Minister of Labor Heil wants to better cushion the rising costs of energy for the financially weak with climate money. But the concept contains too little “climate”, criticizes the Greens boss.
Greens boss Omid Nouripour is skeptical about the previous concept for social climate money from Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD).
“With the climate money, we will make sure that the climate is included,” Nouripour told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Monday). It must “also have a control effect on climate protection”. In the previous proposal, he did not recognize this.
Heil had proposed paying people with a gross income of up to 4,000 euros a month a state subsidy once a year from 2023 and thus offsetting rising energy prices. The traffic light partner FDP had already commented skeptically or negatively on the proposal.
Nouripour emphasized: “We cannot spend money in this crisis without thinking about the necessary climate protection measures. Otherwise we will have to spend a lot more in the future.”
Incentives for switching important
Incentives must be created to switch from fossil to renewable energies and energy efficiency. People then have to be given support when they switch. “We have to talk to each other in the coalition about the details,” said the Green politician.
With a view to the skepticism about climate money, especially among the FDP, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil pointed out that the project had been agreed in the coalition agreement. “We are still discussing the best way. But one thing is clear: the climate money will help to support households with small and middle incomes with the costs of the climate-neutral conversion of our society,” said Klingbeil of the Funke media group.
Klingbeil made it clear that the coalition committee stated that Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) would work out a model for the payment of climate money by the end of the year. Last week, Lindner criticized the Heil concept as bureaucratic. In addition, his proposal is not covered by the coalition agreement. In order to relieve citizens with low and middle incomes, Lindner proposed a tax reform.
