Status: 16.01.2024, 09:57 a.m.
By: Robert Wallenhauer
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The CO₂ price for refuelling and heating with fossil fuels is rising. The climate money was supposed to come as compensation - but no longer in this legislative period. This has been met with harsh criticism.
Berlin - The introduction of climate money to relieve citizens of rising CO₂ prices is becoming more and more distant. Originally, the government wanted to introduce the CO₂ price before the end of this legislative period. Then, suddenly, the German government announced that climate money should be introduced by 2027 at the latest. This was clarified by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ). He does not expect the climate money to be paid out in this legislative period: "From 2025, we can technically make a per capita disbursement. We are therefore on schedule. Whether we politically restructure the funding landscape in this direction will have to be decided after the next election." The next Bundestag election will take place in 2025.
Until now, parts of politics, economists and consumer advocates had called for the rapid disbursement of the climate money in order to compensate for the increased CO₂ price for consumers at the beginning of the year. This makes refuelling and heating more expensive. That's why the traffic light decision is now being criticized.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP): The climate money is not to come until the next legislative period. © Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
Climate activists criticize Lindner: Postponement of climate money "extremely dangerous"
"The climate money was probably never really popular with Christian Lindner, otherwise it probably wouldn't take an entire legislative period for only the payment mechanism to be introduced," says Leonard Burtscher, consultant for energy and climate policy at the Munich Environmental Institute. "The coalition agreement of the traffic light coalition actually provides that the revenues from the CO₂ price, which has been levied since 2021, will be reimbursed directly to all citizens by the state," said Burtscher. However, the traffic light government is using the revenues to plug budget holes. "Such misappropriation of the CO₂ price is extremely dangerous, as it plays into the hands of those who only want to portray climate protection as a burden for citizens anyway."
In fact, Finance Minister Lindner also justified the delay in climate money with the budget: "At present, however, the revenues are used for the promotion of heating, building renovation, green steel production, charging stations for e-cars and so on," he told the NOZ: You can't spend the money twice. In addition, the technical requirements for a direct payment to citizens do not yet exist, the federal government has said so far.
Consumer advocates: Postponement of climate money "is not acceptable"
Consumer advocates have also clearly criticized the delay. "The announcement by the Federal Minister of Finance that the climate money would only come after 2025 is unacceptable!" said the board member of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, Ramona Pop, in an interview with the NOZ. The German government must reimburse the billions of euros in revenue from the CO₂ price to all consumers "as soon as possible" via the instrument.
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"The climate money was agreed in the coalition agreement as social compensation for additional burdens and as an incentive for climate-friendly behaviour," Pop continued. "Such compensation via climate money must not be put on the back burner." According to calculations by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, citizens would currently have to receive a one-off climate money payment of 139 euros per person. This would mean that the German government would pay out the additional revenues from CO₂ pricing (11.4 billion euros) in full to the population for the years 2021 to 2023.
Greens react indignantly to climate money shift
The Green Youth reacted indignantly to Lindner's statements on Monday (15 January). "The fact that Christian Lindner buries the climate money for this legislature as a side note is a slap in the face for climate protection," said the co-head of the Green youth organization, Svenja Appuhn, the German Press Agency. "Anyone who so carelessly abandons the urgently needed social balance is gambling away majorities for climate protection and risks driving people into the arms of right-wingers."
From the point of view of the FDP parliamentary group, the climate money can be paid out from 2025 "if subsidies in the climate and transformation fund, which do little to advance climate protection anyway, are eliminated," as parliamentary group vice-chairman Lukas Köhler said. It is therefore reasonable that Minister Lindner "does not build financial castles in the air with money that has already been planned elsewhere by the Minister of Economic Affairs".
(with material from dpa and epd)