UBA study
Environmentally harmful subsidies cost billions annually
The so-called company car privilege makes it tax-attractive to own company cars that are predominantly climate and environmentally harmful. (Archive image) Photo: Philipp von Ditfurth / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The Federal Environment Agency shows in a new study that billions of dollars are still flowing into the support of climate and environmentally harmful instruments in Germany.
According to a new study by the Federal Environment Agency, Germany invested at least 65.4 billion euros in environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies in 2018.
Almost half, a total of 30.8 billion euros, went to road and air traffic, such as tax breaks for the use of diesel vehicles. The environmentally harmful subsidies have increased in recent years despite the greater climate protection efforts, said UBA boss Dirk Messner on Thursday at the presentation of the study. In 2012 they were still around 57 billion euros.
Company car privilege and tax advantages for meat products
According to the Federal Environment Agency, a double-digit billion sum could be released annually in Germany if the aforementioned subsidies were no longer available. In addition, the study shows that recipients of higher incomes in particular would benefit from the existing discounts, said Messner.
This applies, for example, to the so-called company car privilege, which makes owning company cars that are primarily harmful to the climate and the environment, attractive from a tax point of view. “These subsidies are out of date,” said Messner. Most of the subsidies (volume of 54 billion euros) would also contribute to air pollution and have a negative impact on the health of the population.
The UBA boss appealed to the future federal government to reduce these subsidies or to redesign them so that climate and environmental protection instruments benefit from them. Some of the subsidies, around 20 billion euros, would, however, have to be regulated at European level.
There is also potential for savings in agriculture
There is also potential for savings in agriculture, said Messner. Annually, additional income of around five billion euros could arise if VAT advantages for animal products were no longer applicable.
Environmentally harmful subsidies also play a role in the ongoing coalition negotiations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. In the exploratory paper, the three parties already stated that they wanted to review the budget for “superfluous, ineffective and environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies” in order to create additional financial leeway. The latter are mainly necessary because the negotiators want to forego tax increases to finance important projects.