Zero effect

The president of Germany's respected Ifo research institute, Hans-Werner Sinn, has told the Financial Times Deutschland that the EU's environmental policy would have "zero" effect on global greenhouse gas emissions. "The effect is not only small, it is actually zero," he said.

If the EU curtailed demand for fossil fuels, as proposals currently seek to do, the prices for oil and coal would drop, Sinn explained. At some point, the lower prices would result in decreased demand from Europe being compensated for by other countries such as the United States, China or India, he added.

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