Good points about the German tariff system. I agree with you they should be more technology neutral. We need to have a system that makes building storage technology, facilitating grid expansion etc profitable.
But I strongly disagree with your take on EVs in Norway. That cost is not merely paying for a specific reduction in CO2 for each individual buying an EV but is an investment in the EV technology to make it more mature and reach volume production.
A lot of Green technology needs to be developed. While being developed no a single ton of CO2 will be removed or avoided. Are we to view such an investment in Green technology as a waste because the money could have been spent on say more public transport, house isolation etc.
All CO2 reductions are not created equal. Say you get all your power from coal. You could reduce CO2 emissions by insulating houses better so they require less power. However, that has very limited long term effect because it doesn't fundamentally remove the need for coal.
Investing in the creation of a non-CO2 emitting powerplant would cost a lot more, but would have a much bigger long term effect.
Given that most of our oil is spent on transportation, it is absolutel crucial to electrify transportation. Investing in say public transportation instead of EVs is akin to investing in insulation. It is something with diminishing returns because it can never eliminate completely the need for fossil fuel in transportation. No matter how good public transporation we get, we can never raplace all car traffic.
Charging luxury SUVs is a perfectly sensible strategy. Look at the Think initative in Norway. Making a green boxy little car went nowhere. Nobody was willing to pay 250 000 to 300 000 NOK for such a tiny little car with no capablity.
By targeting the premium segment like Tesla did it became possible to succeed in making EVs popular. The luxury EVs finance the development of the cheaper EVs. Little Think style cars may be the most green solution on paper, but it is a worthless solution if you cannot get people to buy the car.
We must distinguish between workable solutions and ideal solutions. The premium EV strategy has worked. Every years we are seeing cheaper and smaller EV models which people actually want to buy.
When citizens buy expensive EVs with tax breaks the Norwegian government and the car buyer are splitting the bill on financing the development of EVs. In other words regular citizens is contributing a lot more money towards green solutions because of this. If you had used those tax breaks other places you would not have gotten people to contribute that much money to development of a greener product.
The exact same model will likely be needed to develop clean air travel. Tax breaks will help expand green air travel but of course the cost per tonn CO2 reduced will likely look high the first years, but that is because you are counting technology development costs as part of the CO2 costs. That is not a fair comparison.
