It is still unclear which path the planned government coalition will take in terms of climate and energy policy.

But the expectations of the economy are high, as showed on Tuesday at the climate congress of the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI).

A “five-point plan on energy and climate policy for the coalition negotiations” was presented there.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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The paper comes on time, because these days the leaders of the SPD, Greens and FDP are bowing to the proposals of their working groups on 22 policy areas and want to work them into a government agreement.

The fight against global warming and the necessary restructuring of the economy, energy supply, traffic, construction, waste disposal and agriculture should play a central role in this.

There may even be a super-climate ministry in the future, which will bring together the most relevant departments that have so far been divided between different institutions, such as environmental protection and energy policy.

The Green Party leader Robert Habeck is being discussed as the boss.

Investments of 860 billion euros

Personnel suggestions do not play a role in the BDI document, but content-related requirements do. The future federal government must "very quickly" make it clear what exactly it is planning to make Germany carbon dioxide-neutral in 2045 as intended. From the point of view of the association, it is quite possible to achieve the climate targets and at the same time to “preserve Germany as an export, industrial and innovation country”. To do this, however, five decisive levers would have to be used.

In the years up to 2030, which are considered to be decisive for achieving the climate targets, investments of 860 billion euros are necessary. The energy infrastructure must be expanded massively and beyond the previous plans. 145 billion euros would have to flow into the networks for electricity, hydrogen, district heating, the charging and hydrogen infrastructure as well as modern rail and traffic routes alone. The planning and approval processes should be accelerated so that the expansion does not get stuck.

In addition to this “investment turbo”, the industry is demanding cost reductions for carbon dioxide-neutral energy sources.

Electrification is a central pillar of decarbonization.

However, as long as the costs for green electricity and climate-neutral hydrogen are much higher than for natural gas including the CO2 price, the changeover will not be competitive, complains the BDI.

In order to compensate for this, the association calls for relief in operating costs: federal subsidies for the charges for the electricity transmission networks, an extension of the so-called peak compensation for electricity tax and the reduction of the surcharge for promoting renewable energies (EEG surcharge).

For particularly energy-intensive companies, there must be operating cost subsidies through contracts for difference, with which the state cushions the burdens in a predictable way.

Essential natural gas

In Europe there is currently a discussion about whether natural gas and nuclear power should also count as green energy sources that can be subsidized and invested. In its third point, the BDI advocates at least including gas in this “taxonomy” in order to enable the financing of corresponding power plants. Because natural gas is essential as a transition technology until 2045. "Without a considerable expansion of gas-fired power plant capacities, an earlier phase-out of coal-fired power generation and a safeguarding of the supply will not be possible," says the two-sided paper.

In its exploratory resolutions, the “traffic light coalition” suggested bringing forward the phase-out of coal from 2038 to 2030 and temporarily building new gas-fired power plants that would later be suitable for hydrogen. Neither politics nor business dare to extend the CO2-neutral use of nuclear energy. Six nuclear reactors are currently still on the grid and cover around a tenth of the electricity demand. By the end of 2022, however, they should all go offline.

The fourth demand on the new government is to review existing climate protection instruments for their effectiveness. The recently introduced “annual sector targets” went in the wrong direction, that is, that certain emission fields - such as traffic or industry - are given precise time reduction targets and that short-term immediate measures take effect if they are not met. This is "often inefficient, expensive and unrealistic," according to the BDI catalog. Instead, “more flexibility is needed on the way to achieving the climate goals”.

As a fifth and final point, the interest representatives urge more international cooperation in climate protection: "Going it alone nationally does not help." The new government should use the G7 presidency in the coming year to urge closer cooperation between the countries, above all in CO2 pricing.

It also makes sense to found climate clubs from like-minded, ambitious countries.

But that only works “if the big emitters China and the USA participate”.