From Absolute.Impact 02/22:
It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of the numerous offers of climate protection measures and to separate the wheat from the chaff. Does one really make a lasting contribution to reducing global emissions if one wants to clean up one’s own CO2 footprint with compensation certificates from hydroelectric power plants that were built in India years ago? What contribution can participation in tree-planting projects in the rainforest make?
Doubts are justified. If the power plant has already been built, the cheaply traded certificates will only redistribute the glory of days gone by. This does not change anything about future emissions. And investments in reforestation only bring something if it can be permanently secured and protected against bark beetle infestation, deforestation and forest fires. Who can guarantee that at reasonable cost?
Emissions trading is a completely transparent and efficient instrument that politicians, companies, private households and investors could use to achieve their climate targets. It was introduced in 2005 to implement the targets agreed in the Kyoto climate protection agreement and has since become the central European climate protection instrument. Under the scheme, all energy-intensive industries in the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are obliged to buy emission allowances for their emissions, which are becoming scarcer every year…
The full article by Allinger, Cors and Krottenthaler can be found in absolute Impact, issue 2/2022, pp. 46-51.
