The Corona-crisis should not lead to the false conclusion that the climate change in the eyes of the people would have lost their meaning. The opposite is the case. The latest Figures that we have collected in a representative study with the Rhine-Westphalian Institute of economic research (RWI) and other partners, show that 70 percent see no change in the importance of climate protection. 23% are even of the opinion that the climate change have recently gained in importance. Well, 63 percent of the respondents are of the opinion that the measures for reviving the economy should also serve to achieve the climate goals.
the social support for climate change even in these extraordinary times, is important. If one believes the rhetoric, has also understood the EU Commission. She writes in her paper about the Vision for a climate-neutral economy: The climate change can only be effective and of the way in a new energy system is broken, only then successful, if the people accept as a consumer and citizen change and support. What is the meaning of this finding for the design of climate and energy policy, exactly, remains unclear.
take as example the “European Green Deal”. A significant strengthening has experienced this by the EU Commission in December 2019, announced a package of nearly 50 individual measures in ten fields of policy, through the European Council’s recently adopted Corona-reconstruction program.
The “5 I of the climate policy”
The measures of five principles, which we refer to as the “5 I of the climate policy”: the internalization – that is, the adequate pricing of pollution, such as CO2 emissions; innovations (especially on the promotion of research, development and entrepreneurship); and investment (especially in infrastructure); Interventions (for example, the prohibition of vehicles or power plants with high Emission or Immission values), and finally inclusion.
inclusion is the only point that actually represents the people in the center. As with inclusion, it is meant that socially disadvantaged persons are involved in the Transformation, that they can benefit from the opportunities of the Transformation and the risks to be protected. Currently, inclusion is based but in Europe, as in Germany, only people who lose because of the Coal phase – out their Job.
This is not sufficient, especially if one measures the social Dimension alone, along with financial criteria. Rather, a much more sophisticated sociology of climate protection and the energy turnaround is to write, as several representative surveys show that we have carried out from 2017 to 2020 with the Potsdam Institute for Transformative research on sustainability (IASS).
