Abstract:

The excitement of the early days has died down since the European Commission presented its climate change proposals known as the Fit for 55 package in July 2021. The wealth of details in the Commission's 14 legislative proposals does not make it easy to concentrate on the key points. The study team has compiled an overview of the most important aspects for the transport sector in this paper. In some places they have recommended positions that the new German government should take during the negotiations on the package. These are summarised in a list at the beginning. The main text provides justifications for these proposals and contains several further observations, in some cases combined with rough quantitative estimates, which are meant to facilitate the assessment of the Commission's proposals.  The German government will only be able to achieve its national climate protection targets if it also lends its support to an effective Fit for 55 package. The effectiveness of this effort depends above all on the ability to put together a coherent overall package from the many different instruments and measures - at European and national levels.