Green Energy Day – CO2 tax needed

Green Energy Day – CO2 tax needed

The Green Energy Day is the day on which we have used all sustainable energy that is generated in that year. In the Netherlands that is February 11. We use fossil energy for the rest of the year. We still have a long way to go. Fortunately, there is also good news from the European Union.

For the first time, more electricity is generated in the EU with sun and wind than with coal! In the past year, the production of electricity from coal even decreased by 24% and has halved since 2012. However, the Netherlands is still lagging behind in this area and scores badly. This is partially due to the three recently built coal-fired power stations from 2015 and 2016. The objective is to close these power stations by 2030.

Now the bad news. We import part of the CO2 emissions. We already import more than 1/3 of the CO2 emissions and the main exporter of this CO2 is China. Furthermore, it would not be fair for our own industry if a CO2 tax needs to be paid here and countries outside the EU would still be able to freely emit CO2. I can only endorse the argument of the economist Mathijs Bouman that we need a CO2 tax to give the generation of green energy more advantages. It is a good thing that we are now looking at the introduction of the CO2 tax in the Netherlands. Now we should try to include a CO2 tax in all member states of the EU and import.

 

About this article

11 February 2020 / Author: Dr. Ir. René Cornelissen

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