COP: little progress + Luxembourg slows • Table.Briefings

Dear reader,

For a week now, delegates in Glasgow have been discussing how to limit global warming, and on Sunday, the World Climate Conference took a break. Lukas Scheid used the day of rest to draw up a review of where things stand: Much was announced, but little tangible progress has been made so far in negotiations on sticking points such as the “Paris Rulebook”. The success or failure of COP26 must now be decided in the second week. Lukas Scheid and Timo Landenberger are on-site and will keep you up to date.

The EU member states are mainly in agreement: Large digital companies have become too powerful and must be regulated. In the negotiations in the Council on the Digital Markets Act, however, Luxembourg (like Ireland) has pushed for changes that would be in the interests of Google, Amazon, and others. The government is acting according to the principle that “who pays the piper calls the tune”, the domestic opposition criticizes.

Knowledge of foreign languages is not usually one of the strengths of German ministers (except for Peter Altmaier). Yet, how will the potential new cabinet members do at the Doorstep in front of the European Council of Ministers? Silke Wettach has listened to what Olaf Scholz, Robert Habeck, and Christian Lindner have said in English so far – and discovered gems like “to drive with a bike”. Read more in the Apéro.

Your
Till Hoppe

COP26: tough negotiations concerning Article 6

By

Lukas Knigge

On Sunday, the hustle and bustle of Glasgow was at rest – but only seemingly. Behind the scenes, hardly anyone was sitting still on the only official day of rest at the world climate conference. The upcoming second week of negotiations is simply too important for a successful outcome of COP26. It is about finalizing the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement – the so-called Paris Rulebook (Europe.Table reported).

The outstanding chapter of the rulebook consists of several paragraphs of Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement. Since 2015, the signatories have been negotiating what exactly the global emissions trading and offsetting agreed to in Paris should look like. At global climate conferences since Paris, countries have disagreed on what transparency rules should apply to reporting emissions savings and the extent to which double-counting of emissions reductions should be prevented. In Glasgow, both the British hosts and the EU have set themselves the goal of completing the rulebook.

The question of whether countries should be allowed to sell their emission reductions in the form of certificates in emissions trading, as well as count them towards their climate targets (NDCs), remains a sticking point. This is one of the crucial sticking points of Article 6: It is about a transparent system that is accessible to all stakeholders and in which emissions are reduced.

Although Brazil had indicated a willingness to compromise, we seem to be no closer to an agreement. On Thursday, the EU’s chief negotiator said negotiations with Brazil were dragging on. Jair Bolsonaro’s government would like to use the Amazon’s CO2 storage capacity both for its own climate goals and profitably in emissions trading.

“Transaction tax” on emissions trading

A working draft released Saturday night says only that it wants to prevent unnecessary double counting, as was already stipulated in the Paris Agreement. Rather cryptically, it says that countries should apply “appropriate adjustments” to the emissions savings they use for their NDCs. What impact these adjustments will have on allowances that end up in global emissions trading is thus still open. Thus, no progress has been made since the last negotiations in Madrid (COP25).

In addition, the developing countries are demanding from the industrialized countries that part of the proceeds from emissions trading always goes to the poorest countries. This would mean: If a European company or country buys carbon credits to improve its climate record, a kind of transaction tax would go to the Global South – even if the emissions are saved by a European organization. Developing countries are demanding this from developed countries as part of their commitment to climate finance. The EU and the US are strictly against it.

The question of how to deal with the emission certificates from the Kyoto Protocol (so-called CERs), a form of CO2 compensation that has existed since 2005, is also still open. The former emerging countries Brazil, India, and China are keen to take as many of these certificates as possible with them into the new system under the Paris rules, as they still hold heaps of certificates from the old system.

The current draft still contains various options, of which only one will remain in the end. According to this, it could happen that CERs are not approved at all or only for one’s own NDCs and not for emissions trading with other countries. A third possibility is that CERs issued up to or before a certain date will be allowed.

Mixed successes in the first week

In addition to the negotiations on Article 6, activists and environmental organizations are holding discussions in Glasgow on the successes of COP26 so far. There have already been numerous announcements in the first week, such as on methane reduction (Europe.Table reported), on stopping deforestation, and on phasing out coal-fired power generation. However, many of these announcements sounded more spectacular at first glance than they were at second glance.

On Monday, more than 100 heads of state and government agreed to halt global deforestation by 2030. A promise that had already been made in 2014. It has had no effect because the global forest dieback has continued unchecked since then. Moreover, there is already resistance to the promise. Indonesia has signed the paper but calls it “unfair.” In a Facebook post, Indonesia’s Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar wrote that the island nation was forced to sign. She argues that the country should be allowed to continue cutting down trees to build roads and develop.

The British hosts of the conference had announced that 190 states and organizations had committed themselves to the phasing out coal-fired power generation. However, this is to be undertaken with so much caution that it is difficult to see it as real progress. The figure of 190 includes not only countries but also organizations. Moreover, it also includes those countries that have long since declared their intention to phase out coal – including Germany.

Progress in methane reduction

So appearances are deceptive because there are only 77 signatures on the list, including 46 countries – some of which did not even give new exit dates in Glasgow. The USA, China, India, and Australia have not joined. To make matters worse, the list also includes countries that generate no electricity from coal at all. Nevertheless, Vietnam and South Korea – two major coal consumers – have recently announced their intention to phase out coal.

The global reduction of methane by eliminating leaks along natural gas supply chains can certainly be seen as an important success of this world climate conference. More than 100 countries want to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. However, Russia, India, and China are missing from the list of countries that have signed the “Methane Pledge” initiated by the USA and the EU.

At least in Russia, the EU could use its influence. As one of the most important buyers of Russian gas, they could make future gas supplies conditional on producers closing their pipeline leaks to reduce methane emissions, in line with the EU’s methane strategy.

In the sense of the digital corporations

Luxembourg is said to mean very well for its resident companies. Not only in terms of taxation, which got the country into trouble with the EU’s competition watchdogs, as in the Amazon case. But also in terms of the regulation that affects the companies. Legal texts like the Digital Markets Act or the Digital Services Act (Europe.Table reported) are currently being discussed in the Council and the European Parliament.

The Luxembourg government has been intensively involved in the discussions about the DMA, as Council documents that Europe.Table has been able to view have shown. And certainly in the interests of the digital companies. Coincidence? The online retail and cloud giant Amazon has its European headquarters in the Grand Duchy, and the government is also campaigning hard for Google to locate a large data center there.

The government denies the accusations that it is trying to water down the regulation of digital companies. It supports the EU Commission’s efforts, the economics ministry says, and is committed to maximum harmonization of rules and a functioning EU single market. “This should make smaller and medium-sized platforms competitive with large digital companies.”

There are indeed clues to this as well. But there are a few points that give cause for concern:

Together with three other EU member states, Luxembourg wanted to prevent cloud services from being added to the list of “core platform services” which would be regulated. They argued that there is more competition in the market than, for example, in app stores. However, the cloud business is also dominated by a few companies – including Amazon and Google. Luxembourg (and others like Ireland) were unable to get their way with this in the Council.
The core of the DMA is a catalogue of obligations that should apply to gatekeeper platforms . Luxembourg, however, argued for these to be subject to provisos, similar to Ireland: The protection of “integrity, security and quality of services” must be taken into account, the opinion says. This repeats one of the main arguments of the tech industry: in particular, Apple CEO Tim Cook warns loudly about the risks of so-called sideloading, which allows software from sources other than the in-house app store to be installed on iPhones and Co.
For the intended harmonisation of the rules in the EU, it is necessary, according to Luxembourg, that the DMA as directly binding EU law replaces national laws with similar thrust. For Germany, this would have meant that the GWB amendment in force since the beginning of the year would have become obsolete. On the basis of this, the Federal Cartel Office has initiated several proceedings against large platforms. Here, the Council agreed on a compromise that gives the Cartel Office leeway.

The Luxembourg government’s position has been sharply criticized by the domestic opposition. “On the one hand, Luxembourg is trying to get rid of its bad reputation. On the other, it is playing lobbyist for American companies,” former EU Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding tells Europe.Table. To the outside world, the government holds values and data protection in high regard. “But in the backroom negotiations, these no longer play a role,” says Reding, who now sits on the opposition bench as a Christian Democrat MEP.

“Who pays the piper calls the tune”

“Who pays the piper calls the tune”: This is the negotiating tactic of the Luxembourg government, says Sven Clement of the Pirate Party. The government’s position is not surprising: after all, the same government filed a complaint against Amazon having to pay taxes in Luxembourg.

As recently as October, Clement had put a parliamentary question to Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna (DP). He wanted to know whether Google could expect tax advantages in return for building a data center in Luxembourg. The answer: No. “It’s clear that you then have to offer something else to lure the company to the country. Google is not coming because the meadows are so green, and the sun shines so beautifully,” said Clement. And not much more than an advantageous negotiating position in the Council remains as a lure.

It is unclear what advantage Luxembourg hopes to gain in the long term, says the digitalization expert. “Google is not bringing any economic substance to Luxembourg. The data center will not create skilled jobs.” It is a prestige project, at best.

For almost four years, the group has been working on the construction of a data center in Bissen near Mersch. The project has attracted a lot of criticism in Luxembourg, particularly because of its environmental impact. There has been political upheaval, the resignation of the mayor, and lawsuits before the administrative court.

Google waits to be asked

The environmental impact assessment required for the construction is currently underway. It is noticeable, however, that Google seems to be making little effort to push ahead with the planning. Environmental studies required by the Ministry of the Environment have not yet been submitted. The concrete construction plan is also still missing. Rather, it is the Ministry of Economy that is trying to get Google to locate in Luxembourg. The relationship between Google and Luxembourg came about more through state mediation than on the initiative of the internet company.

It was the then Minister of the Economy, Etienne Schneider (LSAP), who approached the group through an agency. Google is not an isolated case. Schneider has already tried several times to bring large companies into the country but has regularly failed.

There was no shortage of nice gestures: to lure the yogurt producer Fage to Luxembourg, the Ministry of Economic Affairs purchased a plot of land for €26.7 million – even though the Luxembourg-based company paid just €450,000 in taxes. Against this backdrop, it would hardly come as a surprise that Luxembourg is also reaching into its bag of tricks with regards to Google. Charlotte Wirth/Till Hoppe

Cookie pop-ups apparently violate GDPR

A consent procedure for tracking cookies used by numerous online advertising marketers violates the General Data Protection Regulation. The online advertising industry association IAB Europe said on Friday that it had been informed by the Belgian data protection supervisory authority of a pending decision that the association was in breach of the GDPR.

In 2018, IAB Europe had drafted a Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) to enable the industry to obtain user consent for tracking for advertising purposes in a privacy-conscious manner. The process is used by Google and a large proportion of websites in Europe. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and others had filed a complaint against this with the Belgian data protection supervisory authority. In an interim report, the authority had already found a year ago that TCF violated important principles of the GDPR, such as transparency and fairness.

According to IAB Europe, the authority will now send its decision to the supervisory authorities in the other EU states within two to three weeks. They will then have 30 days to consider it. Johnny Ryan of the ICCL welcomed the upcoming decision: The procedure designed by IAB Europe has served the sole purpose of whitewashing a massive misuse of data. tho

Merz hints at interest in CDU chairmanship

Friedrich Merz is showing interest in running for the CDU party presidency, according to a media report. “I am inclined to do so,” Merz said according to “Spiegel” on Saturday evening during an appearance before the federal association of lesbians and gays in the Union (LSU). However, it was not only about his person. “It is absolutely clear to me that the image of the CDU cannot be determined solely by white men from North Rhine-Westphalia,” the magazine quoted Merz as saying, citing participants at the meeting. “We have to be much more broadly positioned there. And I’m trying to help make that possible as well.”

Accordingly, Merz stressed that there would be clarity within the next week. After the defeat in the Bundestag elections, the CDU wants to determine the presidency by member poll. The application phase runs until November 17. In addition to Merz, foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen, parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus, and Health Minister Jens Spahn are considered potential candidates. They all also come from North Rhine-Westphalia. rtr

Tens of thousands demonstrate for more climate protection

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated for more climate protection in Glasgow on Saturday. In cold and wet weather, they marched through the streets of the city and demanded tougher action against climate change. Already on Friday, the halfway point of the World Climate Conference, thousands of young people demanded that politicians protect their future. From their point of view, progress in the fight against climate change is disappointing.

Vanessa Nakate from Uganda, who advocates for greater climate justice, called on the global community to abandon fossil fuels. “The climate crisis means hunger and death for many people in my country and Africa.” Asked about her influence at the climate talks, she pointed to the protests outside in the streets. “Change is what’s happening outside, what young people are doing.”

In a speech, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse called on corporations to stop lobby groups from blocking climate legislation. “Corporate representatives who made big promises here at the COP need to get their associations under control, so they don’t undermine our work in Congress,” the Democrat said. Whitehouse traveled as part of a bipartisan group of US Reps in Glasgow.

According to the German Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD), reducing global warming to 1.5 °C is still achievable. “As much as has been done in recent years on the subject of climate protection, we can manage to keep the 1.5 °C within reach,” she told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe. However, this can only be achieved through global cooperation; no single country can guarantee this alone. rtr

Scholz sees progress with climate club

Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz sees progress in his efforts to establish an international alliance for climate protection. “We are on the right track and are receiving a lot of encouragement,” the SPD politician, who would take over the chancellorship in a traffic light coalition, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. He said his plan for a climate club had met with a positive response at the G20 meeting of leading industrialized countries last weekend. “The talks in Rome show me many have understood that it’s worth strengthening international cooperation within the framework of a climate club.” US President Joe Biden had made it clear that the United States was again committed to international cooperation.

The climate club is intended to motivate numerous countries to move forward together on climate protection to avoid disadvantages for companies. “This open and cooperative club will define common minimum standards, promote climate protection in a coordinated manner at the international level and ensure that climate protection is an international locational advantage,” said Scholz when presenting his plans in August. rtr

US government wants to reduce costs for CO2 storage

The US government has issued a goal to reduce the cost of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Department of Energy’s Carbon Negative Earthshot initiative aims to reduce the cost to $100 per tonne by the end of the decade, through direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide or even by encouraging natural sinks such as forests.

This is the Ministry’s third “Earthshot”. The programs are designed to drive innovation in technologies that have been difficult to master. The first two programs aimed to lower the cost of green hydrogen and large-scale battery storage for energy from renewable sources. Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, praised the US initiative: “We need governments to push the magic button of innovation,” he said.

The cost of capturing and storing CO2 is currently still very high. In Iceland, Swiss start-up Climeworks AG opened the world’s largest facility in September, which sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and pumps it underground, where it eventually becomes rock. The cost is up to $600 per ton, and the plants currently remove only an amount of carbon equivalent to the emissions of 2,000 cars. rtr/tho

Peter Liese – a proponent for emissions trading

Peter Liese is the Environment Spokesman of the EPP Group.

Peter Liese became aware of how serious the climate crisis was in 1995. The CDU politician, then still an inexperienced MEP, had traveled at his own expense from Brussels to Berlin to the first UN Climate Change Conference. The keynote speaker at the time, Federal Environment Minister Angela Merkel, spoke about the need for action and how companies could profit from climate protection.

This week, Liese will be at another UN climate conference, the 26th, as part of a delegation from the European Parliament. In Glasgow, he will again fight for his cause: to put a price on CO2 emissions in Europe as well as worldwide. Liese is a convinced advocate of emissions trading, and he wants to expand the existing system in the EU: “I think it is important that we extend emissions trading to maritime transport and that there will be a new emissions trading system for road transport and buildings,” he says. Liese would also like to include process heat.

The 56-year-old has secured an important post for himself – that of rapporteur for the reform of the ETS in the lead Environment Committee. No easy task: the expansion is meeting with much resistance among the member states and in the European Parliament. Pascal Canfin, the chairman of the Environment Committee and a party supporter of Emmanuel Macron, also warns of the burdens for citizens if petrol and heating become more expensive.

Liese is in favor of a social balance, but he also knows: “In the end, I need a majority”. Even if he gets that in committee and plenary, he will then have to negotiate with the member states: “That will certainly be the greater challenge“.

No longer an outsider in the CDU

The ETS reform is dismissed by many in Brussels as a hobbyhorse of the CDU. Liese, however, is glad that he got his party this far in the first place. Unlike in his early years, climate protection is now a major issue within the party. “I am very happy that we have now moved from the outsider role to the center,” he says. Merkel has also played her part in this: ” Angela Merkel was a driving force behind emissions trading, even if she didn’t make it public.”

The doctor of medicine, who studied in Aachen, Marburg, and Bonn, has been concerned with climate protection since the beginning of his political work. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1992 and a member of the Environment Committee since 1999. “Climate protection must be done at the European level. One country alone is not strong enough to convince the rest of the world,” he says.

Therefore, Liese considers the “Fit for 55” package of measures to be a “huge undertaking”. Although he would have welcomed more ambitious figures, he thinks the current path is appropriate concerning the 1.5 °C target: “The question of whether that is enough will be decided globally anyway. He sees a need for other industrialized nations to catch up: “Europe is the only continent that has reduced its emissions in the last 30 years.

Peter Liese also tries to live as climate-neutrally as possible in his private life. Together with his fiancée, he bought a house that the couple now wants to make energy-efficient so that it produces no emissions. Photovoltaics, a heat pump, new windows – the whole nine yards. “I try to do my bit. Privately, I haven’t flown for three years.”

In his opinion, however, climate protection should be worthwhile for everyone: “My most important goal is that everyone who behaves in a climate-friendly way has more in their pocket afterwards than those who behave in a climate-damaging way.” Paula Faul

Since Günther Oettinger moved to Brussels as EU Commissioner, it has been known that political careers in Germany are possible even without a knowledge of English. Once on the ground, the Swabian quickly learned to communicate effectively – even if his way of talking got him many appearances on the “Heute Show”.

But what about the English skills of the presumably next government? Most of the coalition members belong to the Erasmus generation, but they don’t shine in the way that would correspond to their cosmopolitan image. FDP leader Christian Lindner says he is aware of his gaps in English and is working on them.

Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock, who is being considered for the post of foreign minister, likes to talk about her year at the London School of Economics. Admittedly, that was quite some time ago. At the security conference in Munich last year, she struggled with English prepositions and couldn’t come up with the English word for “treaty violation proceedings”.

One of the co-leaders of the Green Party, Robert Habeck, on the other hand, failed at expressing a very green activity. He said “to drive with a bike” instead of “to ride a bike” or “to cycle”, as can be seen in a video on the internet. In addition, he speaks several times of “pandemie” instead of “pandemic”.

Chancellor-to-be Olaf Scholz (SPD), the oldest in the group, has already gained plenty of experience with English-language appearances in Brussels. As finance minister, he spoke fluently to the international press when entering the Council building, but in less than specific language and with regularly recurring mistakes. A favorite Scholzism: Instead of “everybody” he says “anybody”.

But as chancellor Scholz can imitate his predecessor at the summits. Angela Merkel spoke German without exception in the official rounds. Silke Wettach

EUROPE.TABLE EDITORS

Till
Hoppe

Charlotte
Wirth

Falk
Steiner

Timo
Landenberger

Corinna
Visser

Lukas
Knigge

Eric
Bonse

Sarah
Schaefer

Manuel
Berkel

Lisa-Martina
Klein

Markus
Grabitz

Stephan
Israel

Claire
Stam

Dear reader,

For a week now, delegates in Glasgow have been discussing how to limit global warming, and on Sunday, the World Climate Conference took a break. Lukas Scheid used the day of rest to draw up a review of where things stand: Much was announced, but little tangible progress has been made so far in negotiations on sticking points such as the “Paris Rulebook”. The success or failure of COP26 must now be decided in the second week. Lukas Scheid and Timo Landenberger are on-site and will keep you up to date.

The EU member states are mainly in agreement: Large digital companies have become too powerful and must be regulated. In the negotiations in the Council on the Digital Markets Act, however, Luxembourg (like Ireland) has pushed for changes that would be in the interests of Google, Amazon, and others. The government is acting according to the principle that “who pays the piper calls the tune”, the domestic opposition criticizes.

Knowledge of foreign languages is not usually one of the strengths of German ministers (except for Peter Altmaier). Yet, how will the potential new cabinet members do at the Doorstep in front of the European Council of Ministers? Silke Wettach has listened to what Olaf Scholz, Robert Habeck, and Christian Lindner have said in English so far – and discovered gems like “to drive with a bike”. Read more in the Apéro.

Your
Till Hoppe

COP26: tough negotiations concerning Article 6

By

Lukas Knigge

On Sunday, the hustle and bustle of Glasgow was at rest – but only seemingly. Behind the scenes, hardly anyone was sitting still on the only official day of rest at the world climate conference. The upcoming second week of negotiations is simply too important for a successful outcome of COP26. It is about finalizing the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement – the so-called Paris Rulebook (Europe.Table reported).

The outstanding chapter of the rulebook consists of several paragraphs of Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement. Since 2015, the signatories have been negotiating what exactly the global emissions trading and offsetting agreed to in Paris should look like. At global climate conferences since Paris, countries have disagreed on what transparency rules should apply to reporting emissions savings and the extent to which double-counting of emissions reductions should be prevented. In Glasgow, both the British hosts and the EU have set themselves the goal of completing the rulebook.

The question of whether countries should be allowed to sell their emission reductions in the form of certificates in emissions trading, as well as count them towards their climate targets (NDCs), remains a sticking point. This is one of the crucial sticking points of Article 6: It is about a transparent system that is accessible to all stakeholders and in which emissions are reduced.

Although Brazil had indicated a willingness to compromise, we seem to be no closer to an agreement. On Thursday, the EU’s chief negotiator said negotiations with Brazil were dragging on. Jair Bolsonaro’s government would like to use the Amazon’s CO2 storage capacity both for its own climate goals and profitably in emissions trading.

“Transaction tax” on emissions trading

A working draft released Saturday night says only that it wants to prevent unnecessary double counting, as was already stipulated in the Paris Agreement. Rather cryptically, it says that countries should apply “appropriate adjustments” to the emissions savings they use for their NDCs. What impact these adjustments will have on allowances that end up in global emissions trading is thus still open. Thus, no progress has been made since the last negotiations in Madrid (COP25).

In addition, the developing countries are demanding from the industrialized countries that part of the proceeds from emissions trading always goes to the poorest countries. This would mean: If a European company or country buys carbon credits to improve its climate record, a kind of transaction tax would go to the Global South – even if the emissions are saved by a European organization. Developing countries are demanding this from developed countries as part of their commitment to climate finance. The EU and the US are strictly against it.

The question of how to deal with the emission certificates from the Kyoto Protocol (so-called CERs), a form of CO2 compensation that has existed since 2005, is also still open. The former emerging countries Brazil, India, and China are keen to take as many of these certificates as possible with them into the new system under the Paris rules, as they still hold heaps of certificates from the old system.

The current draft still contains various options, of which only one will remain in the end. According to this, it could happen that CERs are not approved at all or only for one’s own NDCs and not for emissions trading with other countries. A third possibility is that CERs issued up to or before a certain date will be allowed.

Mixed successes in the first week

In addition to the negotiations on Article 6, activists and environmental organizations are holding discussions in Glasgow on the successes of COP26 so far. There have already been numerous announcements in the first week, such as on methane reduction (Europe.Table reported), on stopping deforestation, and on phasing out coal-fired power generation. However, many of these announcements sounded more spectacular at first glance than they were at second glance.

On Monday, more than 100 heads of state and government agreed to halt global deforestation by 2030. A promise that had already been made in 2014. It has had no effect because the global forest dieback has continued unchecked since then. Moreover, there is already resistance to the promise. Indonesia has signed the paper but calls it “unfair.” In a Facebook post, Indonesia’s Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar wrote that the island nation was forced to sign. She argues that the country should be allowed to continue cutting down trees to build roads and develop.

The British hosts of the conference had announced that 190 states and organizations had committed themselves to the phasing out coal-fired power generation. However, this is to be undertaken with so much caution that it is difficult to see it as real progress. The figure of 190 includes not only countries but also organizations. Moreover, it also includes those countries that have long since declared their intention to phase out coal – including Germany.

Progress in methane reduction

So appearances are deceptive because there are only 77 signatures on the list, including 46 countries – some of which did not even give new exit dates in Glasgow. The USA, China, India, and Australia have not joined. To make matters worse, the list also includes countries that generate no electricity from coal at all. Nevertheless, Vietnam and South Korea – two major coal consumers – have recently announced their intention to phase out coal.

The global reduction of methane by eliminating leaks along natural gas supply chains can certainly be seen as an important success of this world climate conference. More than 100 countries want to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. However, Russia, India, and China are missing from the list of countries that have signed the “Methane Pledge” initiated by the USA and the EU.

At least in Russia, the EU could use its influence. As one of the most important buyers of Russian gas, they could make future gas supplies conditional on producers closing their pipeline leaks to reduce methane emissions, in line with the EU’s methane strategy.

In the sense of the digital corporations

Luxembourg is said to mean very well for its resident companies. Not only in terms of taxation, which got the country into trouble with the EU’s competition watchdogs, as in the Amazon case. But also in terms of the regulation that affects the companies. Legal texts like the Digital Markets Act or the Digital Services Act (Europe.Table reported) are currently being discussed in the Council and the European Parliament.

The Luxembourg government has been intensively involved in the discussions about the DMA, as Council documents that Europe.Table has been able to view have shown. And certainly in the interests of the digital companies. Coincidence? The online retail and cloud giant Amazon has its European headquarters in the Grand Duchy, and the government is also campaigning hard for Google to locate a large data center there.

The government denies the accusations that it is trying to water down the regulation of digital companies. It supports the EU Commission’s efforts, the economics ministry says, and is committed to maximum harmonization of rules and a functioning EU single market. “This should make smaller and medium-sized platforms competitive with large digital companies.”

There are indeed clues to this as well. But there are a few points that give cause for concern:

Together with three other EU member states, Luxembourg wanted to prevent cloud services from being added to the list of “core platform services” which would be regulated. They argued that there is more competition in the market than, for example, in app stores. However, the cloud business is also dominated by a few companies – including Amazon and Google. Luxembourg (and others like Ireland) were unable to get their way with this in the Council.
The core of the DMA is a catalogue of obligations that should apply to gatekeeper platforms . Luxembourg, however, argued for these to be subject to provisos, similar to Ireland: The protection of “integrity, security and quality of services” must be taken into account, the opinion says. This repeats one of the main arguments of the tech industry: in particular, Apple CEO Tim Cook warns loudly about the risks of so-called sideloading, which allows software from sources other than the in-house app store to be installed on iPhones and Co.
For the intended harmonisation of the rules in the EU, it is necessary, according to Luxembourg, that the DMA as directly binding EU law replaces national laws with similar thrust. For Germany, this would have meant that the GWB amendment in force since the beginning of the year would have become obsolete. On the basis of this, the Federal Cartel Office has initiated several proceedings against large platforms. Here, the Council agreed on a compromise that gives the Cartel Office leeway.