The current debate about the gas surcharge obscures the fact that the great challenges of the energy crisis are still to come.

If the high gas and energy prices hit the public in full over the coming months, they will be confronted with additional costs that many will not be able to bear.

The significant price increases for fuel, heating oil and electricity are currently even less drastic than for gas.

For gas customers, the costs can more than quadruple.

In comparison, the heated discussion about the gas surcharge of 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) seems downright strange, especially since the idea is fundamentally correct.

Around 20 million households in Germany heat with gas.

Some customers with current contracts pay less than seven cents per kilowatt hour.

If the contract expires, it can be over 30 cents.

Tenants who bill heating costs via ancillary costs are currently paying relatively low deductions.

Because they are based on the previous year due to legal requirements.

They therefore do not yet reflect reality.

Landlords with high procurement costs can have liquidity problems as a result.

And the tenants are threatened with immense back payments the next time they bill their heating bills.

There is also pressure to act because consumers have so far had little incentive to save gas due to the low costs of existing old contracts or low down payments because the price pressure - real or felt - has not yet reached them.

This increases the risk of a gas shortage in winter.

That is why we need an instrument that increases the incentive to save gas without overtaxing consumers.

A special Germany tariff for gas could be part of the solution.

The federal government must create the right conditions quickly

The tariff consists of two components.

For a basic quota of around 75 percent of average consumption, the household pays a price guaranteed by government subsidies in the amount of the gas price that can be expected in the medium term, around 12 cents per kWh.

A higher, non-subsidised market price is due for consumption in excess of this.

With the end of the gas crisis, the Germany tariff would become irrelevant again due to falling gas prices.

Any energy supplier can offer the Germany tariff.

The unsubsidized market component is determined in competition.

For the basic quota, the supplier receives state compensation based on a reference price.

If a household consumes less than its basic quota, it receives the gas price subsidy from its supplier as a bonus in the amount of the kWh saved from the basic quota.

This increases the incentive to save.

It is important that the federal government quickly creates the conditions for offering such a special tariff.

From a certain date, suppliers will be obliged to offer all existing customers a switch to the Germany tariff.

With their existing customers, suppliers have the incentive to compensate them appropriately for waiving the more favorable conditions of their old contract if they switch to the German tariff.

The incentives to save gas would be strengthened, and the risk of a gas shortage would decrease.

People on low incomes are overwhelmed

For a limited period of time during the energy crisis, the legal prerequisites must be created so that advance payments for tenants can also be increased within reasonable limits.

Due to the subsidization of the basic quota, this would not happen as drastically as would be expected without the Germany tariff.

Before the higher prices reach households, support for lower and middle income groups must be clarified.