Open editorial: "We need a climate check"

In an open editorial for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, four researchers of the Dialogue on the Economics of Climate Change – Gernot Klepper (IfW), Christine Merk (IfW), Karen Pittel (ifo), and Frank Wätzold (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg) – criticize the fact that climate protection is not established in the German government's corona stimulus package announced in early June 2020. As a cross-cutting issue, it should underlie all private and public investment promotion. This would help make climate risks associated with investments more transparent, as well as channel them into low carbon technologies, to support long-term climate goals, and avoid stranded assets. The current stimulus program only partially fulfills its function to induce economic development that is fit for the future.