Why the CSU delays the climate protection package

Ostensibly, it seems like a time problem. Only at 6.30 clock on this Wednesday morning that had been formulated on about 200 pages climate protection program in its latest version went to the ministries, said CSU country group chief Alexander Dobrindt. At 9.30, however, the meeting of the Federal Cabinet in the Chancellery already began.

Work through and check 200 pages in just three hours? That was obviously too much for the CSU. Christian social ministers Horst Seehofer and Andreas Scheuer rejected a final decision on the package this Wednesday.

It should now be blessed by the Cabinet next week, said a government spokesman. This will give you extra time to check the details. It is rightly expected that ministries and coalition parties to deal intensively with the details, said CSU negotiator Dobrindt. He was confident that the Cabinet decision would come next week.

So it is emphasized in the CSU that you do not want to stop the climate package in principle. There are in some places still some concerns that need to be examined. That's the background of the delay.

Hectic negotiations

Because the 200 pages in question are the formulated version of those 22 pages with key points on climate protection, on which the coalition partners had agreed in a 19-hour session on 20 September and then by both the Climate Cabinet - a committee of the Federal Government - and approved by the entire Cabinet. (Read the reconstruction of this agreement here.)

Not too big a surprise, that after this effort, the long version of this agreement is now contested with its concrete measures.

Voice # 114 - Night Session at the Chancellery: How the climate package came about

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So there were in the past few days between the Union and the SPD and the ministries involved according to SPIEGEL information already hectic negotiations. Again, the resistance came in particular from the CSU. As a result, led by SPD Minister Svenja Schulze led environmental disaster two defeats:

• The first concerns the motor vehicle tax . This is to be increased drastically for fuel-guzzling cars. Schulze originally had concrete numbers written in the formulated climate protection program: according to this, cars with an additional CO2 emissions of 95 grams per kilometer should be charged with two additional euros, and from 115 grams with 3.50 euros. But now the concrete figures have been taken out of the draft: "For new registrations from 1 January 2021, the tax base above 95 g CO2 / km will be increased in two emission levels," says the current version of the climate protection program, the SPIEGEL is present. For this a law should be set up. Originally, the regulation should be included in the Annual Tax Act, which will be dealt with in the Bundestag on October 25th.
• A second change has been in the question of what should happen if insufficient CO2 savings are achieved in the areas of transport, agriculture or building energy . The climate protection law planned by the German government stipulates that an annual check should be made to see whether climate protection is on course or not. If a sector lags behind, then the ministry responsible should initially come up with a plan for how it intends to enforce climate change. Penalties that would be payable under European law would be taken from the budget of the department concerned and not from the federal budget as a whole. That was the intention of the Minister of the Environment. But due to pressure from the Union, this passage has completely disappeared from the climate protection program. This is evident from the correction version of the draft, which is available to SPIEGEL.

That now CSU boss Markus Söder let the draft itself in this disarmed version of his ministers in the Cabinet stop, shows: The Christsozialen want more concessions.

• For example, in synthetic fuels , so-called e-fuels . Environment and Transport Ministry are struggling for a compromise. CSU Transport Minister Scheuer wants together with Union politicians to the traffic expert Christoph Ploss to include a change in the Federal Immission Control Ordinance in the climate protection program. There an express permission would have to be written in it, so that gas stations may sell the E-Fuels also. In the future, they will be produced with electricity from renewable energies and then used in cars, trucks or aircraft. "In order to achieve our climate protection goals, we also need regenerative fuels such as e-fuels," says the Union member Ploss. The Ministry of the Environment considers e-fuels to be critical; the current draft of the climate protection program lacks a corresponding passage.

Nonetheless, the Federal Cabinet passed the so-called supplementary budget this Wednesday, which SPD Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has submitted to finance the planned climate protection program. By 2023, the government wants to use more than 54 billion euros.

Means: About the financing plans in the government there is agreement, about all the details of the concrete measures planned yet.