Berlin.
The SPD, Greens and FDP have reached an agreement after hours of negotiation. What citizens and consumers need to know about the plans now.
Hangover mood in the government district the day after the 30-hour negotiation marathon of the traffic light coalition: SPD, Greens and FDP agreed on important points and kept the Results on 16 pages of paper. But interpretations of how to assess the results vary widely. We explain what the plans mean for consumers – and what the parties say.
Traffic light coalition: What was agreed
highways: There has long been a list from the Ministry of Transport with 144 projects from the Federal Transport Route Plan. It’s about motorway sections in six different federal states that are considered bottlenecks. Among other things, the Autobahn 40 near Bochum, the A3 near Leverkusen, the A7 near Hanover and Hildesheim and the A8 around Stuttgart are identified as being particularly prone to traffic jams.
The coalition wants to eliminate these bottlenecks. Renovation and expansion should proceed quickly after consultation with the respective countries. Baden-Württemberg Minister of Transport Winfried Hermann (Greens) criticized that neither traffic planners nor the construction industry could handle so many construction measures. “The list is too extensive and no real prioritization,” Hermann told our editorial team.
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The federal government wants to accelerate the expansion of photovoltaic systems along the motorways and railway lines. “Not a kilometer of motorway should be planned without exhausting the possibilities of generating renewable energies,” says the coalition paper. Should also be along existing routes wind power– and photovoltaic systems be built. According to experts, however, the electricity yield from these systems is not a giant leap.
Railroad: “The coalition has agreed to invest significantly more money in rail than in road,” says the paper by the SPD, Greens and FDP. Deutsche Bahn will need around 45 billion euros by 2027 to improve the ailing infrastructure. The money for this should come from income from the CO2 surcharge the truck toll. The surcharge is 200 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide. Emission-free trucks are to be exempted from the fee. Launch is scheduled for January 1, 2024. In addition, smaller vehicles from 3.5 tons are also to pay truck tolls in the future.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) also wants to quickly tackle the replacement of dilapidated bridges for rail and road. The accelerated approval process for the railways should take a maximum of four years in the future.
Heating: The coalition partners emphasize how important the heat transition is for climate protection. Therefore, from January 1, 2024, every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent renewable energies. The traffic light had already agreed on this a year ago. The first draft of this law from the Ministry of Economy but triggered protests – also in the FDP. The concerns now seem to have been dispelled: the cabinet is due to pass the law in April. Before the summer break, it should be through the Bundestag.
The SPD representatives in particular repeatedly assured that they wanted to cushion the social hardships resulting from the heating exchange law arise: “No one is left in the lurch,” says the paper. Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had already announced financial aid for those who cannot afford new heating. It is still unclear how high the funding will be and what it will cost in total.
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Climate and nature protection: For motorists who buy a new car, the so-called climate label should soon make it clearer how expensive the model will be over the entire estimated lifetime, for example through the CO2 pricing and the vehicle tax. Transport Minister Wissing said that citizens can only decide whether the car is as climate-friendly as possible if there is maximum transparency. The Ministry of Economy is responsible for the change.
In addition, the sectoral targets that every climate protection ministry has to achieve each year have been softened. In the future, the CO2 emissions of all sectors will be considered as a whole. The building and transport ministries in particular had regularly missed the savings targets.
There is also an innovation in nature conservation: The traffic light wants to re-evaluate “environmental and nature conservation projects, especially with a view to compensation areas”. In the future, builders or investors should be able to buy their freedom more easily for interventions in nature. In the reality natural areas are often compensated at the municipal level, the areas are then fragmented and disjointed areas. In the future, the compensation areas should no longer be created directly on site in a city or municipality, but through “transnational biotope networks”.
The political assessment: The general reading in political Berlin on Wednesday was that the SPD and the FDP had prevailed in the coalition committee and the Greens had to swallow a lot of bucks. The Greens were disillusioned: “What we have decided is not enough. That’s why we’ll stay tuned,” said party leader Ricarda Lang. “But we’ve made progress.” Social Democrats and Liberals, on the other hand, are satisfied. During the government survey in the Bundestag, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said: “Now there’s speed in Germany.”
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