New Episode of Resources Radio on Carbon Pricing in Germany
WASHINGTON, DC—This week, Resources for the Future (RFF) released a new installment of Resources Radio: “Carbon Pricing in Germany, with Christian Flachsland of the Mercator Research Institute.”
In today’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Christian Flachsland, the head of the Governance Working Group at Germany's Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change and an assistant professor for Climate and Energy Governance at the Hertie School of Governance. They discuss energy policies in Germany, the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), and ways to make these policies more efficient while still achieving climate goals.
Notable quotes from the podcast:
- “For the EU ETS sectors, we suggest to introduce a price floor to insure against downward price risk of 20 euro in the year 2020, and then rising to 35 euro in the year 2030. That would be sufficient to achieve the emission targets in the German electricity sector that Germany has set for itself and that it also has in the EU climate legislation.”—Christian Flachsland (7:54)
- “It would be absolutely fantastic to get an EU-wide minimum price in the ETS, and coordinate carbon pricing in the other sectors across the European Union.”—Christian Flachsland (11:44)
- “The renewable constituency has begun endorsing a carbon price . . . it used to be a very divisive discussion between proponents of carbon pricing and of renewables. This is very new that we have a coalition emerging here, which is one of my favorite German policy developments.”—Christian Flachsland (16:19)
Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics, and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy.
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. RFF does not take positions on specific legislative proposals.
For more information, please see our media resources page or contact Media Relations and Communications Specialist Annie McDarris.
