Financial planning: many plans, not many expenses.

WITHSince the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget ruling in November, Berlin’s motto has become: “Save.” By April 19, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is expecting proposals from ministries on how they want to cut costs in their budgets. The SPD and the Greens never tire of advocating for easing the debt brake. They argue that social spending and climate protection should not suffer from the necessary increase in defense spending.

But the financial gap may not be as large as it often seems in the debate. A report from the Ministry of Finance to the Budget Committee of the Bundestag shows that actual spending by the Climate and Transformation Fund, or KTF for short, was in some cases significantly lower than the planned amounts last year. Of the planned expenditure of almost 36 billion euros, only 20.1 billion euros were spent. This corresponds to 56 percent. Programs to transform the economy towards climate neutrality are financed from a special fund in addition to the federal budget. The report to the budget committee is available to FAZ. The news was first reported by Table Media.

Most of the KTF is controlled by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection of Robert Habeck (Greens). There has been a billion-dollar discrepancy in federal funding for the Efficient Buildings (BEG) program, which distributes grants to homeowners for climate-friendly upgrades. Instead of the planned 16.9 billion euros, only about 11 billion euros flowed away. This is likely due to the political fight surrounding the Building Energy Act last year. Before the summer it was unclear when there would be only CO₂-You can install neutral heaters. Development of new funding guidelines continued into December.

Only €1.6 billion instead of €3 billion was spent on easing the load on energy-hungry companies through so-called electricity price compensation. With this tool, companies receive CO trading costs that are included in the electricity price.₂– Pollution rights are compensated. Together₂-The price fell last year also because industrial companies cut production and needed less energy. The €2.2 billion planned for decarbonisation of the industry also remained unused (cash outflow: €36 million). The backstory is that climate contracts promoted by Habeck, which would reimburse companies for the extra costs of producing clean electricity or hydrogen, won’t start until this year. But more money was spent elsewhere: 2.6 instead of 2.1 billion euros were spent on bonuses for buyers of electric cars. 176 million euros were spent on expanding the refueling and charging infrastructure. It was planned 1.9 billion. This is due to a shortage of materials.

“The low outflow of funds shows that many subsidy programs are not very effective,” deputy leader of the FDP parliamentary group Lukas Köhler told FAZ. Reducing costs is a reason to rethink this strategy and rely more heavily on it. on emissions trading. “Money from the climate change and transformation fund should be used more to ease the burden of citizens,” Koehler said. Andreas Audretsch, a member of the Green parliamentary group, puts it another way: “In many industries we see how important a clear position and financial support are to mobilize large sums of private capital,” he said. “That’s why we are working intensively to ensure that the necessary support also reaches companies.”

This year, €49.1 billion is planned to be spent on the climate and transformation fund. The largest single items are €16.7 billion for retrofitting existing buildings, €10.6 billion for the renewable energy levy (which is now paid from the KTF rather than through energy bills) and €4.8 billion for chip factories.

However, expanding the use of renewable energy will likely require significantly more money. The reason is that the price of electricity has fallen, but anyone who feeds green electricity into the grid gets a guaranteed payment. Transmission system operators estimate that almost 8 billion euros more will be needed by 2024. The KTF’s economic plan for 2025 should be ready, along with the federal budget, by July. It will be interesting to see whether the government also plans to commit money to climate spending. This is called for not only by consumer advocates, but also by government factions in the Bundestag.