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PIK Director Edenhofer: Reversing the Ban on Combustion Engines is a Bad Idea - for the Economy and the Climate

Constant stop-and-go in climate policy is not effective: The economist sharply criticizes the CDU/CSU plans and sees the traffic transition heading for disaster. From his perspective, far too much time has been wasted. Consistent climate policy also serves the economy and competitiveness. China is making significant advances in energy and traffic transition.

Reads the riot act to the CDU/CSU: The reversal of the EU's combustion engine phase-out would be a bad idea and would massively impair competitiveness and climate protection in Germany, warns PIK Director Otmar Edenhofer. | Photo: PIK
Reads the riot act to the CDU/CSU: The reversal of the EU's combustion engine phase-out would be a bad idea and would massively impair competitiveness and climate protection in Germany, warns PIK Director Otmar Edenhofer. | Photo: PIK
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The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has sharply criticized the CDU's plans to retract the EU ban on fossil-fueled new vehicles. "Completely annulling the ban would be a bad idea," declared PIK Director Ottmar Edenhofer in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ). In their programs for the federal election on February 23, CDU/CSU and FDP are calling for the retraction of the EU-wide ban on new diesel and gasoline vehicles from 2035. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann recently told NOZ: "The social market economy says that engineers know better which technologies will prevail than politicians do. We will stop the combustion engine ban."

In response, Edenhofer remarked: "This constant political stop and go is really not effective. We can't say in the mobility transition: We are heading towards a wall, and it has gone well for a long time, so we just keep on going," criticized the PIK Director.

Reasons for Edenhofer's warnings against retracting the combustion engine ban include, in addition to global warming, the global development of industry. "Too much time has already been wasted in the transition to e-cars. The idea of reinventing the product and basically building the iPhone on four wheels was dismissed as a pipe dream," the climate economist told the newspaper. The climate economist also sharply rejected accusations from CDU, FDP, AfD, and BSW that climate protection is to blame for the economic crisis.

"The narrative that climate policy harms competitiveness and destroys jobs is fatal. The truth is: If we get stuck in the middle of the transition now, we lose the future," the PIK Director said in the interview. "We are only among the winners if we move forward."

Already a quarter of global emissions are now subject to CO2 pricing, which is also making gasoline and diesel increasingly expensive, explained Edenhofer.

"Nevertheless, it is being said domestically that the Germans are stripping themselves for climate protection, while others laugh and slap their thighs. What nonsense!"

China is advancing at a pace in the expansion of wind and solar, energy storage, electric cars, and other green technologies "that leaves us speechless," the climate economist explained. Already 30 percent of regions worldwide have managed to decouple their economic growth from emission growth, including the USA. The large climate protection program Inflation Reduction Act has already set massive investments in motion there. Even Donald Trump will barely be able to completely stifle this, predicts Edenhofer.

Translated automatically from German.
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