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Climate Money: Greens and SPD Push for Social Compensation for Higher Mobility Costs

With CO2 prices rising, fuel costs are also slightly increasing. Now, the SPD and the Greens are pressing for the introduction of the climate money anchored in the coalition agreement. And SVRV economist Veronika Grimm points out a path. 

The rising CO2 price is to be compensated for lower-income households by means of climate money. But implementation in Berlin is faltering. / Photo: Zukunft Gas/Thomas Meinicke
The rising CO2 price is to be compensated for lower-income households by means of climate money. But implementation in Berlin is faltering. / Photo: Zukunft Gas/Thomas Meinicke
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Johannes Reichel

After the higher prices for CO2 took effect at the beginning of the year and fuel prices slightly increased, demands for the introduction of a climate money as social compensation for higher mobility costs have become louder again. The climate money must come, demanded Andreas Audretsch, the deputy chairman of the Green Party in the Bundestag, in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. For this, the compensation mechanism must be completed by 2024. Appeals also came from the SPD faction, stating that Chancellor Olaf Scholz must quickly provide clarity. Climate money should protect people from being overwhelmed by future CO2 price increases, explained SPD climate protection expert Nina Scheer. This had been agreed upon in the coalition. 

The climate money is considered one of the key promises of the traffic light coalition and is anchored in the coalition agreement as a "social compensation mechanism." The goal is to distribute the climate-friendly transformation in energy and mobility more equitably and to place a greater burden on higher-income households with higher CO2 emissions. Economist Veronika Grimm, a member of the Advisory Council for Consumer Affairs (SVRV) of the federal government, recently proposed installing a payout mechanism based on the Austrian model. For this, the tax identification number would need to be linked to a bank account number, which the FDP-led Finance Ministry under Christian Lindner aims to ensure by the end of the year. According to Grimm's sample calculation, the per capita flat rate for the climate money could amount to 167 euros per person in 2024 and already 202 euros in 2025, with a CO2 price of 55 euros per ton.

Due to the increase in the CO2 price from 30 to 45 euros per ton, the price of fuel could rise by a moderate 4.3 cents per liter for gasoline and 4.7 cents per liter for diesel over the course of the year, according to an ADAC forecast. In 2026, with a further increase in the CO2 price, the price would then rise more significantly by 17 and 19 cents per liter, respectively.

Translated automatically from German.
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