Climate change: Federal Environment Agency warns: Climate protection could overwhelm citizens

Handelsblatt Climate change: Federal Environment Agency warns: Climate protection could overwhelm citizens Article by Kersting, Dietmar Neuerer, Dietmar • 2 hours. ARCHIVE - July 12, 2019, North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne: Cars and trucks are jammed on the A1 motorway data-portal-copyright= The traffic light increases the CO2 price for refueling and heating without any social compensation for citizens. That could play into the hands of the AfD. The President of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Dirk Messner, has warned against overburdening citizens when it comes to climate protection and thus strengthening the AfD. Studies show that many citizens believe climate neutrality is urgently needed. “But many people worry that they will experience economic and social decline as a result,” Messner told Handelsblatt. “This plays into the hands of the AfD and should alarm us.” As early as spring, parts of the population were concerned about the traffic light's climate protection measures. A prominent example was the heating law, which is intended to force the replacement of old fossil heating systems. This was weakened in the further legislative process, but citizens now face additional burdens due to budget bottlenecks. The controversial measures include increasing the CO2 price and eliminating tax breaks for agricultural diesel. Consumers must therefore expect rising fuel, oil and gas prices. According to the ADAC, a liter of gasoline could become around 4.3 cents more expensive at the turn of the year. Diesel drivers could see an increase of around 4.7 cents. According to calculations by the comparison portal Verivox, gas becomes more expensive by 0.39 cents per kilowatt hour, heating oil by 4.8 cents per liter. A model family with a heating requirement of 20,000 kilowatt hours would therefore have additional annual costs of 78 euros for gas and 96 euros for oil heating.