Government impositions needed for climate protection

While the Green Party has steered clear of proposing certain impositions on the population– such as higher fuel prices – during the current election campaign, such actions by the government are ultimately indispensable to protect the climate, writes Detlef Esslinger in an opinion piece for Süddeutsche Zeitung. This is due to what is known as the ‘rationality trap’, where what is rational action for an individual does not correspond to what is rational for society as a whole. In today’s society, “climate protection is only possible if the state uses its coordinating hand. It can work with regulations, bans, or incentives. But the main thing is that it falls on the state to do it. The state alone is capable of quickly showing the way out of the rationality trap”, Esslinger writes.

Read the opinion piece in German here.

For background, read the CLEW interview Dieselgate and climate fears fail to ignite voters' passion – pollster.