April 17, 2018 - Views clashed in the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue session on carbon pricing. Researcher Ottmar Edenhofer, professor from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Mercator Research Institute for Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), tried to convince audience and panellists that putting a price on carbon was not only a cost efficient but also the most effective way to stop the renaissance of coal power around the world. “Carbon pricing penalizes coal usage and it can create revenue which finance ministers around the world can use,” Edenhofer argued.

French Secretary of State for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Brune Poirson said that since many EU member states (e.g. Portugal, Denmark, Italy) were planning to phase-out coal, “We are in a position to build a coalition for a carbon floor price now” - something that the German government coalition parties have not found a common position on yet. 

But Poland’s Deputy Minister for Energy, Michael Kurtyka, said that most emission decreases in recent history have been “very much due to economic slowdown” and not the investment in renewables or the European Emissions Trading System (ETS). He stressed the different situations that countries were finding themselves in, referring to their economies’ dependence on coal power. “You don’t have to convince me that we can marry ecology and economic success, because I have experienced bad air pollution in Krakow growing up.” The Polish way is to strengthen power storage technologies as a key to successful climate policy, he said. 

German ministers Heiko Maas (second from left) and Peter Altmaier (third from left) open the fourth Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue.

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