The Green parliamentary group does not want to accept Finance Minister Lindner’s rejection of climate money. Instead, subsidies could be eliminated. Support comes from consumer advice centers.
The Greens want to prevent Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP)’s plans to no longer introduce climate money and are announcing resistance. “The climate money has to come, it is an important traffic light project,” said the deputy chairwoman of the Green parliamentary group, Julia Verlinden, to the Augsburger Allgemeine.
The climate money agreed by the traffic light coalition is an important building block for a fair climate policy: “Climate money cushions burdens and at the same time encourages climate-friendly behavior.”
Verlinden wants to abolish further subsidies
Verlinden called on Lindner to create the technical requirements for a payment and to create scope in the federal budget for social compensation for carbon dioxide (CO2) costs for private households. Verlinden mentioned the abolition of climate-damaging subsidies, for example for company cars that consume a lot of fuel, as possible counter-financing.
Lindner had announced that a per capita payment would only be possible from 2025. This would be after the next federal election. This could possibly not happen until 2027.
Criticism from Consumer protectors: “Unacceptable”
Criticism of Lindner’s statement also came from the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (VZBV). “The Federal Finance Minister’s announcement that climate money would only come after 2025 is unacceptable,” said VZBV boss Ramona Pop to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. The climate money must come this year.
Dietmar Bartsch from the Left Party demanded a word of power from Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “The FDP leader cannot unilaterally terminate the coalition agreement,” wrote Bartsch on Platform
The increase in the CO2 price is due to the grand coalition
The traffic light coalition agreed on climate money as a “social compensation mechanism” in the coalition agreement. The SPD, Greens and FDP had actually planned the project for this electoral period. The background is the rising CO2 price, which makes heating with gas and oil and refueling more expensive.
According to original plans, the traffic light only wanted to increase the CO2 price to 40 euros instead of 45 euros at the turn of the year because of the high energy prices. But after the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget ruling, the government has returned to the plan that the former CDU/SPD government had set out years ago.