The Green Challenge
The European Environment Agency (EEA, a body of the EU) points out in its latest report, that “deployment [of carbon reduction measures] remains slow and geographically uneven”. It commences that “incremental efficiency improvements will not suffice” and that deep transformation of core industries is now unavoidable. The report closes with the essence: “any further postponement of implementation will make transitions more expensive and socially disruptive.”
The German Institute of the economy, DIW, has calculated, that every Euro spend for climate change mitigation saves between € 1,8 and € 4,8 in climate change cost to be paid later. For some this seems hard to understand. These people ask where those profits will then occur. They don’t understand, that we are now opening an obligation for paying climate change cost in the future and by reducing climate change we can reduce that obligation. So, we are not getting any profit now from investing into climate change mitigation – we will be reducing the amount of money we will have to pay in the future.
So we - collectively - would be bad businessmen if we wouldn’t do the investments now. But why don’t we do it then? The EEA points at the slow administration and high bureaucracy which unduly extends project timelines, as well as unclear regulations for the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) which all in all does not allow cement producers to estimate their future carbon costs. Many industry leaders seem to be ready to make the decisions if they would only have the possibility to estimate their future CO2 cost and assume a level play field. But one thing is clear as well: the longer we procrastinate, the more expensive will it be in the end.
Well, I admit, that this transformation is an unprecedented challenge for mankind, but still we need to face it and cope with it. And we will not succeed if we don’t take action. It’s time to wake up! We should not be the frog in the hot water who does not realize that the water will be boiling him to death if he does not jump out of the water.
Yours sincerely
Matthias Mersmann
