The CO₂ price remains as it is. This means consumers are not being burdened any further. For households and climate protection, that is bad news.
D The federal government does not want to raise the CO₂ price. Anyone who drives a combustion-engine vehicle or has a gas or oil heating in the basement does not have to pay more for CO₂ emissions than before – 55 to 65 euros per tonne of CO₂. The Union and the SPD do not want to burden those who, due to the energy price shock following the Iran war, already have to pay more for fuel or heating gas.
That is correct: A higher CO₂ price would simply be politically untenable for people. And: Those who, because of the fossil energy crisis, do not want to switch to public transport, an electric car or a heat pump will not be swayed by an extra 10 euros per tonne of CO₂. No matter whether a petrol enthusiast is too stubborn or an oil-heating owner too poor to switch. The bigger problem is: The government is tearing a hole in its own budget with that. And that could ultimately cost climate protection dearly.
For the CO₂ price is not only supposed to make climate-damaging technologies more expensive. It also generates revenues for the state. This money flows into the Climate and Transformation Fund, which is meant to co-finance climate protection. For example, it pays for heat pump subsidies – the CO₂ price thus makes not only harmful climate activities more expensive, but also climate-friendly ones cheaper. At least that’s the idea. In practice, the federal government is increasingly misusing the climate fund to lower energy prices for industry or even subsidize fossil gas.
That, in turn, costs money. Money that will be missing from the climate fund in 2027. For in his financial planning, Lars Klingbeil (SPD) of the Federal Ministry of Finance assumed that the CO₂ price would be 80 euros, because it was originally supposed to transition into an EU-wide CO₂ emissions trading system. But that was prevented mainly by Eastern European states.
Now the government must make do with about four billion euros less. And given the fossil ideologues and industry-friendly people in the Union, with Minister of Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche at the helm, the climate fund will hardly be trimmed of climate-damaging subsidies. Instead, it will be cut in climate protection.
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