Conservatives ponder earlier switch to market-based CO2 price for transport and heating
Reuters / Tagesspiegel Background
The conservative CDU/CSU union of outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel aims for an earlier switch from fixed prices to market-based prices in Germany’s new carbon pricing system for transport and heating fuels, Reuters and other media report based on draft ideas for the upcoming election manifesto. Until now, the system foresees rising fixed prices until 2025, then a price corridor in 2026 and then a market price from 2027 (with the option for price corridors – to be decided in 2025). “Earlier than planned, we want a CO2 price to be set by the market from 2025. We want to return the revenues from emissions trading to consumers.” To do so, the conservatives plan to abolish the renewables surcharge on power consumption and lowering the electricity tax to the European minimum. “At the EU level, we are campaigning for the complete abolition of the electricity tax.” The paper does not mention a direct per capita payment to citizens to return the CO2 price revenues like other parties have proposed.
The draft is a building block for the ongoing talks about the final manifesto, to be presented on 21 June, writes Reuters. Tagesspiegel Background cautions that the draft has yet to be coordinated between the CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU. The conservatives are the last major party to present their manifesto. From other programmes it is clear that this year’s campaign is set to focus much more on climate and energy issues than in past national votes.
Tagesspiegel reports that the conservatives also call for a global emissions trading system “so that CO2 has a price everywhere in the world”, the draft states. The CDU and CSU want to enter into international climate cooperation agreements with major economies and make it possible to offset CO2 reductions abroad. For German industry, the conservatives plan a "comprehensive unleashing package" with less bureaucracy, faster approval procedures and carbon contracts for difference (CCfDs) to facilitate investments in climate technologies, writes Tagesspiegel.
