Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine, renewed curfews in China, and the consequences of these events on global supply chains, the inflation rate has reached historic levels in reunified Germany since the beginning of the year. The German government has already adopted two comprehensive measures to cushion the impact of rising prices for energy, food and mobility. However, given the increasing uncertainty in the energy supply and continuing high inflation rates, these do not seem to be enough.
Social welfare associations, in particular, have criticized that the relief measures have so far not considered lower income groups and pensioners sufficiently. At the same time, climate experts fear that individual interventions such as the fuel rebate will create false incentives in the fight against climate change.
Against this background, DIW Econ, together with Prof. Dr Claudia Kemfert, on behalf of the Climate Alliance Germany, has evaluated the existing relief measures and provides an outlook on how ecological and distributional effects can be considered together in a new relief package. This is done based on an analysis of five measures in the areas of energy & heat, transport & mobility and food, which are currently being discussed politically and in the media in anticipation of a further relief package.
DIW Econ Economic Bulletin, No. 1/2022:
The pension system in Germany is based on the so-called three-pillar model, consisting of the statutory pension, work-based provision and private provision.
While the statutory pension is under intense pressure from demographic change, with the baby boomer generation reaching retirement age in the mid-2020s, only around 54% of employees subject to compulsory insurance in Germany benefit from the employment-based old-age provision. The private provision in the form of Riester contracts has also been taken out by only around a quarter of the working population.
The Free State of Bavaria is in a predestined position to become a pioneer for decarbonisation and the transformation of economy and society towards sustainability by 2030. However, this transformation can only be achieved through targeted investments and measures that create synergies between transformative developments. The current study by DIW Econ and the Forum Ökologisch-Soziale Marktwirtschaft (FÖS), commissioned by BUND Naturschutz and Greenpeace Deutschland, identifies measures in selected sectors – energy, mobility, tourism, agriculture and forestry, and nature conservation – in which systematic public investment over the next decade can accelerate structural change toward a sustainable and future-proof Bavaria, thereby strengthening employment, innovation, climate and nature protection, and sustainable development.
The discourse on climate policy to achieve internationally agreed climate targets in Germany is often narrowed down to the instrument of CO2 pricing. A price for the emission of climate-damaging carbon dioxide is an essential building block for achieving the long-term decarbonisation of all sectors.
However, the current study by DIW Econ with Prof. Dr Claudia Kemfert, Head of the Department of Energy, Transport and Environment at DIW, commissioned by Greenpeace, shows that a price on CO2 by itself is by far not sufficient to achieve Germany’s agreed climate goals. This can only be achieved with the help of a policy mix of CO2 pricing and complementary regulatory instruments and measures.
The current study by DIW Econ, in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert, DIW Berlin, commissioned by the Bavarian SPD state parliamentary group, examines how the Free State of Bavaria can achieve a just transition into a emission neutral future. For this purpose, the study discusses specific social-ecological measures for the upcoming political reorientation in the sectors of energy, transport, buildings and industry.