A scandal has erupted in Germany over the increased environmental tax on fuel, which car owners pay in favour of “climate” initiatives of other countries, Welt reports.
Control by the German authorities was inadequate, the requirements were very easy to circumvent, and the acceptance of certificates was allegedly falsified.
At issue are allegedly climate-friendly projects in which oil companies participate in order to meet climate protection requirements under the so-called greenhouse gas emission quota. The quota depends on how much harmful greenhouse gases the fuel sold by the companies produces. It is added to the price per litre at the pump, along with a tax on CO₂ emissions.
It has now emerged that most of the projects were falsified or simply didn’t exist. For example, German motorists allegedly paid €80 million for an alleged climate protection project in a Chinese Uighur province through a climate levy. An investigation revealed that the claimed site was just an abandoned chicken coop, ZDF’s Frontal magazine reported.
“Out of 75 projects that were counted in the German greenhouse gas quota, we found only one that is not suspicious,” Sandra Rostek, head of the bioenergy industry association, said at a technical discussion with industry representatives in the Bundestag, as reported by WELT.
The industry anticipates a damage of 4.5 billion euros
According to the association, the damage from the energy transition in Germany’s transport sector could amount to more than 4.5 billion euros. Money that German motorists paid at the petrol pump.
Dirk Messner, head of the Federal Environment Agency, complained that his agency had too few options in the review process. Forty projects were considered and four applications were subsequently cancelled. However, the agency was apparently dealing with a “web of fraud.”
This only came to light after bioenergy companies called detectives in China after receiving information from Chinese whistleblowers. There is now strong suspicion of fraud in 62 of the 75 cases, and insufficient information in a further twelve cases.
How eco-fraud works
In the case of certificate trading, the alleged producers only needed to provide the Federal Environmental Protection Agency with the coordinates of the alleged factory locations. These locations were checked only after complaints from the companies – with incredible results.
According to Welt, when the data was entered into Google Maps, it turned out that the specified locations were only in deserted areas in the Uygur Desert in northwest China.
In response to a question from ZDF, the oil company Shell, for example, said that independent inspection bodies have checked projects in China. So far, no signs of non-compliance have been found.
