More CO2 emissions, less climate protection

Germany plans cutbacks in climate protection: CO2 emissions in Germany have risen by 1.6 percent in 2012. Nevertheless the federal government plans to cut several programmes for climate protection and energy saving due to a lack of money. The programmes that will be affected are promotion of e-mobility, development of energy storage devices and the forst climate fund as the magazine Der Spiegel reports in its new issue. The department of environment minister Peter Altmaier will publish the cutbacks in climate protection programmes in the month of March.

The energy and climate fund of the federal government has a gap of 1.2 to 1.4 b euros this year. In 2014, the fund will be undercapitalized with a further deficit of 1.1 b euros. The reason behind this is the dramatic price collapse of the EU emissions trading whose revenues are invested in the energy and climate fund. Last year a certificate for a single ton of CO2 costed less than ten euros. Meanwhile the EU emission allowances are in free fall. Right now a certificate is traded for almost 3.50 euros.