EU Commission draft climate law is "an important step" - yet comprehensive CO2 pricing is needed: Edenhofer

Today, the EU Commission proposed a draft climate law, containing regulation to implement parts of its Green Deal plan. On this issue, Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor for Climate Economics at Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, published a statement. Setting the right targets is not enough, he argues - "we need well-defined pathways and short-term entry points to reach them".
EU Commission draft climate law is "an important step" - yet comprehensive CO2 pricing is needed: Edenhofer

"To help achieve climate stabilization, the European Commission is now proposing a climate law. That certainly is an important step into the right direction - to secure sustainable prosperity, it's time to stop tiptoeing and start moving," Edenhofer says. "However, setting the right targets is not sufficient. We need well-defined pathways and short-term entry points to reach them. From an economist's perspective, the most efficient and socially equitable policy for achieving a safe climate future is a smartly-designed and comprehensive CO2 pricing. The EU should make use of it if it wants to achieve substantial reductions of greenhouse-gas emissions. A fair pricing scheme could help to align EU member states in full respect of their diversity by introducing compensation schemes and effort sharing. This could be the next step to take."

Weblink to complementary statement by Brigitte Knopf, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (jointly founded by Stiftung Mercator and the Potsdam Institute): https://www.mcc-berlin.net/en/news/information/information-detail/article/there_is_now_reason_for_hope_that_something_will_indeed_change_in_europe.html