economy climate protection
Economists criticize Hans-Werner’s sense of the statement about the combustion engine off
Status: 01.08.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
“Climate change is accelerating because of the combustion ban”
The President Emeritus of the Ifo Institute, Hans-Werner Sinn, criticizes the federal government’s energy policy. The CO₂ emissions from oil, coal and Co. can only be reduced if “everyone or almost everyone participates, because what we don’t consume is otherwise consumed by others,” said the economics professor of the “Bild” newspaper.
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Combustion off harms the climate: The thesis of the economist Hans-Werner Sinn has provoked contradiction among economists. Moritz Schularick from the World Economic Institute in Kiel assumes that Sinn is sticking to the status quo. Management Veronika Grimm expresses approval.
Leading German economists and energy economists take the theses of Hans-Werner Sinn to court. But there is also approval, reports the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. The former president of the Munich Ifo Institute had claimed that the imminent end of new cars with combustion engines in 2035 would harm the climate. He also attested a negative effect to other national climate protection measures.
Monika Schnitzer, Chair of the Council of Experts for the Assessment of Overall Economic Development, told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” about the allegedly climate-damaging combustion engine shutdown: “With all due respect for my colleague Sinn: He is wrong with this assertion.” Moritz Schularick, President of Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) assumes that Sinn is sticking to an old technology. “Looking for arguments now as to why, after all, we can just carry on doing what we’ve always done only deepens the problems,” he said.
Veronika Grimm, also part of the Advisory Council, whose members are also known as economic wise men, expressed more agreement: climate protection must indeed be thought of globally. “Only when it is ultimately more attractive to grow on the basis of climate-friendly technologies can we as humanity be successful,” said the energy economist.
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Economist Schnitzer commented on Sinn’s thesis that lower oil consumption in Germany would not have an effect on the climate because more cheap oil would then be consumed elsewhere: “Even if the oil-exporting countries market their oil cheaper worldwide, that does not mean that they produce more overall than before, so the climate damage will not be greater.” On the contrary, it will be less if they are offered alternative sources of income, such as the export of hydrogen. The ban on combustion engines also does not harm the German auto industry. “The opposite is the case,” said Schnitzer. It hurt her that politicians were too hesitant to switch to electromobility
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The Kiel economist Schularick replied to Sinn that it is not right that emissions in Europe are increasing due to coal combustion and the nuclear phase-out. “European emissions trading works,” said Schularick. “Also last year, despite the gas crisis and the burning of coal, we emitted less CO₂ overall in Europe.”
“The climate problem is a cooperation problem”
Sinn met with more approval from Axel Ockenfels and Economics Veronika Grimm. Ockenfels, the new director at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, said: “It’s right: the climate problem is essentially a cooperation problem.” Unilateral efforts could reduce the incentive for other countries to cooperate. Under certain circumstances, the climate effect could then be “very small, or even negative”.
But that doesn’t mean that Germany can’t do anything on its own, or that a ban on combustion engines necessarily has no effect. “On the one hand, there are approaches to how international cooperation can succeed,” said Ockenfels, referring to projects such as the climate club initiated by the federal government. Second, Germany can help make safe and reliable green energy cheaper than fossil fuels. If this succeeds, from now on it will be in the self-interest of states and companies – and car manufacturers and drivers – to leave fossil resources in the ground.
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Economist Grimm sees it that way too. “The faster we make climate-friendly technologies cheap, the easier it will be.” This applies not only to electricity from renewable energy sources, but above all to hydrogen and energy sources based on it. “By the way, China and the USA have recognized this and are driving the development forward,” says the researcher.
It is true that “public funds are much better invested in activities that strengthen global climate protection”. Grimm named energy partnerships as an example. Hydrogen can be imported from other countries, for example. At the same time, the on-site systems should be configured in such a way that the partner countries also operate on the basis of green energy. Due to the “very nationally focused climate protection debate, this is difficult to convey”. In this respect, Sinn is absolutely right, “that the narrowed focus on national and European climate protection ultimately harms climate protection”.