The German wind energy association BWE has called on the federal government to reform energy taxes and levies to penalise technologies that discharge climate-damaging carbon dioxide emissions.
BWE said current levies generate misguided incentives, block investment and innovation and disproportionately burden some consumers, such as small and medium-sized enterprises.
It added that a carbon tax would help realise the potential of technologies, such as renewables.
BWE president Hermann Albers said: “The reorganisation of tax and revenue systems is tedious and complicated in all policy areas. But that must not be an excuse for inaction.
“The current levy system in the energy sector prevents innovation, makes the electrification of the sectors heat, industry or mobility more difficult and slows down the German energy transition.
“The current system thus stands in the way of a fair competition of the technologies and makes it difficult to achieve the climate protection goals. This has to change.”
“Only the entry into a transparent, systematic and polluter-based CO2 pricing across all sectors contributes to setting climate-relevant investment incentives.”
BWE also said that in parallel to a carbon tax the country’s electricity tax should be cancelled.
“This relieves the electricity consumers and increases the social compatibility of the energy transition in the long term,” said Albers.