GreenTax, Energy & Climate Protection

The European Union's targets for more climate neutrality are challenging and need to be put into practice. The transformation process is already underway and will continue to evolve rapidly. To ensure that Germany achieves the European Union's targets, the German government has intensified its climate protection targets and aims to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality as early as 2045. The current energy and raw materials crisis is having a significant effect on this transformation process. Supply chains are in danger of disintegrating. Relief packages and government price controls are being put in place to protect consumers.

The complexity of this transformation process affects companies in all industries. A primary concern for companies is the cost of this transformation process. It applies to all tax and regulatory measures, especially with respect to the energy and electricity markets. The focus is not only on energy and electricity taxes and their relief potential of around EUR 2 billion per year, but also on other consumption and transport taxes (e.g., air traffic tax, alcohol tax, plastic tax), as well as the national Emissions Trading System that was brought into effect on January 1th 2021 and which was introduced to complement the European Emissions Trading System, as well as other quota and levy obligations.

Whilst these instruments are all different, they have a comparable focus and build on each other where appropriate. National CO₂ trade is linked to the taxation of energy sources (e.g. natural gas, coal, liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, diesel, substitute fuels and biomass), as well as to energy and environmental management systems, investment decisions regarding climate-neutral technologies, CO₂ benchmark assessments and carbon footprint reporting.  

Many new issues have arisen and continue to evolve: The current crisis means that energy sources are being substituted and contracts need to be adapted. In addition, there are e-mobility projects, the use of hydrogen, the expected restructuring of electricity price components and the introduction of a "reverse EEG surcharge", compensation regulations to avoid carbon leakage in national certificate trading, and linkage to climate protection measures by companies (e.g., crediting of electromobility to the biofuel quota), to name just a few examples.

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