A CO2 price must not hurt the poor – environment minister and union head
Tagesspiegel
Germany plays a central role at the UN climate summit COP24 because it wants to show that ambitious climate protection offers big opportunities for new and sustainable jobs, according to environment minister Svenja Schulze and the head of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), Reiner Hoffmann. The country’s coal commission will be the litmus test for this approach, Schulze and Hoffmann write in a guest article published in the Tagesspiegel. They argue that a “just transition” requires active policy because market forces alone will not do the trick, and that the transport, buildings and agriculture sectors need a consistent CO2 price signal. They add that a CO2 price must not have “negative effects on small and medium income groups” or “place an unjust burden on commuters or renters.”
Read the article in German here.
Find background in the article Fear of public backlash and complexity hold back German CO2 price.
