BERLIN, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The climate protection plans adopted by the German government last week were "unlikely to be sufficient" to achieve Germany's national 2030 climate targets, said the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) on Monday.
With an initial price of only 10 euros (11 U.S. dollars) for a ton of carbon which is set to gradually rise to 35 euros by 2025, the German government had acted "much more timidly" than recommended, the two German institutes stated.
The German climate protection plans were "at best an indication of a change of direction, but this has not yet taken place", MCC Director Ottmar Edenhofer said.
The experts of PIK and MCC are recommending a starting price of 50 euros (55 dollars) per carbon ton in order to avoid "considerable price increases" which would be likely become necessary after 2026 in order to achieve Germany's targets.
The CO2-pricing set by the German government was "too low and does not extend far enough into the future to provide sufficient guidance and the necessary security for investment," according to PIK and MCC.
Because poorer households would spend a significant part of their income on energy, the institutes also demand the social impacts of the German climate package be reviewed. "The bottom line is that high earners are less burdened in percentage terms than the middle class," the institutes said.
Back in July, the two institutes presented an expert report on carbon pricing to the German climate cabinet and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and recommended a three-stage process for carbon pricing.
In order to avoid a growing "patchwork of incompatible national approaches" across Europe, the institutes suggest coordinating with similar concepts in other European Union member states as quickly as possible.
