Germany has officially announced that it would be enacting the "Climate Change Act" on Sept. 20, which mandates the achievement of the goal to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 55% from the 1990 level by 2030. The implementation of the plan is expected to cost an estimated 54 billion euros in total.
The government has pointed out that it would be funding the plan by implementing a levy of carbon prices on carbon emissions in the transportation and construction sectors; it will also be implementing a series of fuel-oil surcharges on the country's domestic flights and trucks; by 2030, the government’s goal is to install 1 million charging posts for electric cars in the country. In the future, it will also start to provide subsidies for electric-car purchases.
The levy of carbon price, which is mainly being targeted towards the major carbon-emitting units, will start from 2021 at 10 euros per ton of CO2. The cost will increase annually to 35 euros by 2025 before hitting the ceiling of 60 euros. Meanwhile, the EEG levy on the common people will drop gradually, to 0.25 euros/KWh by 2021 and 0.0625/KWh by 2023.
The Climate Change Act will also lift the existing total ceiling of 52 GW for PV-power subsidies, which was previously set by the Renewable Sources Act (EEG), as the accumulated PV power capacity in the country had already hit 45.3 GW by the end of Oct. and is expected to reach the ceiling by around 2020.
At the present stage, the total annual subsidy ceiling of 2.5 GW in the country will still remain in place.
In addition to PV power, the government in Germany has also set an ambitious goal for the development of its offshore wind power, whose total capacity is expected to surpass the 20 GW mark by 2030. The additional development of the country's wind power will entail an installation of approximately 13.5 GW during 2020-2030. To attain the goal, the government will have to hold special open biddings for 2,000 MW of capacity by the end of 2019, according to industry players.
The "Climate Change Act" is meant to step up the effort to combat CO2 emissions, as the country’s original goal of cutting CO2 emission by 40% from the 1990 level by 2020 appears to be unattainable, according the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(Collaborative media: TechNews, photo courtesy of pixabay)