Special open meeting of the Environment Working Group

Dominik Trisl

Apr 16, 2025 8:23:16 AM

Fraud in UER climate protection projects? - An eventful day comes to an end in Berlin 💡

As an independent market authority, we had the opportunity today to discuss and clarifythe fraudwith over 150 participants* - including Dr. Messner, President of the Federal Environment Agency, numerous members of the Bundestag as well as sector and industry representatives.

The tenor of the special meeting of the environment working group of the CDU/CSU opposition parliamentary group in the German Bundestag:
There is a web of fraud that German authorities have sat on with a lot of taxpayers' money 💰 (>4.5 billion euros). This is the greatest damage to German climate and environmental protection - and probably just the tip of the iceberg.

📺 As ZDF reported in its frontal programme on 28 May 2024, many climate protection projects in the UER (upstream emission reduction) category in China only exist on paper, but were nevertheless subsidized by German taxpayers.

⚡ The problem is that oil companies can use these projects to achieve their emission reduction targets in accordance with the greenhouse gas reduction quota (GHG quota) in Germany. Millions of tons of CO2 were therefore not reduced.
According to the President of the Federal Environment Agency, the debate is (over)boiling in order to clarify the fraud dynamics and prevent them in the future.
Numerous projects have been revoked because they did not stand up to scrutiny. Other projects are currently under review. In addition, numerous companies are withdrawing the UER projects they have already applied for.

We are using our industry expertise to support further clarification to the best of our ability,
➡ to enable swift action by politicians and authorities
➡ to protect European value creation
➡ and to ensure honest climate protection.

Finally, our thanks go to the focused moderation and committed discussion of all participants, including Christian Hirte, Oliver Grundmann, Sandra Rostek, Lena Friedmann and many more.