigns constitutional status to climate protection. At the same time, it recognizes that climate protection also interferes with these freedoms and restricts people in the exercise of their basic rights.

This finely balanced weighing of freedom and responsibility is a crystal clear task for every future federal government: It must ensure that the climate targets are achieved, but always interfere as little as possible with the freedom of action of the citizens. That may sound difficult, but it has long been a reality in the EU: Emissions from the energy sector, as well as large parts of industry and inner-European aviation, are being reduced in line with the market economy - with success.

However, even in the unsuccessful planned-economy part of climate protection, it can no longer “carry on like this”, even with a few small corrections.

Because the highest German court has not only granted future generations the right to an environment worth living in, but has also defined climate-damaging activities as an initially constitutionally protected use of freedom.

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It is true that the judges derive the obligation to be climate neutral from the climate protection law and the Paris Agreement.

But they also unequivocally acknowledge that a longer transformation process will be necessary until then to develop the technologies that enable previously climate-damaging activities in a CO2-neutral manner.

Here, too, Germany's highest court is arguing in a completely liberal way: politics, according to the judges, must generate "development pressure" that is reliable early on and in the long term.

On the other hand, they coldly reject the planned economy climate policy in ministries, political parties and environmental associations who mercilessly overestimate themselves that they already know exactly which technologies will reliably lead us into a climate-friendly future - "the state is neither able" to do that be it his job.

On the contrary, the judges judge that the legislature can hardly succeed in specifying the necessary developments.

"However, he is constitutionally obliged to create basic conditions and incentives for these developments to take place."

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In essence, the Federal Constitutional Court obliges every government to implement a liberal climate policy: The state merely sets the strict goal of being climate-neutral in 2050; a plan by 2030 is not enough. But because the best way to achieve this goal is not yet known, it has to be found through incentives, supply and demand - in short: the most successful climate protector is the social market economy. Because it already enables the greatest climate protection with the smallest interference with people's freedom of action, namely in the form of European emissions trading.

This treats the remaining absorption capacity of our atmosphere as a limited resource that is auctioned off to the highest bidder in the form of certificates.

Because fewer certificates are brought onto the market every year, the development and use of climate-friendly technologies is becoming more and more attractive.

The market should then decide whether this is done, for example, in traffic using electric cars, combustion engines with climate-friendly synthetic fuels, hydrogen or a mix of all options.

That too is a requirement of freedom of action.

Use CCS technologies

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So far, only around 40 percent of European emissions have been covered by the ETS, but the ruling from Karlsruhe makes one thing clear: The expansion of the ETS to the remaining 60 percent is the most reliable way to guarantee the constitutionally required climate protection - with technology openness, fairness and precision the market economy.

The ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court is also the clear mandate to finally enable the development and use of CCS technologies for underground CO2 storage.

Because without the compensation of unavoidable residual emissions with the help of CCS, not only climate neutrality is impossible in Germany, as the eco-think tanks Agora Energiewende and the Climate Neutrality Foundation recently discovered.

According to the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global 1.5-degree target would also be completely utopian without CCS.

Technical feasibility and safety have long been proven.

However, the technologies are not economically viable.

That takes time - but the Federal Constitutional Court obliges us to assume our responsibility today and to drive development forward now, instead of leaving the task to later generations and losing valuable years.

Source: ullstein picture

Lukas Köhler is climate policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group