News:German parliament has passed the Climate Protection Act in an attempt to reach its climate target by 2030.
Facts:
Key features of the bill:
- The bill aims to cut Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions to 55% of the 1990 levels by 2030.
- It consists of emissions targets for different sectors of the economy such as transport, energy and housing.
- The bill also consists of several measures such as $60 billion spending package, a fee system for carbon emissions and taxes to make flying more expensive.
- The bill also imposes a price on carbon emissions in the transport and heating sectors along with some other measures to combat climate change.
- From 2021,companies that market diesel and petrol, heating oil and natural gas in the country will need to obtain pollution rights for the amount of greenhouse gases they emit.This will be regulated through a national emissions trading mechanism.
Additional information:
About Emission trading mechanism
- Emission trading systems(ETS) is also referred to as the cap-and-trade system.
- Under ETS, the government caps the total level of greenhouse gas emissions provided to the companies and allows those industries with low emissions to sell their extra allowances to larger emitters.
