The corona virus is the source of many evils and a strong argument with which almost anything can be enforced. The hardliner faction of the German pollution industry now wants to use it as an instrument to be allowed to spin dirt in the future. They must not get away with it. - A comment by Markus W. Voigt, CEO of the aream group.

Due to the pandemic, the economy worldwide is affected by an unprecedented slump. A hoped-for restart could turn into the need for reconstruction. This is true. Getting the economy back on track is crucial to sustain our societies. That is also true. But it is not true that this will only be possible if every step forward that the economy has made in recent years is now reversed with great haste. 

So, if the car and other industries are now demanding that measures to reduce CO2 emissions be postponed because they are impeding the reconstruction of the industry, they are missing the point, misjudging reality and showing themselves to be selfish and profit-mad dinosaurs. A pandemic such as the one we are currently experiencing presents us as humanity with major challenges. Climate change will unfortunately present us with even greater difficulties. 

The pandemic shows that humanity is not as inviolable as we thought and hoped. In the future, too, we will have to prepare ourselves for surprising challenges: Viruses, natural disasters and whatever else we may not yet know. Climate change is already a well-known challenge that people have already accepted: the EU with its Green Deal, many companies with self-imposed targets, many people in their own environment. The pollution thugs now want to reverse this.

But the low energy prices could be used right now to make CO2 more expensive, in other words to make progress in the fight against climate protection without people having to pay more. The new scrappage scheme brought into play by the car industry could finally give a boost to e-mobility. This would trigger necessary changes if supply chains had to be reorganized anyway. Now is the right time to put more into climate protection and not less. Promote innovation instead of turning things back.

It is up to us to put the dinosaurs in their place. It is up to us to make them understand that not everything has changed as a result of the pandemic, that solutions that have been identified as the right ones are still the right ones. Everything may be put to the test. It may also be that some issues will perhaps be put on hold. But to postpone the fight against climate change is simply negligent. Industries that can be restructured at taxpayers' expense are the very ones that should meet taxpayers' expectations. And not just line their own pockets.