Status: 12/12/2022 8:08 p.m
At the suggestion of Chancellor Scholz, the G7 group has agreed to set up a “climate club”. The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions in industry. Other countries are also invited to join the club.
The G7 states of democratic economic powers have founded an international “climate club” to combat global warming. Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced this after a video conference with the other heads of state and government of the G7. A statute was adopted with which the club was founded, Scholz said at a press conference. Scholz had already initiated the “Climate Club” at the beginning of the year at the beginning of the German G7 presidency.
Industry should become “greener”.
The initiative is intended to support the rapid implementation of the Paris climate agreement and, in particular, to advance the reduction of emissions in the industrial sector. At the same time, it is intended to prevent companies from countries that set themselves ambitious climate protection goals from receiving unfair competition from countries with low environmental standards or from relocating production sites to these countries.
Scholz warned that the necessary climate-friendly restructuring of industries around the world must not result in “tariff wars”. In principle, the club should be open to all countries, regardless of size, level of economic development and political system.
China is also invited
Scholz also expressly invited China to take part in the initiative. In terms of quantity, the People’s Republic emits the most climate-damaging greenhouse gases worldwide, followed by the USA and India. The G7 together are responsible for about a fifth of emissions. In addition to Germany, these include the USA, Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan. Germany will chair until the end of the year, followed by Japan.
Who belongs to the club apart from the G7 initially remained open. However, Scholz explained that it should not be a G7 initiative, but should be widely supported globally. It was “not intended as an exclusive club at all”. The aim is open cooperation, also with the major issuers. In addition to the statute, the G7 also decided that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) should set up an interim secretariat, in tandem with the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Habeck: States can become “drivers”.
According to a press release, Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said that committed states could become “international drivers” in the club in order to save greenhouse gases that are harmful to the climate in industry. “We want to bring climate-friendly raw materials, such as green steel, to the market faster and improve their chances internationally.” Steel is considered “green” if it was produced using renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.
The idea for such an initiative goes back to US Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus. In 2015, in an article entitled “Climate Clubs: Overcoming Free-riding in International Climate Policy”, he argued that coordinated trade sanctions in the form of protective tariffs could be an effective instrument for enforcing climate goals internationally.