German car owners have paid around one billion euros for climate protection projects in China, which are now under suspicion of fraud. This is according to current calculations by the German Institute of Economic Research, as reported by the ZDF magazine “Frontal”.
Stefan Gerwens, traffic editor at the ADAC, demanded clarification: “If the suspicion of fraud is confirmed, then we would like to know where the money went. Every car owner would then have paid for fraud, and no one wants that.”
The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) currently classifies 45 of the 66 so-called “Upstream Emission Reduction” projects in China as suspicious of fraud. UBA President Dirk Messner spoke of “deception” and “catastrophe”. “I have never experienced something like this” Messner told the ZDF. In May 2024, “Frontal” had reported that many climate protection projects of the oil industry in China were fake, and the UBA would not have approved them.
Since July, the Berlin State Prosecutor’s Office has been investigating 17 suspects on suspicion of joint, commercial fraud. The focus is on testing companies that certified and validated the climate protection projects.
The opposition accuses Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) of being too slow in taking action. “She did not make the control and clarification a top priority from the start” and bears the political responsibility for “one of the largest environmental scandals in the Federal Republic” said Anja Weisgerber (CSU), environmental policy spokesperson for the Union faction in the Bundestag.
Lemke sees the responsibility with the previous government: The projects in China were not controllable from the start, she said. “This system has proven to be completely flawed. Therefore, the most important consequence was to end this system.” She hopes that the criminals will pay the price.