As a response to the natural gas crises, Germany has built LNG terminals near ports to import fuel from elsewhere, says Ecke
EU MP Matthias Ecke. Photo: http://matthias-ecke.eu/
This interview has been updated
Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, a German non-profit funded by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, is hosting an Indian delegation in Europe’s largest economy between February 26 and March 3, 2023.
The delegation consists of individuals who can offer an Indian perspective as well as gain from the exchange on climate change and energy. Down to Earth (DTE) is a part of the delegation.
On February 26, Matthias Ecke, a member of the European Parliament since October 2022, addressed the delegation. He was formerly the European Commissioner of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) for the state of Saxony since 2020.
During the interaction, Ecke answered DTE’s questions on the European Green Deal, approved in 2020. The EU has committed to become carbon-neutral by 2050 as part of the Deal. Edited excerpts:
Seema Prasad: The NextGenerationEU (NGEU) package added €806.9 billion extra to the European Union’s initial Green Deal budget of €1.211 trillion for 2021-27, taking the total package to €2.018 trillion. Did adding this Covid recovery package, simultaneously aimed at green recovery, make any difference to the financing of the Green Deal?
Matthias Ecke: It did, because the NGEU package is quite substantial in financial volume. The budget of the European Union (EU) is normally equivalent to roughly one per cent of the bloc’s gross domestic product. With NGEU, it became 1.8 per cent of the total EU budget. The NGEU is nearly as much as the entire budget of the EU.
About 40 per cent is for green transition, which includes phasing in renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency, and so on. Also, a portion is focused on digital transformation in the energy sector. For example, Germany paid subsidies to buy electric cars from that. A lump sum deducted from any price of an electric vehicle was paid for from that.
SP: The SPD proposes to increase electronic vehicles by deploying more charging infrastructure. How exactly do you plan to go about this
ME: This is only one piece. There’s a European legislation passed by the European Parliament called the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, which is part of the Green Deal. It has a component that sets common standards on the number of kilometres to be allowed between charging stations.
However, this rule has not been mandated and is still the subject of negotiations between the European Council and Parliament. Usually, it is the European Commission that decides such matters.
SP: The rules to raise green finance through corporates are undecided as there is no definition of what constitutes a sustainable company. Where do you stand on investment from the private sector?
ME: There’s a taxonomy regulation (mandating a green classification system) that was decided before I entered Parliament, as you know. It is controversial as nuclear power and gas will be regarded as sustainable energy in certain circumstances under the taxonomy.
For example, gas replacing coal would come under the exception mentioned in the taxonomy, but gas replacing wind energy would not. My political family was against this but we were not successful.
All companies, public and private sector entities should be allowed to invest in the Green Deal. The public sector, in particular, has an important role and must be at forefront of sustainable development.
Of course, public transport companies such as the railways and public energy companies are all very important. However, the public sector is usually governed by political majorities and will be under political pressure.
SP: The German government decided to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038. Has the plan now derailed after Russia shut off from natural gas supplies, which formed a huge portion of your energy mix and was viewed as a transition fuel?
ME: No, it did not. Meanwhile, the production of lignite and coal increased more than expected. But we have stuck to this goal. In fact, it was pushed forward to 2030 in one of the coal regions in Germany, particularly by a deal between government and the the RWE (a German multinational energy company). There are negotiations on whether to phase out coal in other regions before 2038.
As a response to the natural gas crises, we built LNG terminals near ports to import from elsewhere (Norway, Qatar, the United States, among others).
SP: The European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) faces criticism due to its volatility in prices and emission caps. Can carbon taxes offer an alternative approach?
ME: No, I am actually convinced by the ETS approach, also covered by the Green Deal. We don’t have a carbon tax in that sense. We have an upgrade now, the ETS-II, which is even stricter and allows lesser emissions. It covers more sectors than before.
ETS only covered energy production and heavy industries. ETS-II covers buildings and the transport sector, which is a significant extension of it.
It makes buildings that are not energy efficient much more expensive to heat and maintain. Germany was a few years ahead in adopting a national emission trading system for the buildings and transport sector, much before the Green Deal considered it.
SP: Recently, climate activists protested the expansion of the Garzeweiler mines in the village of Lutzerath. This move gives energy company RWE access to 280 million more tonnes of coal. Does this not go against the priorities of the Green Deal?
ME: While expansion was allowed in the Garzeweiler mines, the plan is to phase out coal mines in other areas. This is part of the deal with the coal companies that they phase out part of their production earlier than it was legislatively agreed upon in other places.
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