Alternative Finanzierung der erneuerbaren Energien: Experimentelle Evidenz für Deutschland
Alternative financing of renewable energies: experimental evidence for Germany
The recent tightening of national climate protection targets requires the adoption of additional environmental and climate policy measures, as well as possible improvements to existing measures, such as an accelerated expansion of renewable energies. This will inevitably lead to a higher burden for citizens. This is accompanied by numerous questions, for example about their preferences and ideas of fairness with regard to these measures. To answer these questions, a survey was conducted in June 2021 among around 8,000 members of the forsa household panel. The survey included a randomized control experiment to find out which of two financing alternatives respondents prefer for the expansion of renewable energies: financing through the electricity bill, as was the case for more than two decades, or through the state, which relies on tax revenues for this purpose. The central result with regard to the two financing alternatives is as follows: the vast majority of respondents vote for the expansion of renewable energies to be financed from tax revenues. In fact, 69.7% of the respondents in the control group consider financing by the state to be the fairer alternative. With the abolition of the EEG levy on July 1, 2022, and the complete financing of the costs of promoting renewables from tax revenues, the policy has met the preferences of the majority of respondents. However, the sharp rise in electricity generation costs, in particular due to skyrocketing natural gas prices, counteracts the dampening effects of the abolition of the EEG surcharge. As a result, electricity prices for consumers are currently rising massively, by 50% and more compared with 2021. Policymakers should therefore take further measures to provide substantial relief for private households in terms of electricity prices, not least by reducing the electricity tax to the EU minimum rate. Otherwise, the sharp rise in electricity prices combined with the burdens from the newly introduced CO2 pricing of fossil fuels, which will grow over time, could have a highly explosive social impact.
Eßer, J., M. Frondel and S. Sommer (2023), Alternative Finanzierung der erneuerbaren Energien: Experimentelle Evidenz für Deutschland: Alternative financing of renewable energies: experimental evidence for Germany. List Forum für Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik, 48, 1, 77-99