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Chimneys on a winter morning
Photo: Armin Weigel / dpa
Who bears the additional costs of the CO₂ price on oil and gas?
In view of the drastic rise in energy prices and the impending change of government in the federal government, the debate about relieving the burden on tenants is re-emerging.
The states of Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg, led by the SPD and the Greens, are pushing for landlords nationwide to participate in the additional costs caused by the CO2 price on oil and gas.
In the last legislative period, the burden sharing between tenants and landlords failed due to the veto of the Union parliamentary group.
"It is clear that we will make a new attempt here," said Lower Saxony's Minister for the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection, Olaf Lies (SPD), the "Handelsblatt".
The cost allocation creates incentives for landlords to promote the energetic renovation of their own portfolio.
"Otherwise the interest of the landlord would not be guaranteed - the tenant pays the bill."
He was "very happy that we already agreed in the exploratory paper that there must be social compensation for the costs of climate protection and energy prices," said Lies.
"Climate protection must not become a luxury issue."
"Do not widen the social divide"
The Baden-Württemberg Environment Minister Thekla Walker (Greens) also calls for countermeasures from the next federal government.
"Yes, the additional costs should be distributed differently in the future than before," Walker told the Handelsblatt.
"It is important to me that the CO2 price can fully develop its effect." The price supports the energy transition.
The Saxon Environment Minister Wolfram Günther (Greens) also called for a fair distribution of the burden.
»The energy transition will not work without social balance.
In addition, there is the current price development, to which we have to react politically, «said Günther of the newspaper.
The landlords would have to take on a share of the additional heating costs.
“The necessary CO2 price must not lead to widening the social divide in the country.” In addition, the steering effect of the CO2 price in the area of rented apartments would be ineffective if the additional heating costs were only passed on to the tenants.
The still-in-office grand coalition originally wanted to enshrine in law that in future landlords should bear 50 percent of the costs of the national CO₂ price in the case of tenancies.
But then the Union faction let this compromise burst in the summer.
Reason: The tenants themselves should be interested in using less CO₂.
After all, landlords are not the "cause" of heating costs.
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