Germany’s negotiating parties look at CO2 taxation in non-ETS areas

SPD energy spokesperson Bernd Westphal said the parties in talks to form Germany's next government - the Social Democrats (SPD) and Angela Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU bloc - will come up with some form of taxation of greenhouse gases in sectors not covered by the European emissions trading system (ETS). Without changes to the way the country's renewable development is financed, integrating sectors such as mobility and heating will be impossible, Westphal told an energy industry conference organised by business daily Handelsblatt. His CDU counterpart, Thomas Bareiß, cautioned that he still sees "the need to talk", warning that any change to the system must not "overburden" certain social groups, such as long-distance commuters. Ideally, heating and transport would be included in the European ETS, but this was "impossible at the moment," Bareiß said. 
Pro-business FDP energy politician Hermann Otto Solms said a German CO₂ price had also been discussed in the ill-fated Jamaica coalition talks with the CDU/CSU and the Green Party but was rejected by the conservatives at the time.