Guest commentary: The climate transformation will not be successful solely with increasing subsidies
To increase demand for green products, their prices must come down. Politics should also stimulate demand through tax incentives, says Clariant CEO Conrad Keijzer.
This summer in Europe is marked by record heat and devastating forest fires. In France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Romania and the Netherlands, more than half a million hectares of forest have been burned and lost for many years. At the same time, the war in the Middle East shows us how fossil raw materials are increasingly being used as a geopolitical weapon.
Both of these things show how urgently Europe needs to overcome its dependence on fossil energies and raw materials. It is all the more remarkable that the climate transformation is currently losing momentum.
The problem is no longer primarily that technical solutions are lacking. Many climate-friendly technologies are available or ready for the market. The bigger challenge is to create sufficient demand for CO2-low products and materials. Europe therefore needs not only an energy transition that makes us more independent of oil and gas.
It also needs a transformation of its raw materials and material base. Renewable raw materials and green hydrogen can reduce emissions, increase supply security and boost the resilience of European value chains.
It will now be crucial to bring these solutions to market faster and at competitive prices.
Translated by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report; automated translation may contain errors. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
