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The mineral oil industry has presented a concept for climate-neutral transport that costs drivers practically nothing extra.

The plan drawn up by scientific institutes for an energy tax 2.0 is based on the complete replacement of the previous fuel taxes with a CO2 tax.

The idea corrects the grievance that the energy tax today is a pure quantity tax that does not differentiate between fossil and green fuels.

The gasoline price is currently taxed at 65 cents per liter, the diesel price at 47 cents, completely independent of the proportion of climate-neutral ingredients.

"Today's energy tax system lacks an explicit reference to climate policy at both German and European level," explains Jens Perner, Director at Frontier Economics and one of the authors of the study.

"Since the climate impact of fuels is not taken into account in the energy tax today, there has been no impetus for more climate protection in traffic."

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If you change the basis of assessment of the energy tax to the carbon content of the fuel, a surcharge of 300 to 400 euros per ton of CO2 would be possible.

If the old tax is eliminated at the same time, almost nothing will change in the price of petrol at the petrol station.

Synthetic fuels and biofuels would suddenly become competitive with fossil fuels.

The ban on the internal combustion engine, which has often been called for by politicians, would be superfluous.

The concept was developed by Frontier Economics and the Financial Research Institute at the University of Cologne (FiFo).

The clients are the Mineralölwirtschaftsverband (MWV) and the Institute for Heat and Mobility (IWO) from Hamburg.

The transport sector has reached a dead end

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The study fills a gaping gap in the existing climate protection concepts for traffic.

So far, proposals have only focused on market aid for electromobility and a ban on the internal combustion engine.

But that alone will not enable transport to achieve its climate targets by 2030.

Because even if 10 million electric vehicles were to be on the road by then, there would still be 35 million cars with internal combustion engines.

According to the provisions of the Climate Protection Act, which has been in effect since January 1, the transport sector has reached a dead end.

Because if the annual, legally fixed CO2 reductions are not achieved, which is unrealistic with electromobility alone, the Federal Minister of Transport is obliged to take immediate measures.

But the political toolkit that quickly pushes traffic emissions back down a path that would be compatible with the Paris Climate Agreement is limited: driving bans and speed limits on motorways are among the few obvious options.

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The energy tax reform that has now been proposed could prevent sharp state intervention of this kind without great bureaucratic effort.

"While the assessment base and accounting are adjusted, tax liability and tax liability remain unchanged in the reform model," says Michael Thöne, Managing Director of FiFo: "This also enables comparatively simple taxation with little administrative effort."

With the “Energy Tax 2.0” and other measures, such as a rising CO2 price due to the Fuel Emissions Trading Act, alternative fuels could become competitive much earlier than without a tax reform, according to the authors of the study: “If the Energy Tax 2.0 is based on today's tax rates , there would also be no direct additional burdens for consumers and industry. "

For the first time, a concept is available that will make a possible contribution to climate protection even for the 35 million existing vehicles with internal combustion engines in 2030 and beyond.

"In order to achieve the climate goals in traffic, in addition to increasing e-mobility, the increased use of alternative fuels will be necessary," emphasize the study's clients: E-fuels made from renewable hydrogen and CO2. "These fuels" are based on closed carbon cycles and are therefore largely climate-neutral. "

Unbureaucratic approaches to climate protection

A tailwind for this approach could come from Brussels: "The EU Energy Tax Directive, which is expected to be renewed as part of the Green Deal in 2021, should also explicitly promote innovative and strongly climate-oriented models such as" Energy Tax 2.0 "," the presentation said.

“Liquid fuels will also continue to play an important role in road freight transport.

It is therefore important that vehicles with combustion engines also make a contribution to climate protection, ”says IWO managing director Adrian Willig.

"The proposed reform of the energy tax is a very important step in this direction."

“A decisive result of the study is: With an energy tax 2.0 - together with the existing Fuel Emissions Trading Act - a price of 300 to 400 euros per tonne of CO2 emitted can be achieved for fossil gasoline and diesel in the short to medium term.

And that without placing a noticeably higher burden on the consumer, since the previous energy tax will be replaced by the new energy tax 2.0, ”says MWV Managing Director Christian Küchen.

"Our message to politicians is: Such a tax reform creates an unbureaucratic incentive to invest in alternative fuels and thus also to contribute to climate protection in the vehicle fleet."

The proposed energy tax reform would also have economic advantages of a different kind. For example, there would probably be fewer “stranded assets”, ie frustrated investments in infrastructure, if traders can continue to use the climate-neutral biofuels and synthetic fuels via the existing distribution and filling station network .

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In addition, the costs of setting up an infrastructure that is purely geared towards electromobility could be reduced, or at least stretched over time, if parts of car traffic can continue to run with combustion engines but with climate-friendly fuel.

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