- CO2 border adjustment takes aim at China’s steel
- Super laser: energy becomes matter
- Economic growth amounts to 7.9 percent
- Maas criticizes vaccination diplomacy
- Xi-Biden meeting in preparation
- Control of info on loopholes on the net
- Corona vaccination of young people
- Portrait: CSU European politician Monika Hohlmeier
- Personal: Pharmaceutical guru dies
when the European Union puts the CO2 limit compensation into effect, the consequences will consequently also be felt in the People’s Republic of China. Suppliers there may have to restructure their entire production to meet the requirements. The manoeuvre is a good example of how Europe can use its own strengths in the battle with its systemic rival. Namely, within the framework of standards and laws. Anyone who wants to make money from or in Europe simply has to abide by our rules. It is only up to us to draw up these rules consistently according to our interests. After all, the People’s Republic of China does the same the other way round. A touch of level playing field, so to speak.
Meanwhile, researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics seem to be in a league of their own. The laser technology they have developed is said to be able to fire a beam that far outshines all other lasers in the world. Frank Sieren describes why this could also be of interest to ordinary mortals.
Meanwhile, sparrows are whistling from the rooftops that China’s leader Xi and US President Biden could meet in person for the first time in October , at least in this constellation of offices. Did you know that a preliminary meeting for a preliminary meeting for the main meeting is necessary before the gentlemen are allowed to shake hands? No wonder geopolitics is so damn complicated.
I wish you an entertaining quarter of an hour.
Marcel Grzanna
Analysis
Chinese dumping steel under fire
It has been a long time since the stage in the press room of the EU Commission in Brussels was so full and so high-calibre: six EU Commissioners and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen jointly presented the “Fit for 55” climate package on Wednesday. But there is also a lot at stake. The package of energy and climate laws aims to achieve the EU climate targets of 2030 (minus 55 percent emissions compared to 1990) and 2050 (climate neutrality). The package of twelve legislative initiatives also includes the reform of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with an extension to shipping and the establishment of a CO2 border adjustment. The latter in particular could still cause resentment in international trade.
Because China’s dumping steel is now clearly in the firing line. Beijing had already signalled concern about the EU project in advance. And the concerns are shared at the highest levels of government: Xi Jinping already raised the matter in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in April. Tackling climate change is a shared responsibility and should not become a geopolitical bargaining tool, state media quoted Xi as warning at the time from the conversation with Merkel and Macron. China’s representatives in Brussels stressed that the project still needed to be discussed.
This is what the controversial mechanism looks like: The EU Commission has now chosen a rather narrow approach of basic materials for the legislative proposal for CO2 border adjustment ( CBAM for short, after the abbreviation for “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism”) for the time being. In the first phase, only imports of cement, various iron, steel and aluminium goods, fertilisers and electricity will be affected. The mechanism will apply to all third countries except Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The Commission also reserves the right to adapt the list of products concerned. The list of excluded third countries may also be amended if an emissions trading system based on the European model is introduced in the countries concerned, which can be linked to the European ETS. The CBAM is to take full effect from 2026.
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