European Commission’s zero-carbon 2050 target a “farewell to the industry” – opinion
Handelsblatt
When presenting the European Commission’s plans for a carbon-neutral EU in 2050, energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete’s remark that certain industries “might disappear” in the process is a “serious” finding that “could strike Germany at its core,” writes Klaus Stratmann in an opinion piece for the Handelsblatt. Germany’s industry still contributes way over 20 percent to the country’s GDP, something the “Brits, the French, the Italians or the US-Americans can only dream of,” Stratmann says. Germany owes a lot of its recent economic stability to its industrial capacity and energy-intensive industries like chemicals, steel, metals, or concrete are at the core of this success model, he writes. “It would be careless to threaten these industries’ existence,” but “Canete seems to think they are dispensable.” A certain amount of emissions simply cannot be avoided in a working economy, and unless procedures like carbon capture and storage (CCS) are better promoted by policymakers, Europe’s emissions will not go to zero but will simply be replaced by producers in other regions, he writes.
Read the opinion piece in German here (paywall).
See the CLEW article Call for open debate on CCU and CCS to save industry emissions and the dossier The energy transition’s effects on the economy for more information.
