THE “CLIMATE PRISON”
(FAW/n Report)
How current narratives and regulations block the path to effective and economically sensible climate protection
Germany’s situation regarding climate protection is tragic in two respects. On the one hand, the current approach achieves essentially nothing in addressing climate change as a global challenge. Worldwide emissions continue to rise. On the other hand, this path generates extremely high avoidable costs, which burden our country and especially large parts of the economy. The economic and social collateral damage of the chosen path is clearly visible. Alongside the many losers, there are also beneficiaries of this path – actors who have contributed to shaping the current regulatory framework and who seek to prevent any change to the status quo to the greatest possible extent. Since an overall economic assessment of past policies is so clearly negative, the new government is attempting to take new approaches, though it is con-strained by the narrow scope of pre-existing agreements. One can only wish it success, for success is urgently needed. However, this is easier said than done, as Germany is trapped in a regulatory “climate prison”. A more technology-open and international approach, which would massively reduce transformation costs and serve climate protection far more effectively, is made extremely difficult by the regulatory structures that have developed in recent years, with their deeply layered effects at multiple levels. For the sake of the people, the economy, and the climate, it is to be hoped that the new government will succeed – despite all resistance – in breaking free from this “prison”.