The liberal FDP party (Renew) has renewed its call for a higher carbon surcharge on fossil fuels at a party convention this weekend to stop a proposed ban on new gas and oil boilers as of 2024.

Last week, the three-party government of Social Democrats, Greens and FDP adopted a draft law that would ban the installation of new fossil heating systems as of 2024 though many FDP members have since voiced their preference for a market-based approach that would work with higher fuel prices.

“For the building sector, we want to achieve the climate protection targets primarily through emissions trading with a per-capita climate bonus and not through detailed regulatory interventions relating to individual technologies,” a motion adopted by the convention on Saturday reads.

The motion, introduced by high-ranking FDP politicians just before the convention, was seen as a protest against the bill even though it still has to go through the legislative procedure in parliament.

In practice, emissions trading for heating and road transport could substantially increase fuel prices for heating gas and oil, as well as petrol and diesel, according to experts. Revenues should be redistributed with a lump-sum payment to all citizens, the FDP proposal says.

“I think the big question with the FDP proposal is whether the politicians and the population are prepared to withstand such a CO2 price shock, as far as redistribution is concerned, and understanding why this is being done in the first place,” Christian Flachsland, professor for sustainability at Berlin-based Hertie School, told EURACTIV last month.

The price per tonne of CO2, currently fixed at €30, could easily reach €100-€200, Flachsland said. This would increase petrol and diesel prices by about 30–60 cents per litre.

In another motion, FDP delegates also backed a national emissions trading scheme by 2024 – three years before a similar one is introduced at the EU level in 2027. However, party chief and Finance Minister Christian Lindner told broadcaster ARD that introducing the system as of 2024 would be “politically and technically not possible anymore”.

In an email sent to supporters on Friday, conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU/EPP) backed the FDP approach.

With the new EU carbon market, “the cost of oil and gas will gradually become more expensive”, which means “the installation of alternative, CO2-free heating systems will become more and more economically attractive for private households,” Merz wrote.

It would therefore be better to “leave the conversion of private households to climate-friendly heating as it was decided by the last federal government: with adequate support for private households and firm confidence in the mechanisms of the European regulations for the future pricing of CO2 emissions,” he also wrote.

(Jonathan Packroff | EURACTIV.de)

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