Christian Baldauf: Mineral oil companies should be obliged to invest excess profits in climate projects

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Christian Baldauf: Mineral oil companies should invest profits in climate protection

Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa

If mineral oil companies do not voluntarily invest their surplus profits in climate protection projects, they should be legally obliged to do so: With this initiative, the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU leader Christian Baldauf is getting involved in the current debate about increased profits in the oil industry.

“The mineral oil companies should commit to using their additional profits to mitigate climate change.

For example, by investing in renewable energies and alternative fuels,” Baldauf told SPIEGEL.

»If a voluntary commitment by the corporations does not take effect, the legislator should take immediate action.«

Baldauf criticized the fact that the fuel discount decided by the government did not remedy the high fuel prices.

However, an excess profit tax is "legally difficult" and a tightening of antitrust law is "no less complicated".

The CDU politician therefore sees the solution in an obligation to invest in excess profits.

On the part of the oil companies, community spirit is now needed instead of resistance, said Baldauf.

"Now humility is the order of the day." Climate change is already noticeable every day, and the current business model of the corporations is finite.

»The future is geared towards a low-carbon energy system.

The mineral oil companies must also face up to this more strongly.

At its core, this requires a strong investment focus on alternative energy sectors.«

The background to the initiative is the debate about how to deal with excess profits – i.e. profits made by companies during the current crisis that go beyond their other earnings.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, fuel prices, among other things, have skyrocketed.

Critics accuse the mineral oil companies of making record profits during the war.

A tax deduction on diesel and petrol, the so-called tank rebate, was intended to relieve consumers, but only had the desired effect to a limited extent.

Critics complain that the discount is not passed on to consumers by the mineral oil companies, but is used to further increase the margin.

Politicians such as the SPD leader Lars Klingbeil and the Greens politician Ricarda Lang recently brought a so-called "excess profit tax" into play, in which additional profits caused by a crisis are taxed more heavily.

However, this proposal was sharply criticized by the FDP and CDU.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck, on the other hand, wants to siphon off the excess profits of the oil companies in the future by tightening antitrust laws.

This cannot have a short-term effect in the current situation, explained the Green politician, "but give the state the necessary strength to intervene better in the future."

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