Transition in transport sector needs comprehensive tax reform – think tank

A transition of the German transport sector towards carbon-neutral mobility will not be possible without a comprehensive and “socially balanced” reform of the country’s tax system, think tank Agora Verkehrswende* says in a press release. A reform of the taxes paid in the transport sector “is indispensable if Germany is serious regarding the climate targets in the transport sector,” said the think tank’s director Christian Hochfeld. The protests in France following a government decision to increase fuel taxes showed that “only socially balanced reform proposals will be accepted,” Hochfeld added. However, this was only another reason to initiate a reform since the current system could also produce groups in society that lose out, he said. A study on similar reforms in Norway, the UK, France and the Netherlands conducted by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) found that these countries had effectively reduced emissions and that tax support for purchasing cleaner vehicles was one of the possibilities for a balanced reform, the think tank says.

Read the press release in German here.

See the CLEW article Fear of public backlash and complexity hold German CO2 price for background.

*Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Verkehrswende is a project funded jointly by the Mercator Foundation and European Climate Foundation.