Wet CO2-heffing industrie

Reactie

Vraag1

Citaten uit het artikel “A new opportunity to tackle climate change“ (21 mei 2020) in de gezaghebbende The Economist:

“Following the pandemic is like watching the climate crisis with your finger jammed on the fast-forward button. Neither the virus nor greenhouse gases care much for borders (..). Both put the poor and vulnerable at greater risk than wealthy elites and demand government action on a scale hardly ever seen in peacetime.
The two crises (..) interact. Shutting down swathes of the economy has led to huge cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. That drop reveals a crucial truth about the climate crisis. It is much too large to be solved by the abandonment of planes, trains and automobiles. Even if people endure huge changes in how they lead their lives (..) the world would still have more than 90% of the necessary decarbonisation left to do to get on track for the Paris agreement’s most ambitious goal.

(..) The pandemic both reveals the size of the challenge ahead and also creates a unique chance to enact government policies that steer the economy away from carbon at a lower financial, social and political cost than might otherwise have been the case. Rock-bottom energy prices make it easier to cut subsidies for fossil fuels and to introduce a tax on carbon. The revenues from that tax over the next decade can help repair battered government finances. The businesses at the heart of the fossil-fuel economy —oil and gas firms, steel producers, carmakers— are already going through the agony of shrinking their long-term capacity and employment. Getting economies in medically induced comas back on their feet is a circumstance tailor-made for investment in climate-friendly infrastructure that boosts growth and creates new jobs. Low interest rates make the bill smaller than ever.”

Een centraal punt is: er moet NU gericht worden ingegrepen door regeringen. Geen uitstel, niet: pappen en nathouden.
Ik steun daarom het pleidooi van Milieudefensie voor een ambitieuze en effectieve CO2-heffing voor de industrie. Dat is dus een heffing:
- Met een hoge prijs per ton CO2 , minimaal €50, en oplopend per jaar
- Waarbij de industrie geen vrijstellingen en voordelen meer blijft krijgen
- Die snel ingaat, niet pas in 2024, zoals nu gepland is.