The Economic Council of the ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) wants to lower Germany’s current climate target for 2020.
The Economic Council of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) is questioning the current climate target of Germany’s federal government in response to plans by Economic Minister Sigmar Gabriel (Social Democratic Party) to impose a climate levy on older coal power plants. “It was a mistake not to reduce the CO2 target to 30 percent by 2020 while phasing out of nuclear energy, ” the Secretary General of the Economic Council, Wolfgang Steiger, criticised.
The CDU business wing fears the loss of thousands of jobs and an “accelerated de-industrialization” of Germany should Gabriel prevail with his planned carbon tax. Gabriel is considering to tax coal power plants in order to save 22 million tons of CO2 emissions. The federal government’s coal is to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 percent by 2020.
The CDU’s Economic Council Secretary is now proposing a reduced climate target: “A realistic target corridor of 35 to 40 percent now needs to be established.”