As of: January 29, 2024, 7:51 p.m
By: Lars-Eric Nievelstein
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The government has gotten into a dispute over climate money.
Now it turns out that citizens don't necessarily want this relief.
The Ifo Institute found this out.
Fürth/Nuremberg – There is still chaos in the climate money issue.
In mid-January, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) announced that climate money would not come until the next legislative period.
The other coalition partners then got involved, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) himself.
Suddenly it was said that the technical requirements would be created by the end of 2024.
But do Germans actually want climate money?
Most popular model of climate money |
Social climate money |
|---|---|
CO2 levy per ton of CO2 consumed |
45 euros |
Responsible ministry |
Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) |
Survey reveals – climate money is unpopular among Germans
A survey by the Ifo Institute clearly calls this into question.
In its current form, the child benefit planned by the traffic light government has little appeal among German citizens.
“Although the population does not fundamentally reject climate money, other forms of use for the income from the CO₂ price are significantly more popular,” explains Sarah Necker, head of the Ludwig Erhard ifo Center for Social Market Economy in Fürth.
Germans don't want climate money © IMAGO / Noah Wedel
The authors fed the answers into a scale between minus 3 and plus three, which is intended to show how high the respondents' approval of various measures is.
The proposal to invest the revenue from the CO₂ tax in climate-friendly measures received the highest level of approval (with a value of plus 1.5).
This was followed by the proposal to use the additional revenue to reduce VAT (plus 1.1).
“Social climate money” receives the most approval
In order to find out whether a different design would increase the attractiveness of climate money, the researchers examined various models.
These include, for example, social climate money, targeted compensation for particularly burdened households and flat-rate climate money.
The result: The respondents were not happy with any of them.
The most approval (plus 0.8) was for “social climate money”, which would only benefit households with a gross income of up to 4,000 euros.
This is based on a current proposal from the SPD.
This was followed by targeted compensation for households particularly burdened by the CO₂ price (plus 0.7).
To explain: By this, the Ifo Institute means households that are particularly badly affected by CO₂ pricing due to their living and employment situation.
For example, if you operate an oil heater or have to commute long distances for work reasons.
A flat rate of climate money distributed to everyone received the least approval (plus 0.5).
“Our results show that the population prefers climate money paid out specifically to low-income or particularly heavily burdened households over climate money paid out in a lump sum to everyone,” said Michael Zürn, senior researcher at the NIM, in a press release from the Ifo Institute.
In cooperation with the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), the Ludwig Erhard ifo Center for Social Market Economy surveyed a representative sample of people between 18 and 74 in Germany.
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Climate money should come from the CO₂ tax
Since 2021, the CO₂ tax has affected all Germans who operate their cars with gasoline or diesel or who heat with gas and oil.
There is a tax of 45 euros per tonne of CO₂ consumed.
The coalition agreement originally stipulated that the money collected would be returned to the population as climate money.
Instead, both the CO₂ price and energy costs rose (sometimes drastically).
“Citizens are already receiving relief through the KTF through the abolition of the EEG levy and the financing of expenses from the KTF,” explained a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The coalition has agreed to develop a compensation mechanism for CO₂ pricing.
The Federal Ministry of Finance is currently working on a payment mechanism with which climate money could be paid out as a per capita flat rate.