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Wind turbines in Brandenburg
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
The last attempt by the CDU to develop a more profile in environmental and climate protection was made by Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier.
Last autumn, with a climate charter, he launched the push for a bipartisan consensus to stop global warming.
The Christian Democrat's initiative fell victim to the second and third corona waves.
Instead, the SPD and its chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz gave themselves a green climate program. And this week, the Greens shot up in the polls with their applicant for the Chancellery, Annalena Baerbock. But now the most influential climate politician in the Union, Andreas Jung, is countering it.
According to SPIEGEL information, the parliamentary deputy from Baden-Württemberg calls for Germany's climate protection targets to be raised by 2030.
At the same time, electricity prices are to be reduced noticeably by increasing the price of CO2 emissions.
"In order to achieve the new EU targets, we too have to make significant gains again," wrote the budget expert in a statement that was available to SPIEGEL.
"In doing so, we cannot ignore emissions trading as our leading instrument for market-based climate protection."
Return CO2 pricing to electricity customers
In autumn 2019, the federal government agreed on the pricing of greenhouse gas emissions in its climate protection program, which was a reaction to the protests of the Fridays for Future movement. As of this year, the emission of one tonne of CO2 in traffic and building heating has cost 25 euros, which has led to petrol prices being around seven cents higher at filling stations. The CO2 price is to be increased gradually by 2030. CDU member of the Bundestag Jung is now proposing to take the annual steps to increase CO2 prices in Germany "bigger".
The income from the CO2 price should not disappear in the budget, so the budget expert of the Union.
"That must then be given back in full and relieve citizens and business with a reduction in electricity prices."
He is keeping an eye on the so-called EEG surcharge, with which electricity customers currently offset the higher generation price of green electricity from wind or solar energy.
It has risen steadily in recent years and is currently over six cents per kilowatt hour of electricity.
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CDU parliamentary group vice-chairman Andreas Jung
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
Jung wants to use the income from CO2 pricing for the EEG surcharge.
"In this way, the next federal government can completely abolish the eco-surcharge for renewables," he writes.
Both the citizens and the climate benefited from this.
The higher CO2 price would mean that the economy and consumers use less fossil fuel from coal, oil or gas, says Jung.
The lower electricity price, in turn, makes the use of green electricity more attractive, for example when heating buildings with heat pumps or when driving electric cars.
Jung therefore speaks of a "double package for climate protection" with which his party wants to promote the ecological transformation of the country after the federal elections.
With his move, the politician from the Reichenau island in Lake Constance is also reacting to an announcement by Federal Finance Minister Scholz.
In an interview with Bild am Sonntag, he announced that, in the event of his election as Federal Chancellor, he would finance the EEG surcharge entirely from the budget.
The grand coalition of the SPD and Union had already reserved eleven billion euros in budget for the economic stimulus package for the corona crisis to freeze the EEG surcharge at six cents per kilowatt hour.
But the remaining compensation of the green electricity surcharge, currently 20 billion euros annually, cannot be financed from the federal budget from the perspective of CDU housekeeper Jung.
That is "simply not possible," the CDU politician contradicts the SPD finance minister with a view to the high expenditure due to the corona pandemic.
Jung also sees his climate protection initiative as a proposal that should be reflected in the CDU's program for the federal election. Jung is currently negotiating the climate part of the coalition agreement for the future Green-Black government in Baden-Württemberg. An ambitious agreement there could also serve as a blueprint for a possible coalition agreement at the federal level next fall, Jung told SPIEGEL.