During her last COP summit as Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel stressed the need for better pricing on carbon dioxide emissions.
In her speech on Monday in Glasgow, Scotland, Merkel made it clear that government actions alone will not be enough to tackle the climate crisis and more efforts are necessary.
Instead, she suggested the need for comprehensive, overall change in the way society lives, works and does business. And as a driver of this change, Merkel named the pricing on carbon dioxide emissions.
CO2 pricing is already available in the European Union and is in the process of being introduced in China.
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Other countries like the United States are still debating the matter, but Chancellor Merkel is convinced that this system must be implemented around the world to advance the global industry, economy and technological developments necessary to achieve carbon neutrality and meet climate goals.
Merkel went on to underline the fact that addressing climate change requires a comprehensive transformation of the economy, which will later allow us to figure out the best possible way of arranging carbon-free processes in our daily lives, including mobility, industry and so on.
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Germany’s leader turned to her colleagues with a plea to be more ambitious in the actions they take, making sure they are not only taken on national levels but are also extended to have a global reach.
Furthermore, Merkel added, the tools that national governments use to facilitate the transformation should not be exclusively dependent on tax money and should, instead, be economically reasonable, which she believes carbon pricing to be exactly.
We are closely following the developments of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, and we have covered in detail what its significance for the planet is here.
