Energy Taxes and Emissions Trading on the Bumpy Road to a Climate Neutral EU

In her ‘Agenda for Europe’ (her electoral manifesto as candidate for the presidency of the European Commission) Ursula von der Leyen announced the proposal of an ambitious European Green Deal, including among others a review of the EU Energy Tax Directive and the introduction of a ‘Carbon Borden Tax’ (meanwhile re-titled into Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism).1 In this editorial I will go into the development of these proposals in the Green Deal that was published on 11 December 2019, shortly after Von der Leyen took office. Before doing so, I will summarize the history of a long road that started around thirty years ago in the UN and eventually should lead to a climate-neutral EU in 2015.