Now even higher garbage fees?
New CO2 plan from Habeck's ministry causes an outcry
Created: 09/18/2022, 04:51
By: Franziska Schwarz
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens).
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The Federal Council is debating a CO2 price for waste incineration.
Critics fear further costs for citizens - in the middle of the inflation and energy crisis.
Berlin - Carbon dioxide is also produced when waste is burned.
The traffic light coalition therefore wants to put a CO2 price on waste incineration plants in the future.
According to information from the newspaper
Welt
, 35 euros per tonne of CO2 will then be due in the first year, 45 euros in the second year and 55 euros in the third.
This is what the draft from Robert Habeck's (Greens) Ministry of Economic Affairs envisages.
There is already a CO2 price for petrol, diesel, heating oil and natural gas.
The criticism is still great.
It would be a national special way, because so far there is no such CO2 price for waste incineration at European level.
The EU is currently discussing including waste incineration in the European emissions trading system from 2026.
The Federal Council wants to debate the proposals on Friday (September 16).
(Here you will find the draft law to amend the Fuel Emissions Trading Act.)
CO2 price on waste incineration: CDU against national go it alone
The CDU energy politician Andreas Jung criticized: "If a national CO2 price for waste simply leads to an additional burden without compensation elsewhere, then that discredits emissions trading as a climate instrument and damages acceptance."
The Economic and Environmental Committee of the Federal Council also warns in their recommendation to the Federal Council: "Waste incineration not only serves to recycle waste, but also plays a not insignificant role in the generation of energy and heat." Against the background of the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine -War is fueled, no small thing.
The committees propose postponing the plans by two years.
“We have to pass on this burden.
So that would result in significantly higher garbage fees," said Ingbert Liebing, Managing Director of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU), the
world
.
The VKU expects costs of one billion euros in the first year of the regulation.
"The federal government cannot, on the one hand, put together a third relief package and at the same time decide on additional burdens, especially for tenants," he complained in an official statement.
Traffic light coalition: The Scholz cabinet at a glance
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Higher garbage fees for the climate?
SPD politician sees plastics manufacturers as having a duty
Thomas Gebhart, CDU chairman in the climate protection committee, therefore considers the garbage surcharge to be "absolutely counterproductive" in the current energy crisis.
CO2 pricing should only take place at European level, provided that the reimbursement of income to citizens and companies has been clarified.
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The SPD environmental politician Michael Thews made a constructive suggestion in the
world
: to set the CO2 price at the plastics manufacturers.
"If waste incineration is now priced, the last person in the chain has to pay the CO2 price, which will not have any impact on a lower-plastic waste composition," he explained.
A good half of the garbage produced is hazardous waste, sewage sludge or sorting residues that have to be burned by law - and therefore inevitably produce CO2.
(frs)
