Ursula von der Leyen Says EU’s Carbon Market Has Generated 260B Euros: ‘If You Don’t Want to Pay, Innovate’

EXCERPT:

VON DER LEYEN: “The Emission Trading System has clear benefits. It’s always important that we look at the effects. It is a market-based system. It is technology, completely neutral. It says basically, if you want to pollute, you pay. If you don’t want to pay, innovate. And this is what happened. It has been introduced in 2005, and since then the emissions have gone down by 39 percent. The sectors covered by ETS 1 have grown by 71 percent, so decarbonization and growth can go hand in hand. And there were revenues of €260 billion generated, partially for the European level, it’s a smaller part, mostly, 78 percent, for the member states themselves. The European part is reinvested in innovation and was one of the drivers that our industries are partially world leader in clean industry and innovation.”