The central arena in the struggle for the global climate is currently Europe.

With the “Fit for 55” program presented by the Commission under Ursula von der Leyen, the EU wants to become the avant-garde.

It should reduce its CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030.

Only if that works and Europe remains prosperous will imitators be found.

Only then is there a chance to stop global warming.

But now resistance comes from within. No wonder, because if you want to protect the climate, you have to make CO2 emissions expensive. Only when pollution is no longer free will the owners of factories, apartments or cars stop using the air as a wild landfill. This is the purpose of the European carbon emissions trading system. He is already charging fees from industrial and power generation polluters. That has greatly reduced emissions there. Now the commission also wants to record traffic and heating. In order to become “Fit for 55”, this is inevitable.

But because many voters have grown fond of free pollution, some governments are now trying to tear off the price tags that the Commission wants to attach to CO2.

At the top is Poland.

Prime Minister Morawiecki launched a wild attack on emissions trading in the FAZ.

It will make the poor even poorer and the rich even richer, and it will drive Europe into the deepest economic crisis "in 100 years".

A wild prognosis in view of the human and economic apocalypses that Poland has just experienced in the last century, for example under German occupation or the fall of communism.

The fear of the voter

The EU could still deal with Poland alone. When it comes to the climate, individual countries can be outvoted, Warsaw has no veto. The only problem is that other governments are also afraid of their voters. Spain, Hungary, the Czech Republic, but above all French President Macron, who wants to be elected next year, shy away from taking risks. So it is not yet certain that the Commission can push through its climate program.

If it failed, the setback would be irreparable.

The EU is the third largest polluter in the world after China and the United States.

The following applies to all three: if they seriously try to turn the climate around, the struggle has a chance of success for everyone else as well.

If not, it's pointless.

In addition, Europe, with its huge national product, would have the power, along with America as the center of a future “climate club”, to pull others along through tariffs and incentives.

Because success depends on Europe, it is important to wisely overcome internal resistance.

One lever would be the billions that emissions trading will bring.

According to the current plan, they are to be shared between the EU and member states.

Part of it is supposed to pay off the debts of the EU from the Corona aid, another part is to flow back directly to the citizens via a social fund.

And here is the key.

The more people get back directly from the money they have to pay for more expensive gasoline and heating oil, the more likely they are to accept the fight for the climate.

The less of it goes elsewhere, the better.