Anzengruber

“Germany has made an important step here, and other countries will not be able to avoid it,” Anzengruber said.

Anzengruber said he could also imagine a staggered model for Austria.

“If you take the issue of climate change and its consequences seriously, we will not be able to get around CO2 pricing,” Verbund CEO Wolfgang Anzengruber said in an interview, hailing Germany’s plan as an important step.

“Taxes are never tied to a goal, and once a tax is there, you never get rid of it,” said Anzengruber, who favored the approach of setting a minimum CO2 price that would apply until market mechanisms worked properly.

The previous Austrian government aimed for all electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, a goal Anzengruber called very ambitious.