For a Green Deal 2.0

In the recent election campaigns in Austria and Germany, climate protection played a subordinate role. It is humanly understandable that voters (and thus politicians) focus on issues that are burning now and prioritise future challenges less. We know this all too well when it comes to pension reform. In the long term, however, such behaviour will come back to haunt us. Anyone who thinks that we in Europe must first find an answer to the geopolitical challenges before we can devote ourselves to combating climate change again is barking up the wrong tree. Especially since there are numerous interdependencies between geopolitics and climate change – keyword: climate migration. However, it is also true that we in Europe must take a much more pragmatic approach to combating climate change. If we want to maintain prosperity and thus social peace in Europe, we cannot afford to lose the remaining European key industries. I am thinking here, for example, of the chemical industry. We will neither achieve decarbonisation through deindustrialisation nor is the extent of regulatory reporting a suitable indicator for efficient climate protection. The best measures to reduce CO2 in industry are being developed by responsible managers in their core production processes. Instead of pressuring or controlling these managers, it would be more effective to free up valuable innovation capacity by reducing reporting requirements. It is therefore a step in the right direction that the EU Commission wants to reform several laws from the Green Deal: the EU Supply Chain Law, the Sustainability Reporting Directive, the EU Taxonomy, and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Further steps must follow. We need nothing more and nothing less than a Deal 2.0 that has a clear focus on transition and innovation. A great deal of capital will be needed for financing. We banks are prepared to play our part.