German minister to present national CO2 tax by July

BERLIN -- The German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze "will present the promised concept for CO2 pricing" by July, a spokesperson of the German Environment Ministry has said.

The German government's climate cabinet will decide whether the CO2 price will be a tax or another type of levy, the spokesperson said in Berlin on Monday.

An expansion of the existing emissions trading in the European Union from the energy sector and industry to other areas was seen by some as a "philosopher's stone", the German environment ministry spokesman said. But this was a "sham debate that does not lead any further".

The current political debate in Germany was "basically" aligned with the environment ministry, said the spokesperson.

The CO2 tax, according to Schulze's preliminary plan, will be set around 20 Euro per ton. It means that German will pay more for transport and heating, as gasoline, fuel, coal and gas will become more expensive. The idea is to squeeze consumer's wallet in order to change their emission-related behavior.

It was generally agreed in Germany that the country needed a CO2 price "with a steering effect that was socially acceptable and would not increase the state's revenues but would instead benefit the population".

The German conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus has expressed support for a CO2 tax but said it should not "additionally burden" German citizens and the economy.

"If I burden the consumption of resources, I must relieve consumers and the economy elsewhere," Brinkhaus told the Funke Media Group on Monday.

"Anyone who has an old oil-fired heating system in his basement, who commutes from the country to the city in his older car and cannot afford more expensive organic food must not be punished," the CDU/CSU faction leader emphasized.

The German Christian Democrats (CDU) leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has expressed her opposition to a tax on the climate-damaging greenhouse gas (GHG).

At a German conservative party conference on the weekend, Kramp-Karrenbauer said that behind a CO2 tax "lies nothing other than a stronger burden on petrol, diesel, heating oil and gas".

The CDU leader warned against "burdening German citizens out of laziness" rather than thinking about better methods.

Kramp-Karrenbauer's view received support by Manfred Weber, a CSU lawmaker and the lead candidate of the European People's Party for the presidency of the European Commission.

Weber said he believed in "technological solutions" rather than taxation measures. He added that he doesn't want to regulate how often one should fly, while Airbus is building a plane that doesn't emit CO2.

Ralph Brinkhaus criticized Kramp-Karrenbauer's approach, stating that "as the Union, we are always very skeptical about new taxes and charges. But there must be no bans on thinking".

Similarly, Armin Laschet, prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and deputy chairman of the CDU told the German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday that "it is wrong to simply say no".

Greater efforts were needed to reduce carbon dioxide in Germany, added Laschet. "That is why I say look! Develop good ideas! And we are just as open about that as other parties are".

On Monday, Kramp-Karrenbauer fought back against these criticisms that she was prohibiting thinking in an interview with the German newspaper Deutschlandfunk.

"We do not want to rush to a seemingly simple means," said the CDU leader. It was undisputed that German politics must reduce CO2 emissions through pricing but "the question is, what is the best pricing system".

Kramp-Karrenbauer received support from Michael Kretschmer, the prime minister of the federal state of Saxony, who said on a German talk show that "we do not need a CO2 tax in Germany".

Last week, a DeutschlandTrend survey published by public broadcaster ARD found that 62 percent of Germans were opposed to the introduction of a CO2 tax.

Minister Schulze has championed the idea of a tax on CO2 in order to help Germany meet its GHG reduction targets after the government recently admitted that Germany would probably miss its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.

Only 32 percent savings in GHG emissions appeared possible, according to the German government's most recent climate protection report.